Faith Matters | In an unsettled world, we are sometimes called to remain silent
Recently, two people I follow both posted similar sentiments in response to the ongoing conflict and disorder in our society. They both touched me as cries of the Spirit that many must feel right now.
Mark Nepo is a bestselling author, teacher, and poet, who speaks and writes on spirituality and self-discovery. He wrote:
Today, I am afraid that the noise of hate is drowning out the resilience of love. I fear that we are tripping into a dark age. And yet, it remains unclear which way we are heading. Still, it is incumbent on us to help each other keep the literacy of the heart alive. Like waves at sea, we all dip down and crest up. May we help each other rise.
Steven Charleston is a Native American elder, author, former theology professor and retired Episcopal bishop. On the same day as Nepo’s post, he wrote:
I am praying for silence. I am praying for a great silence to descend on every city that is in conflict, on every community that is suffering, on every street still littered with broken glass. Like snow falling from heaven I pray for a silence to still the voices of those who would incite violence, to muffle their messages of manipulation, to turn their shouts to whispers, until the only thing left is no sound at all other than the sound of our heart beating: the common sound we call life. I am praying that in this holy silence, free from the voice of hate, we might finally see one another clearly, see who we are, see what we have done and are still doing, see into the eyes of those we have been told are different. No more speeches today. No more fear or anger. Only silence. The silence of any human spirit when it first sees the truth.
We have all experienced it, sitting in a restaurant or bar. We’re having a conversation but as the room fills up, we have to talk louder and louder to be heard. The problem is that everyone else is doing the same. In a sense, that is what is happening in our society: more and louder noise but little actual hearing or listening.
All of us want to be heard. And there are many voices in our country that need to be heard. Our partisan political process, however, seems geared more to drowning voices out. The posturing, sloganeering, and name-calling may rally political bases, but they do nothing to address the critical issues and problems we face, many of which have been festering for decades.
I keep being drawn to these words of Paul in Romans:
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For those of us who call ourselves Christians, what difference does it make that we identify as followers of Jesus? What role do we play? Here Paul says that we are called to think differently than others do, to see the world differently than popular culture does. When everyone is shouting and yelling and pointing, we need to be different.
A crowd attracts yet more people; noise generates more noise. And at times that may be natural and right. But there are also times we are called to step back and even be silent. “I am afraid that the noise of hate is drowning out the resilience of love,” Nepo warns. And in response, Charleston calls for “holy silence, free from the voice of hate, (so that) we might finally see one another clearly.”
It can feel good to join the crowd: to put on our MAGA hat or BLM shirt and post and shout and point and argue and push and shove. It can be such a rush for our ego. “I’m going to stand up! I’ll show them!” Yet the hungry remain unfed, the unemployed still have no work, the sick and addicted still lack treatment, the homeless are unhoused, and innocent people across the globe continue to be bombed and maimed and killed.
Labor negotiators sometimes invoke a “cooling off period” and peace negotiators may arrange a cease fire. Today we need a time of silence so that we hear only, as Charleston says, “the sound of our heart beating: the common sound we call life.” There are great forces working to alienate and divide us. In silence we can hear each other’s heartbeat, each other’s breath, and then recognize again what truly binds us together.
For followers of Christ, such silence is not passivity or resignation but the necessary condition to hear the voice within which tells us who we are and whose we are. It allows us to hear again that we are all called to “love our neighbor” and even “love our enemies.”
In this silence we can be emboldened, not to put on a hat or shirt, but in Paul’s words, “to put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” not for a charge to our ego but to live in the love that fills us, and every person, and all creation. And then in that love, we can join together, as Nepo says, and “help each other rise.”
Faith Matters is written by members of the Bradenton clerical community. Doug Kings is pastor of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Holmes Beach.