“Listening, Camino Style!”

Karen Sloan 28/07/2024

Readings - 3 Poems

Listening

 is a rare happening

 among human beings.

 You cannot listen to

 the word another is speaking

 if you are preoccupied with

 your appearance or

 with impressing the other,

 or are trying to decide

 what you are going to say

 when the other stops talking,

 or are debating about whether

 what is being said is true

 or relevant

 or agreeable.

 Such matters have their place,

 but only after listening to

 the word as the word

 is being uttered.

Listening

 is a primitive art of love in which

 a person gives him or herself to

 another’s word,

 making him or herself accessible

 and vulnerable to that word.

    ~William Stringfellow

      "On Listening"

…………………………………..

The road seen, then not seen, the hillside

hiding then revealing the way you should take,

the road dropping away from you as if leaving you

to walk on thin air, then catching you, holding you up,

when you thought you would fall - and the way forward

always in the end, the way that you came, the way

that you followed, the way that carried you into your future,

that brought you to this place, no matter that

it sometimes had to take your promise from you,

no matter that it always had to break your heart

along the way: the sense of having walked

from far inside yourself out into the revelation,

to have risked yourself for something that seemed

to stand both inside you and far beyond you,

and that called you back in the end

to the only road you could follow...

~ David Whyte

Excerpt from “Santiago”

Photo: David Whyte

 ……………………………………………

O, Pilgrim!

O pilgrim, where have you been?
Where are you now?

While you have been searching the world
the Beloved has been here all along
waiting for you.

Let the caravan carry you home
to your deepest heart’s desire.
The treasure you sought was buried in your own garden.

Come home, o wanderer, and behold the face in the mirror.
Look behind the eyes and see the One
who has been searching for you.

You are seen;
you are known
and you are beloved.

If your seeking has brought you here at last,
you know that there is nowhere else to go
and nothing more to say.

- Jellaludin Rumi

Sermon

Well, what to say today, what to reflect on after 8 weeks away, 4 of them walking 560 kms to finish the Spanish Camino.

Should I stick to the lectionary, with its story about King David and Bathsheba, not a great moment in his life, but one he recovers and learns from, with the help of Nathan the prophet,  to become a compassionate leader and the father of Solomon.  Or focus on the feeding of the 5 thousand and the stilling of the storm, the meat in the sandwich revealing so much about Jesus. Remember that Dennis last week encouraged us to be the meat,  to participate in the life and transforming power of God in the world, because God will be with us through that. These stories show Jesus and ultimately God is with us in the stormiest of times, like now, to take what we offer, to serve the hungry before us, but also to be present with us in the most overwhelming experiences of chaos and uncertainty. 

Both great messages.

But no I want to turn to our Camino experience just for a moment, and to the idea of listening, both with our eyes and our heart. 

We walked the Camino, as many have done and many will do, for lots of different  reasons.  For community, for solitude, for nature, for God, for the challenge, for our shared humanity, for the fun, although at times its wasn’t so much fun, with some massive blisters! And for something intangible that pulled us there.

But what I found and I know Matt did too, is that listening deeply came with the territory.

Firstly listening to nature, and to the incredible sounds that we find hard to hear when in a city.  The sounds of birds, lots of birds, the sounds of a gentle breeze and rain hitting the dry ground, the sound of insects around the crops and flowers, the sound of the wheat moving gently in the wind.

As we walked we could hear the tap, tap of the  walking sticks hitting the stones on the path, or our boots as we stepped out sometimes quite carefully and sometimes almost rapidly as we were more confident of the way. We heard the sounds of the path as it changed, from forest floor to hard rock, to road, sometimes slippery, sometimes hard and baked in the sun.

Nature was always speaking to us, with a message, a song, that we are part of it, not separate but entwined.  Often as I walked I would let the leaves of plants, the flowers that were often at the side of the paths or the stalks of wheat run through my fingers, just to touch them and feel them.  To say, we are listening!!!

But it wasn’t just nature we were listening to.  As we walked, we walked with others.  Young and old, male and female, those with heavy packs and those with day packs, those walking on their own and those walking with a partner or a friend or someone they just meet.

The Camino is special, because every day we would get up, lace on our boots and walk, sometimes 25 kms and sometimes more, stopping along the way for refreshments in small towns or villages, but always walking. 

And along the way, when a person walks at your speed, we can come together to share a moment or longer, often it might be 1-2 hours, where we can talk with each other.  To share deeply the things that matter, life, faith, the journey, the thoughts and feelings that often are stored up in people because there is no one to listen or no time.

On the Camino there is time, and lots of it.   To listen deeply and without interruption. 

To listen to an older Italian woman of great faith, who has been diagnosed with a heart condition but had always wanted to walk the Camino. When she told her Dr he was shocked, but she came anyway.

Or some youngsters, in their 20s, from all over the world, the UK, America, but also Taiwan and Korea, who are working out their future steps, after study.  Who have to balance expectations of family with their own inner desires, their own need to make a difference.

Or a Dr from London, escaping the business of it all, post Covid, a single woman from NZ with family dynamics that were difficult, but who had travelled and walked all over the world, and people older than us, who sensed the magic in the Camino and came back to do the whole thing in their mid 70’s.  The woman had been diagnosed with a terminal illness that after 10yrs was revised, to a chronic not terminal illness.  A slight surprise!!

So many people, who shared, and shared deeply with us, and we listened.  Because it was a gift we could give, we weren’t going anywhere except where the path led and we had time, lots of time.

……

What about God, or the spirit of life as Nev would say, that invisible presence in all of creation including us. God’s spirit could be heard and seen everywhere.  In the kindness shown by complete strangers, to make sure we were on the right path.  Someone who found my hat and placed it on a rail on the path so that we would see it, the greetings we received every day, Buen Camino, have a good Camino. The vans set up in the middle of nowhere so that the pilgrims would have food and drink, and the support offered and advice given when things got a bit hard. Amazing!

But for me the Spirit was also found in the silence, in the steady rhythm of our walking, in the space that we found away from our normal life, in the deep reflection that only time can give you, if we listened.  And In the many churches that were simple and welcoming. 

One experience was very profound.  We entered a small church in a small town, to be greeted by a small nun.  She greeted every pilgrim who entered, including us, stamped our pilgrim passport, gave us a little medallion on a bit of wool, placed it around our neck, asked our name, and gave us a blessing finishing it in English.  And then finally a hug. Such a warm hug!

I still have that medallion around my neck partly because it’s got caught up with my Camino necklace, but maybe that’s symbolic of the act.  God was sensed in that place and in that nun, a thin place, as the Celts would say, in a way that was transforming.

……

So we listened as we walked.  And walked and walked.  We listened to nature, to each other and to the Spirit of God, in us, through us and in others.

But what to do with all that listening!

Well I think that in the listening we are doing something quite profound.  By listening with our total being, we are acknowledging the value of the things we are listening to. That they are of worth.

By listening deeply, hearing the voices of people and the song of nature, we are led to acknowledge, support, and advocate for them.  By hearing the sound of the Spirit in and through all, people and nature included, we will find comfort and life and even direction.

For it’s not one or the other, we are not separate but are one in all creation.   The whole world is surrounded and infused with God’s presence, God’s love. 

…….

So I believe, it is this listening that will help us act in the world with love. And continue to act long after others have given up. It helps us as the listener and helps those being listened to.  Because it’s this listening that binds us together.

A lesson we certainly learnt on the Camino.  

Amen