 |
 David Ramage, Jr. "I Can't Hear You, Can You Hear Me?" John 1:1-5 Program #3623 First broadcast March 28, 1993 |
Biography
Dr. David Ramage
is President of McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. A native of
Cincinnati, Ohio, he spent several years as a social worker,
Presbyterian pastor, and an executive officer on the United Presbyterian
Board of National Missions. He then became President of the Center for
Community Change in Washington, D.C., and in 1975 became President of
the New World Foundation in New York City. In addition to his current
duties as President of McCormick Seminary, David Ramage is the Chair of
the Council for the Parliament of the World's Religions, to be held in
Chicago in the Fall of 1993, commemorating the initial Parliament held
in 1883. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted
above.]
"I Can't Hear You, Can You
Hear Me?" Communication is not just words but the sharing of meaning.
Communicating is complex and difficult. Think of all the broken
relationships, the feuds, yes sometimes even wars between nations
triggered by misunderstanding or confused communication. On the other hand, expert communicators find ways to get us to
respond to a message in subtle and subliminal ways. The way we speak to
each other or send messages gives meaning or confuses. Whether we come from different nations, different regions, different
ethnic backgrounds, even whether we are men or women influences what we
say and hear and what it means. The late Mayor Harold Washington asked
his staff to read the book, Black and White: Styles in Conflict
by Tom Kochman as one way to get beyond deadlock and misunderstanding.
Today, men and women are reading the near best seller, You Just Don't
Understand by Deborah Tannen because we are learning that men and
women live in different cultures which speak past each other and which
have different world views, assumptions and experiences. I have a plaque
on the wall of my study to remind me of the difficulty of communication.
It says, "I know you believe you understand what you think I said,
but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I
meant." We tell stories or search for metaphors to help us communicate
meaning in ways that definitions and assertions cannot. Poetry,
religious writings, drama and music are efforts to help us to
communicate more fully—to share meaning. And yet even those efforts frequently fail when one tries to
communicate in a different culture or context, or to translate meaning
into a different language. That can frustrate but also be rewarding.
Several years ago, I was privileged to attend a world mission conference
with delegates from around the world. We participated in a daily Bible
study group which had been carefully structured to include persons from
different places, nations, continents and languages. How surprised we
were to learn what variety of meanings scripture had in different
situations. We'd ask why and learn from the response. Our learning with
and from each other was a time of speaking in different languages, and
also of hearing the Word of God in new, deeper and surprising ways. In the search for meaning in our lives we search for religious,
spiritual and transcendental understanding. We seek a word from our God.
The first several verses of the Gospel of John are: "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through
Him, and without Him not one thing came into being. What has come into
being in Him was life and the life was the light of all people. The
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome
it." These words are used by John to describe the coming of Jesus
as God's son, God with us—God incarnate among us—the word made
flesh—full of truth and light—truth beyond full understanding or
comprehension—but to be revealed in the story to be told and our own
relationship with God. Scholars tell us that these verses are from an
ancient hymn influenced by Jewish and Gnostic roots which seeks to
communicate truth and understanding in the diverse and rich mixture of
peoples and traditions of that time. Then, as now, men and women were
searching for a word that could clarify, help and sustain life. So do we
now. Communication is powerful and complex. Words are powerful. We offer a
kind and gentle word, a clear and convincing word, a sharp and demanding
word, an insightful and helping word. Yet, we too frequently retreat
into angry, resentful, rejecting, hurtful, belittling or denying words.
We seek words of hope and support, love and caring for ourselves. Words
bring light and life or words can bring darkness and pain. We no longer live in small and isolated communities with a common
culture and language, shared beliefs and a large degree of consensus.
Most of our communities today have become multi-cultural, multi-ethnic,
multi-national and multi-lingual with much confusion and
misunderstanding. Will we continue, all too frequently, to be angry, resentful,
rejecting and destructive in the situations where misunderstanding is
rampant?—or will we seek to welcome and listen and find different and
new words as givers of new life and light? Can we learn from the stories
that Jesus told of the good Samaritan and of the Samaritan woman at the
well? He deliberately names the other, the outsider, the rejected as the
carrier of hope, help and faith. How difficult it is for us to let go of dominating assumptions. And
yet how delightful it can be to share our understandings and values in
friendship. Try it, you might like it. God is constantly surprising us. Maybe we should stop talking and
listen for awhile. Ann Weems has written a brief poem called, A
Listening. Hear it. Our community and our world are threatened by increasing division,
fear, alienation and hostility. We share this world and this community
with others. Dialogue with others, joint planning and working together
at common tasks can truly help. We must learn to understand and
communicate, in ways that may feel strange to us, if we are to find
light and life beyond our present knowledge and hope beyond our present
understanding. Unfortunately the great diversity in the world has become tension and
conflict in a global village which threatens peace and possibility for
us all. The diversity, challenges and gifts represented by the cultures,
languages and different spiritual understandings of the peoples of the
world are increasingly present in our own community. Others live next
door. May they become our neighbors as we learn to communicate with each
other and to share and laugh and hope together. Can we learn to respect
and to listen before rendering negative judgment? Perhaps the Word from God for our time is that new life and light
comes when we share our knowledge and share the will to make a world
which is secure and safe and sustainable for us all. Hear a verse from James Ayer's Come and See: "The Word was God. The light shines in the darkness and the
darkness did not overcome it." May the words of our mouths and the
meditations of our heart be acceptable, O God—our strength and our
redeemer. Interview with
David Ramage
Floyd Brown: I want to tell you
that communication is my business and so when you get on the topic of
communication, my ears perk up and I get a chance to reflect on things
that are said. Are we communicating better today, or worse? David Ramage: I think that we are
trying harder than we ever have before, partly because we have to. We
are living in communities that are very diverse. Yet when you look at
what is happening around the world and see what is happening in areas
where people are talking about terrible concepts of ethnic cleansing and
things like that, one wonders, doesn't one? Brown: Absolutely. We have got to
communicate better. We have known that for some time. Which brings us to
something that you are doing that is extremely exciting here in the city
of Chicago. It is going to be the 1993 Parliament of the World's
Religions. You are going to be bringing in people from all over the
world—leaders of great religions. This is celebrating something, isn't
it? Ramage: It is very definitely
celebrating something. Those of us who know a little bit about Chicago's
history are aware of the fact that 1893 was the year of the Great
Columbian Exposition. It was the 400th anniversary of Columbus's
discovering America, or whatever the proper way to say that is these
days. As a part of that, there were great congresses and parliaments in
relation to science and art. One of those was a gathering for the first
time of representatives of the great religions of the world. It was a
very special time because it was the time when the Eastern religions
were really introduced to the West. They were virtually unknown up until
that time. It was a quite remarkable event here in Chicago. As a matter of fact,
the original sessions took place in the then recently constructed
building that was to become the Art Institute. Brown: What a tremendous
undertaking! Who had the capacity to get all of these great leaders from
all over the world and bring them to Chicago? Ramage: In 1893, it was a group
of local ministers who organized it. You will recall that this was also
the year of the great missionary movement of the Christian Church.
People were being introduced to others around the world. This was kind
of an—sometimes not always too popular—initiative to try and listen
and see what these other religions had to say for themselves. Brown: Parliament. Does that mean
that you are going to pass some legislation here? Ramage: No, but I think we are
going to try to listen to what each other has to say. Brown: That's wonderful. Could
you tell some of the religions and some of the great people who will be
there? I understand John Templeton will be a part of this as well. Ramage: We are quite pleased
about the fact that one of the events associated with the Parliament
itself in August and early September of this year, will be the
presentation of the Templeton World Prize in Religion. It will be done
at the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Chapel, but it will be one of
the events that will take place. Brown: That prize is, of course,
for someone who has advanced religion. Ramage: Yes. That prize is given
annually to someone from around the world who is recognized for the
contributions they have made to all of humankind. Brown: That's wonderful. Tell us
some of the things that will be going on. I have about three questions
to ask you at once as our time progresses here, but I want to get all of
the information. First of all, can the public attend this? Ramage: It is very much for the
public. We assume that several thousand people will be coming. Some of
us have used the metaphor "a county fair" as kind of a
framework. While there will be main events going on, there will be all
kinds of things happening in which individual religious and spiritual
communities can present themselves in ways that people can better
understand who they are. Most important about this particular Parliament, there will be major
sessions in which the people representing the different spiritual
understandings in the world will come together to try to seek common
good and common purpose about the great issues that face humankind. Many
of the sessions will be on those issues. What can we do together, for example, to help to see that our planet
survives, that is ecologically? What can we do about the major issues of
world hunger together as we bring our insights and understandings
together? Brown: It just isn't intolerance
when we think about religions. There are so many problems in the world
for which we can bring our resources together and actually accomplish
something that is really for the good of everyone. You are going to have
thousands of people here. Are you all going to meet in one place and
break up into sessions? What is going to happen? Ramage: Let me answer that.
First, let me say that one of the most unusual and unique things about
the planning group for this Parliament is that virtually all of the
groups that came from all over the world in 1893, are represented on the
planning committee. Yet, they are represented by persons who are members
of living faith communities in Chicagoland itself. A hundred years ago
they had to bring people from all over the world just to have the
religions represented. Today they are represented in the planning right
here in Chicago. It is that group that is both inviting and planning
this particular Parliament. We are going to have workshops of one kind or another. We are going
to have an opportunity for people to learn about particular spiritual
traditions. We are going to have opportunities to work together. Some distinguished world leaders are coming. Many of them would not
be household names to most of us but for their religious adherents, they
would be the great names of the world. For example, persons like the
Dalai Lama will be here in Chicago and others, a great many others. We are trying to find a way to have a conversation between those
leaders in order to understand each other so that we can have better
dialogue, better understanding and work on the issues that we confront. Brown: The issues are many. It
shows that we are really a diversified community here in Chicago in that
all of these religions are represented right here and you had no
difficulty getting the persons together. Ramage: As a matter of fact, that
is an interesting comment because the original initiation for this
particular project emerged out in the suburbs by a group that came
together. I think some of them had said that they met each other for the
first time when they were invited by the local National Conference of
Christians and Jews to come together for the Interfaith Thanksgiving
service. Out of that, they began to meet out in the suburbs where many
of them are and began to organize for celebrating that great Parliament
their traditions remembered. Brown: We are looking forward to
it. It is going to be an exciting event. Thank you so much for sharing
it with us.
"I can't hear you, can you hear
me?" How frequently we say those words or hear those words when we
have a faulty telephone connection; or when we're looking for
someone—for example, a lost child—"can you hear me?" But
even when sound is clear, we seek understanding. Do you understand what
I said? What does that mean? What are you getting at?
"Going through Lent
is a listening.
When we listen
to the Word,
We hear
where we are so
blatantly
unliving.
If we listen to the Word
and hallow it
into our lives,
we hear
how we can so
abundantly
live again."
"And I have heard
the Word proclaimed,
Not just to our ears but into our
souls,
Drawing us back from the pit of our own petty notions
And claiming us for the highest
calling.
Passionately filling us with fervent desire
To accomplish God's own purpose for
each of us --
Yet shall human mouths declare the Word of God,
And human minds hear God's own
voice?
Can anything so good
Truly be found in this troubled
world?
Come and See."
Interviewed by
Floyd Brown