Be Still and know that I am God
Today's lessons contain one of my favourite passages. Elijah is on the run for his life and has spent the night in hiding in a cave after fasting for forty days and forty nights having come to Mount Horeb. He is commanded to go stand on the mountain before the Lord. As he stands there the Lord passes by with an earth-shattering display of power. First a wind so strong it shatters rocks, then an earthquake, and finally a fire, (volcano?). But the Lord was in none of these. It would seem that Elijah had hid from this wrath in his cave as after when the tumult passes he is engulfed in a state of utter silence. Out of the silence Elijah catches the faintest whisper and emerges from the cave with his face wrapped in his cloak.
How many people do you know that are so uncomfortable within their own skins that they require a constant barrage of background noise be it a radio or other listening device or they feel anxious and disoriented? So many are nervous about encountering the sound of their own thoughts. How many young people are constantly online or in contact via one device or another always texting or listening to i-pods or other noise makers to the point that they can't attend a concert without feeling the overpowering need to tweet about it during the event. Too many have a panic attack when they get a low-battery warning.
Prayer is not a one-sided conversation but if we never turn off the world's cacophony we'll never get a chance to hear God's side of it. As in today's Gospel Jesus frequently felt the need to escape the crowds and even his own Disciples for times of solitude, prayer, and meditation. Meanwhile the Disciples are crossing the Sea in a boat and are beset by a sudden squall and in fear of their lives. Imagine their surprise when Jesus appears calmly walking across the water. Peter walks out on the water to join Jesus but he is distracted by the storm and starts sinking.
As our Epistle and Psalm make clear God is always attentive to the needs and prayers of his people but we cannot experience the peace that comes with his presence unless we tune out the worldly clatter and let him in. It is unimportant how we conceive of that Godly presence so long as we experience the sense of well-being that it brings and respond to it in acts of love toward our fellow creatures and the world in which we live for we too must be "a channel of his peace".
Psa 121:1 A Song of Ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
Psa 121:2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Psa 121:3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Psa 121:4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
Psa 121:5 The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
Psa 121:6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
Psa 121:7 The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
Psa 121:8 The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
It sounds so simple, but even Elijah failed in his faith to trust in this promise.
How many people do you know that are so uncomfortable within their own skins that they require a constant barrage of background noise be it a radio or other listening device or they feel anxious and disoriented? So many are nervous about encountering the sound of their own thoughts. How many young people are constantly online or in contact via one device or another always texting or listening to i-pods or other noise makers to the point that they can't attend a concert without feeling the overpowering need to tweet about it during the event. Too many have a panic attack when they get a low-battery warning.
Prayer is not a one-sided conversation but if we never turn off the world's cacophony we'll never get a chance to hear God's side of it. As in today's Gospel Jesus frequently felt the need to escape the crowds and even his own Disciples for times of solitude, prayer, and meditation. Meanwhile the Disciples are crossing the Sea in a boat and are beset by a sudden squall and in fear of their lives. Imagine their surprise when Jesus appears calmly walking across the water. Peter walks out on the water to join Jesus but he is distracted by the storm and starts sinking.
As our Epistle and Psalm make clear God is always attentive to the needs and prayers of his people but we cannot experience the peace that comes with his presence unless we tune out the worldly clatter and let him in. It is unimportant how we conceive of that Godly presence so long as we experience the sense of well-being that it brings and respond to it in acts of love toward our fellow creatures and the world in which we live for we too must be "a channel of his peace".
Psa 121:1 A Song of Ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
Psa 121:2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Psa 121:3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Psa 121:4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
Psa 121:5 The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
Psa 121:6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
Psa 121:7 The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
Psa 121:8 The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
It sounds so simple, but even Elijah failed in his faith to trust in this promise.
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