- Monk takes vow of silence. Goes to mountaintop mountain top. Can only say two words a year. After third year, says he is ready to reenter the world. Abbot says, “It’s about time. You’ve done nothing but complain in the last three years.”
- Talk about silence. There is a subtle but constant current in the Bible that calls us to silence if we are ever to find God. Because in silence we discover awareness – watch Jesus called “watchfulness” – and in awareness we can develop a strength, endurance, rest and peace within – even in the middle of the greatest storms of life. We find that rest in the awareness of Christ within we can become an unshakeable mountain. Psalm 125:1, “Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.”
- God desires to make us a new thing. That new thing is the unshakeable mountain, unshaken and no longer fearful or upset by the world, so that me find do the one thing that is necessary – and that is to live adoring God, being constantly aware of his presence. So that his thoughts, which are not our thoughts, come pouring into our mind, feed our soul and manifest into our words and deeds, our moods, our temperament, our character. And so we become ambassadors of Christ.
- My experience with silence.
- My introduction with silence came about in my 7th great history class of all places. We were study Europe in the 1600s, and on one page there was this short, almost dismissive, paragraph about a people called the Religious Society of Friends, the Quakers. The little paragraph said that Quakers believed the way to encounter Christ was through silence. This was something new to me. I didn’t do much with it, but I put it in my spiritual toolbox, so to speak, and went on.
- In high school, I moved to Kentucky and lived way out in the country in a beautiful setting of hills, valleys, creeks, woods and meadows. This was before electronics and cable TV, so I had a lot of time on my hands and made a lot hiking treks around the farm. I discovered the value of spending time alone in my thoughts in the rugged beauty of Nature. I had not intended to find God there. I was just a bored teenager passing the time. But God was there in the creeks, the trees, the wind, the majesty of an old tobacco barn, the memory of my ancestors who roamed those same hills.
- When I answered the call to pastoral ministry in 1998 as a Methodist, it was not surprise to me – even if it was to my D.S. – that I wanted to attend a Quaker seminary. I enrolled at Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, and, while on campus, learned to sit in silence with Christian brothers and sisters, and was taught what to do while sitting in silence in order to grow in awareness of the Christ Within.
- About five years ago, wanting to deepen my understanding and experience of silence I took three courses with Father Joe Miller at the Earth and Spirit Center next to St. Agnes Catholic Church in Louisville.
- So I have been working at figuring out this biblical call to silence for sometime now. Though not always faithfully and consistently, I have been practicing being silent with God for a few decades no w. And I will say, it is a life-changing practice. Silence is not just sitting for a time alone in contemplative prayers, though it is that. It is developing and awareness of the presence of God during all of our waking hours. Learning to surrender to the presence of God and allow his thoughts, which are not our thoughts, to have sway over the direction of our lives.
- This morning I want us to look at the story of Jesus’ visit to the home of Lazarus, where Martha is busy serving, Judas is busy scheming and Mary is adoring the Christ to offer a few thoughts about the importance of developing a practice of silence, so that you might enter into awareness of the Christ Within, so that Christ’s thoughts will constantly feed your soul, which will then manifest into a life of adoration and gratitude to God, which then manifests as a beautiful, soul-level life in which you become and unshakeable mountain, like Mt. Zion, that endures forever.
- John in our Gospel reading this morning intends for us to encounter and consider the thoughts of three people today: Judas, Martha and Mary.
- Judas: His thoughts are evil, selfish. We’re told in Luke’s Gospel that Satan (evil personified) entered into Judas. There is a barrage of thoughts that desire to have control of our minds. Satan – evil thoughts of complete selfishness and greed – can enter into us, if we are not guarding our hearts. That is why Proverbs 4:23 says above all to guard your hearts. Judas failed to guard his heart and Satan got a foothold. That is always the danger, the threat to us. Developing an awareness of the presence of Christ within and learning to listen and respond to his voice, is how we guard our hearts.
- Martha: God bless, Martha. And I mean that. We encounter Mary and Martha in another important Gospel story about awareness in Luke, Chapter 10, in which Jesus is present for a visit. Martha is scurrying around the house, getting the meal ready, making sure everything is in its place, that everything is just right. And she notices that Mary is not helping at all. She is just sitting at the feet of Jesus adoring him. Martha complains to Jesus and tells Martha that Mary is actually the one who is doing the one thing necessary the unum necessarium – to always remain in awareness of the presence of Christ in our midst. Now, we need a Martha side to us. There is much to do and we must do it. But the weakness of Marthas is that they always run the risk of getting so task-focused that they forget to practice the presence of God. They can also becoming works-oriented and Pharisaical about their good works. So, if you tend to be a Martha, God bless you. The world needs Marthas, but no your temptation and guard your heart, and don’t forget to sit at the feet of Jesus.
- Mary: Finally, there is Mary. We always find Mary focused on Jesus. In the Luke story, she is at the feet of Jesus, listening and learning. In John’s Gospel story this morning, Mary takes an expensive jar of nard (which cost a year’s wages), breaks it open and pours it on Jesus’ feet. Judas is outraged. Martha is probably too busy to notice. But Mary is practicing the presence of God. She wants every moment of her life to be focused on the thought of Jesus.
- What is happening here?
- We are being taught the importance of awareness. Without it, we are like a ship without and anchor. When life’s challenges, people’s ugly words, or our own constant barrage of negative and defeatist thoughts pour into our minds, if we are not aware of what is happening, we will sink. But, those who trust in God, the psalmist says, are like Mt. Zion, an unshakeable mountain.
- Until you enter into silence and realize that your life is just so much a constant barrage and entertaining of crazy, disjointed thoughts and desires pushing you unaware into all kinds of decisions and actions you are not even conscious of, you will be groping in darkness. You will be guided by a mind that is feeding your soul with nonsensical, unorganized, unholy garbage and it will reflect in your life.
- But begin to silence those thoughts, be able to watch them and realize that those thoughts and feelings that you have been entertaining are a fabrication, and that you can actually get your thoughts and feelings under control through the power of the Christ Within and – Wow! – watch your life change. Watch Christ get a hold of your life and turn you into a new thing. You become a person who knows peace, who has a holy power within, who finds joy in the day, who is unshakeable, and who then is equipped and empowered to be a difference-maker in the world. But more than anything your soul, being fed with the mind of Christ, endures forever.
Making a New Thing
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AuthorKen Corder
AuthorKen Corder 
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