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church : rectors letter : november 2002 Reproduced from Glenside News : November2002 "Dear Friends The Remembrance Sunday Service will, ..., be at Careby this year, it is a service I both love and hate. My dislike stems, I suppose, from all my years in the Armed Forces, and brings back memories of people I knew who are no longer with us. Like most human beings I prefer happy memories. But at the same time I value it, it reminds me how fortunate I am and how indebted we are to others. I think it is the silence I find most moving, it always reminds me of some words from the Psalms where the writer speaking on God's behalf declares, " Be still and know that I am God". It is not easy being quiet in this modern world, most people complain that there are not enought hours in the day, it's almost as if busyness is next to Godliness in our modern society. Have you noticed that even when we have a spare minute we start looking for something to fill it, I sometimes think we must be mad! So instead of grasping the opportunity by sitting down and just 'being' for a moment, we instantly start planning next years holiday, deciding if we can justify the new car, or perhaps calculating if the pension will stretch to a new lawn mower this year. And then, when we finally exhaust such topics, we switch on the television. This usually only has one effect, it totally numbs the brain. Modern man would seem to be afraid of the silence. but what is the point of all this endless activity? Is it really a means of enhancing our lives or is it a way of avaoiding the eternal question, i.e. what is life all about? According to the Bible all that we have and are comes from God and in countless places it encourages us to find time to listen for his voice, for he speaks to us in so many different ways. but we cannot do that whilst we are in the midst of frantic activity, even when, as I'm sure is often the case, such activity is composed of 'good works'. We can only do it if we're prepared to listen and that means being still, for stillness can be a very profound activity which requires a deal of effort and even planning. Stillness and listening are important elements in Christian Tradition, they are part of what we know as prayer. Thus priest's, before their ordination, spend a week on what we call retreat, most of it in silence , trying to ascertain what God's will might be for them. Jesus did the same thing in the wilderness before embarking on his ministry two thousand years ago. But this is not the common concept of prayer, is it? All too often our approach to the Almighty is far more agressive, we tend to treat him as a sort of heavenly butler who is there to serve or wants and needs. So we have a crisis in our family or a problem that seems too great for us to bear, and so perhaps we pray. We give God our shopping list, tell him how to solve our problems and expect, or perhaps hope would be a better word, he will get on with it. And then of course, as ususally is the case, nothing happens, we say God is a sham and we give up on religion. And I'm as guilty as everyone else, I can stand alongside all those people who say God doesn't answer prayer, I've been there, got the t-shirt! But then, thankfully, I've always managed to come back to reality, or my training has reasserted itself if you like, because I know deep down this isn't what has happened. For God hasn't given my answers, that's the reality, and I havn't looked or listened for his. "Be still and know that I am God" was how I began and I end with it. it is in the stillness that we can listen for God and perhaps come to see that he does answer our prayers more often than we know, not least by being with us in those times of need. It is also in the stillness that we can perhaps perceive something of the wonder of his love and healing power, for he is not a God who demands attention, he too waits in the silence, for us." The Rev Bryan Bennett Castle Bytham Rectory |
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