Spiritual Discplines
Silence and Solitude
It is a well-known fact that the people of this Church are extremely well read! I know that you all have the great classics of literature in your well-stocked libraries. I know that your children will reach Chaucer and Dickens instead of the ‘Cat in the Hat’!I’d like to introduce to you some more great works of literature this morning.
You may not be familiar with the works of Jill Murphy, but she has written some very telling and fundamentally simple books about the harsh realities of family life. Even if you are not familiar with the books themselves, the titles will certainly strike a chord. The first of these books is entitled ’Five Minutes’ Peace’, and it’s about the difficulties that a parent has in trying to get even five minutes peace and quiet. In the end to she manages to get three minutes and 45 seconds of peace before the whole family descend upon her once again! The second book is entitled ’A Quiet Night In’, and shows how, when Mr and Mrs Large at last managed to programme a quiet night in to spend quality time with each other, they are so exhausted with the pressures of life and family that they simply fall asleep.
Over the past few weeks we have been looking at the spiritual disciplines — the methods by which we develop our spiritual lives. Discipline is not a popular word, but it is necessary if we want to live life, have a relationship with God, at a deeper level.
Today we will be considering the discipline of silence and solitude. Now, even on a very practical level, I guess most of us would identify very closely with Mr and Mrs Large as they try to get some kind of peace and quiet just for five minutes. We live in a world where five minutes peace seems impossible. ….where noise is everywhere. …. Where sometimes the radio is way too loud for me and it is the radio in the car behind me.
I looked at Roget’s Thesaurus -Silence = stillness, quiet, peace, calm, rest
still, ad. 1. remaining in place or at rest; motionless; stationary; to stand still. 2. free from sound or noise, as a place, persons, etc.: silent: to keep still about a matter 3. subdued or low in sound; hushed: a still small voice 4. free from turbulence or commotion; peaceful; tranquil; calm; the still air.
Well if this is discipline – count me in!
But why are stillness, silence and solitude important for the Christian.
The example of Elijah
Lets look at the example of Elijah from our first reading. You might like to look up 1 Kings 19: to refresh your memories. Just to put this into context, Elijah was alive around 850 BC. David had been king about 120 years before, followed by Solomon. You may not recall that Solomon, although he was remembered as a wise King and a generally good guy, went downhill towards the end of his life. The result of that was that after Solomon’s death the kingdom was divided and there were two parallel kingdoms of Judah and Israel. The King’s who followed Solomon weren’t a lot better and by the time we get to Elijah’s appearance on the scene the King of Israel was Ahab. 1 Kgs 16: 30. We read that Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all that were before him. Worse than that he took for a wife Jezebel she was a foreigner and then worshipped Baal who was a pagan god and erected altars for Baal in various places.
Jezebel sought to suppress worship of the Hebrew God Jehovah and was ruthless in her use of her royal power to achieve her ends. How just before the passage of we had read to us Elijah had provoked a major confrontation with Jezebel and Ahab and all the religious leaders of the pagan cult. The power of God was unmistakably demonstrated and the religious leaders of the cult of bail had been killed. Our reading picks up the story at this point when as a result Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying that she would kill him.
Elijah was naturally afraid and ran for his life. Ultimately he came to a cave.
Time for ourselves v4
Just think of his situation. He was drained, he was scared and alone, he was under pressure and isolated. He needed to get away from it all. Elijah needed that cave. He needed time on his own. He needed time for himself. You can get a sense of how desperate Elijah was feeling in v4. He just wanted to curl up and die. Elijah needed time for himself. Elijah needed silence solitude and time to recover. And so do we. There is absolutely nothing wrong in setting aside time for yourself. Mrs Large was absolutely right. She needed five minutes’ peace. We need time for ourselves. We need time to recover our breath. We need time to rest time to be silent time to be alone. For unless we do, will find ourselves like Elijah. We will find ourselves exhausted. We will find ourselves not making rational decisions. We will find ourselves on the third during the middle of depression. So we need silence and solitude just for ourselves.
Time for our relationship with God v 4, 10
Now with the benefit of hindsight, which always gives 2020 vision, we can look at Elijah’s situation and wonder why he felt so bad. He’d seen the Lord at work in a miraculous way. And yet he wanted to die. My suspicion is that in all the busy-ness that Elijah had experienced, his time alone with God had been put under pressure. His personal circumstances had conspired to spoil his relationship with God. So as Elijah came to the cave, not only did he need time for himself, but he needed time for his relationship with God. He need time to be on his own with God. He needed time for his relationship with God. And we know from our own experience than our relationships suffer when we don’t spent time with those we love. We know, in very simple terms, that we misunderstand each other when we don’t spend time together. But our lives are so full of distractions and interruptions and compromises that frequently we don’t give time to our relationships. And frequently we don’t give time for our relationship with God. So just like Elijah we need to make time for our relationship with God. We need to make time to sit in God’s presence quietly, undistracted, in peace.
Time to really listen and hear v 9,13
For it was only when Elijah was in the cave that he began to really hear what God was saying. Time to really listen and hear. I think part of Elijah’s desperate situation was the apparent silence of God. Elijah was questioning whether or not God was truly in control. Elijah felt like God was silent, and so God sends a powerful wind, then an earthquake, then a fire. But God was not in any of those, and then a gentle whisper and Elijah could sense God’s presence in that gentle whisper.
God speaks in ways and in words we least expect. Elijah would have expected God to speak in a powerful wind like he would do at Pentecost, Elijah would expect God to speak in an earthquake like he did for Moses and the Israelites, Elijah would expect God to speak in a fire like he did on top of Mt Carmel and in the Burning Bush. But Elijah didn’t expect God to speak with a gentle whisper. ). We are so accustomed to the spectacular, and we love it when God moves in that way.
But the presence and voice of God are more often experienced in a gentle whisper — the still, small voice — and you will not hear it unless you are in a quiet place by yourself. We need time to really listen and hear and we will not unless we are practising the discipline of silence and solitude.
Time to get Gods perspective v 15,18
When we have a that time of silence and solitude to really listen and here God’s voice, we find that he says things to us that we perhaps had not expected.
As Elijah entered that cave in silence and solitude with God, he found that God was saying things that he had not expected. When things are going badly, and we are under pressure, we very often the focus in on ourselves. And this is certainly what Elijah had done. He had focused in on himself. His view had become limited. But as he began to spend time with God in silence and alone, he began to really listen and hear and to get God’s perspective on the situation. You see, Elijah was feeling that although he had done all these things for God, and achieved a great success in the contest on Mount Carmel, yet he had achieved nothing. In verse 10, Elijah’s perspective was that only he was left. In Elijah’s view it was a failure. But God’s perspective is the right perspective. God’s vision is the right vision. And with God’s view of the situation Elijah could move on. God tells Elijah what his plans are. We see in vv15-18 that Elijah is to anoint Kings that God has chosen. He is to anoint a new prophet to continue speaking God’s word into the situation. He is told that God has appointed people to do his work. And even though Elijah felt alone and isolated, God tells him that even in this difficult situation there are 7000 people who still love him and worship him.
At the annual meeting on Monday evening, Mark talked about the vision that we have had for God’s work in this place. And he talked about how we need to renew that vision so that we can move on into new opportunities that God has in his plan for us. But the lesson of Elijah is that if we rely on our own vision, the situation may appear hopeless. If we rely our own vision we fail to see God’s perspective. We need God’s vision, not mine, not yours, not even Marks. So as we continue to seek God’s vision for this church we need to learn from Elijah’s example. We need to take time to be with God. We need to have time to really hear and listen. If we really want God’s vision for this place or for ourselves in our own personal situations, then the discipline of silence and solitude and time with God is not an optional extra.
And as we seek God’s vision, we also see our place within it. God said to Elijah ‘what are you doing here?’ And the question needs to be asked of us, ‘what are we doing here?’ But the answer to that is to be found again in our times of silence and relationship with God. It is to be found when we listen to that still small voice. For God spoke to Elijah and told him his place and his part within God’s vision. God told Elijah to go and do and to play his part.
So as we have looked at the example of Elijah, we can see the benefits that this discipline of silence and solitude can bring, not only for ourselves, but for the church family. But of course, the head knowledge is no good until it is put into action.
Prioritise
Now the first thing that you are all going to say to me is that we simply do not have the time. I will refrain from an earthy response! Whilst it is true that many of us live very busy lives, it is ultimately about the priorities we built into our lives. It was quite a culture shock for me when I moved to Lancashire to find out just how much football was a part of so many people’s lives. They would move heaven and earth to get to the match. We need to be prepared to move heaven and earth in order to spend time with God. I can’t tell you how to do that, but I can encourage you to examine your priorities. Our time alone with God needs to be prioritised.
Plan
I don’t know about you but I find that many things in life don’t happen unless they are planned. If we want to practise the disciplines that we have talked about, then we need to plan. We need to plan not only the time, but also the place. It maybe that the quietest place in your house is in the bath, like Mrs Large. Plan yourself a regular Bath!
Push out distractions
One of the things we find as Christians in our relationship with God is that we are frequently telling him what to do. As we come to God in this way, in silence, alone, to hear and receive from him, we need to push out things that distract. We need to push out our own agenda. Somebody once describe the discipline of silence and solitude as like a bird watching. You need to sit still and wait for the bird to come. As we practise silence, we need to be still, waiting for God to move, waiting for God to speak.
Push on through difficulties
Finally, we do need to push on through difficulties that may come our way. We can find all sorts of justifications for been distracted. You can be certain that the devil would much prefer us not to spend time with God. We need to push on through the difficulties that come along.
be Practical
There is nothing worse than a preacher standing 6 ft above contradiction with wonderful ideas are not going to work it in the real world. It’s important to be practical about this. We need to be practical about what we can achieve in terms of the time we give to the spiritual disciplines, and we also need to be practical about what we can cope with. Silence takes some getting used to, so don’t expect to be able to become a hermit locked away in a cave without any practice! Five or 10 minutes maybe all that is required to begin with. The important thing is to try.
Because what this is about is not collecting Pharisee points as we notch up yet another spiritual hardship on the spines of our Bibles. Rather, it’s about looking at ways in which we can improve and deepen our relationship with God.
And ultimately, as Elijah found, times of silence and solitude alone with God really work.
Time of silence alone with God:
· deepens our relationship with him
· restores us in our life for Him
· focuses us in our work for Him
· All it needs ………
Is Five Minutes Peace.
Give it a try!
