Tunneling Toward

Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to grow angry.
-James 1:9

I enjoyed sitting and listening to my friend Rachel preach this past week on a famous story from John 9, where Jesus heals a blind man. He puts mud on the man's eyes and tells him to wash in the pool of Siloam. This was an historic pool at the end of a water tunnel built 700 years earlier by King Hezekiah. Rachel made a quick mention of how the tunnel was made, and I've been reflecting on it and learning more ever since. 

The Siloam Tunnel (or Hezekiah's Tunnel) was one of the greatest engineering marvels of its time. You can still walk through it today (my father-in-law has!). As the Assyrians were gaining power and getting closer to invading Jerusalem, this 583 yard tunnel was dug as a way of securing a water supply into the city from the Gihon Spring. It dropped a mere 12 inches from top to bottom, just enough to keep the water running from the spring over a quarter mile away. And it was dug into pure rock. 

That itself is amazing, but the way it was built is even more remarkable. The tunnel was built by two teams working at opposite ends at the same time, in order to get it done more quickly. I cannot imagine how complicated it must have been (I get this image of a prisoner secretly tunneling underground from his cell for years to escape, only to finally emerge from the ground and realize that he's still in the middle of the prison yard. Like a reverse Shawshank. That's where my sense of direction would take me). How on earth did two teams meet as they chiseled through a quarter mile of rock? 

Apparently as they got closer, the teams would pause and listen for each other's sounds of chiseling. Then they would adjust and move toward each other. Each pausing, each listening, each moving toward a place of connection. 

Hmmm. All I can think about is that it takes a lot of listening if we want to be the people of Jesus. It takes a lot of listening if we want to move toward one another. It takes a lot of listening if we want to make avenues for living water to flow in our communities. 

James, the brother of Jesus, encouraged the early church in Jerusalem to take a posture of listening at all times. He absolutely would have known about the tunnel Hezekiah built. I wonder if he ever used the tunneling story as a teaching metaphor for his church, to help them move toward one another? 

About 130 years ago, a Hebrew inscription was discovered in the rock near the end of the tunnel that told of the process. And it records the joy of the two teams meeting as they completed the tunnel and living water ran freely between the two teams. A special excitement passed through those doing the work as they finally heard “the voice of a man calling his neighbor” and saw a crack develop in front of them. 

You may feel like moving toward other people is a tunneling-through-rock sort of a process these days. Connection is really hard in busy and isolating lives. Plus, humans don't disagree or listen that well (particularly Americans, from what we've seen in the last decade!). But I can't help thinking about that living water touching the feet of the workers thousands of years ago as they slowly, carefully, made their way toward each other. Living water that reminding them of what they were accomplishing. And 700 years later, their careful listening and movement toward each other would create holy spaces where people could be cleansed, be healed, and be refreshed by Jesus.

Where can you pause and listen better today, so that you can move toward others in love and care? Can you imagine future generations being blessed because you walked with the Spirit toward other people today? Can you imagine the impact of making tunnels that bring life and goodness, even when there is a siege happening overhead?  That's what happens when we walk with Jesus and practice listening and reconciliation. 

When I meet people today and tomorrow, I'm going to try to listen carefully for the chiseling taps of the Holy Spirit, helping me move toward that person with love and attention. Perhaps we'll find springs of living water bursting through the rock. Want to join me? 

Jesus, in all my interactions today, help me be quick to listen, slower to speak, and slower still to become angry. 

Peace,
Keith

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