Be Still
May 5, 2019
Today's message can be found below.
There will be a live audio Reflection & Prayer Service with community chatroom conversation in connection with this Multimedia Service this Sunday evening at 9 pm ET. Catch it towards the end of this Multimedia Service or on our Worship page. Video of the broadcast is posted there later.
|
|
OPENING SONGS
Try to dance, move, sing, hum or play along with this music – or enjoy a meditative listen with deep, mindful breaths
Pentatonix
The Sound of Silence
Opening READINGS
From Biblical & Hebrew Scripture
Isaiah 30:8-17 New International Version (NIV)
Go now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness.
For these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction.
For these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction.
They say to the seers, “See no more visions!” and to the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right!
Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.
Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!”
Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:
“Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant.
It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern.”
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.
You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’
Therefore you will flee!
You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’
Therefore you will flee!
You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’
Therefore your pursuers will be swift!
A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.”
Luke 21:5-19 New International Version (NIV)
Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.”
“Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?”
He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”
Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
“But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. And so you will bear testimony to me. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. Stand firm, and you will win life.
From Swedenborg's Theological Writings
Click here for free ebooks of Emanuel Swedenborg's Theological Writings
Click here for free ebooks of Emanuel Swedenborg's Theological Writings
Secrets of Heaven 7298
[N]o one should be instantly persuaded that something is true—that is, the truth should not be instantly confirmed so that there is no doubt left. The reason is that truth inculcated in this way is a veneer of truth—it has no stretch and no give. In the other life, this kind of truth is portrayed as hard, impervious to the good that would make it adaptable.
This is why, as soon as something true is presented to good spirits in the other life by open experience, something opposite is presented soon thereafter, which creates a doubt. So they are enabled to think and ponder whether it is true, and to gather reasons and thereby lead the truth into their minds rationally. This gives their spiritual sight an outreach in regard to this matter, even to the opposite.
Be Still
By rev. Dr. George Dole
Be still, and know that I am God.
Psalm 46:10
The lead article in the New Year’s day issue of the New York Times “Sunday Review” was entitled, “The Joy of Quiet,” and it offered a good deal of interesting information. For example, one report is that the future of travel is currently said to lie in “black hole resorts”—resorts where you cannot get on line in your room. Intel, of all companies, has experimented with mandating four uninterrupted hours of quiet once a week—no phone, no email, just time for employees to “clear their heads and think.” There are “internet rescue camps” in China and Korea in an effort to save kids who are addicted to their computers—most web pages are visited for ten seconds or less. For many video games, “attention deficit” is a major asset.
The article goes on to connect this with the growing popularity of such practices as meditation, tai chi, and yoga; and surely it is ironic that this growth is coming at a time when church membership and attendance is continuing to decline. The current issue of Christian Century speaks of efforts by Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, UCC, and Methodist churches to deal with the problem, noting that there has been a steady drop in membership in the United Methodist church for the past fifty years, and there has been a significant downsizing in the Catholic church as well.
Many efforts to deal with this seem to focus largely on reorganization; but the coincidence with the spontaneous growth in meditative practices suggests that there is a widespread and deeply felt need that churches are, by and large, not meeting. “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15). The image of the worship service with a rousing sermon as its centerpiece is not what people are looking for. I cannot help but suspect that the unspoken impression of the non-churchgoer (and of many a former churchgoer) is that the sermon will be telling them what to think, when the deeper, unspoken but felt need is to discover how to think and to be given support in the practice of thinking.
Potentially, at least, our own church is ahead of the curve in this respect, and this for a number of reasons. First of all, our theology challenges us to think, and to think deeply and seriously. Our third reading warns us against snap judgments and tells us quite clearly that the Lord wants us to consider the other side, the opposite, until things come together. More than that, though, there is in the theological works a wealth of description of how the human mind works. This includes how it is designed to work, how it develops over a lifetime, and how its workings can break down. It goes into impressive detail about the interaction between reason and experience, between subjectivity and objectivity, between how we feel and how we perceive.
Our theology sets all this in the context of our relationships with each other, and holds before us the goal of a human community in which peace is not just the absence of conflict but the positive presence of shared affection and understanding. Given half a chance, it awakens us to the fact that we are spiritual beings right here and now and that the spiritual world, the inner world, is not some ethereal realm where we escape from reality but the realm where we come to grips with reality, with the underlying causes of our joys and our sorrows.
Second, we have a tradition that takes eternity seriously. Our churches have always been suspicious of quick fixes, always trying to take the long view. Some years ago, one of our ministers told of having received a call asking him to conduct a funeral for someone he had never heard of. It turned out to be a woman who had belonged to his church well before he had come to it; and his initial reaction was, “Where has she been all this time?” His second thought, though, was “No, it is a good thing that the church is still here for her when she needs it.”
Third, we have both a time and a place for thought. As for time, there is a profound wisdom to the biblical provision of weekly Sabbaths. I’d like to have heard the discussions that led to Intel’s decision to make their quiet time a four-hour weekly event rather than a shorter daily one or a longer monthly one. Granted that Sabbath blue laws have largely gone by the books, still “Sunday morning” calls “church” to mind. This is a rhythm that seems organically appropriate.
One of the hallowed monastic meditative practices is called Lectio Divina, literally, “divine reading.” It is a discipline of very slow, reflective reading of Scripture, and I mention it because the first step, according to one manual, is to “arrange a place so it is restful, warm, and non-distracting. This may involve the lighting of candles, the burning of incense, the shutting of doors and drawing of curtains -- whatever makes one feel calm and at peace.” It is not necessarily a bad thing to have a [place] set aside as “special” and associated in our minds and hearts with freedom from busy-ness, freedom from distraction.
Fourth, there’s always next week. This isn’t an exam where we have to hand in our final answers at eleven thirty. We can take some thoughts home with us if we like, and rework them. We have a theology that tells us over and over again that we are in process, and that assumes that the Lord gives us a lifetime here on earth because a lifetime is what we need. In that sense, we have a theology of “loose ends.” “Wait,” says the Psalmist—“Wait on the Lord” (Psalm 27:14).
Fifth, and finally, we have the blessed assurance that the Lord is with us and for us. We exist because the Lord’s life is constantly flowing into us, and we are who we are also because that same life is flowing into us through our surroundings, and especially through our relationships with each other. For all our sense of separateness, we are in fact members of a whole, like cells in a human body. We make no sense apart from that whole. We could not survive for a moment if we were separated from it.
One of the most extraordinary statements in the theological works is the statement in Divine Providence (§192) that “By his divine providence the Lord gathers the affections of the whole human race into a single form, which is a human form.” Each of us is not only a member of the human race but an essential member, with a particular place where we are needed and where our own needs are met. Each of us is unique, special; and the only way to realize that specialness is to find our place in the whole. That whole is on our side. To answer Einstein’s “most important question,” the universe is indeed a friendly place.
In a sense, then, the primary subject for our reflection can be quite simply summed up in two questions. First, “What do I really love doing?” That tells me who I am. Second, “What is that good for?” That tells me where I belong. As we give serious attention to these questions, we find them generating other questions, and we find also and especially that they call us to a daunting degree of honesty. We may love doing things that we feel we should not love, for one thing, and we may not really love doing some of the things that we feel we should and therefore pretend to.
We need the assurance that the truth is on our side. If, for example, we find ourselves recognizing that we love doing something that we believe is wrong, the Lord assures us that if we could see more deeply, we would find that there is a very legitimate underlying need, and that we are meeting it in the only way we can see, which is a wrong way. We do need safety and security. We do not need to kill all our enemies. In fact, the wrong ways we choose will never meet the real needs. Promiscuous sex will not meet our genuine, profound need for intimacy. Winning arguments will not meet our deep need for mutual understanding and agreement.
So ours is not a religion that offers quick fixes, not at all. Of course there are occasions when prompt action is called for, but “prompt action” is not always the answer. Thoreau remarked that “the man whose horse trots a mile in a minute is not carrying the most important messages”; and the breadth of a broadband connection has no necessary relation to the truth or the relevance of what it conveys. In fact, what is really most important, what matters forever, is what lies under the surface and rarely shows itself. The more we are distracted by a constant barrage of information, the shallower our comprehension of any bit of it. It is like skipping a stone across the surface of the water.
Isaiah said it very forcefully. “In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15); and he adds a warning: “But you said, ‘No! for we shall flee on our horses.’ Therefore you shall flee . . . and those who pursue you will be swift” (Isaiah 30:16). So get off the treadmill once in a while. “Be still,--and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). AMEN
CLOSING SONGS
My Heart's In the Highlands
Kokoro Duo
Some of our past videos: