October 7, 2015

Blessed are the ears that hear the Divine whisper, and give no heed to the whisperings of the world.
Thomas a'Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book Three, Chapter 1

There's a lot that happens in silence.  We can say, “I love you” without saying a word.  We rest in the comfort of people we know and trust without having to speak.  We hear things we might normally not hear.  Elijah heard the voice of God not in the rumble of an earthquake or roar of the wind, but in the sound of sheer silence (1 Kings 19:11-12).  And Jiminy Cricket was the small voice of conscience for Pinocchio.

People often refer to the “still, small voice of God.”  The NRSV, which we use for worship services and  has become the default Bible of the Episcopal Church, does not use that term.  It translates those verses from 1 Kings as “sheer silence;” but, as with many things, some terms from the KJV have a lasting impression, and this is one of them.  The “sheer silence” of the NRSV is translation of the much more poetic “still, small voice” of the KJV.

But whether you prefer sheer silence or a still, small voice isn't really the point.  The point is that that one verse has made an impression on all of Judaism and Christianity to such an extent that we don't often talk about the booming voice of God reverberating through us, but rather the still, small voice of God that cut through the noise of the world and spoke to our heart.

It's important for us to take time and listen for the whisper.  This is why I have built periods of silence into the Sunday Eucharist, so that we can have an intentional time to hear what God might be saying to us through the readings and sermon.  It's why I have longer periods of silence in the Morning Prayer service – so that we can not only listen for what God might be saying, but because that might be the only time of silence we get during the cacophony of modern life.

When you pray, are you taking time to listen for the Divine whisper?  When you are going through your busy day, with traffic and sirens and radios and background noise of all kinds, are you able to hear
the Divine whisper?

Maybe that's why God speaks through the sheer silence in a still, small voice – because if God were to babble along as loudly as the rest of the world his voice would get lost as just so much background noise.  But a whisper can get our attention.  A whisper can make us say, “What was that?”  A whisper can make us listen more intently.

God is calling to us in a whisper.  Are we willing to make the effort and listen?

Amen.