Prayer and Silence

PRAYER AND SILENCE

In this sermon I want to look at prayer in terms of silence.

One of my tests of a good friend is whether or not I could go on a walking holiday with them.

This may sound a rather strange test of friendship so let me explain.

Obviously, he or she would need to be a person who enjoys walking coastal footpaths as much as I do - that goes without saying.

Obviously, he or she would need to be a person I enjoy talking to as we walk and therefore a person who has some shared interests.

And obviously, he or she would need to be a person who I find interesting to listen to. A person who challenges me to rethink; a person who is informative and a person who understands me.

But far more important than a person I can talk to or person I can listen to, he or she would need to be a person whose company I enjoy for its own sake. For you see, if you are doing a walk of, say, three or four miles, there will be moments when conversation dries up, moments when one is quite happy and contented just to be with the other person without any need of interaction. Moments of stillness and quiet in each other’s presence.

It is the same in marriage. One doesn't have to be talking all the time, and neither does one have to be listening all the time. There are times when one is quite content to just sit with one’s spouse and be still and silent. It does not mean that one is bored or fed up. It does not mean that one is exhausted. And it does not mean that one no longer loves one’s spouse. Nor does it mean that one is sulking. For instance, when my late wife was diagnosed as being terminally ill, we spent a lot of time in the early weeks and months talking through the situation, planning for the future, and recalling the happy times we had had together over the years as well as the sad.

But there came a time when we had actually said all we wanted and needed to say to each other and during the final five weeks, we just sat and waited, holding each other’s hands. During that time our love for each other grew stronger and stronger though we felt no need to express it in words.

The silence of those last weeks and days were moments of communication at the deepest level of our personalities. We just knew of each other’s love. I did not need to say it in words and Mary did not need to hear them. We just knew, and we were both happy and contented even though we knew Mary’s end was drawing near upon this earth.

And even now when I look back, I cannot recall anything I wish I might have said to Mary or heard her say to me. It was just enough to be in the presence of each other.

Similarly, there comes a time in our prayer life when words fail and we are content just to rest silently in the presence of our heavenly Father.

So often we feel we must sit and kneel down and talk and talk and talk like an excited child. Occasionally, we may allow ourselves to hear his voice speaking to us through our imagination, our dreams and through the words of friends and the bible.

We feel that prayer time is not valid unless it is full of activity. We feel that prayer time is a waste of time unless we are filling every minute of it. We feel that there is something dreadfully wrong with our relationship with God if words fail us.

And yet we find it quite natural to sit on top of a hill with a friend, and drink in the beauty of the scenery below without having to point out all the features of the landscape. In the silence of contemplation one’s friendship is deepened.

I found it quite natural to sit by the bedside of Mary and hold her hand without having to talk about the life of the parish, our home or even our life together. In the silence of contemplation our love for each other was deepened.

And so it is in our prayer life. There comes a time in life when words not only fail to fall from our lips, but actually become redundant and unnecessary. We are content just to sit and be still and, in the silence of our contemplation, our love for God is deepened.

"Be still and know that I am God"

Be still in wonder and adoration and allow yourselves to be drawn closer to the one who calls you to follow him in good times as well as in bad.

Be still in wonder and adoration and allow him to lift your heart and mine from the shell of this present moment into the realm of his eternal splendour.

Be still in wonder and adoration and allow yourself to discover that inner peace and contentment which can transform your life as you expose yourself to the one who loves you so much that he was prepared to die for you.

Today in the business and hyperactivity of life, there is an urgent need for all Christians to rediscover the prayer of silence - the prayer of contemplation – if we are not to go completely bonkers with the many competing claims upon our attention.