Post Scripts: Let’s try to be swift to hear

The Epistle of James is more or less a “how to” book, a guide to what I could call  “Practical Christianity.” We hear a lot in church about what we should do but precious little about how to do it. James tells us how. However, Martin Luther tied a millstone around James’ work when he labeled it “an Epistle full of straw.” I do not agree with that, but who am I to debate Luther’s opinions?" It speaks clearly, like the sign on the church lawn: “Please do not walk on the grass, this means Thou.”
Four women were playing bridge in a retirement center when their attention was drawn to an elderly gentleman who had entered the room. He was obviously a newcomer. The ladies quickly perked up.
One said, “Well, hello there! You’re new here aren’t you?”
The old man smiled and said: “I just moved in this morning.”
A second lady spoke: “Where did you come from? Where did you live before?”
The reply was: “San Quentin. I was just released from there. I’ve been there 30 years."
“Oh, is that right” the third lady said. “What were you in for?”
He answered: ”I murdered my wife."
A fourth lady sat up in her chair. Her eyes sparkled ands she gave him a big smile as she said: “That means you’re single.”
That tale makes the point that more often than not we hear what we want to hear. Communication is critical. James talks about this and addresses the problem. When I first read that I thought he must be talking to me personally. Note that James mentions hearing before talking about speaking. Its true many of us talk more than we listen.
A person I know once said: “It makes me mad for someone to say to me: ”Next time we get together I want to hear all about you."
I understand that. I have friends I seldom see. They lived far away and it dawned on me that none of these folks asked about my family. I talked about their children and they had responded glowingly. I learned all that was going on for them. Some things were happening in my family — and they didn’t even ask.
To care about others is to listen to them. There are fewer greater insults than to talk to a person and discover that person not only was not listening but not even looking at you.
Most of us talk more than we listen. There is no question that all of us need somebody to listen and hear what we say.
In studying the life of Jesus, we have to be deeply touched by his ability to listen. He traveled a lot, heard and saw the needs of thousands. Why was this so? Because his love and respect for people motivated him to listen. How could He express caring without knowing the feelings of others? 
What about talking? Today we live in the age of “gobbledegook,” “bafflegab” and  “officialese” with its denial of simplicity, its decrepit vocabulary, its ability to abuse, to mutilate, even to murder the King’s English — to say nothing if violating good taste.
A plumber wrote to the Bureau of Standards. He said he found hydrochloric acid opened pipes up quickly and asked if it was good to use. He received a reply full of bureaucratic
Gobbledegoop  covering 13 pages. He wrote the bureau again and this time his reply came via telegram. It read: “Don’t use hydrochloric acid. It eats hell out of the pipes.”