“Be Still & Know That I am God” (2)

Series: Tipping Points
Psalm 46:10

1. Malcolm Gladwell states in his best-selling book The Tipping Point that little changes can have big effects. When small numbers of people start behaving differently, that behavior can ripple outward until a critical mass or ‘tipping point’ is reached, changing the world around them.

2. he illustrates his point by documenting the return popularity of Hush Puppy shoes; the rise of fax machines 15 years ago; the proliferation of cell phones today. All 3 reached a tipping point that sent their sales exploding.

3. for the next 2 months I want to talk about tipping points in our relationship with God. If we get these points God-right, they will tip us in the direction of God’s presence, power & kingdom. The result will be a spiritual power & presence in our lives that will make a difference in our world.

4. last week we dealt with the issue of experiencing God’s forgiveness. This week’s tipping point – the challenge of noise & the necessity of silence.

Yesterday vs. Today
1. 150 years ago the majority of people in America lived in the country. This from Anthony Doerr’s Four Seasons in Rome:

Imagine life back then. Night beyond the walls was lightless, the sky paralyzed with stars. The sound track of life was not the sustained grumble of engines, but the murmur of wind and the howling of dogs, the scolding of mothers; chisels, footfalls, and laughter; the clatter of hooves (Anthony Doerr, Four Seasons in Rome).

2. try to imagine living 150 years ago. It was a quieter time:
à no movies, radio, tv, video, dvds, mp3 players or ipods
à no phones, faxes, cell phones, pagers, Treos or BlackBerries
à no cars, motorcycles, trucks, scooters, airplanes
à no electric drills, saws, jack hammers, nail guns
à no washer, dryer, electric mixer, espresso machine or microwaves
à no furnace, air conditioner or vacuum cleaners

3. noise, as we know & experience it here in America, is a fairly recent human phenomenon. We live, quite possibly, in the nosiest country in the nosiest century of all human centuries, given the ubiquitous nature of the technology that fills our pockets, homes, cars & offices.

4. all this noise makes some of us uncomfortable with silence. We wake up – turn on tv or cd player. Hop in our car – turn on the radio or cd player. Sit down in our office at work – turn on some music. Elevators, stores & coffee shops are filled with background music.

5. we come to believe that noise of some kind is normal, when in fact, long stretches of silence have been normal for most people for most of human history.

6. tipping point – how does all this noise affect our relationship with God…how can we cultivate the necessity of silence in our lives?

7. 1st I want to look at an Old Testament story AND then take you into the life & rhythm of Jesus.

I Kings 19:9-13
1. this is one of my favorite Elijah stories. To set the context:
à God has just burned with fire sacrifices made to Baal on Mt. Carmel – power encounter!
à Jezebel has threatened Elijah so he ran for his life into the desert & prayed to die
à an angel comforted & fed him
à he traveled 40 days & 40 nights until he reached Mt. Horeb (Mt. Sinai)

2. 19:9-10: shows us that Elijah was desperate & feeling all alone.

3. 19:11: God instructs Elijah to go stand on the mountain in his presence (echoes of Moses on Mt. Sinai).

4. 19:11: 1st the wind tore through the mountain & then an earthquake. God was in neither.

5. 19:12: 3rd fire came after the earthquake but the Lord was not in the fire.

6. wind, earthquake, fire BUT God was not in them. God was not to be found in the spectacular.

7. 19:12: and after the fire came a gentle whisper. The presence of God, the speaking voice of God, was found in a gentle whisper.

8. how do we know this was the voice of God? Look at Elijah’s response – When he heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face & went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

9. sometimes, often, I believe, God speaks to us in a gentle whisper. More often than in & through the dramatic.

10. noise drowns out the gentle whisper of God. Silence opens a space in our lives to hear the voice of God. We see this in the life of Christ. He practiced silence as a necessity for hearing the voice of his Father.

Jesus: 6 texts
1. Luke 6:12: before he chose the 12 disciples he spent the entire night alone in the desert hills, praying & listening for the Father’s guidance. Silence before making a major decision.

2. Matt 14:13: when he received news of John the Baptist’s death, his cousin, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Wanted to hear the Father’s comforting voice.

3. Matt 14:23: after he fed the 5000 he went up into the mountains to pray by himself. Silence away from the crowds.

4. Mark 1:35: following a long day & night of work, he got up early the next morning to spend time with his Father in prayer. The priority of silence & prayer in his life.

5. Luke 5:16: after healing a leper Jesus withdrew to a lonely place & prayer as he often did. Lonely places are silent.

6. Matt 26:36-46: as he prepared for his crucifixion he hid away in the quietness of the garden of Gethsemani to pray.

7. these texts illustrate the importance of silence to Jesus. What are the ‘texts’ of your life, lifestyle, practice that show the importance of silence? Are you doing anything to cultivate silence in this noisy world we live in?

what others say
1. by silence we create a space in our lives for God to work. This comes from Brother Christian of the Abbey of Gethsemani. I spent 5 days at the abbey on retreat in May. Lots of silence.

Here’s a ‘text’ from my life. One morning I got up at 3am to join the monks for Vigils @ 3:15am, their 1st prayer office of the day. Vigils is 45 minutes of prayer, mostly psalms said & sung in the dark of this whale’s
belly of a church, huge church.

After Vigils I went down to the kitchen to get a cup of hot chocolate. I startled a woman eating a bowl of cereal in the dark. Then I went outside to the monk’s cemetery behind the church & stood with my back up against a stone wall. Here’s what transpired – 4am After Vigils.

2. Mother Teresa said this about silence – God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grow in silence. The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life. We need silence to be able to touch souls. The essential thing is not what we say, but what God says to us & through us (Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge).

3. Gordon MacDonald writes in Ordering Your Private World about the terrible conspiracy of noise. Our worlds are filled with the noise of endless music, chatter, and busy schedules. We are so accustomed to noise that we grow restless without it. With the intrusion of so much noise, when can we withdraw and monitor the still, small voice of God?

4. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together, We are silent early in the morning because God should have the first word, and we are silent before going to bed because the last word also belongs to God. There is a wonderful power in being silent – the power of clarification, purification, and focus on what is essential. The silence of the Christian is listening silence, humble stillness.

Practicing silence
1. practice silence each day with the Word of God before you. Bonhoeffer writes, In the end silence means nothing other than waiting for God’s Word & coming from God’s Word with a blessing. God speak to us through Scripture IF we are quiet enough to hear his whispering voice.

2. learn to pray by listening. Prayer is not only talking to God but listening to God. Psalm 46:10 tells us to be still and know that I am God. Be still, be quiet, be settled before God & listen for his voice.

3. turn off the sounds. Learn to make silence your friend. Learn to live without filling the space around you with noise. Turn the TV off. Turn your stereo or cd player or ipod off. Get used to silence.

4. spend time in nature. The sounds of nature have a way of bringing healing & renewal to our souls. The sounds of nature are soothing & comforting. God speaks through his creation.

5. start with 10-15 minutes a day. Sit in silence before God. When I do this I quietly repeat in my heart my soul finds rest in God alone to help me stay centered.

6. how are we ever going to become A New People for a New Building if we don’t learn to weed out noise from our lives so we can be focused & present before God, to hear his speaking voice? Silence will act as a tipping point that will tip us in the direction of God’s power, presence & Kingdom. Amen.

ÌÌÌ

4am after vigils
the abbey of gethsemani
june 1, 2007

a dark-haired woman eating a bowl of cereal
standing in the kitchen dressed for night
startled embarrassed by my entrance
I step outside hot chocolate in hand
head for the lower cemetery
back up against the rough stone wall
dwarfed by the big white church
brother owen laid out in front of me
stillness quiet calm all-at-rest
crickets flooding the night with their singing
an occasional dog barking in the distance
2 cars drive by
a jet flies overhead
fire flys light up the night air with green
tinged tails
birds still sleeping
my mind crystal clear and wide awake
merton’s beloved gethsemani
God’s creation humming
the sounds of silence
“by silence we create a space for God in our
lives” (brother christian)
full moon overhead trying to break through
the clouds
hum of the guesthouse air conditioner
singing monks since december 22, 1848
non-stop
for the love of God
7xs a day
rain or shine war or peace hot or cold lincoln
or bush
standing before their earthly resting place
held by the ground
hidden with Christ in God
the silence and the cool morning air
opens my spirit
awakens my soul
draws my interior outward
takes all that is exterior inward
unity oneness cohesion
God God God
i was made for this
we were made for this
to stand quietly in the presence of God
in a beautifully draped night of darkness
senses fully alive ignited wide awake
an epiphany moment
(and without coffee, caffeine)
a taste of eden
God walking with humanity in the cool of
the garden

i could be called to such a place as this
but for heather hannah elizabeth
every trip asking what if
i wonder wonder wonder
silence and stillness are the soul’s language
while the world sleeps the monks pray
the world turns over in bed
the monks turn inward Godward outward
living a life of prayer
of being truly human
4am at gethsemani
in the dark lit up by fire flys
standing with the dead in Christ alive
sitting in the palm of his hand
the Father Son and Holy Spirit
who was and is and is to come
amen