Into the silence..........

For God alone my soul waits in silence,

for my hope is from him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation,

my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

On God rests my deliverance and my honor;

my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.

Trust in him at all times, O people;

pour out your heart before him

God is a refuge for us. 

   Ps62.5-8

My private prayer life (in contrast to my professional prayer life which requires a more public articulation of our approach to God) has reached a place where I rarely speak words aloud.  Most times I am forming words in my mind.....although rarely complete sentences......just images, phrases, single words.  

I have experienced a time when silence was the most I could manage.  I had no words.  There were no images.  Sentences had been lost days and weeks and months before.  I did not seek this time of silence; it wasn't a meditation practice.  It was a time when time stood still, breath was elusive, the future was no more than a blank void.

I was beyond participating in my future: time had simply stopped and I knew the futility of my feeble attempts to shape tomorrow.  I stood absolutely still, frozen in the cross hairs of life and at most I prayed that the Spirit was praying for me.  Remember the story of Elijah in the cave waiting for God who came not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire but in the sheer sound of silence (occasionally translated 'a still small voice').  I waited in the silence for an encounter with God.

This psalm brought me back to those times when I learned a little bit more about waiting on God and trusting in the Creator to hold me close.  For me the psalmist has captured the intersection of the cross......where this world and God's eternity are bound together, a moment when we stand in the silence and await our God.

It was a terrible time when God came close and called me deeper into a life of trust.  I would never choose it voluntarily; I would not be who I am without it.  

Prayer: the sound of silence

Silence.

Sometimes expectant.

Sometimes hostile.

Very rare in 21st century America.

Often the most powerful moments of corporate worship are the all too short and infrequent silences.  Devoid of speaking or singing or moving, these times allow the Word of God to sink in, to find its way beyond our exterior into the places where we make decisions and form hopes.

Here is the classic story of the great silence:

The prophet Elijah had been a great champion for YHWH against the priests of Baal, a cult which competed with YHWH for the loyalty of the people.  Elijah had danced around the 450 prophets of Baal, taunting and criticizing.  In the end, YHWH demonstrated the power that resides with the Creator of the Universe and Elijah was vindicated.  All 450 prophets of Baal were put to death.  Then he had to run for his life. (1 Kings 18.20 - 19.18 This is such a grand story you might want to read it for yourself).

On Mount Horeb, when Elijah and God are about to meet, a great wind passed Elijah by, but God was not in the wind.  Then there was a great earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire, but God was not in either of those.

Then there was the sound of sheer silence.  That was where Elijah met God. 

 It is often where we meet God as well.  

Add silence to your spiritual life.  Seek that place of silence so profound that only God can fill it.  You will be blessed.

Who do people say that I am?

          

This is the crux of the issue:  who exactly is this Jesus?   The disciples answered, "John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets."  We are no more agreed on the answer today than the people were of his time. 

Christians have proclaimed this Jesus to be : Christ, the King (Chi Rho),  the Alpha and Omega (God's first and last), and, using the fish symbol Jesus, the Christ, God's son, Savior.   [that is what these symbols for Jesus Christ mean.]

Every believer needs to answer that question for themselves.  Who is this Jesus?  What is Jesus' relationship to the Creator God?  What benefit is there for me in the life, ministry and death of this Jesus?  How is my life changed by this one called Jesus?

Yes, the Church can give you answers, as the symbols above attest.  But, it seems to me, until you wrestle with this question yourself those answers have little traction in your life.  And as Jesus will begin teaching his disciples, without the cross, those answers mean nothing at all.

Bless us in our seeking O Lord.  May we see your presence each day.  AMEN

Saying good-bye

Saying 'good-bye' is but a formality most of the time.  Until it is not.

Sometimes, the quick 'good-bye' to a friend becomes a final good-bye when the unexpected grasps them away from us.

Sometimes, we know that the end is near, too near, and that this will be the last good-bye, the last parting until God's time reveals itself.

Sitting alongside a loved one who is about to pass from this world to the next is to receive the gift of an intentional, thought out good-bye.  Even as you are concerned for the comfort of the one who is ill, you are aware of the 'shifting of sands of time' (so to speak).  Who you were before this moment is not who you will be when the time comes and the parting is finished.  Sometimes that is good news; sometimes it is simply the way things are.  The wife becomes the widow; the son becomes the patriarch.

Elijah is about to return to his creator God.  Elisha knows it, and so he will not leave his side.  They travel from location to location, each time met by a school of prophets who tell Elisha that the time is near.  "I know," he says.  "Be silent."

Elisha stays close to his good friend, a great prophet of God and in many ways, his father in the faith, until they have arrived at the final stop, and Elisha asks for a special gift: a double measure of the Spirit that has rested on Elijah's shoulders.  We might say, "Help me be twice the man you were."  or "Make me worthy to walk in your footsteps."  It is a cry for affirmation while at the same time, a cry of acknowledgement of the breadth and depth of Elijah's ministry.

Of course, it was not Elijah's gift to give.  These gifts come only from God.  But as Elijah ascended, God gave the gift - a truly amazing inheritance. 

May our faith likewise be an inheritance to our children, to help them grow straight and strong, to show them where to turn when in trouble, and to whom to give thanks when appropriate.