Do We Recognize The Power Of The Sound Of Silence?
Good Morning Friends,
There is a time when human words and mortal flesh get in the way of God’s plan. Today’s scripture relates to this challenge for us. And we get a sense of it in the rhythm of the Christmas hymns we sing, and particularly in Ralph Von Williams music, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent:
Herein is a life lesson to learn. There is not a lot we can say in our own defense unless God is tabernacle in us, built in us block by block, thought upon thought on the Cornerstone of Christ. God’s ways are not our ways in how this works. And part of the mystery and the drama of it is that we are in the season that is even now moving from the stillness of Oh Little Town of Bethlehem and Silent Night to the power of Go Tell It On the Mountain and Hark The Angels Sing. But we have a challenge in experiencing God on the journey.
Do We Recognize The Power Of the Sound Of Silence?
Scripture: Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.” Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you.” But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.
2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16 (NRSV)
Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Luke 1:67-79 (NRSV)
But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!
Habakkuk 2:20 (NRSV)
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:12 (NRSV)
Message: In past devotionals I have indicated that there was a 400-year silence in the Bible story from Old to New Testament. But as a kind friend of mine pointed out, there is a lot of writing that went on in the Intertestamental period and although it is not canonized by Protestants, many Catholic and Jews include the writings of several additional authors that is worthy of study. His point was that God is never really absent from history, but we may not be cognizant of what is happening and why. Our experience of the world may be flat… our experience of God may from time to time be distant or silent but maybe that is just how we perceive it because we have not gone to the mountain top to see the curve of the earth and the splendor of God’s creation in us. Regardless, sometimes there is a spiritual reality that we just do not see. For if we live long enough friends, we experience the wilderness as well as the mountaintop. And maybe we begin to appreciate, and forgive me for the mixing of metaphors, that water is more refreshing when we are really thirsty. Think about the story of Job or the writing of King David in Psalm 22. Sometimes we feel forsaken. But the hope is that in the silence, and even as we experience God’s absence, we might also be experiencing a feeling that serves a purpose. So, we may wonder why the silence of Zechariah and whether it is it fair to link this to the gap in the Biblical story from Old to New Testament? So, in today’s Gospel reading from Luke we have a breaking of nine months of Zachariah’s silence so something might be birthed in him. Here the father of John the Baptist shares a song known as “Zechariah’s Benedictus”. And it is joyous. Now, perhaps you have experienced a season of silent suffering and been tempted to believe that God is not able to change the situation. But maybe there is a purpose in the silence that has to do with absence making the heart grow fonder. That is what happened to Zechariah. And the case of Zechariah is also to be a guide for the nation of Israel and those who have fallen away from the faith. Friends, deprivation can draw out and heighten a desire that prepares us to face our lack of faith and trust in God. Perhaps the story of Zechariah prepares us for the profound stillness of that first Christmas Eve and guides us how to proclaim the joy from the mountaintops.
And So, maybe we do not have much of a choice in the matter when it comes to experiencing the presence of God with us. Perhaps our own disbelief prompts an experience of silence that has a purpose. For God knows that our lives move from noise to noise this time of year. And maybe that is why we are given the gift of silence and in time learn it is not really punishment. As we listen to Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, and a priest, we realize that his story is worth hearing in helping us move from silence and disbelief to greater faith and praise. Friends, the very Word of God, the Son of God made manifest… that choirs will sing about with loud anthems… will wait a few more days and we will have to wait even longer for the apparent gaps in holy history to be filled in anticipation of Jesus’ return. So too like Zechariah we collectively may need a time of silence to prepare us. Maybe we will not have an angel shutting our mouth or touching our spirit but maybe get something even better this time of year in a moment of silence that brings us closer to God and prepares us to sing with joy. But even then, we realize that we might be more satisfied in the anticipation than its achievement. Friends, the reality that we are not designed to be satisfied with what we receive this season so much as in the Kingdom to come. Indeed, we live in the age of anticipation. We see dimly. The paradox is that what satisfies us most in this age is not what we receive, but what we are promised. The chase is better than the catch here. Interestingly, deprivation, adversity, scarcity, and suffering often produce the best character qualities in us while prosperity, ease, and abundance often produce the worst. Enjoy the silence in anticipation of something even better that might just surprise us.
Pray we realize that for some people a deprivation of the experience of God might be a design of an age that prepares them for the return of the King. Pray we realize that even during the holidays that some people will experience a chaos that careens through their lives and shatters their world and gives them the experience of God’s absence. Pray therefor this season for people who experience an unrelenting darkness descending on them that they would like to exclude from their reality. Pray for people who experience an arid wind that blows across their spiritual landscape leaving the crust of their soul cracked and parched even when it continues to rain. Pray quietly for those who cry to God in their confused anguish. Pray for those who experience God as silent and absent. Pray for a time when the power of God’s perceived silence breaks forth into song. Pray we realize that we are called to trust God’s promise to always be with us more than just be engaged in perceiving the feelings of the moment. Pray we learn when to speak up and when to keep silent. Pray we appreciate the silent preparation needed to help us to listen to and trust in the unfolding of the incarnation of Christ even though it is beyond our understanding. Pray we listen for the joy of God’s comfort. Pray when the time fully comes our voice humbly glorifies God because God is with us.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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