The Sound of Silence

 Scripture    1 Kings 19:9-13.   

At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

He answered, "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away."

He said, "Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.

When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

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Message   The sound of silence

Good morning!  It is Sunday again - or maybe not depending on when you are watching on YouTube.  It has been a week full of pretty disturbing news from all over the world.  We come to worship, not to get away from all of those things, but to learn how to live in a world where life is so fragile.  We come to pray for ourselves, our family and friends, and all the world -  and for guidance in doing God’s will.  We come to worship to celebrate God’s love, recognize that God is present where ever we are, and share a meal of remembrance even though we are doing that in lots of different places.  We come to worship to hear amazing music from the Quarantine Qrew, and to sing with their leadership.  We come to worship to offer ourselves and our lives to God, to be used in whatever way is needed to bring God’s peace and justice into our world.  

There are some memes on Facebook that make me laugh every time I see them. One of them is: That moment you turn down the radio to see better.  I mean, we all do it, right?  We need to watch closely for the exit sign on the freeway, or the street number on a building, so we turn down the volume on whatever we are listening to in the car.   Similarly, we close our eyes when we are listening very closely to something - like when someone says, “What’s that noise?”  Never mind that our ears and eyes are not connected.  Our brains are wired to do whatever to reduce distraction whenever we need to concentrate on a particular task.  I did try to read a  scientific article that speaks to the how of that, but it was much more complicated than I was willing to deal with right at that moment.  Or ever, actually.

I imagine most of you recognize that I have used the title of Simon and Garfunkle’s first hit song, “The Sound of Silence” as the title of this message.  I chose this title a month or so ago.  And I have to tell you, because this is the way things work in my world.  As I sat at my computer working on this the lawn people came.  And made a lot of noise.  And I couldn’t concentrate.  So I had to tell Jordan that I might be running a little late getting it uploaded, and that I totally got the irony of noise distracting me from writing a message titled the Sound of Silence.  

Anyway, Paul Simon said that he wrote the song in the bathroom with the lights off and the water running, because he could hear himself better that way. Hence the opening words, 

“Hello darkness my old friend, 

I’ve come talk with you again.”  

Sitting in the dark in order to hear - in order to communicate.    When asked about the meaning of the song, Art Garfunkle said it was about people’s inability to communicate, especially emotionally.  

Then later in the song, it says

“my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light 

that split the night  

And touched 

the sound of silence”.   

Light touched sound - that’s not possible, physically.  Neither light nor sound can be felt or touched.  Neither one is necessary to the other, as smell and taste are, yet they are somehow linked in such a way that we close our eyes to hear better, and we reduce noise to see better.  

Silence tends to make us uncomfortable.  We think of it as the absence of sound.  As empty.  We want to fill it somehow.  We have to really concentrate in order to meditate silently.  When there is silence, we often think we hear sounds, like the ocean when we put a sea shell to our ears or voices murmuring just quietly enough we can’t distinguish words.   This would be why so many use white noise to keep these distractions from preventing sleep.   And our minds run when it is silent, distracting us from the silence, that place where we might hear God speaking.

For some reason we tend to believe that bigger is better.  We get our burger combos supersized.  We buy Costco sized packages of things that we only need two of.  We have to be reminded that “good things come in small packages.”  It’s not surprising that we think of God as really really big.  God created everything, after all.  God is everywhere, knows everything.  We expect God to show up in the big things, to interact with us in big ways.  We expect God will strike evildoers with lightning - and  destroy cities the way Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.   We refer to powerful earthquakes and floods and hurricanes and tornados and wild fires as acts of God.  And yet, in today’s passage we are told God did not speak through the wind or the earthquake or the fire.  God spoke through the silence, or as the King James Version describes it, “a still small voice.”  And when Elijah heard that silence, that stillness, he covered his face in order to hear God.  He blindfolded himself, in order to hear God.   

We expect God to show up in the big things, but more often than not, God shows up in much less flamboyant ways, in fairly ordinary ways.  God spoke of caring for Jerusalem and her people like a hen who gathers her brood under her wings.   God describes the  relationship with Israel as one of bride and bridegroom.  

As Jacob slept by a river, stranger came to him and challenged him.  They wrestled all night long, and at the end of the match Jacob realized that he had been wrestling with God, who had come to him in the guise of an ordinary man.  And Jacob set up an altar, because this place were he saw God was holy ground.

God does this all the time, showing up in small things, in ways that mightn’t seem terribly impressive.   Kings, for example, were expected to be born in palaces surrounded by pomp and circumstance.  

But David, who was to be Israel’s greatest king, was tending his father’s sheep when Samuel found and anointed him.  He defeated Israel’s greatest foe with a slingshot and a stone, not fabulous arms and armor.  

And Jesus, king of the world, was born to ordinary, common parents - a young woman and a carpenter.  Not in a palace surrounded by servants, but in a stable surrounded by animals.  His visitors were shepherds, not nobles.  

There are so many examples of God showing up in the ordinary things, the small things.  

Here’s another.  God appeared to Moses in a bush - a burning bush, but still, an otherwise ordinary bush in the wilderness.   And even though it was just a bush in the wilderness, God told Moses to remove his shoes before he came close, because this was holy ground.   It wasn’t a temple or cathedral or even a tent holding the Ark of the Covenant. Still, it was holy ground.  Because God was there.  

Where ever we are, God is there.  Where ever we come to worship, to speak with God, to listen for God, God is there.  Where ever we find God - whether in a building or by a river and by a bush in the wilderness - God is there.  And that place, where ever it is, is holy ground.  As the psalmist said,

Where can I go from your spirit?

Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there.

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

If I take the wings of morning 

And settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

Even there your hand shall lead me,

And your right hand shall hold me fast.

 

God is the light in darkness, 

and the sound of silence. 

God is every where all the time,

God is where ever we are.

And where ever God is, 

is holy.

Amen