Who is the voice of God for you?
I know that's a bit of a strange question. But in a world in which very few of us hear the voice of God directly, we often rely on flesh-and-blood folks around us to be God's spokesperson.
That's a bit of what happens when we hear someone preach over a long period of time, as many of us have with Dr. Caliandro. His voice, his thought patterns, his prayers, his presence have shaped our understanding of God.
This week is Dr. Caliandro's last Sunday in the Marble pulpit. For more than 40 years, he has been shaping the way this community of faith understands God's will and presence in the normal course of our lives. He has preached with grace and humility and love. In many ways, Arthur's encouragement to us has been to quiet ourselves enough to hear God's still small voice speaking to us.
On Sunday February 8th, Dr. Michael Brown will walk to the pulpit to preach and we will be asked to hear a new voice. This is bound to be a disorienting experience for some of you. It should be! Dr. Brown thinks differently, talks differently, prays differently. He has walked through life in a different set of shoes and with a different set of eyes tuned to the ways that God is working in the world.
I want to encourage you to be aware of what happens within you as you listen to this new voice standing in for the voice of God. Are you struggling? Does it feel refreshing? What do you see or learn about God through this new voice?
Inevitably, preachers only capture and portray a portion of God. We are limited by our own human limitations and by the limitations of God's revelation to us. The great gift of having a new pastor is that they will show you things that you hadn't noticed before, or things you'd noticed but hadn't paid close attention to. The blessing of this is a renewed awareness of our awesome and loving God.
We have all been blessed by one of the finest preachers in the United States in Dr. Caliandro. We are about to hear another in Dr. Brown.
Let those who have ears to hear, listen. |