I love to listen to good live music.  The energy of a tight band and a poetic singer who becomes a part of their music.  It is a beautiful experience.  There is something in the air that elicits a response from me, especially if there is a groove.  My heart rises up into my throat and sinks into my belly at the same time, my knees bend, my body sways, my head nods, and my feet fight my inhibitions and often get the best of me.  When I go away from a great musical experience I talk about it with my friends and family, all the while knowing I can’t capture the magic of those moments in words.  I remember great musical moments with fondness and desire.  This is a good and proper way to respond to good music.  Yet, we are not to respond merely in this way to the proclaimed word of God.

your people who talk together about you by the walls at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the LORD.’  And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it… And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it. (Ezekiel 33:30-32)

Saying “amen!” out loud or in our hearts, will not do.  Feeling the amen deep within our beings will not do.  Thinking about a sermon and allowing it to lift our spirits, and looking forward to more times of sermonic bliss with desire, simply will not do.  It is not God’s desire that the preaching of his word merely elicits a response of momentary emotion.  Rather, God desires that preaching elicits a doing that flows from true faith.  The amens, the feelings, and the lifting of our spirits is not bad.  No, quite the contrary.  Yet if our disposition does not change, our faith does not increase and our lives are unaffected, then our experience was another exercise in hypocrisy which is only useful for quenching genuine affection for God and inoculating us to the preaching of his word.

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