Ha! If that were literally true, we’d see a lot more talking snowmen and flying reindeer around town. But on another level, it’s profoundly true. What we hear shapes who we become.
My mom always use to say, “Garbage in, garbage out; but good stuff in, good stuff out.” This applied to the music I listened to, the movies I watched, and the friends I hung around with. Parents, researchers, and advertisers know that words and music are powerful shapers of identity.
During these weeks leading up to Christmas, if you’re like me, you’ve had a lot of holiday music playing in the background – maybe in the car while out shopping, or home while baking or doing chores, or at work while getting stuff done. Because it’s background noise, we don’t think it’s a big deal. But: if we became the Christmas music we listened to, what kind of person would we become?
Jesus has a cryptic parable in the gospel according to Mark, in it he says: “Consider carefully what you hear.” Maybe this is starting to sound petty or picky to you. Jesus, though, goes on to say in the parable: “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more.” This is both a blessing and a curse. It’s also really similar to the laws of thermodynamics. You get out of it what you put into it – but more so.
What you listen to and who you become will be made evident – it will be experienced by the people closest to you, and by those affected by the decisions you make. “Consider carefully what you hear.” This is about more than just what kind of Christmas music you listen to, obviously. Jesus wants you to hear him, his words of hope, joy, peace, and love.
If we don’t put much of our listening-heart into Christmas, we won’t hear much from Christ. Same goes for our relationships. But it gets worse: if you don’t listen, it’s not just that you lose out, you lose what you had. This isn’t an arbitrary punishment, this is how it works in real life. When you don’t listen to people, it’s not just that you don’t hear them, you start to lose them.
Jesus opens up the parable with this observation: “For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.” He’s saying what we know to be true: if you don’t listen to people, if you don’t listen to God – it’ll come out sooner or later, in this lifetime and after.
You become like who you listen to, and what you listen to. Of course it’s fun to listen to songs about old St. Nick and chestnuts roasting over an open fire, of a holly jolly Christmas and how it’s the most wonderful time of the year! But we want more than fun in our holidays, we want joy that lasts, peace that endures, hope that prevails, and love that heals. There is music towards this end, “if anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”
In this fourth week of the Advent season, a time when we remember that Christ will come again to finish what he started at Christmas, let us keep our ears open to the words of the Lord.
May we do the work of listening, of loving, of being light.
May the measure we use on others be measured back on us – and more so.
