One of the most fascinating (to me) verses in Revelation is Rev 8:1: ‘When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.’ Heaven, that place of constant worship, singing, prayer and praise, is silent.

The world has a proverb ‘Silence is golden’, and it is certainly exceedingly rare these days on earth, let alone in heaven! Noise seems to be everywhere: even in the gym or when shopping, there is noise around as though we are somehow afraid of silence. Lamentations 3:28 recommends sitting alone in silence, however, and there are times when we need to be silent in order to listen to God. Sometimes our hearts are as noisy as our surroundings and we need to still and quieten our hearts (Ps 131:2) in order to be able to hear God’s gentle whisper. (1 Kings 19:11-13)

One of the things I love most about invigilating exams is the silence. No one is allowed to speak during an examination and the hall, normally buzzing with chatter and noise, is silent. I am privileged to invigilate in a room which has a stained glass window bearing the words from John 14:6 and I often sit and look at this text whilst I am also looking at the pupils. In the silence of that room, God often speaks.

Job is a book of questions and complaint. As Job suffers, he and his friends talk incessantly: surmising, wondering, questioning, thinking about God and suffering, large questions which loom frequently in our conversations. At the end of the book, God speaks and Job is silenced: “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you?I put my hand over my mouth. ⁵ I spoke once, but I have no answer—twice, but I will say no more.” (Job 40:4-5) Chris Tomlin takes this idea in his song ‘God Almighty’ and says ‘And I hide my eyes with my face to the ground in the presence of Your majesty.‘ Michael Card’s ‘Job Suite’ (a magnificent exposition of the book of Job in song, lasting 9m 44) ends:

‘I am unworthy, how can I reply?
There’s nothing that you cannot do
You are the storm that calmed my soul
I place my hand over my mouth
I place my hand over my mouth.’

Let’s make room for silence in our clamouring, noisy world and remember that when silence falls and God seems strangely absent, He is still the song in our hearts. (‘When The Tears Fall’, Tim Hughes)

As a linguist, I’ve long had a fascination with words in general, and have spent a good part of my life learning what words mean (especially in other languages.) Whilst it’s satisfying to be able to find the equivalent word in another language, it’s even more fascinating to dig deep into the etymology of words and how these have changed their meanings over time. For example, not only did it help to learn that ‘disciple’ came from the Latin ‘discipulus’ when I was learning to spell (since the -c in this word is silent in English), it was interesting to learn this originally meant ‘learner’ and only later came to mean a ‘follower of Jesus.’

A definition is a formal statement of the meaning or significance of a word or phrase. It becomes definitive in the sense that it makes a meaning definite or outlined. Knowing my name or my title or my job or being able to define what I look like are all useful ways to outline who I am. Sometimes, however, a definition can become limiting. If I am only known as ‘Garry’s wife’ or ‘Stephen’s mother‘, this does not fully describe me. All too often we can be labelled by other people, and even by ourselves, in ways that only tell half the story. Sometimes, even more worryingly, the definitions we use are not even that accurate. They may be out of date, based on erroneous information or wrong views of ourselves.

Rend Collective sing ‘The pain will not define us.’ (‘Joy’) Anyone who has suffered even toothache know how debilitating pain can be and how difficult it can be to think of anything else when it is raging. It is not, however, the sum total of who we are. Similarly, we have to be careful that we define ourselves in God rather than simply seeing ourselves with natural eyes. Eugene Peterson writes “The times in which we live are not definitive for our lives. Technology does not define our existence. Postmodern does not determine how we live. Psychologism does not account for who we are. Secularism is a slovenly, makeshift attempt to make sense of us and the world around us.” (‘Subversive Spirituality,’ P 72)

He goes on to say, when writing of Isaiah’s life-changing experience with the Holy One in Isaiah 6, “in unholy times, in an unholy place, Isaiah was plunged into the holy. He was given a holy vision, the Lord ruling in holiness, the song of holy angels filling the air with holy sounds.” The temple was not defined by what the king Uzziah had done in defiling it. Isaiah was not defined by the times in which he lived (which seemed far from promising!) Nor are we. We can only be fully defined – and understood – by God. Life is not to be defined by our possessions. (Luke 12:15) We are not to be defined by the world. (John 17:12-14, The Message) God defines our life. (1 Cor 7:17, The Message) He is the One who gives shape, meaning and form to our existence. He is our definition, for ‘Christ is all and is in all.’ (Col 3:11)

The family service tonight looked at the (potentially disastrous!) topic of D.I.Y with a quiz:

People did very well, winning all kinds of useful prizes!

Mark continued to look at the subject of D.I.Y.

He talked about the different tools used in D.I.Y.

He then asked us if we were a D.I.Y. tool, which tool would we be and why? Garry won that round with his statement ‘I’d be a spanner because I work with nuts.’

However, the Bible is adamant that D.I.Y. is not the best way forward. D. I. T. is required instead:

Eph 3:14-15 reminds us that we are God’s children and part of His family. 1 Cor 12:12-28 reminds us that the church is also a body, with Christ as the head. Each part is individual but necessary. Ps 68:4-6 reminds us that God sets the lonely in families. No one needs to be alone because God wants us to work together. We all have different talents and can be likened to different tools, but can achieve more together than we can do on our own:

Have you ever heard an orchestra tune up? You can do so by listening to this video here.

The musicians in the orchestra, which is made up of a variety of instruments, have to tune their instruments so that the music they play together sounds harmonious and melodious. They tune their instruments to the note A (440 Hz), and the  instruments need to be tuned because of changes in temperature and humidity. For instance, when the conditions are hot and dry, the pitch of the string instruments goes flat. Similarly, with more humidity, the strings sound more sharper. Listening to instruments tune up is not particularly pleasant, but hopefully the end results will be!

Garry spoke this morning about the need for us to be ‘attuned’ to God. Effectively, this means that our wills are aligned to His; we allow ourselves to be ‘re-set’ to God’s note, so to speak, rather than persisting with our own thoughts and attitudes which will lead to actions which are decidedly ‘off pitch.’ The dictionary gives 3 definitions of ‘attuned’:

1. made receptive or aware

2. made familiar with

3. made harmonious

In prayer, we are first of all made receptive to God’s voice as we still and quieten our souls to listen to Him. (Ps 131:2, John 10:4) We become familiar with His voice. It has been said that a parent will recognise its child’s cries from all the other voices around. This is true of God with us, but the more time we spend with God, the more sensitive we become to recognising His voice as well. Finally, as we submit our wills to His will and allow Him to work in and through us, the ‘sound’ that we make in the world becomes harmonious, for we are working with God, rather than struggling and striving against Him.

Just as the orchestra’s initial tuning-up session is not particularly pleasant for the audience to listen to, our struggles in prayer are not always very melodious! Nonetheless, this process of ‘tuning up’ is essential if we are to ultimately make a noise that is pleasing to God. When our lives match our words, when our hearts are yielded to God and there is congruence between what we say we believe and how we live, then there is a joyful sound which pleases God’s heart. Let’s always be listening for His voice and seek to be in tune with Him.

Garry continued his series on prayer this morning, looking at Eph 6:10-18 and particularly at verse 18: ‘pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.’ For our prayers to be effective and productive, we need to pray ‘in the Spirit‘, praying in line with God’s Spirit and according to what He wants. This means praying according to the character or manner of God, even as John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day (Rev 1:10) or John the Baptist moved in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17).

Just as a child imitates its parents, so we need to imitate God. We need to be aligned and attuned to Him so that we know His mind and can pray accordingly. Paul’s decision to go to Jerusalem (Acts 19:21) was made in the Spirit; it was not a mere whim. He was attuned to what God wanted and was therefore able to see the bigger picture and see things from God’s perspective. Paul told the Corinthians that he was like a father to them and therefore they needed to imitate him (1 Cor 4:15-16); we too need examples to follow (see also Heb 13:7) and can learn a lot from Paul.

Paul urged us to be filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18), teaching about the gifts of inspiration, of revelation and of power which the Holy Spirit gives in 1 Cor 12 and 1 Cor 14. Speaking in tongues is one way we are drawn further into the presence of God and we need to ask God for this gift and seek not to neglect the gifts He gives us if we are to grow in prayer. Being filled with the Spirit is an ongoing process which requires His fire to be rekindled and revived in us on a regular basis. We also need to spend time with God, getting to know Him more deeply so that we become more sensitive to His leading and to His voice. As we are washed by the Word (Eph 5:26) and enlightened by God’s Spirit, we can put into practice what God says to us in private as we go out to our frontlines, whether that is at home, at work or in our local community. God wants to pour out His Spirit on all people  (Joel 2:28, Acts 2:1-21), not just on some kind of ‘super-saint.’ Praying in the Spirit is something Paul urges us all to do!

Tonight is the monthly family service starting at 6 p.m., so come along prepared for games and fun as well as worship and the Word! The morning service is at 10.30 a.m. as usual.

Don’t forget that the next ‘Churches Together’ meeting will be on Saturday 10th May, starting at 6 p.m., at the Furlong Road Methodist Church in Bolton-on-Dearne. All are welcome and it’s a great opportunity to have fellowship with Christians from other churches and to worship and pray together.

Next Sunday morning (11th May) is our monthly meeting at Cherry Tree Court in Highgate, so the service there will start at 10.30 a.m. We will not be having a service at Market Street in the morning, but the evening service will still be at 6 p.m. as usual, with a Communion service being held in the evening.