Silence and Sunsets

Silence.

It’s a word that stirs up many different and conflicting emotions when a person considers its effect.

For a preschool teacher after a long day of teaching three and four year olds, silence might be significantly attractive.

For an elderly widow, silence can be a haunting reminder of the fact that she is alone.

For a child suffering from frequent abuse, silence can be a toxic ingredient of his or her innocent life.

At the Troy Wesley Foundation, which is my “church away from church”, we are studying Revelation on Wednesday nights at our weekly worship service.

This past week in our study, we read in chapter eight about heaven being silent for half an hour.

I had to really think about and soak in that concept for a while.

Silence in heaven. What did that really mean? Can we even imagine what that must be like?

I’m pretty sure there’s no way we can possibly grasp true silence like the silence John of Patmos talks about in Revelation.

At the end of our study, we received a challenge for the coming week. We were to find two twenty minute periods of time throughout the week to be silent. Several people asked questions like…”Does that mean no computer?” “Does that mean just being quiet, or does it mean not listening to music or anything??” “Can I do yoga during my silent time?”

But the point was to spend the time doing absolutely nothing, and get as close to the heavenly silence we read about in Revelation. I have to be honest, at first I kind of balked at the idea of finding 40 minutes in my own hectic schedule to simply “sit and do nothing…” It’s very much against my nature to not be doing something! As a matter of fact, I was a little bit afraid of what being silent could mean for me. I love noise, both literally and figuratively. By being alone and quiet, I am forced to deal with things in my mind that the busyness of my life helps me be distracted from for the most part! Things like the stress of schoolwork and its toll on my life, both spiritually and mentally. Or perhaps I might be forced to focus on the strained relationship that I have with my sister.
Those are definitely things I’d rather “ostrich”, or stick my head in the sand and pretend don’t exist!
So, needless to say, we received quite the challenge. Especially in this technological society that is chock full of I-pods, televisions, computers, and radios.

I’m here to tell you, there’s not a whole lot of opportunity to find a quiet space in a college atmosphere! A person would have to be extremely deliberate about finding a place to be in “silence” around Troy, Alabama.

As I began to prepare for this sermon, I read about a man who went into a “soundproof” music room at his university to experience silence.

He said that when he entered the room, there was no noise, but that the longer he was in the room, he began to hear a high pitched noise which he attributed to his breathing, and another thumping noise which he recognized as the sound of his own heart beating. This man had gone to a place where he expected total silence, and yet he still heard sound.

In 1952, this same man by the name of John Cage composed a three movement composition entitled 4 minutes and 33 seconds. It was composed for any instrument (or combination of instruments), and the score instructs the performer not to play the instrument during the entire duration of the piece. Although commonly perceived as "four minutes thirty-three seconds of silence", the piece actually consists of the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed.

I watched a video of a performance of this piece, and the orchestra sat there with their instruments in their laps, the conductor with his hands in the air, and the “music” that was heard was not actual notes being played by instruments, but instead the “music” was the occasional cough or sneeze in the audience, the flipping of the musicians pages, and the scraping of chairs along the floor as the musicians adjusted or fidgeted in their seats.
It was those sounds, unpredictable and unintentional, that were to be regarded as constituting the music in this piece.

From the text today, in verse 35, it says, “In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.”

My guess is that Jesus was seeking a little “silence”. Jesus knew the importance of finding a time that he could go and be alone in a deserted place where he could gather his thoughts and find a little time to just “chill” with his father, God.

As I drove home from Troy this weekend, I contemplated my task for the week to find silence and what it really means to find “silence” in this lifetime. I decided that this could be the perfect opportunity to be “silent” for me, because the closest I could come to silence while driving down the road was to turn off my radio and put my phone on vibrate. So I did just that. I felt kind of like a cheater, but I figured this was at least a baby step towards total silence. I have to be quite honest; it was one of the most awkward experiences of my life. I realized that I don’t even know how to turn my radio off completely, so I just turned the volume down enough that I couldn’t hear it.
As I drove, I caught myself constantly reaching for the volume knob on my radio and stopping myself midway when I remembered there was a reason I wasn’t hearing the music.

Slowly, on my trip home, something strange started to happen. The further I drove in “silence”, I, like John Cage, realized that the music was not the noise my radio perpetually emits, but that the music consists of the sounds of life that I rarely take the time to notice.

I began to hear every little noise my little Geo car made as it rattled and bumped along the road.

I began to look at houses and really notice them for the first time, after having driven by them hundreds and hundreds of times on my way to and from Troy.

I began to think about the people that live in those different houses and what they might be like.

I looked at the sunset that lay before me and embraced its beauty and grandeur.

I believe God made sunsets for everyone to enjoy, but I was particularly impressed with this one because of all the brilliant colors of pink it contained! Pink is my favorite color, and I was amazed at the vividness of the different shades of pink, orange, and purple this sunset had.

I knew at that moment that for me, silence was more than an absence of noise or talking, it was a state of being aware of the overwhelming presence of God.

As I gazed at the sunset and the trees that I passed and noticed the creatures along the side of the road I was sensitive to the incredible creativity of our Creator God.

As I continued to drive, I found myself feeling lost in the sense of community I was experiencing with nature and with God.

I imagine that feeling of intimacy with God was similar to what Jesus was seeking as he went out in the early morning hours to spend some time in prayer; I believe he was seeking an intentional state of being aware of God’s presence.

My question for us today is how often do we deliberately seek the opportunity in our busy lives to find a quiet moment to spend alone with God?

We have lots of “noise” in our lives with our families, our jobs, our friendships, and even our work with the church.

But I believe, by evidence of Jesus’ example to us in this text, that we are called to seek a little “silence” every once in a while to just “be”… in the presence of God.
What does it mean for us to simply be?

It means coming…baggage and all…straight to the presence of God and allowing God to envelop us in God’s presence to let us have an opportunity to “recharge” after a metaphorical “long day”.

I encourage you over the course of the next week or so to find some time to do that.

I challenge you to spend time enjoying and basking in the presence of the God that created you and me.

Whether that means turning your radio off, or turning the news off during your morning cup of coffee, or taking a long walk without your I-pod, I urge you to find some way to find God in your everyday, mundane “drive home”.

In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

the Gospel of the second chance, of a third chance, of the hundredth chance

In Chapter one of Jonah, Jonah is instructed by God to go to Nineveh and tell them that God is displeased with their wickedness.

As most of us know, Jonah decides to do exactly the opposite of that, and instead buys a ticket on the first boat out of Joppa to get as far away from God’s directions as he can.

Why did he do that? Maybe he was afraid? Or it may have been for some more nationalistic reason. Nineveh was an important city in the Assyrian Empire, possibly its capital, and at the time of Jeroboam the second Israel was prospering and the only real threat was the Assyrian Empire.

Jonah may have thought that by not preaching to Nineveh, God would be forced to seek justice for Israel and destroy the city, thus lessening the Assyrian threat to his people.

Whatever Jonah’s reason was, he ran. But when a prophetic call comes to a person, it involves a commission which cannot be avoided.


As most of us know, Jonah was on a boat, which was caught in a very bad storm, and his shipmates threw him into the sea to calm the storm. Once Jonah was thrown overboard, he is swallowed up by a big fish. After spending several days in the belly of the fish, stubborn ole Jonah decides it might be a good time to seek God. Jonah prays to God and promises that if God will deliver him from the belly of the fish, Jonah in turn will do what God has asked him to do.

God responded to Jonah's prayer of repentance, and the Bible tells us that he was vomited up onto dry land. Jonah was delivered from the mouth of the fish, brought up out of the water in an almost baptismal-like experience. We aren't told exactly where Jonah was vomited up, but what we do know is that he started off in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is about 500 miles from Nineveh. That would be a substantial journey today, but when he would have been traveling on foot or on an animal it would have taken a very long time. Certainly weeks.

So, God tries again with Jonah. What a word of grace and challenge all rolled into one! "Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, 'Arise, go to Nineveh . . .'"

Were there ever any kinder words written anywhere? "And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time."

Notice that God never lets up and never gives up on Jonah. Grace and challenge, forgiveness and responsibility are intertwined.

Jonah gets the message, and he does as he is told this time. He sets out on the three day journey to Nineveh.
Wait a minute, three day journey? It's a bit closer than 500 miles away isn't it?
So even though he was trying to run from Nineveh, Jonah ended up closer to Nineveh than he had been when he started. God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh, and when he resisted he ended up closer than when he started. God worked with the disobedient Jonah, and Jonah's call to preach in Nineveh was as much for Jonah's sake as for the people of Nineveh.

For the first time on his journey, Jonah is willingly on his way to Nineveh.
Jonah walked into the city as far as he could go in one day. Then he preached a five word sermon. Forty--days--more--Nineveh--destroyed.

Now, let’s take a look back at chapter one of Jonah and read again the message that God gave to Jonah to deliver to Nineveh. Chapter one, verse 2 says “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.”

I don’t read anything there about God destroying Nineveh in forty days if they didn’t repent from their wickedness…It sounds to me like Jonah took God’s words and twisted them around a little bit in his own wishful thinking.

Jonah had an incredible response to his preaching. The entire city repented. Everyone, including the King of Nineveh responded and a fast was declared. The king declared a fast across the land, which included every person and animal. No one could eat or drink, but they were to be covered in sackcloth and ordered to cry mightily unto God, and “…who knows? God may decide to spare them and let them not perish…”

But I'll tell you who knew...Jonah knew. Jonah knew that if God was merciful enough to give him, a sinner, a second chance, that God would indeed spare this sinful nation. Jonah knew that the God of his people, the God that had spared Israel on multiple occasions, was big enough, and gracious enough to spare even the city of his enemies…Nineveh.

On New Year's Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played the University of California in the Rose Bowl. During the first half of the game a player by the name of Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for California on his own thirty-five yard line. In evading some of the Georgia Tech tacklers, Riegels became confused. He started running sixty-five yards in the wrong direction. One of his teammates, Benny Lom, outran him and tackled him on the one yard line just before Riegels was about to score for Georgia Tech. Then, on the next play, when California attempted to punt out of its end zone, Tech blocked the kick and scored a safety, which was the ultimate margin of victory.
That strange play came near the end of the first half. Everyone watching the game was asking the same question: "What will coach Nibbs Price do with Roy Riegels in the second half?" The players filed off the field and trudged into the dressing room. They sat down on the benches and on the floor. All but Riegels. He pulled his blanket around his shoulders, and sat down in a corner, put his face in his hands, and wept like a baby.

A coach usually has a great deal to say to his team during half-time. That afternoon coach Price was quiet. No doubt he was trying to decide what to do with Riegels. Then the timekeeper came in and announced that there were three minutes before playing time. Coach Price looked at the team and said simply, "Men, the same team that started the first half will start the second."
The players got up and started out. All but Roy Riegels. He didn't budge. The coach looked back and called to him again. Still Riegels didn't move. Coach Price walked over to Riegels and said, "Roy, didn't you hear me? The same team that started the first half will start the second." Roy Riegels looked up and his cheeks were wet with tears.
"Coach," he said, "I can't do it. I've disgraced you. I've disgraced the University of California. I've disgraced myself. I couldn't face that crowd to save my life."
Then Coach Nibbs Price put his hand on Riegels shoulder and said, "Roy, get up and go on back. The game is only half over."
Roy Riegels did go back, and those Tech players testified that they had seldom seen a man play as Roy Riegels did in that second half.

When I read that story, deep inside I said, "What a coach!" When I read the stories of Peter and Jonah and the stories of a thousand men and women like them, I say, "What a God!"

We take the ball and we run in the wrong direction. We stumble and fall. We're so ashamed of ourselves that we never want to try again. And God comes and in the person of Jesus Christ puts a nail-printed hand on our shoulder and says, "Get up; go on back. The game is only half over."

That's the good news of the grace of God. That's the good news of the forgiveness of sins. That's the Gospel of the second chance, of a third chance, of the hundredth chance.

I’d like to challenge you with a quote from Rabbi David Saperstein:

“If God does not love everybody, then there can be no love for anybody. If God is not gracious toward all, there can be grace for none.”

Amen.

Hear this benediction:

Go, secure in the steadfast love of God
rejoicing in the call of Jesus Christ
strong in the power of the Holy Spirit.