Silent Voices

    
"The Story Teller" by Patrick Bradfield

I have always loved stories. Caught up into other people’s lives, circumstances and experience - speak powerfully to heart, mind and soul. The silent voices of people we read of in the Bible still speak across time, distance and culture.  We can find ourselves in their joys and sorrows, their triumphs and fears. And as the silent voice of God spoke to them, he still speaks through them - to us, today. 
    

     But the silence in the mind

     Is when we live the best,

     Within listening distance

     Of the silence we call God.

                               RS Thomas

Elijah on Mount Sinai   

“Where is God?” we may cry out as we reach breaking point. Where was God when Elijah had reached breaking point? – the faithful prophet, the man God chose to speak through - one of the few of his time. The man who ran away and wished for death, after his huge showdown with those who were pulling the people away from God.

1 Kings chapter19, verses 1-5

19 King Ahab told his wife Jezebel everything that Elijah had done

and how he had put all the prophets of Baal to death.

² She sent a message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me dead

if by this time tomorrow I don't do the same thing to you

that you did to the prophets.”

³ Elijah was afraid and fled for his life;

he took his servant and went to Beersheba in Judah.

Leaving the servant there, ⁴ Elijah walked a whole day into the wilderness.

He stopped and sat down in the shade of a tree and wished he would die.

“It's too much, Lord,” he prayed. “Take away my life; I might as well be dead!”

⁵ He lay down under the tree and fell asleep.

Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Wake up and eat.

⁶ He looked around and saw a loaf of bread and a jar of water near his head.

He ate and drank, and lay down again.

 ⁷ The Lord's angel returned and woke him up a second time, saying,

“Get up and eat, or the trip will be too much for you.”

⁸ Elijah got up, ate and drank,

and the food gave him enough strength to walk forty days to Sinai,

the holy mountain.

⁹ There he went into a cave to spend the night.

The Wilderness

Warmth,

bleeding into excruciating heat

Clotting into the slicing cold of the dark

Followed by incisive rays of the morning sun

Light then dark

Light

    then

       dark

I could exist only for this

Sandblasted of all thought

In the ecstasy of extremes

Empty of eyes that are always open

Silent of voices, sibilant, insisting

Free of fingers, fondling, forcing

Holding, hurting, directing, demanding,

Pulling in all directions

Let me lie on hard rock and sharp stones

Let me rest on dry grit, sand and dirt

Stripped clean by the caress of abrasive winds

Scoured by each grain’s sting

Until bleached bones are blown to powder

And scattered softly with the sand

Let me stay here

For you are here

And you

are all

“Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart

and shattered the rocks

but the Lord was not in the wind.

After the wind there was an earthquake,

but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake came a fire,

but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire

came a gentle whisper.

A question

gently whispered:

‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’

Not the end

But a new way forward

Not a death

But life ongoing

Catching my breath,

The breath of God

The journey continues.

Whispering God, found where we least expect you. Come to all who run to the silence and space of the wilderness. Feed us, give us rest. And when rested,whisper to us - your faith in us, your trust in us. Point out the way forward that we may walk on slower maybe,  but accompanied as always by the One who wants the best for us and for all. Amen.