Overhearing the Gospel

We love to eavesdrop, although we know it is not polite. But when people whip out their cell phones in public places and conduct private conversations, you really cannot help yourself. A guy in an elevator today was talking away into his headset while seven other innocent passengers were forced to listen in.

I did some eavesdropping my first day on the job at Houston Baptist University as a twenty-something professor. I was sitting at a desk in an open area typing up a syllabus for New Testament 123. Two upper-class students stood nearby discussing this new teacher named “Creech” who was going to be doing the Greek classes. I let their speculation go on for a while, but eventually interrupted them and introduced myself before they got into trouble.

Overhearing the gospel is one of the most effective ways for the Word of God to penetrate the human heart. I try to take advantage of that at weddings. I speak to the bride and groom about their marriage with no confidence whatsoever that they will hear or remember anything I say. But I also am aware that the pews are filled with people who struggle with marriage and who need a word of encouragement and a reminder of the solemnity of their promises and of the grace of God. And I know that they are eavesdropping on the gospel and that in that moment of indirect address the Word of God is sometimes more easily heard.

Jesus knew that also. His stories and public conversations with individuals took advantage of his eavesdropping followers who would hear the Word of God through his indirection.

This afternoon I listened in on a lecture by Dr. Thomas Dozeman, a professor of Old Testament at the United Theological Seminary. He was addressing Doctor of Ministry students about the appropriate and necessary use of the Bible in the ministry projects they will conduct as part of their work on this degree. He wasn’t addressing me. I’m a mentor, not a student. But I was there to hear what my students were being told. I was eavesdropping.

And in that moment of indirect communication God found a way to bring a word to my life. Dozeman talked to the students about the way that Scripture is a living force in our lives in the present. Some passages are familiar, woven into our spiritual DNA. They flow easily from our lips and stir our hearts. We live out of them. That is fine, he said. Having those portions of God’s Word in our lives makes us a player. But growth is found elsewhere.

Growth, Dozeman said, is found in the experience of finding those texts we least like, are least attracted to, the ones we most often filter out of our lives, and making room in our lives for them. This is the place where we are stretched and taken to new places spiritually. I overheard that and it made sense to me.

I thought of the portions of Scripture that for so long had not been shaping my life, not easily on my lips or stirring my heart. I reflected on the way in which God had been pointing me to these passages recently and calling me toward them. I recognized that while I have many favorites I could quote from memory, they did not include passages about the issues of the poor and the hungry, issues of social justice. But my reading of the Bible this year has taken me face to face with many such texts.

I began to think about how that is a growing edge for me, learning about how these portions of God’s Word are to correct and inform my personal discipleship as well as my pastoral ministry. I considered the fact that with few exceptions I was part of a tradition that had managed not to hear these words as authoritative for many decades. They were commandments intended for others to obey.

I overheard this Presbyterian tell my students that belief in the authority of Scripture is found in a willingness to enter the polarity between what I already believe and obey and that which I am rejecting. That’s theological language that means disciples are called always to allow the Scripture to trump their past, their denomination, their tradition, their comfort, their politics, and their culture. If we can only hear what we have already heard from the Bible, then we no longer need a Bible. But if we really do believe in its authority over life, we must be open to hearing that which we have up to now rejected.

What in Scripture is missing from my life? What in the Bible am I rejecting? What is it I refuse to hear? That is where the growing edge will be for me. Dozeman really gave these students their money’s worth today. His presentation was inspiring, challenging, and encouraging. I hope he did not mind my eavesdropping.