& i remember every sound it made
Of all the sounds that most unnerve us, and there are plenty, perhaps the most unsettling sound of all is the absence of it. Silence makes us uncomfortable. I doubt I’m the only one who turns on the TV or radio when I’m alone. Even if I’m not really listening. It’s just nice to have a little noise in the background.
Yes, silence makes us uneasy. As it turns out, though, there is an even more disconcerting sound. Just ask Elijah…
Elijah burst on the scene as a guardian of the faith. At Mount Carmel, he faced down all the prophets of Baal. Unfortunately for him, though, he became a victim of his own success. While Elijah may have been God’s man, it was the prophets of Baal who had the sanctioning of the rich and powerful.
When word of Elijah’s exploits got to the king and queen, they made sure he knew, in no uncertain terms, that his days were numbered. Suddenly it wasn’t so great to be numero uno. In the end, all Elijah’s success did for him was leave him exposed. In the wind and on his own.
With no one to turn to, Elijah went on the run. He had to fend for himself. And he made to the furthermost reaches of the kingdom, too, before he saw his predicament for what it was. Alone in the wilderness, Elijah realized there was no endgame for him. Out of options, Elijah concluded that death was preferable to his plight.
Elijah laid down in a desolate landscape, a solitary tree as his only shelter. Elijah went to sleep, no doubt praying he wouldn’t wake up. God answered that prayer, though, by sending an angel to shake Elijah awake and make him eat. And when Elijah tried going back to sleep, God sent that angel all over again!
God wasn’t going to leave him alone, so Elijah got up and went to Horeb. Or Sinai, as we know it. The traditional place of God’s revelation. God, however, wasn’t impressed! Incensed, God demanded to know what Elijah was doing there of all places.
And that’s all it took for everything Elijah had been trying to bottle up to come bursting out! “I’ve been working so hard, O Lord,” Elijah groans. “And for what? The people don’t care! In fact, the harder I try, the more my reputation suffers!” In response, God just tells Elijah to get out of that cave he’s holed himself up in.
Elijah, though, digs in. And not even a cataclysmic tornado sheering off the edges of the mountain could get him out. Or an earthquake jolting the floors, ceiling, and walls of his hideaway. Or a fire that turned his fortress into a furnace. Elijah had had it. He was done. He wasn’t about to leave that cave.
Once those pyrotechnics faded away, though, a silence took their place. A silence unlike any Elijah had ever heard before. Elijah had fled to Horeb for a bit of peace and quiet. But this was different. Silence with a sound in it. A silence that settled over everything. Filled it even.
While a tornado, earthquake, and fire couldn’t get Elijah out of that cave, the sound at their empty center was more than enough to do it.
…The truth is, this is a difficult passage to translate. And why wouldn’t it be? It takes place at the edges of existence! For heaven’s sake, Elijah hears the very sound of sheer silence! Or a “still, small voice,” as it was translated in the King James. Whatever it was, though, it was something deep inside of silence. A sound utterly unlike anything Elijah had ever heard. And catching a hint of it changed the way Elijah heard everything else after that.
Now the question God put to him all over again sounded different. As so did that pat answer Elijah tried repeating. Now, even his own excuses weren’t compelling anymore. At last, Elijah picked up his stakes and went back to work.
There is a sound more unsettling than silence. The sound at the heart of it. A low thrumming in the center of silence.
Silence makes us uneasy because we’re afraid of its emptiness. As Elijah experienced, though, that fear is unfounded. There’s something even more disquieting. In the heart of silence is an enlivening hum.
…On the night he went to Golgotha, Jesus prayed in the garden. He asked God almighty that he might be spared from the events ahead. All he heard, though, was the sound of his closest earthly companions snoring away. Then, after that prayer went unanswered, he was hoisted up on the cross. And all he heard from there were the jeers from the crowd. And then, finally, when he made that terrible cry, “eloi eloi lama sabachthani,” all Jesus heard was a vast and final nothing. A deadening silence that stretched on forever. And into that nothing, Jesus commended his spirit, cried out, and breathed his last.
With that, a silence so complete it punctured heaven itself. Even the Bible is surprisingly quiet on the matter. There’s little word of that moment. Just vignettes of the disciples’ hushed fumblings and scrambling about. Three days later, though, it was disclosed something was happening within that silence! Jesus was busy fulfilling that triumphant psalm within it!
No, not Psalm 22! Jesus fulfilled that one on the cross. I’m talking about Psalm 47! “He has gone up with a shout!” In the dark heart of silence, Jesus became the very words of that psalm! He became the divine shout not even silence could muffle! The Word made flesh has gone up with a shout!
Jesus’ final breath turned out to be the last gasp of death and its ensuing silence! Now silence itself rings with the sound of Jesus’ victory! In a kind of heavenly CPR, Jesus exhaled himself into silence! And now silence can no longer keep quiet! Now even silence tells the story of Jesus’ victory! Jesus’ cry of dereliction has become the shout of his resurrection victory! Indeed, he has gone up with a shout!
By suffering the complete and total deprivation of silence, Jesus transformed it! When he commended his spirit, cried out, and breathed his last into that silence, he filled every last nook and cranny of it! Thusly, Jesus emptied the emptiness of silence! Now it is full of him!
There is a sound at the heart of silence, and it’s the sound of Jesus’ heartbeat. His heart that beats with love for those lost in the darkness of Sin and Death. Now silence itself pulses with the sound of Jesus’ pulse! His never-ending, ever searching, relentless pursuit! The sound of silence is nothing less than the sound of Jesus flooding silence with his light and life!
…Now, admittedly, you don’t hear this sound often. But you do hear it. Even now, it is ringing. Invigorating these words. Making them come alive with the sound of Christ raising you from the walking death of Sin.
Today, though, we give thanks that the saints we have lost have heard the fullness of this sound! Like Elijah, this sound at the heart of silence shook them out of the cave of death! And what’s more, it sent them on their way rejoicing! Back home to be with God forever! And where they are, silence is a thing of the past! Where they are, time is no more! Where they are, eternity itself is filled with the sound of their praise that knows no end!
Indeed, from earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast / through gates of pearl / streams in the countless host / singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Alleluia, alleluia! And because their praise never ends, let our’s now begin! Let us, too, join the song!
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