Show Notes
In this first week of ordinary time, we reflect on the technological distractions of our day, and how to focus on God’s voice instead.
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Episode Transcript
The first weekly gathering after Pentecost is widely known as Trinity Sunday when we celebrate the all-encompassing glory of the Godhead, the Father from whom all blessings flow, the Son who incarnates the immortal, and the Spirit who leads us into all truth. It should be no surprise that a triangle is the strongest weight-bearing shape. In the Trinity, we found our secure, unshakable foundation.
A reading from the eighth Proverb:
1
Does not wisdom call?
Does not understanding raise her voice?
2
On the heights beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
3
beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud:
4
“To you, O men, I call,
and my cry is to the children of man.
22
“The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of old.
23
Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
24
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
25
Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth,
26
before he had made the earth with its fields,
or the first of the dust of the world.
27
When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28
when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
29
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
30
then I was beside him, like a master workman,
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
31
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man.
It has been said that we’re in an age when we are drowning in information and starving for knowledge, but I would go a step further. After all, it’s also been observed that knowledge is understanding that a tomato is actually fruit, but when you know not to put it in fruit salad, now that’s wisdom. So, perhaps more worryingly, we’re in an age where, thanks to the smartphone and the internet, we can gorge on knowledge, but we’re terminally dehydrated when it comes to wisdom. Thankfully, there is hope. In Proverbs 8, we read that wisdom’s voice can be heard above the cacophony of the marketplace. If only we will tune out the background noise and tune in to the Holy Spirit. This will take some intentionality. I’ve heard of churches that have gone through a digital detox together, deliberately limiting their use of technology for a season to discern between its advantages and its downsides. One congregation in Florida recently collectively reduced its smartphone use by an accumulative year over their month-long reflection. What might God do with that time given the opportunity? I’m not advocating we become Luddites. Technology has its wonderful blessings and can be used in many ways to advance God’s kingdom. But we all know too that it can be a distraction at least and a danger at worst. Let’s remember that when God came to the prophet Elijah, it wasn’t through the wind or the earthquake or the fire. He spoke in a still small voice. What might it look like for you to tune out the background noise that may be preventing you from hearing God more clearly? Don’t underestimate the challenge involved. We’re not just dealing with ingrained habits. At another level, we are also wrestling with the spirit of the age that harkening back to the fall would tempt us to believe that we don’t need God because we can know everything and so be like him.
A reading from the gospel of John chapter 16, verses 12 through 15. Jesus said,
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Dear God, as Richard of Chichester prayed almost 800 years ago, we also want to know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly day by day. Help us learn to turn away from and tune out the voices and noises that compete for our attention and draw us away from you. Guide us as we seek to give more time to you and less time to the lure of knowledge or entertainment. Give us discernment to know how not to use the blessings of this digital age for the advancement of your kingdom. In a world that is hyper-connected, may we be people who are known not for always looking at their phones, but for looking to you for truth, wisdom, and guidance. We pray this in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
A reading from Psalm 8.
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
