| Hearing with the h(ear)t
In biblical testimony, the word of God both kills and makes alive. The word kills that which is other than trust by speaking the implosion or impossibility of any form of human self-justification. The word of God makes alive by summoning us to our only true life as the source of integral human possibilities. Without ears to hear, there is no word that is heard, only our own voices. Biblical apocalypse or revelation that is heard with the h(ear)t, sustains this paradox. v When God’s extravagant generosity in the gift of creation is not discerned, refusal to see becomes an inability to see (Rom. 1). When the word of God is not heard, refusal to hear becomes an inability to hear. This is the scene of Romans 9–11. Where, in self-pity or self-assertion, there is self-justification, the h(ear)t is too preoccupied to hear. Where a partisan ideal, even if religious, is the primary focus of importance, there is no room for the word that speaks otherwise than our possibilities in calling to another possibility through faith or trust. In the absence of trust, the word becomes what we make of it; it cannot speak to our hearing as the word of God; we only hear what we want to hear. In quibbling over the word, it is turned into something else. The word of excess, as a burgeoning table in a wilderness, becomes distorted by prevarication, yielding contrary guidance instead. It becomes a snare. The potential for idolatry—confusing an aspect of existence with the reality of God—is always present in human life. God’s generosity in the gifts of creation is not discerned as people forge endless images in honouring themselves, invoking folly in distorting everything. Likewise, the call to testimony is skewed when, instead of a word that summons faith, endless words are conjured toward self-justification within some form of partisan or tribal promotion. This diminishes not enhances human dignity. As idolaters enthralled with selected fragments from creation, so too is the called community that no longer hears the word of God but is enamoured with selected voices instead. Within the convolutions of human perspective in search of identity and security, the word no longer listened for, can only become a snare. The gospel of God is pitched against any human voice that would presume to be the voice of God. Does the quest for “diverse voices” in a text—ultimately as alibis for our own voices—merely add to a cacophony of voices clamouring to have a say through Scripture? Which voices are to be heard? Which are to be resisted? We might debate these questions in an attempt to decide which voices are to prevail, but in reality, no voices are heard other than our own. In listening to our own voices, even in the guise of other voices, there is confusion in the guise of self-assurance—a deadly combination. Alternatively, faith trusts the word of God, giving it priority over any other word. The humility of faith will not trust its own word. Faith knows that its own voice is fallible and without durability by comparison with the promises of God. v To attribute the truth to God and not to oneself is to be justified by God who transforms the unjust. This is the meaning of faith or trusting God. Self-justification has no room for the word of God and therefore the righteousness of God, for to be self-justified is to stand upon and to assert one’s own perspective and opinions instead. Gospel portraits of self-justifying characters also convey this. Paul’s testimony to the word of God is wholly biblical in recognition that God speaks and the word of God is creative as truthful; hearing by listening is recognition of this. God is the focus of faith according to the word of righteousness for integral human life and possibilities. There is a constant refrain in the tuition of Israel—while everything may appear to be contrary, recognition of the word’s veracity is intrinsic to its being heard. Hearing is deferring to the voice of God as righteous and the sole source of Israel’s righteousness. If God in Israel will be what God will be, then promise of what the future will be is the sure word of God. God’s word is to be trusted, even though the invisible hand of God’s sovereignty among the nations is difficult to decipher (Habakkuk). The word of God summons faith in its promises. The sovereignty of God is only perceived by faith. Habakkuk shows this as each complaint is followed by a response and finally a prayer that is not a complaint but recognition that God is righteous and the source of strength in righteousness for those who trust in the word of God as a sure word of promise. The word of God to the prophet summarises what Paul declares as crucial—the righteous will live by faith (Rom. 1). This is the basis for Paul’s reflections on the gospel, hearing and response. The righteous will live by faith, for there is no righteousness than that declared by the word of God. Faith acknowledges this by contrast to conjuring and acclaiming various schemes, voices and conjectures in assertions of righteousness. To give up these self-justifying possibilities is the beginning of faith in God’s possibility for righteousness as wholly trustworthy. v Faith in the word of promise received as a gift provokes jealousy in those who grasp at the word as a possession over which they presume to adjudicate. The word not heard in grace as a word of grace for all, ignites jealousy. Paul speaks of Gentile faith making Jews jealous. How can foolish Gentiles hear? Jealousy is aroused in the absence of hearing with the h(ear)t. Jealousy betrays a denial—the word of God is denied its creativity. Whatever privilege there is in having received this word, it is negated by presuming now to adjudicate on what the word can say. Sociological or psychological reasons might be given as to why some have “not really heard” and why their response is supposedly ephemeral; these are reductionist pronouncements that diminish any capacity of the word to call to be things that are not. Irritation over how the word is heard and received by others might reveal more about those who are irritated than about any appeal to the illegitimacy of how others have heard. Does irritation reveal jealousy that others have heard, while the word no longer speaks to oneself? Is there irritation and haughtiness because there is no hearing with the h(ear)t? If this is so, there is also the possibility of repentance. A remnant defers to and therefore hears the word of God as a word of grace for all. Gentiles too, are not to be haughty or conceited because Israel has stumbled in not hearing. The word of God kills what is presumptive, even as it gives life where there is trust in God’s promises. Faith is inseparable from hearing the word of God. This is a paradox of apocalypse and response. Faith alone has ears to hear. Faith only arises with ears that hear. For this reason, Paul integrates the dynamics of hearing, sending, preaching and believing. Hearing the word of God in call and testimony, reception and faith is a scandalous claim within human life; such imperatives of faith are seemingly futile where there is no hearing with the h(ear)t. The relay between call, being sent, proclamation and hearing can only become futile if we hear no word but our own word and in turn, insist on speaking no word but our own. There is hearing with the h(ear)t when the word of God is proclaimed as also being heard.
Selected sources: Luther Romans; Ebeling Word and Faith. |
