Tuning In To The Hum Of Divine Connectivity

I recently was in a conversation where I was trying to explain a concept to a client who was consulting me through the mental health center. At first I used some words and then, because I often think in pictures, I drew a diagram to demonstrate the point I was trying to get across. They nodded their head but still had a confused look on their face and ultimately said, “I really don’t get it…”

Maybe you have had an experience like this before – either at the explaining end or at the understanding end.  But in either case, it is never an easy situation.  What seems obvious to one person may not be so obvious to another.

That’s a bit of what is happening in today’s gospel from Matthew 12.  Jesus is among some of the other religious leaders of his time and they say, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” Jesus is frustrated with them, in particular, because they KNOW the biblical tradition and they KNOW what the signs are that God is in their midst. They either just are not understanding or, more likely, they just don’t want to believe the signs that they have already seen.

And so he says, “no sign will be given…except the sign of Jonah the prophet.” By which he basically means, “If you don’t get that story, I’m not going to explain anything else!”

Almost every year during Lent, we reflect upon the story of Jonah because it is a story about transformation. It is a story about listening to the call of Spirit in our lives and aligning with that call. It is a story about obedience to our higher purpose and working to let God’s love flow through us. It is a story about trying to respond to what we see happening in our lives and in our world the first time and not waiting for more and more evidence. You can check out some of what I have written about this in the past here or here.

One thing that bothers Jesus so much is that he KNOWS that his religious peers are familiar with the Hebrew scriptures. He KNOWS that they have read what we hear in the first reading from Micah 6 where the prophet says the famous lines, “You have been told what is good, and what God requires of you: Only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Jesus is bothered that they want more proof. They want yet another demonstration. Another explanation. More evidence. Meanwhile he and those gathered in his rag-tag community are practicing those very words: doing right, loving goodness and walking humbly with God.

If we were together in a large group doing scripture study, we’d pause right now and I’d ask, “What do these words from Micah 6 mean to you in your life? What does “doing right, loving goodness and walking humbly with God” look like in the world? Where do you see it happening? Where do you see its absence?”

And maybe those are just the questions that we sit with today – like Jonah sitting in the belly of the great fish as he awaited his own transformation. Maybe there are no “right” answers, per se, but instead invitations to keep moving in faith to try to get closer to what “doing right, loving goodness and walking humbly with God” might mean for us as individuals and as a faith community. Or maybe, like Jonah, we actually KNOW what they mean and require of us and, like him, head in the opposite direction!

I recently read and would recommend a wonderful book by activist and counselor Liza Rankow called Soul Medicine for a Fractured World (Orbis, 2026).  In one chapter called “Deep Listening,” Rankow says that she works to “hone [her] listening to discern the hum of divine connectivity within all of Life.”  This requires an intentional practice and receptivity so that no matter what comes our way we are more able to hear the echoes of Life in that moment – echoes that will help us do what the prophet Micah counsels – even if we are not sure what direction to go in.

• The religious leaders of Jesus’ time did not like the sound of the “hum of divine connectivity” in front of them and so they asked for more signs.

• Jonah did not like the “hum of divine connectivity” that he was being called to and ran in the other direction.

• The people that Micah was speaking to had lost their ability to hear the “hum of divine connectivity” in the world.

And in each case, God called them back.

Responding to the hum of divine connectivity in front of us is always a risk because we risk being changed . Facing what is right there invites us to let go of all that we have been clinging to – life as we knew it, what we thought was permanent, our comfort, our sense of being right, etc. responding in this way takes intentional practice, and maybe a lot of us are like the people in the first reading who have lost some of our ability. Living in this culture can do this to us…

The good news is that we can get it back, and when we tune in, we make ourselves available to this present moment and what is being offered by Spirit in the here and now. It may not always be what we wanted, and we may not even know what it is calling us to. But not knowing is different from being confused. 

In Psalm 95 we hear the words, “If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts.” To me that sounds a lot like Rankow’s attempt to stay open to the “hum of divine connectivity” through the course of each day. And I sincerely believe that the more we are able to do this, the more likely we will be able to embody Micah’s words to “do the right, love goodness and walk humbly with God.”