With Labor Day behind us, we’ll now turn from baseball-themed sermons to something a bit more serious. For a long time, I have been concerned that we are losing our ability to discriminate between:
the crucial issues of life, which we must address, andEverything comes to us as a top priority; everything is marked "Urgent!"; everything demands to be handled ASAP. Many troubles call themselves crises simply to get our attention—this is the devil’s lie to get us off our spiritual path. Now, more than ever, we need to be able to distinguish between what the real and the illusory, the important and the unimportant, the essential and the merely nice-to-have. Even as Christians we are failing to say, "No," to the non-essentials cluttering our lives.
the lesser issues of life, which necessarily must take a back seat from time to time.
We are not designed for a life of non-stop crises. When life comes at us as a series of non-stop, high-priority demands, we respond to the stress by shutting down. We become reactive, responding to either the most recent demand, or the one which makes us feel the best. We lose our capacity to say, "Yes," to the essentials and to say, "No," to the non-essentials.
1 Kings 19:9-18
Commentary
After confronting & killing the priests of Baal at Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:16ff), priests brought into Israel by Queen Jezebel and acceded to by King Ahab, one might have thought that Elijah would not fear human reprisals. However, Jezebel vowed to kill Elijah, and Elijah ran for his life (1 Kings 19:3) and after a journey of 40 days & nights (symbolic of what?) Elijah found himself on Mt. Horeb, the mountain of God.
The Bible uses scores of names & titles for God: Adonai, El Shaddai, Lord of Hosts, etc. However, the most important name was a name so holy that no Jew would utter it aloud: the name revealed to Moses at the burning bush (go to Exodus 3, & study v13-15). In essence, God said to Moses, "I have heard the suffering of my people, and to those who doubt that I am even out there, I AM!"
The Hebrew for "I am" became Yahweh, the holiest name for God. The name Yahweh was a reminder of God’s love & care for his people. In the NIV, this name is always spelled in upper case.
Where does this holiest name for God appear most frequently? Why?
The gentle whisper in v13 is more accurately translated "a sound of silence." Simon & Garfunkel and Henri Nouwen describe this divine silence better than I ever could.
Points to Ponder
God rarely demands attention. He rarely announces, "This is urgent." In my experience, God speaks most forcefully during quiet times & with very few words. If we are driven by the loud demands that came like fire, wind, and earthquake, how likely are we to miss the quiet voice of God?
5 comments:
I liked the incorporation of the silent theme, with the use of Nouwen, and the moment of silent contemplation. My house seems to vibrate every time a truck goes by, and they go by often. The kids went with me to a camp on Flagstaff Lake a couple weeks ago. The stars at night were amazing, not bleached out by artificial light. The only sounds were the breeze, but only a whisper through the trees. Wow, what contemplation. So simple to hear God there. In the vein of Simon and Garfunkel, The Four Seasons nailed it when they did "Silence Is Golden." Tim R
I'd never heard "Silence is Golden", but I like the lines:
Talkin’ is cheap people follow like sheep
Even though there is no where to go
How could she tell he decieved her so well
Pity she'll be the last one to know
I think this sermon series, "Less is More," will resonate with the Wednesday night (contemplative service) crowd. Although it's unwise to make rules about how things work in the spiritual realm, I think maybe (maybe!) a necessary part of spiritual growth is getting a different perspective on ourselves. Silence can be a good way to "get outside of ourselves." Retreats--getting away from the usual routine--are another. Usually we're so busy just trying to keep up, we need a "breather" to give us a minute to take stock of where we are and set off in a new direction.
Thank you Chip for the reminder. I am looking forward to "Less is More"
but know I am needing a scolding....
It is my experience that I need the crisis to hear God. I learn each lesson the hardest way.
It seems yet again this sermon & series was meant especially for me at this time. In every area of my life I am hearing that I need quiet, alone time, contemplation.
I have missed the Wednesday night services I learned through them to use the silence. It focuses me to God like nothing else can when I can be quiet & silent.
My problem is I have a hard time getting to the quiet. Settling down. I almost have to be forced. I need to force a time, a place and then work really hard. If and when I get there it is so worth it.
The more I do it the easier it is to do.
Heather, when you wrote about needing to be forced, and yet on the other hand, saying the more you do it, the easier it is to do, I was reminded of running. I am a first-rate couch potato. Even in HS when I was on a track team, running was not high on my list of things to do. The idea of running enough to get a "runner's high" seemed pretty sick.
How ironic then, when I began jogging the first of the year. Although I continually have to force myself to do it, it's certainly the case that the more I do it, the easier it is to do. I don't think I've ever it a runner's high, but I know I feel better when I run, and I have gotten to where I resent intrusions into my life that get in the way of my running schedule.
Isn't prayer and quiet devotional time like that? It's more kinda like "spiritual aerobics" (training for "running with perseverance the race marked out for us" as it says in Hebrews 12:1) Certainly, the more I pray, the easier it is to pray--and the less I pray, the greater the barriers seem to be to praying (again, sort of like running). On the other hand, although I don't always get a "high" from quiet devotional time, it does seem to make the day go straighter.
PS - I said in church yesterday that I'd wanted to preach on "less is more" for a while, but the time had never been right. However, it's no coincidence that you, I, and others are all feeling a call to simplicity, quiet, etc. at the same time. God is on the move ...
Yes God is certainly moving in us and thru the church :-)
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