May 19, 2025 • 32 mins
What happens when we stop shaking the jar of our lives and let everything settle? In this exploration of silence and solitude, we discover how intentional withdrawal from noise and distraction creates space for profound spiritual encounters.
The story of Elijah offers a powerful metaphor for our own journeys. After a tremendous spiritual victory, Elijah flees into the wilderness, overwhelmed by fear and despair. There in the "eremos" – the desert, the lonely place – he encounters God not through dramatic manifestations but through "the sound of sheer silence." This pattern reveals something essential about our spiritual lives: authentic connection with the divine often happens when we quiet everything else.
Our modern lives resemble jars of river water constantly being shaken. We fill every moment with stimulation, productivity, and distraction, never allowing the sediment to settle. When we do pause, we often confuse numbing with nourishing – binge-watching shows, scrolling social media, or even taking chaotic vacations that leave us more exhausted than before.
True silence and solitude confronts us with uncomfortable questions: Who am I apart from my relationships? My achievements? My distractions? As Blaise Pascal observed, "All humanity's problems stem from our inability to sit quietly in a room alone." We avoid silence because it forces us to face our inner chaos.
For those new to this practice, start small – perhaps just a few minutes daily in a quiet place without your phone. Establish a sacred space you return to consistently. Resist the urge to "do" anything during this time; the point isn't productivity but presence. Welcome the initial discomfort as a sign of how much you need this practice.
The rewards are profound: authentic rest, clarity of purpose, and most importantly, space to encounter God in ways that transform us from the inside out. This week, find your "eremos" and listen for what emerges when you stop shaking the jar of your life.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're engaging in our series right now, I'm going to
get a couple more jars calledRhythm.
And Rhythm is this idea thatthe things that we do shape the
kind of people we are.
So the great philosopher oncesaid that the things that we do,
yeah, they shape kind of who weare and what we're becoming.
So you'll notice in your ownlife the things you do with
repetition, with rhythm or withritual or as habits.
(00:21):
They begin to shape you.
And so if you are a person wholikes to complain, you do it all
the time, you will, for manyreasons, you'll become a
complainer.
And, conversely, if you havesort of more healthy rhythms, if
you are a person who givesthanks to God for all the things
, maybe every day, for example,and you do this repeatedly, and
you thank God for all the thingsin your life, like large and
(00:42):
small, you'll begin to have thisheart of gratitude and you'll
see and notice thingsdifferently in your life and
your world.
So the moral of the story ishey, be careful of the things
that you repeatedly do, becausethey're shaping you and they
shape your desires and yourheart and your brain and even
your body and your spirit.
We're holistic beings, so becareful of the things that you
do, and so, anyway.
So seniors come afterwards.
(01:02):
We have this ritual you kind ofwalk through.
It's a way to say goodbye toyour first chunk of life and be
open and welcoming to the nextpart of your life, which is
going to be an incredible time.
And I'll just say now, if youhave no idea what you're doing
next, that's okay, you're 18 or19.
What the heck do you know?
Anyway, it's okay, you're fine,you'll figure it out.
(01:22):
I always figure out.
Your 20s is just for thatanyway.
Trying to figure out what youwant to do, who you are, what's
down there, what you're good at,that takes some time, so don't
worry about it, you'll figure itout.
So come, hang out for that,okay.
So rhythms we engaged.
The first week we did just anintroduction.
The second week we did fasting,the rhythm of fasting, and the
(01:43):
intention is for you to engagein like that following week to
try these rhythms out.
So maybe you tried fasting out.
Last week, sonia preached onservice.
Maybe you tried out doing someservice.
And then this week is silenceand solitude my favorite for
sure.
Personally, it's really themost difficult one for me too,
but I love it and so I wouldencourage you, at some point in
(02:05):
this sermon, write down somethoughts.
I want you to try it out Now,some of you who've never tried
this practice of silence andsolitude.
It might be just enough tostart with like four minutes a
day for like the next couple ofdays.
Just try it out, see how itgoes and see what comes up.
For those of you, like hardcoremaniacs, who've done it before,
maybe this is an invitation foryou to like try out a couple of
(02:25):
days in the woods or get alittle hermitage at Pachamon
Terrace or something else.
But maybe you're somewhere onthat spectrum of like new
beginner and like old time pro.
But find some time this way toengage in silence and solitude.
If you do it and if you have anexperience I didn't say a good
experience If you have anyexperience, let me know how it
goes, even if it's terrible,because it might be terrible, it
(02:48):
might be really unpeaceful, andthat's okay too, but let me
know how it goes.
I want to know, if you try it,does that sound all right?
Because the idea is to putthese rhythms into practice.
Try them out and see what theyare like and see what it does
for you and how it might behelpful or or not.
Okay, so we just heard Richardread this text from the book of
1 Kings about Elijah.
Here's the background quickly.
You got to read the whole storyon your own, but the background
(03:09):
is that just prior to this,elijah has this incredible
victory.
He's sort of warring with theprophets of Baal there's this
false god.
He's a foreign god called Baal.
The king of Israel, ahab andhis wife Jezebel.
They worshiped this foreign godcalled Baal, which was really
not okay to do in the land ofIsrael.
They were to be devoted to God,but they worshiped Baal.
And so the prophet Elijah isfurious.
(03:32):
So he has this.
He's like hey, we're gonna havea contest on this mountain
called Mount Carmel.
You'll call on your God, theGod of Baal, I'll call on my God
, the God of Yahweh, and we'llsee who wins.
Well, when the prophets of Baalcall on Baal, nothing happens.
And Elijah's talking about trash.
He's like where's your God atnow?
Is he sleeping?
But trash talk is in the Bible,so it's okay to talk trash.
And then he says where's yourGod now?
(03:53):
Is he in the bathroom?
Is he defecating?
In the Hebrew he says is hedefecating Meaning.
Is he going number?
That's true, look it up.
And then he's like let me callmy God.
And he calls on Yahweh, andfire falls from heaven and burns
up all the animal parts on thisaltar and he's victorious,
proving his God is the real God.
(04:14):
People fall on their face andthey worship God and God alone.
Right after this, though, thisincredible victory, this
achievement, this accomplishment, right after this, jezebel
comes to Elijah.
He's like hey, hey, dude, thatwasn't cool.
You, you showed me up, youshowed my god up.
I'm gonna kill you.
So I don't know if you've beenthere where, like you have this
incredible moment, like avictory at work, or like with
(04:35):
your kids, or like you have thismomentous or monumental
experience like this is great, Ifinally am winning in life.
And the very next day it likesomething happens.
And just right back down in thevalley, and Elijah suddenly
becomes overwhelmed with despairand fear.
He's afraid for his life, andhe should be.
Jezebel's going to kill him,and so he's overwhelmed with
fear and maybe depression andanxiety, and he runs for his
(04:59):
life because he's so afraid, sohe goes.
Then the text tells us thatElijah goes out into the
wilderness because he's soafraid.
So he goes.
Then the text tells us thatElijah goes out into the
wilderness because he's soterrified of what Jezebel might
do to him.
So he runs, yeah, into thewilderness, into the desert
place.
By the way, in the originalHebrew there's a word for
wilderness and desert place, andthen, years later, scholars
(05:19):
translate the Hebrew Bible intoGreek and they use of course
it's a different language, theyuse different words, but when
they translate the wordwilderness into Greek, it's the
Greek word eramos.
Everyone say eramos, now eramosin the Greek it's the same word
that's used when Jesus goes outinto the eramos after he's
baptized.
The spirit leads him out intothe eramos.
(05:41):
Eremos is a place of desertland.
It's dry and hot.
Eremos is a place of desertland.
It's dry and hot.
It's a wild place where thereare wild beasts out there.
In fact, eremos could betranslated or rendered as the
lonely place.
So, elijah, after this greatvictory, he defeated the
prophets of Baal and the god ofBaal and then, immediately after
(06:03):
that, his life is threatened.
He runs out into the wildernessby himself, he leaves his
servant and he goes out into thelonely place called the Eremos.
It's the same place Jesus goeswhen he's led by the Spirit.
Now, deserts, or the Eremos inthe Greek, in the Bible are
often places of solitude andsilence.
There's not much else out there.
(06:24):
Jesus, when he goes out therethese wild beasts show up in
Mark's gospel, but most oftenthey're places of solitude and
they're places of quiet.
There's nothing out in thedesert.
You've been out in the desert.
There's not much out there.
Even the animals are kind ofquiet, except at night maybe.
And they're hot.
They're hot and dry.
There's not much to sustain youout on the desert place.
There's no frills, there's noFour Seasons Hotel, there's no
(06:46):
plumbing, it's bleak, and atnight it gets pretty dark and
actually really cold in thedesert.
You can die just from thetemperature fluctuations in the
desert.
They're tough places and infact in the Bible the desert
places the Eremos.
They're times of testing.
When you go out there, you findout what you're made of, even
today.
If you go out there, you findout what you're made of Even
today.
If you go to the desert, you'llfind out what you're made of,
unless you have bear grills withyou.
(07:06):
You're going to struggle alittle bit and so what's on the
inside of you begins to come out, because there are times of
testing.
So what's down in there, intimes of desert or dryness or
the eramos, loneliness, thatstuff will start to come out and
it'll start to surface.
So Elijah runs out into thewilderness.
He runs for his life.
He's full of fear and anxietyand he's probably a bit
(07:31):
depressed.
And when he gets out there hecollapses underneath a broom
tree.
Yeah, they have broom treessort of scattered throughout the
land of Israel in the desert.
I said, hey, chat, gpt, make apicture of a broom tree, make it
look realistic and make it lookhot.
Does that look hot?
Oh, yeah, I can feel the heatcoming off the screen.
And he collapses under thistree and he's exhausted and he's
spent and he's lonely and he'safraid and he's reached the end
(07:55):
of himself and he says to Godplease just take my life.
What, just a moment ago he wasvictorious.
He had like shown up theprophets of Baal.
What, just a moment ago he wasvictorious.
He had like shown up theprophets of Baal, defeated the
god Baal and God Yahweh, likeput his own power on display
through fire.
And now, because Jezebelthreatens his life, he runs to
the wilderness, the lonely place, and he collapses and asks God
(08:22):
to take away his own life.
Now, broom trees are thesemodest shrubs.
They don't give a lot of shade,but if you found one of these
in the desert it might sustainyou for a little while.
In fact you could situnderneath and it would provide
enough shelter, enough shadethat you wouldn't die.
So I guess it turns out in theEremos, in the lonely places of
our lives, or in the world, inthe deserts, there are pockets
of shade and sustenance andgrace that seem to be out there,
(08:42):
sufficient enough to survive,because in the desert again,
we're stripped of all the thingsthat we use to protect
ourselves, or all the noise anddistractions we use to kind of
keep ourselves numb, and we comeface to face with.
It looks like the sustainingpresence of God, the shade or
little oasises in the desert,and they sustain us.
(09:03):
So in that way, maybe deserts,as they reveal what's deep
inside, can also be places ofrest.
Elijah collapses under the treein the shade and falls asleep.
Jesus too finds rest and isministered to by angels.
It says so, elijah, jesus, whatabout us?
I imagine that some of youtoday might hear the invitation,
(09:25):
either from God or just from mehear it from me too, to wander
out into the Eremos this week,into the desert, into the lonely
, the dry places of our lives,and to sit under a tree and find
some rest.
Because the willingness to walkinto the empty places of our
own lives and to sit withwhatever comes up the
(09:46):
existential despair, theloneliness, the questions, the
doubt, the sorrow, the pain, theloss and to sit with it, is
actually a precursor toencountering God.
So this silence and thissolitude in the Eremos is
actually a gift.
So I invite you to sit in thewilderness of your own questions
and your own doubts and yourown sorrows, your own fears,
(10:08):
Because you're, after all, ingood company with the likes of
Elijah and Jesus and others inthis room.
See, god meets Elijah in thisplace.
It's in the Eremos, in thedesert, the loneliness, that
Elijah finds and discovers GodIn his weakest moment.
He finds God there.
This angel comes like hey, wakeup and you've got to eat
(10:31):
something.
So Elijah wakes up out of thisfog and he's tired and he's
under this broom tree and hegives him some food and he eats
and goes back to sleep and allthe sleepers in the room said
amen.
And then he wakes up a secondtime hey, wake up.
So he wakes up a second timeand gives him some more food and
he falls back to sleep.
Now look, I'm not saying thatall the problems of the world
(10:51):
can be solved by a good meal anda nap.
I'm just saying that no problemin the world can be made worse
by a good nap and some food.
Amen.
By the way, high school seniorswho are graduating just know
that if you're ever crabby orcranky at the end of your rope,
just try having a good meal anda nap and just see what it does.
It might be just you're needed.
So he wakes back up and then theangels are like hey, I'm going
(11:14):
to prepare you for this journey.
And he goes on a journey for 40days and 40 nights and takes
him to this cave to meet withgod.
And all these wild thingshappen.
Of all, there's this incrediblewind that passes by the cave
and Elijah thinks that's God.
So he goes to the cave and helooks out and it's not God, it's
just crazy wind.
Then there's an earthquake andhe's like oh, that must be God
(11:34):
in the earthquake.
But he goes to the cave mouthand there's no, it's not God,
it's just an earthquake.
Then fire falls from heavenagain, like it happened before.
Oh, this is definitely God.
These are all ancient symbolsof God and they're called
theophanies.
So you're like, oh yeah, that'sdefinitely God and it's not God
in the fire either.
And then it says Elijah hearsthe sound of sheer silence and
(12:01):
he gets up and he goes to themouth of the cave and he meets
with God.
He hears the sound of sheersilence.
I said hey, chat, gpt, wouldyou generate for me a picture of
the sound of sheer silence?
Yeah, that's what it did.
That's good.
Yeah, what does sheer silencesound like?
(12:25):
How does he hear the sound ofsheer silence?
You know, today audiotechnicians, if they want to get
like a movie, if they want toget some like a few minutes of
silence, they have to go intothe woods and they have to
record for hours, because it'sreally really difficult to find
anywhere where there's ofsilence.
They have to go into the woodsand they have to record for
hours, because it's reallyreally difficult to find
anywhere where there's anysilence.
What does sheer silence soundlike?
(12:48):
Rumi the great poet wants thatsilence is the language of God.
Everything else is just a badinterpretation.
Silence is the language of Godand Elijah hears the sound of
the sheer silence and he meetswith God.
Because God seems to be foundin the sheer silence of the
Eremos, in this place in Israel,and maybe in our lives as well.
(13:11):
So it's no wonder for thousandsof years and this has been a
practice of Christians and otherpeople of faith to wander out
into desert places geographical,also metaphorical to search for
God and to listen for God inthe sound of the sheer silence
what might God say to us?
And to strip away all of ourdependencies and all of our
frills and all of our you knowdistractions, and just to get
(13:34):
down to the quiet and listen forGod to somehow restore our
humanity.
Because for many of us, if we'rehonest, our lives are like this
jar of river water, whichideally I'd wanted some clean
water, but this is not.
But either way, we're like jarsof river water that just get
shaken up all the time and getseven muddier.
And this is our life right herejust shaken up.
(13:55):
We're so busy, full ofdistractions and things and
schedules and chores and tasklists and emails and people we
got to get back to, and ourlives are like this.
We don't have any room for thesheer silence, let alone God, or
God speaking to us or talkingto us, or anything like that,
and then we wonder why we don'tfeel God.
Our lives are kind of likethese giant jars of river water
(14:16):
that just get stirred up andshaken up, and that's our life.
And what if we didn't do that?
What if we took some moments tosit in the sheer silence?
Here's a definition, by the way,of the silence and solitude
practice, just so you know whatwe're talking about.
So the Christian practice ofsilence and solitude is the
intentional withdrawal fromnoise and from people and from
(14:42):
distractions.
I'm already having likepalpitations, like no, I love
people and I love noises and Ilove talking, so this one's hard
for me.
In order, though, to be fullypresent with God If you want to
meet with God, I'm just tellingyou you might have to wander out
into the Eremos and turn thenoises down and be alone and see
(15:02):
what you encounter Openingoneself up to his voice, to his
presence, and it's transforminglove in our lives.
Here are some quick things too,by the way what silence and
solitude is and what it's not.
So silence and solitude issilence and it's also solitude.
You're welcome.
By that I mean this.
There's a couple of ways toexperience silence.
(15:24):
One is internally.
You have this, probably runningmonologue in your head.
We call this the monkey mind.
It's just always going,worrying, thinking, planning,
plotting, comparing, trying toearn things.
You probably hear it going allthe time.
Am I to this?
Am I not enough of that?
Am I always going so to quietthat down?
That takes a long time to quietdown, by the way, just so you
(15:47):
know.
And the first time you try thisyou might be like I couldn't
even turn it off.
That's okay, you're in goodcompany there.
But it's an internal silence ofall that running monologue in
your head, the monkey brain.
It's also an external silence.
You've got to get away from thenoise.
Get away, get into a quiet room, go out into the woods, go out
into the lake, get somewherewhere there's not a lot of noise
going on.
(16:07):
It's an external disconnectionfrom things and noises and the
phone.
Put the phone away, for God'ssake.
Put the phone away for just afew minutes.
It's also a time of solitude,like actual literal
disconnection from peopleGetting alone and all the
introverts in the room said amen, let's go.
And like it's an intentionalseparation, to be alone and to
(16:30):
be quiet and to see what comesup.
It's also space in your calendar.
I'm telling you, nobody sort ofaccidentally has times of
silence and solitude Because ourcalendars get filled and we all
brag about how busy we are andwe get it, we're all busy.
So you've got to create somespace in your calendar for the
(16:50):
eramos, for the sheer silence.
You've got to do it.
It's a discipline, it's arhythm.
You've got to make space for itin your calendar.
It's a discipline, it's arhythm.
You've got to make space for itin your calendar.
It's also a place Many of youmight already have one.
I heard from a woman thismorning.
She's got a chair in her roomoff of her kitchen that she goes
to to sort of be with God andher dog comes in there, and it's
a place you might have a chair.
(17:12):
It might be a cabin, it mightbe a spot in the woods, it might
be in your backyard in ahammock, a place you go to like
with rhythm.
You go to the same place.
That's your holy, sacred place,because your intention is
different when you're there.
So find a place, make one up.
It doesn't have to be anythingsacred, I mean you can make it
sacred.
Silence and solitude is also aplace of the.
(17:33):
It's a state of the mind andheart, not just a geographical
place, but it's also a state ofbeing.
For example, you could be intraffic and experience silence
and solitude.
You turn the radio off and kindof zone in and open your heart
to God and your mind and yourexperiences with God.
It doesn't have to always be aliteral place, it can be, but it
can also be just a state of theheart and the mind and it can
(17:58):
also be just a time of settling.
Yeah, like what happens whenyou let all the sediment in your
life go to the bottom Up close.
This looks really cool, maybefar away, you can't really tell.
But what happens when you letit settle?
Well, silence and solitude is atime of just settling, letting
all the mind stuff run out andlet it until it's nothing left
and the inner turmoil kind ofjust ought to be present.
(18:18):
But let it all, it all settle.
Now here's what it's not just soyou're clear too silence until
it's not just being alone, it'sbeing alone with god and
listening for god.
It's also not just aproductivity hack.
Some of you are like, oh, if Icould be alone for an hour, I
could get a lot done the nextday.
Well, no, it's not okay.
(18:38):
It's not just that.
It's to be alone and to be inthe silence for the sake of
being alone and being in thesilence, to hear God, to be with
God, to be with yourself,knowing that you're enough.
It's not just so you can bemore productive the next day.
It's also not escapism.
Now listen, elijah kind offalls into this bucket, but it's
not you running from everythingand escaping and trying to.
I got it.
(18:59):
I got it.
But that can actually lead youto silence and solitude.
It can.
It led Elijah there.
He goes there because he'safraid and depressed at the end
of his rope, but ideally, it'san intention of your heart and
your mind and your being thatyou want to go out there and
engage in silence and solitude.
So it's also not easy and itisn't always peaceful.
(19:19):
It's not just for monks andpastors and the spiritual gurus
of the world.
Because it's not easy, I wastelling my friend Dave this
morning I go, because he's like,hey, I'm going to try it, but I
think it's going to be reallyhard.
I go.
It probably will be hard,that's okay, try it anyway.
It might take you a few timesof trying it to let your spirit
settle Because, after all, we'relike jars of river water that's
(19:41):
shaking up and it takes sometime to let that thing settle
down.
So it may not be easy, it mightbe tough those first few times
you try it.
So I want you to try it anyway.
Now it's difficult, like I said, because of all the stuff
shaking up in our lives.
But silence and solitude ischoosing to do nothing, to give
(20:02):
up accomplishing anything and tocease all of our attachments.
Now, the first time I tried thiswas years ago.
I went on a retreat to EndersIsland, connecticut, and we were
with other people out there andwe had to spend a whole day
alone in the silence and thesolitude.
I was like, oh my gosh, how amI going to do this?
So I got my Bible, I got somereflection things to read.
(20:23):
I got like you know they hadthe Stations of the Cross at
this place.
I'm like I'll go for a walk.
So I got down in there, Istarted reading my Bible and I
went to like reading somereflections and I went to do the
around the area and I looked atmy watch it had been seven
minutes.
I was like, oh no, I'm introuble and it's hard, but it's
(20:46):
become one of the most formativeexperiences of my life.
I'm telling you this because Ineed it, and people like me need
it, because my life is oftenlike a jar of river water that's
just been shaken up.
And even to this day I've beendoing it for over a dozen years
and I still have this push-pullwith it and it takes me a while
to settle in and let thesediment go to the bottom
(21:07):
because I'm like it's hard.
But for me it's out in thatspace and the silence and the
solitude, out in the woods alone, I can sort of experience God
in unique and different ways andI can hear the sound of the
sheer silence and perhaps evenalso the voice of God.
The great Blaise Pascal saysthis.
(21:28):
He says look, all of theunhappiness of humans arises
from the single fact, one singlefact that they cannot stay
quietly in their own room.
We love having our lives shakenup like this.
I mean in the Eremos.
We're stripped of all of thethings that we're used to, and
(21:49):
being alone in the silence andthe solitude is terrifying for
us, because it confronts us withthis question.
When you're alone, in the quiet,it raises the question who am I
?
Who am I really?
Who am I apart from otherpeople, my relationships, even
your closest ones, your kids,your spouse, your closest friend
?
Who am I apart from them?
(22:09):
Who am I separate from myachievements?
My accomplishments I'm so good.
Here's my resume.
But who am I apart from that?
Who am I apart from all myaccomplishments, things I've
done and my attachments?
Who am I apart from thesethings I use to sort of numb
myself out, whether it'sshopping online or drinking too
(22:30):
much or whatever your things are?
A while ago, I had to sort ofreevaluate my own relationship
with alcohol, because I knowthat there are some folks that
can drink, and drink one or two,and it's no problem.
But what I've always wonderedis what is the relationship like
with that thing?
And is there any part of youthat's using that thing to kind
of check out or numb out as anattachment?
And if you're like, maybe, thenexamine that what's going on in
(22:53):
this relationship?
Because who are you apart fromthese attachments, these things
that we go to that we're so usedto just sort of checking out or
numbing out?
Who are you?
Who are you, apart from allyour distractions, when you put
the phone down or the computerdown or the video games away,
the sports away?
Who are you?
And the masks that you wear?
(23:14):
That don't work out in theEremos, because nobody out there
cares.
The wolf or the bear or thebirds care about your mask.
They don't care, by the way.
These are all what we call thefalse self, these constructs
that we present to the worldabout what we are and who we are
.
They're not really you.
They're a part of you, butthey're not really you.
So who are you In the Eremos?
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You're confronted with allthese things, and these are hard
questions to ask and answer.
So what we love to do is justfill our lives with all kinds of
diversions, to not think aboutit, blaze past councils Like hey
, it'd be easier to not thinkabout it.
So we fill our lives with noiseand crowds and stimulation and
movement and vacations andpeople and going out to and fro,
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busyness avoidance.
Like we turn up the radio inthe car when that engine is
making that clunking noise.
I don't want to hear it.
Just turn up the radio and itgoes away.
So we shake up that jar, so wedon't have to be confronted with
ourself and who am I really?
And the existential fear andquestions that live down below.
We don't want to ask them.
(24:16):
The problem, though, is we oftenconfuse numbing with nourishing
, and we think I'm nourishing mysoul, but I'm actually just
numbing out, and they're not thesame thing.
So we go on vacations and itsounds like fun, but then we get
home and we're exhausted, likeI need to rest from my vacation.
Or we go home from a long dayat work and we sit down and
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we're like I want to relax.
We binge watch 12 episodes ofSeverance Just me, okay.
Or we just put on headphones Ilove having headphones on, but,
man, I can check out withheadphones on for a long time
and I'm wondering if I'm tryingto nourish my soul or if I'm
numbing out and we try to restthrough excitement.
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It doesn't work that way, andit's more than just that we're
distracted and busy.
It's more than that.
It's actually impacting ourinner lives and it's affecting
our souls in deep ways.
The great Ronald well, actuallyNowen says this.
He says we're so afraid ofbeing alone because we're afraid
of confronting our inner chaos.
Yeah, I think Ronald Rollheisersays this.
Yeah, he says that we'redistracting ourselves into
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spiritual oblivion, becausewe're not just busy and
distracted with that, but it'salso impacting our souls.
The things we do with rhythmshape the kind of people that we
are, and peace is not more ofthis.
(25:43):
It's not.
Peace is letting that bad boysettle In our modern world.
It runs on hurry and busy anddistraction.
It just does.
And these things shape us andhow we think about the world and
our role in it, what we shouldbe doing and what does it mean
to be a valuable person.
And if we aren't careful we'llget sucked down the river right
along with everybody else.
Because these things shape us,they're rhythms and you'll know
(26:04):
it.
Because when you stop and youtry to do it and you engage in
maybe a moment of the eramos orsilence and solitude, you might
begin to panic and you might fora moment feel worthless because
you're not doing anything,you're not being productive, or
it might remind you of deathitself, like the final stopping
(26:25):
and loneliness.
That's how you know.
You probably need more of it,because many of us, we don't
know ourselves.
We don't know who we are, or itcould of us.
Just we don't know ourselves.
We don't know who we are.
Or it could be that many of usdon't like ourselves.
We don't want to be alone withourselves.
So what does it mean to bealone with God and the Eremos
(26:45):
and with ourselves, knowing thatwhatever we are, whatever we
bring, it's enough and God willmeet us there?
What if we tried it?
I want to encourage you to tryit.
I got a few tips for you BeforeI do.
I know there's someone in theroom who's going to say to me
Ryan, I just don't have enoughtime, if only I had more time.
You know who you are, and Iwould say this To those of you
(27:06):
that think that if only I hadmore time, I would say that's a
fallacy, because if you had moretime, you would just fill it
with more of the samedistractions you already have.
How do I know that?
Well, a long time ago weinvented cars, thinking they
would save us time.
But now, guess what?
We just drive farther distancesand sit in traffic for hours,
(27:26):
and most of us now live 45minutes from everything we like,
including our own sanity.
You know what I mean.
Or how about this one?
We invented the microwave,thinking it would save us more
time to have time with familyover dinner.
But now we just expecteverything to be this fast and
we're impatient.
It's like me, like 90 secondsfor a pizza.
(27:47):
Come on, what is this?
The Oregon Trail Hurry up, youknow what I'm saying.
Or email, ugh, the bane of myexistence.
Remember a hundred years agoyou'd write a letter with a
piece of paper and pen.
We're like let's save time,we'll make it electronic.
That was a great idea.
Who ever thought of that?
Because now we write hundredsof these a day and if you're
(28:12):
like me, you spend three hours aday clearing out the clutter of
all these candle emporiums thatyou never bought anything out
in the first place.
Like, what is this On the phone?
It's supposed to save us abunch of time, but it doesn't.
It just distracts us.
So you don't need more time,you need to make better use of
the time that you have.
(28:32):
So we're going to practice ittogether.
Fair enough, because here'swhat it can do for us and I'll
get out of your way.
Silence and solitude,intentional times of quiet
aloneness, turning things offeven for a few minutes a day,
can allow the waters of yourlife to settle.
And then, when it does bepresent, with whatever you find
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down there.
You may not like it at first,but don't run and numb yourself
out.
I'm going to go and dosomething I feel comfortable
with.
Don't do that, just be with it,be present with it.
Silence and solitude can alsohelp in this way.
It can provide real, authenticand true rest, not pseudo-rest,
but real rest, notbinge-watching 12 episodes rest
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or vacation of five days ofchaos.
Rest, real rest, nourishmentfor your soul.
It can also help break therhythms of the molds Paul wrote
in Romans be not conformed tothe image of the world.
Don't let the ways of the world, the present age, the eon of
the age, or the age, thispresent age, don't let them
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shape you.
They're going to try to moldyou and shape you.
Don't let them break out ofthose rhythms and establish your
own rhythms.
That's what we're trying to dohere.
Okay, a couple of tips and I'llget out of your way.
Number one start small.
So if you're like a brand newto this, a beginner, start small
.
Don't begin with like afive-day silent retreat.
You know, in the desert ofArizona you may not come back.
(30:01):
So start small, a couple ofminutes in the morning.
But find a place that's quiet,alone in a room.
Find your sacred chair orwhatever blanket, but be alone.
Don't bring your phone in there, don't have a computer and do
nothing in there and start smallAgain.
If you're a longtime maniacalparticipant in this kind of an
activity, then you can go longer, that's fine, but you have your
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own ideas, I'm sure, then Also.
Secondly, find a sacred space.
Go to the same one.
I would encourage you to try itfor a couple of days in a row
and go to that same room or thatsame tree or that same hammock
in the backyard.
Just don't fall asleep.
That's not really the samething, although you actually
might, because sometimes ourbodies are so tired because we
run ourselves ragged.
You might need to take a napand have a good meal, and that's
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okay too.
Okay.
Number three uh, don't do, don'tdo anything.
All my type a folks just went.
Listen, we are more than whatwe do.
You guys are all brilliant.
Look at you, look at yourselves.
I'm so proud of all you, allthe things you've done.
You guys are great.
Good for you for all the thingsyou've done.
The Ramos is not a place to doanything.
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It's to meet with God.
If you're going to do anything,just listen for God and be with
God, but don't bring your tasklist or your to-do list or your
book or a journal or a Bibleeven Don't bring anything in
there.
Just sit there and do nothing.
And then, lastly, welcome thediscomfort.
It's going to be hard andpainful.
Maybe some things will arisethat you don't like.
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That's okay.
Talk to your friend or yourclose loved one, or talk to me
or Sonia or whomever, and, oryour close loved one, or talk to
me or Sonia or whomever, and wecan walk you through it.
So, central Lutheran Church,may you know that the language
of God is silence.
The God is found in the soundof the sheer silence, and when
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we let our lives settle just alittle bit, all kinds of
interesting things might happen.
There are messages down therefor us and healing to be had and
an encounter with the divine.
So today and in the days ahead,may you find God in the silence
and in the solitude.
Amen.
We're engaging in our series right now, I'm going to
get a couple more jars calledRhythm.
And Rhythm is this idea thatthe things that we do shape the
kind of people we are.
So the great philosopher oncesaid that the things that we do,
yeah, they shape kind of who weare and what we're becoming.
So you'll notice in your ownlife the things you do with
repetition, with rhythm or withritual or as habits.
(00:21):
They begin to shape you.
And so if you are a person wholikes to complain, you do it all
the time, you will, for manyreasons, you'll become a
complainer.
And, conversely, if you havesort of more healthy rhythms, if
you are a person who givesthanks to God for all the things
, maybe every day, for example,and you do this repeatedly, and
you thank God for all the thingsin your life, like large and
(00:42):
small, you'll begin to have thisheart of gratitude and you'll
see and notice thingsdifferently in your life and
your world.
So the moral of the story ishey, be careful of the things
that you repeatedly do, becausethey're shaping you and they
shape your desires and yourheart and your brain and even
your body and your spirit.
We're holistic beings, so becareful of the things that you
do, and so, anyway.
So seniors come afterwards.
(01:02):
We have this ritual you kind ofwalk through.
It's a way to say goodbye toyour first chunk of life and be
open and welcoming to the nextpart of your life, which is
going to be an incredible time.
And I'll just say now, if youhave no idea what you're doing
next, that's okay, you're 18 or19.
What the heck do you know?
Anyway, it's okay, you're fine,you'll figure it out.
(01:22):
I always figure out.
Your 20s is just for thatanyway.
Trying to figure out what youwant to do, who you are, what's
down there, what you're good at,that takes some time, so don't
worry about it, you'll figure itout.
So come, hang out for that,okay.
So rhythms we engaged.
The first week we did just anintroduction.
The second week we did fasting,the rhythm of fasting, and the
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intention is for you to engagein like that following week to
try these rhythms out.
So maybe you tried fasting out.
Last week, sonia preached onservice.
Maybe you tried out doing someservice.
And then this week is silenceand solitude my favorite for
sure.
Personally, it's really themost difficult one for me too,
but I love it and so I wouldencourage you, at some point in
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this sermon, write down somethoughts.
I want you to try it out Now,some of you who've never tried
this practice of silence andsolitude.
It might be just enough tostart with like four minutes a
day for like the next couple ofdays.
Just try it out, see how itgoes and see what comes up.
For those of you, like hardcoremaniacs, who've done it before,
maybe this is an invitation foryou to like try out a couple of
(02:25):
days in the woods or get alittle hermitage at Pachamon
Terrace or something else.
But maybe you're somewhere onthat spectrum of like new
beginner and like old time pro.
But find some time this way toengage in silence and solitude.
If you do it and if you have anexperience I didn't say a good
experience If you have anyexperience, let me know how it
goes, even if it's terrible,because it might be terrible, it
(02:48):
might be really unpeaceful, andthat's okay too, but let me
know how it goes.
I want to know, if you try it,does that sound all right?
Because the idea is to putthese rhythms into practice.
Try them out and see what theyare like and see what it does
for you and how it might behelpful or or not.
Okay, so we just heard Richardread this text from the book of
1 Kings about Elijah.
Here's the background quickly.
You got to read the whole storyon your own, but the background
(03:09):
is that just prior to this,elijah has this incredible
victory.
He's sort of warring with theprophets of Baal there's this
false god.
He's a foreign god called Baal.
The king of Israel, ahab andhis wife Jezebel.
They worshiped this foreign godcalled Baal, which was really
not okay to do in the land ofIsrael.
They were to be devoted to God,but they worshiped Baal.
And so the prophet Elijah isfurious.
(03:32):
So he has this.
He's like hey, we're gonna havea contest on this mountain
called Mount Carmel.
You'll call on your God, theGod of Baal, I'll call on my God
, the God of Yahweh, and we'llsee who wins.
Well, when the prophets of Baalcall on Baal, nothing happens.
And Elijah's talking about trash.
He's like where's your God atnow?
Is he sleeping?
But trash talk is in the Bible,so it's okay to talk trash.
And then he says where's yourGod now?
(03:53):
Is he in the bathroom?
Is he defecating?
In the Hebrew he says is hedefecating Meaning.
Is he going number?
That's true, look it up.
And then he's like let me callmy God.
And he calls on Yahweh, andfire falls from heaven and burns
up all the animal parts on thisaltar and he's victorious,
proving his God is the real God.
(04:14):
People fall on their face andthey worship God and God alone.
Right after this, though, thisincredible victory, this
achievement, this accomplishment, right after this, jezebel
comes to Elijah.
He's like hey, hey, dude, thatwasn't cool.
You, you showed me up, youshowed my god up.
I'm gonna kill you.
So I don't know if you've beenthere where, like you have this
incredible moment, like avictory at work, or like with
(04:35):
your kids, or like you have thismomentous or monumental
experience like this is great, Ifinally am winning in life.
And the very next day it likesomething happens.
And just right back down in thevalley, and Elijah suddenly
becomes overwhelmed with despairand fear.
He's afraid for his life, andhe should be.
Jezebel's going to kill him,and so he's overwhelmed with
fear and maybe depression andanxiety, and he runs for his
(04:59):
life because he's so afraid, sohe goes.
Then the text tells us thatElijah goes out into the
wilderness because he's soafraid.
So he goes.
Then the text tells us thatElijah goes out into the
wilderness because he's soterrified of what Jezebel might
do to him.
So he runs, yeah, into thewilderness, into the desert
place.
By the way, in the originalHebrew there's a word for
wilderness and desert place, andthen, years later, scholars
(05:19):
translate the Hebrew Bible intoGreek and they use of course
it's a different language, theyuse different words, but when
they translate the wordwilderness into Greek, it's the
Greek word eramos.
Everyone say eramos, now eramosin the Greek it's the same word
that's used when Jesus goes outinto the eramos after he's
baptized.
The spirit leads him out intothe eramos.
(05:41):
Eremos is a place of desertland.
It's dry and hot.
Eremos is a place of desertland.
It's dry and hot.
It's a wild place where thereare wild beasts out there.
In fact, eremos could betranslated or rendered as the
lonely place.
So, elijah, after this greatvictory, he defeated the
prophets of Baal and the god ofBaal and then, immediately after
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that, his life is threatened.
He runs out into the wildernessby himself, he leaves his
servant and he goes out into thelonely place called the Eremos.
It's the same place Jesus goeswhen he's led by the Spirit.
Now, deserts, or the Eremos inthe Greek, in the Bible are
often places of solitude andsilence.
There's not much else out there.
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Jesus, when he goes out therethese wild beasts show up in
Mark's gospel, but most oftenthey're places of solitude and
they're places of quiet.
There's nothing out in thedesert.
You've been out in the desert.
There's not much out there.
Even the animals are kind ofquiet, except at night maybe.
And they're hot.
They're hot and dry.
There's not much to sustain youout on the desert place.
There's no frills, there's noFour Seasons Hotel, there's no
(06:46):
plumbing, it's bleak, and atnight it gets pretty dark and
actually really cold in thedesert.
You can die just from thetemperature fluctuations in the
desert.
They're tough places and infact in the Bible the desert
places the Eremos.
They're times of testing.
When you go out there, you findout what you're made of, even
today.
If you go out there, you findout what you're made of Even
today.
If you go to the desert, you'llfind out what you're made of,
unless you have bear grills withyou.
(07:06):
You're going to struggle alittle bit and so what's on the
inside of you begins to come out, because there are times of
testing.
So what's down in there, intimes of desert or dryness or
the eramos, loneliness, thatstuff will start to come out and
it'll start to surface.
So Elijah runs out into thewilderness.
He runs for his life.
He's full of fear and anxietyand he's probably a bit
(07:31):
depressed.
And when he gets out there hecollapses underneath a broom
tree.
Yeah, they have broom treessort of scattered throughout the
land of Israel in the desert.
I said, hey, chat, gpt, make apicture of a broom tree, make it
look realistic and make it lookhot.
Does that look hot?
Oh, yeah, I can feel the heatcoming off the screen.
And he collapses under thistree and he's exhausted and he's
spent and he's lonely and he'safraid and he's reached the end
(07:55):
of himself and he says to Godplease just take my life.
What, just a moment ago he wasvictorious.
He had like shown up theprophets of Baal.
What, just a moment ago he wasvictorious.
He had like shown up theprophets of Baal, defeated the
god Baal and God Yahweh, likeput his own power on display
through fire.
And now, because Jezebelthreatens his life, he runs to
the wilderness, the lonely place, and he collapses and asks God
(08:22):
to take away his own life.
Now, broom trees are thesemodest shrubs.
They don't give a lot of shade,but if you found one of these
in the desert it might sustainyou for a little while.
In fact you could situnderneath and it would provide
enough shelter, enough shadethat you wouldn't die.
So I guess it turns out in theEremos, in the lonely places of
our lives, or in the world, inthe deserts, there are pockets
of shade and sustenance andgrace that seem to be out there,
(08:42):
sufficient enough to survive,because in the desert again,
we're stripped of all the thingsthat we use to protect
ourselves, or all the noise anddistractions we use to kind of
keep ourselves numb, and we comeface to face with.
It looks like the sustainingpresence of God, the shade or
little oasises in the desert,and they sustain us.
(09:03):
So in that way, maybe deserts,as they reveal what's deep
inside, can also be places ofrest.
Elijah collapses under the treein the shade and falls asleep.
Jesus too finds rest and isministered to by angels.
It says so, elijah, jesus, whatabout us?
I imagine that some of youtoday might hear the invitation,
(09:25):
either from God or just from mehear it from me too, to wander
out into the Eremos this week,into the desert, into the lonely
, the dry places of our lives,and to sit under a tree and find
some rest.
Because the willingness to walkinto the empty places of our
own lives and to sit withwhatever comes up the
(09:46):
existential despair, theloneliness, the questions, the
doubt, the sorrow, the pain, theloss and to sit with it, is
actually a precursor toencountering God.
So this silence and thissolitude in the Eremos is
actually a gift.
So I invite you to sit in thewilderness of your own questions
and your own doubts and yourown sorrows, your own fears,
(10:08):
Because you're, after all, ingood company with the likes of
Elijah and Jesus and others inthis room.
See, god meets Elijah in thisplace.
It's in the Eremos, in thedesert, the loneliness, that
Elijah finds and discovers GodIn his weakest moment.
He finds God there.
This angel comes like hey, wakeup and you've got to eat
(10:31):
something.
So Elijah wakes up out of thisfog and he's tired and he's
under this broom tree and hegives him some food and he eats
and goes back to sleep and allthe sleepers in the room said
amen.
And then he wakes up a secondtime hey, wake up.
So he wakes up a second timeand gives him some more food and
he falls back to sleep.
Now look, I'm not saying thatall the problems of the world
(10:51):
can be solved by a good meal anda nap.
I'm just saying that no problemin the world can be made worse
by a good nap and some food.
Amen.
By the way, high school seniorswho are graduating just know
that if you're ever crabby orcranky at the end of your rope,
just try having a good meal anda nap and just see what it does.
It might be just you're needed.
So he wakes back up and then theangels are like hey, I'm going
(11:14):
to prepare you for this journey.
And he goes on a journey for 40days and 40 nights and takes
him to this cave to meet withgod.
And all these wild thingshappen.
Of all, there's this incrediblewind that passes by the cave
and Elijah thinks that's God.
So he goes to the cave and helooks out and it's not God, it's
just crazy wind.
Then there's an earthquake andhe's like oh, that must be God
(11:34):
in the earthquake.
But he goes to the cave mouthand there's no, it's not God,
it's just an earthquake.
Then fire falls from heavenagain, like it happened before.
Oh, this is definitely God.
These are all ancient symbolsof God and they're called
theophanies.
So you're like, oh yeah, that'sdefinitely God and it's not God
in the fire either.
And then it says Elijah hearsthe sound of sheer silence and
(12:01):
he gets up and he goes to themouth of the cave and he meets
with God.
He hears the sound of sheersilence.
I said hey, chat, gpt, wouldyou generate for me a picture of
the sound of sheer silence?
Yeah, that's what it did.
That's good.
Yeah, what does sheer silencesound like?
(12:25):
How does he hear the sound ofsheer silence?
You know, today audiotechnicians, if they want to get
like a movie, if they want toget some like a few minutes of
silence, they have to go intothe woods and they have to
record for hours, because it'sreally really difficult to find
anywhere where there's ofsilence.
They have to go into the woodsand they have to record for
hours, because it's reallyreally difficult to find
anywhere where there's anysilence.
What does sheer silence soundlike?
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Rumi the great poet wants thatsilence is the language of God.
Everything else is just a badinterpretation.
Silence is the language of Godand Elijah hears the sound of
the sheer silence and he meetswith God.
Because God seems to be foundin the sheer silence of the
Eremos, in this place in Israel,and maybe in our lives as well.
(13:11):
So it's no wonder for thousandsof years and this has been a
practice of Christians and otherpeople of faith to wander out
into desert places geographical,also metaphorical to search for
God and to listen for God inthe sound of the sheer silence
what might God say to us?
And to strip away all of ourdependencies and all of our
frills and all of our you knowdistractions, and just to get
(13:34):
down to the quiet and listen forGod to somehow restore our
humanity.
Because for many of us, if we'rehonest, our lives are like this
jar of river water, whichideally I'd wanted some clean
water, but this is not.
But either way, we're like jarsof river water that just get
shaken up all the time and getseven muddier.
And this is our life right herejust shaken up.
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We're so busy, full ofdistractions and things and
schedules and chores and tasklists and emails and people we
got to get back to, and ourlives are like this.
We don't have any room for thesheer silence, let alone God, or
God speaking to us or talkingto us, or anything like that,
and then we wonder why we don'tfeel God.
Our lives are kind of likethese giant jars of river water
(14:16):
that just get stirred up andshaken up, and that's our life.
And what if we didn't do that?
What if we took some moments tosit in the sheer silence?
Here's a definition, by the way,of the silence and solitude
practice, just so you know whatwe're talking about.
So the Christian practice ofsilence and solitude is the
intentional withdrawal fromnoise and from people and from
(14:42):
distractions.
I'm already having likepalpitations, like no, I love
people and I love noises and Ilove talking, so this one's hard
for me.
In order, though, to be fullypresent with God If you want to
meet with God, I'm just tellingyou you might have to wander out
into the Eremos and turn thenoises down and be alone and see
(15:02):
what you encounter Openingoneself up to his voice, to his
presence, and it's transforminglove in our lives.
Here are some quick things too,by the way what silence and
solitude is and what it's not.
So silence and solitude issilence and it's also solitude.
You're welcome.
By that I mean this.
There's a couple of ways toexperience silence.
(15:24):
One is internally.
You have this, probably runningmonologue in your head.
We call this the monkey mind.
It's just always going,worrying, thinking, planning,
plotting, comparing, trying toearn things.
You probably hear it going allthe time.
Am I to this?
Am I not enough of that?
Am I always going so to quietthat down?
That takes a long time to quietdown, by the way, just so you
(15:47):
know.
And the first time you try thisyou might be like I couldn't
even turn it off.
That's okay, you're in goodcompany there.
But it's an internal silence ofall that running monologue in
your head, the monkey brain.
It's also an external silence.
You've got to get away from thenoise.
Get away, get into a quiet room, go out into the woods, go out
into the lake, get somewherewhere there's not a lot of noise
going on.
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It's an external disconnectionfrom things and noises and the
phone.
Put the phone away, for God'ssake.
Put the phone away for just afew minutes.
It's also a time of solitude,like actual literal
disconnection from peopleGetting alone and all the
introverts in the room said amen, let's go.
And like it's an intentionalseparation, to be alone and to
(16:30):
be quiet and to see what comesup.
It's also space in your calendar.
I'm telling you, nobody sort ofaccidentally has times of
silence and solitude Because ourcalendars get filled and we all
brag about how busy we are andwe get it, we're all busy.
So you've got to create somespace in your calendar for the
(16:50):
eramos, for the sheer silence.
You've got to do it.
It's a discipline, it's arhythm.
You've got to make space for itin your calendar.
It's a discipline, it's arhythm.
You've got to make space for itin your calendar.
It's also a place Many of youmight already have one.
I heard from a woman thismorning.
She's got a chair in her roomoff of her kitchen that she goes
to to sort of be with God andher dog comes in there, and it's
a place you might have a chair.
(17:12):
It might be a cabin, it mightbe a spot in the woods, it might
be in your backyard in ahammock, a place you go to like
with rhythm.
You go to the same place.
That's your holy, sacred place,because your intention is
different when you're there.
So find a place, make one up.
It doesn't have to be anythingsacred, I mean you can make it
sacred.
Silence and solitude is also aplace of the.
(17:33):
It's a state of the mind andheart, not just a geographical
place, but it's also a state ofbeing.
For example, you could be intraffic and experience silence
and solitude.
You turn the radio off and kindof zone in and open your heart
to God and your mind and yourexperiences with God.
It doesn't have to always be aliteral place, it can be, but it
can also be just a state of theheart and the mind and it can
(17:58):
also be just a time of settling.
Yeah, like what happens whenyou let all the sediment in your
life go to the bottom Up close.
This looks really cool, maybefar away, you can't really tell.
But what happens when you letit settle?
Well, silence and solitude is atime of just settling, letting
all the mind stuff run out andlet it until it's nothing left
and the inner turmoil kind ofjust ought to be present.
(18:18):
But let it all, it all settle.
Now here's what it's not just soyou're clear too silence until
it's not just being alone, it'sbeing alone with god and
listening for god.
It's also not just aproductivity hack.
Some of you are like, oh, if Icould be alone for an hour, I
could get a lot done the nextday.
Well, no, it's not okay.
(18:38):
It's not just that.
It's to be alone and to be inthe silence for the sake of
being alone and being in thesilence, to hear God, to be with
God, to be with yourself,knowing that you're enough.
It's not just so you can bemore productive the next day.
It's also not escapism.
Now listen, elijah kind offalls into this bucket, but it's
not you running from everythingand escaping and trying to.
I got it.
(18:59):
I got it.
But that can actually lead youto silence and solitude.
It can.
It led Elijah there.
He goes there because he'safraid and depressed at the end
of his rope, but ideally, it'san intention of your heart and
your mind and your being thatyou want to go out there and
engage in silence and solitude.
So it's also not easy and itisn't always peaceful.
(19:19):
It's not just for monks andpastors and the spiritual gurus
of the world.
Because it's not easy, I wastelling my friend Dave this
morning I go, because he's like,hey, I'm going to try it, but I
think it's going to be reallyhard.
I go.
It probably will be hard,that's okay, try it anyway.
It might take you a few timesof trying it to let your spirit
settle Because, after all, we'relike jars of river water that's
(19:41):
shaking up and it takes sometime to let that thing settle
down.
So it may not be easy, it mightbe tough those first few times
you try it.
So I want you to try it anyway.
Now it's difficult, like I said, because of all the stuff
shaking up in our lives.
But silence and solitude ischoosing to do nothing, to give
(20:02):
up accomplishing anything and tocease all of our attachments.
Now, the first time I tried thiswas years ago.
I went on a retreat to EndersIsland, connecticut, and we were
with other people out there andwe had to spend a whole day
alone in the silence and thesolitude.
I was like, oh my gosh, how amI going to do this?
So I got my Bible, I got somereflection things to read.
(20:23):
I got like you know they hadthe Stations of the Cross at
this place.
I'm like I'll go for a walk.
So I got down in there, Istarted reading my Bible and I
went to like reading somereflections and I went to do the
around the area and I looked atmy watch it had been seven
minutes.
I was like, oh no, I'm introuble and it's hard, but it's
(20:46):
become one of the most formativeexperiences of my life.
I'm telling you this because Ineed it, and people like me need
it, because my life is oftenlike a jar of river water that's
just been shaken up.
And even to this day I've beendoing it for over a dozen years
and I still have this push-pullwith it and it takes me a while
to settle in and let thesediment go to the bottom
(21:07):
because I'm like it's hard.
But for me it's out in thatspace and the silence and the
solitude, out in the woods alone, I can sort of experience God
in unique and different ways andI can hear the sound of the
sheer silence and perhaps evenalso the voice of God.
The great Blaise Pascal saysthis.
(21:28):
He says look, all of theunhappiness of humans arises
from the single fact, one singlefact that they cannot stay
quietly in their own room.
We love having our lives shakenup like this.
I mean in the Eremos.
We're stripped of all of thethings that we're used to, and
(21:49):
being alone in the silence andthe solitude is terrifying for
us, because it confronts us withthis question.
When you're alone, in the quiet,it raises the question who am I
?
Who am I really?
Who am I apart from otherpeople, my relationships, even
your closest ones, your kids,your spouse, your closest friend
?
Who am I apart from them?
(22:09):
Who am I separate from myachievements?
My accomplishments I'm so good.
Here's my resume.
But who am I apart from that?
Who am I apart from all myaccomplishments, things I've
done and my attachments?
Who am I apart from thesethings I use to sort of numb
myself out, whether it'sshopping online or drinking too
(22:30):
much or whatever your things are?
A while ago, I had to sort ofreevaluate my own relationship
with alcohol, because I knowthat there are some folks that
can drink, and drink one or two,and it's no problem.
But what I've always wonderedis what is the relationship like
with that thing?
And is there any part of youthat's using that thing to kind
of check out or numb out as anattachment?
And if you're like, maybe, thenexamine that what's going on in
(22:53):
this relationship?
Because who are you apart fromthese attachments, these things
that we go to that we're so usedto just sort of checking out or
numbing out?
Who are you?
Who are you, apart from allyour distractions, when you put
the phone down or the computerdown or the video games away,
the sports away?
Who are you?
And the masks that you wear?
(23:14):
That don't work out in theEremos, because nobody out there
cares.
The wolf or the bear or thebirds care about your mask.
They don't care, by the way.
These are all what we call thefalse self, these constructs
that we present to the worldabout what we are and who we are
.
They're not really you.
They're a part of you, butthey're not really you.
So who are you In the Eremos?
(23:35):
You're confronted with allthese things, and these are hard
questions to ask and answer.
So what we love to do is justfill our lives with all kinds of
diversions, to not think aboutit, blaze past councils Like hey
, it'd be easier to not thinkabout it.
So we fill our lives with noiseand crowds and stimulation and
movement and vacations andpeople and going out to and fro,
(23:55):
busyness avoidance.
Like we turn up the radio inthe car when that engine is
making that clunking noise.
I don't want to hear it.
Just turn up the radio and itgoes away.
So we shake up that jar, so wedon't have to be confronted with
ourself and who am I really?
And the existential fear andquestions that live down below.
We don't want to ask them.
(24:16):
The problem, though, is we oftenconfuse numbing with nourishing
, and we think I'm nourishing mysoul, but I'm actually just
numbing out, and they're not thesame thing.
So we go on vacations and itsounds like fun, but then we get
home and we're exhausted, likeI need to rest from my vacation.
Or we go home from a long dayat work and we sit down and
(24:37):
we're like I want to relax.
We binge watch 12 episodes ofSeverance Just me, okay.
Or we just put on headphones Ilove having headphones on, but,
man, I can check out withheadphones on for a long time
and I'm wondering if I'm tryingto nourish my soul or if I'm
numbing out and we try to restthrough excitement.
(24:58):
It doesn't work that way, andit's more than just that we're
distracted and busy.
It's more than that.
It's actually impacting ourinner lives and it's affecting
our souls in deep ways.
The great Ronald well, actuallyNowen says this.
He says we're so afraid ofbeing alone because we're afraid
of confronting our inner chaos.
Yeah, I think Ronald Rollheisersays this.
Yeah, he says that we'redistracting ourselves into
(25:21):
spiritual oblivion, becausewe're not just busy and
distracted with that, but it'salso impacting our souls.
The things we do with rhythmshape the kind of people that we
are, and peace is not more ofthis.
(25:43):
It's not.
Peace is letting that bad boysettle In our modern world.
It runs on hurry and busy anddistraction.
It just does.
And these things shape us andhow we think about the world and
our role in it, what we shouldbe doing and what does it mean
to be a valuable person.
And if we aren't careful we'llget sucked down the river right
along with everybody else.
Because these things shape us,they're rhythms and you'll know
(26:04):
it.
Because when you stop and youtry to do it and you engage in
maybe a moment of the eramos orsilence and solitude, you might
begin to panic and you might fora moment feel worthless because
you're not doing anything,you're not being productive, or
it might remind you of deathitself, like the final stopping
(26:25):
and loneliness.
That's how you know.
You probably need more of it,because many of us, we don't
know ourselves.
We don't know who we are, or itcould of us.
Just we don't know ourselves.
We don't know who we are.
Or it could be that many of usdon't like ourselves.
We don't want to be alone withourselves.
So what does it mean to bealone with God and the Eremos
(26:45):
and with ourselves, knowing thatwhatever we are, whatever we
bring, it's enough and God willmeet us there?
What if we tried it?
I want to encourage you to tryit.
I got a few tips for you BeforeI do.
I know there's someone in theroom who's going to say to me
Ryan, I just don't have enoughtime, if only I had more time.
You know who you are, and Iwould say this To those of you
(27:06):
that think that if only I hadmore time, I would say that's a
fallacy, because if you had moretime, you would just fill it
with more of the samedistractions you already have.
How do I know that?
Well, a long time ago weinvented cars, thinking they
would save us time.
But now, guess what?
We just drive farther distancesand sit in traffic for hours,
(27:26):
and most of us now live 45minutes from everything we like,
including our own sanity.
You know what I mean.
Or how about this one?
We invented the microwave,thinking it would save us more
time to have time with familyover dinner.
But now we just expecteverything to be this fast and
we're impatient.
It's like me, like 90 secondsfor a pizza.
(27:47):
Come on, what is this?
The Oregon Trail Hurry up, youknow what I'm saying.
Or email, ugh, the bane of myexistence.
Remember a hundred years agoyou'd write a letter with a
piece of paper and pen.
We're like let's save time,we'll make it electronic.
That was a great idea.
Who ever thought of that?
Because now we write hundredsof these a day and if you're
(28:12):
like me, you spend three hours aday clearing out the clutter of
all these candle emporiums thatyou never bought anything out
in the first place.
Like, what is this On the phone?
It's supposed to save us abunch of time, but it doesn't.
It just distracts us.
So you don't need more time,you need to make better use of
the time that you have.
(28:32):
So we're going to practice ittogether.
Fair enough, because here'swhat it can do for us and I'll
get out of your way.
Silence and solitude,intentional times of quiet
aloneness, turning things offeven for a few minutes a day,
can allow the waters of yourlife to settle.
And then, when it does bepresent, with whatever you find
(28:57):
down there.
You may not like it at first,but don't run and numb yourself
out.
I'm going to go and dosomething I feel comfortable
with.
Don't do that, just be with it,be present with it.
Silence and solitude can alsohelp in this way.
It can provide real, authenticand true rest, not pseudo-rest,
but real rest, notbinge-watching 12 episodes rest
(29:20):
or vacation of five days ofchaos.
Rest, real rest, nourishmentfor your soul.
It can also help break therhythms of the molds Paul wrote
in Romans be not conformed tothe image of the world.
Don't let the ways of the world, the present age, the eon of
the age, or the age, thispresent age, don't let them
(29:41):
shape you.
They're going to try to moldyou and shape you.
Don't let them break out ofthose rhythms and establish your
own rhythms.
That's what we're trying to dohere.
Okay, a couple of tips and I'llget out of your way.
Number one start small.
So if you're like a brand newto this, a beginner, start small
.
Don't begin with like afive-day silent retreat.
You know, in the desert ofArizona you may not come back.
(30:01):
So start small, a couple ofminutes in the morning.
But find a place that's quiet,alone in a room.
Find your sacred chair orwhatever blanket, but be alone.
Don't bring your phone in there, don't have a computer and do
nothing in there and start smallAgain.
If you're a longtime maniacalparticipant in this kind of an
activity, then you can go longer, that's fine, but you have your
(30:22):
own ideas, I'm sure, then Also.
Secondly, find a sacred space.
Go to the same one.
I would encourage you to try itfor a couple of days in a row
and go to that same room or thatsame tree or that same hammock
in the backyard.
Just don't fall asleep.
That's not really the samething, although you actually
might, because sometimes ourbodies are so tired because we
run ourselves ragged.
You might need to take a napand have a good meal, and that's
(30:44):
okay too.
Okay.
Number three uh, don't do, don'tdo anything.
All my type a folks just went.
Listen, we are more than whatwe do.
You guys are all brilliant.
Look at you, look at yourselves.
I'm so proud of all you, allthe things you've done.
You guys are great.
Good for you for all the thingsyou've done.
The Ramos is not a place to doanything.
(31:06):
It's to meet with God.
If you're going to do anything,just listen for God and be with
God, but don't bring your tasklist or your to-do list or your
book or a journal or a Bibleeven Don't bring anything in
there.
Just sit there and do nothing.
And then, lastly, welcome thediscomfort.
It's going to be hard andpainful.
Maybe some things will arisethat you don't like.
(31:27):
That's okay.
Talk to your friend or yourclose loved one, or talk to me
or Sonia or whomever, and, oryour close loved one, or talk to
me or Sonia or whomever, and wecan walk you through it.
So, central Lutheran Church,may you know that the language
of God is silence.
The God is found in the soundof the sheer silence, and when
(31:47):
we let our lives settle just alittle bit, all kinds of
interesting things might happen.
There are messages down therefor us and healing to be had and
an encounter with the divine.
So today and in the days ahead,may you find God in the silence
and in the solitude.
Amen.
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