A month of silence (mostly)

For the next month, I'll be attempting a special Sabbath of sacred silence.  A total vow of silence will not be possible, mostly because I will be in numerous situations that require basic communication: Bible studies, volunteer situations, and more notably, I'll be preaching.  However, since this is probably my last chance to even come close to a life of intentional silence for a while, since it seems that employment is looming near, I will take the month of August as a special time of reflection.

The purpose is simple: I want to be open to seeing the in-breaking of the kingdom of God in this place in a way I have not seen in months.  Marcus Borg describes sacred silence in his book, The God We Never Knew, as this: "Silence may be understood as the appropriate response to the presence of the sacred, or as waiting and listening for the Spirit, or as the experience of the communion with the Spirit.  By stopping the flow of words and sounds, silence invites us into a wordless world.  It also conveys the sense that something is present that is worth attending to" (119). 

I also have a long history of taking intentional time for silence in my life, a fitting reversal of the many hours of practice and non-stop sound that punctuate and frame my life as a musician.  Now as a preacher, I find my many and endless-flowing monologues and dialogues to be as empty sometimes as the many scales and etudes and concertos that once took up my time.  Perhaps I've simply talked myself into a corner, into a place of dimness that desperately seeks vision.  I know my tendency to criticize- I know what it looks like to see the powerful put unending burden on the poor, to turn away from the suffering of the poor, the ignore the deaths of the poor.  I criticize because I hear so few other voices speak on behalf of the poor, who are now officially called "the entitled" in this country by our wealthy politicians.  Because my heart can hardly break any further, I commit the next month, and indeed the rest of my life, to finding those places of the in-breaking of the kingdom, those people, who cry out with prophetic voice- those people whom God has ordained to speak truth to power. 

My hopes:
-to find a new spirit, a new heart of compassion for all God's children
-to find the humanity in all people
-to remember how to listen deeply
-to find the Sacred in the ordinary
-to meditate in silent prayer
-to cultivate a sacred imagination
-to see the kingdom of God
-to relearn how to speak
-to learn the art of quiet and embodied subversion against the powers that separate us from God

Marcus Borg, in the same chapter, also discusses compassion in a way I've never really considered: "Compassion is not just a means of spiritual transformation but an end in itself.  It is the central ethical value of the Jesus tradition, as well as the central quality of God" (126).  Therefore, compassion- as informed by the triune God- is the central goal of this month, and indeed my whole life. 

While I will still preach and volunteer and mildly participate in groups, as I have agreed to do, I will otherwise remain silent in this time.  My only writing and online presence will include reflections about this sacred silence.  My hope is that by September, I will see God (everywhere around us) and live.