The Parish Priest’s Letter
The Vicarage
27 Little Tongues Lane
My very dear friends
Encounter
At this time of year there are often services of devotion based upon the seven words that Jesus spoke whilst on the cross. Jesus hung upon the cross from nine in the morning until three in the afternoon. So, in six hours he only uttered seven words. What has always fascinated me are not the words from the cross, but the silence of the cross. Jesus hangs in silence before the heavenly Father. Silence was at the heart of the ministry of Jesus.
He was silent before Pilate; he was often found to be
alone in the Galilean hills praying in silence to his Father. When the condemned woman stood before him, he
bent down and wrote in silence. In the
modern-day razzmatazz of Christmas, one of my favourite carols, O Little
town of Bethlehem, contains the lines:
How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
Those words remind us of the silent and gentle birth of Christ our Saviour.
In the Old Testament we discover a similar narrative of a God to be found in the silence. The prophet Habakkuk declares, “The LORD is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him”. (Habakkuk 2:20). Whilst the prophet Elijah meets God at Horeb. This encounter with God so powerfully illustrates how we can meet God in the silence, so I am quoting it here in full:
11 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; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13 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?’
(I Kings 19: 11~13)
As you can see, silence is at the very heart of our faith.
We live in a world full of noise. I think that most people are incapable of being silent for just one minute. Almost everyone you see walking down the street is listening to music. Digital chatter fills our lives with bleeps, whistles or rings, demanding our attention from our phone or computer. We bought a new set of weighing scales the other day: even they bleep and whistle for no reason. In many homes, the radio or television is almost always turned on. When visiting people in their homes, I am amazed how often they just leave the television on, constant noise in the background. Young people in particular seem to need to have loud music playing in their ears all the time. Yet it shouldn’t be that way. If we really want to listen to God speak to us, we need to recapture that scriptural focus upon silence.
A moment of silence in our daily lives is so important to developing a deeper love for Jesus and a deeper love for each other. Christian faith is a relationship of love. As we deepen our friendship with Jesus, so we deepen our love for God. That deepening faith needs opportunity not only for us to speak to God, but for him to speak to us. It is a relationship of love. Love requires a two-way conversation. We need silence to hear what God is saying to us. Just a few minutes’ silence each day can make such an amazing difference to our faith and the way we live our lives.
I believe that silence has the power to transform our lives. Spending a few moments each day in silence can help calm our hearts and minds, balance our emotions, and help us to be so much more in tune with God. It gives us a chance to be better in tune with the rhythm of our body, and with the rhythm of nature. Through that silent waiting upon the Lord, we can offer a sense of patience, humility, gentleness, and love in our lives, because we have discovered those things in the deep well of stillness.
As well as those moments of silence each day, I believe that a central part of worship should be silence. Times of silence during our services can provide space for communal reflection, prayer, and listening to God’s still small voice.
To help discover the beauty of that silence it has become our custom over the last two years to offer a simple calm Communion service at the Church of S. Mark, Eagland Hill on the first Sunday of the month throughout the summer season. It is an opportunity for us to be still at the end of the day and at the start of the week. It is an opportunity for the residents of the hamlet of Eagland Hill to come together to receive Communion in their delightful simple church. It is also an opportunity for anyone across the benefice to come and just be willing to listen to the still small voice of the Lord. Some of us have busy roles in our own Church, so it is good to be able to come away and be still to listen to God speak. It was so central to the ministry of Jesus and it is a discipline I commend to each of you this summer.
A simple still service of Holy Communion. First Sunday in the month at 5:00 p.m.\ at S. Mark, Eagland Hill starting on 4th May. Just pop in once or make it a habit. Take it as an opportunity to be at Church if you could not come in the morning. Use it as a deep well of silence to draw spiritual renewal into your life and into your heart and mind.
“Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)
Fr Peter
Encounter
A peaceful, reflective
encounter with Jesus
in Holy Communion
4th May, 1st June,
6th July, 3rd August,
7th September
Saint Mark, Bradshaw Lane,
Eagland Hill, PR3 6BA
5:00 p.m.