Have you ever sat by a lake or pond and pondered it. On a still day, its surface is like a mirror, reflecting the blueness of the sky, the big, billowy clouds and the brilliance of the sun. Then, if your eyes penetrate the surface and look into the calm, motionless water, you can see clear down to the bottom, with its rocks and pebbles. Occasionally, a fish or frog will swim past in this beautiful, translucent pool.
Things change though when the pond is disturbed by a rock, a bounding dog or a group of playful children. Sooner than you can say "splash," the surface is agitated by ripples, waves and drops and the water under the surface is shot through with air bubbles and clouded with mud.
In many ways our lives are a lot like ponds. When things are calm, you can see clear down to the bottom and detect the slightest movement and motion. But when things are unsettled, everything is cloudy and murky. Unfortunately, few of us have lives that are like a quiet, serene pond. For most of us, life is more like a lawn mower, its engine humming, its blades moving and its motion making cut grass of the elements of our fast paced, turbulent lives.
Silence can change our turbulent lives and it has 3 important benefits:
Visions can be immensely powerful experiences, life changing experiences and as such are perhaps rightly feared. Anyone who learns to touch this innermost core might well find that to be a life changing experience.
There is no doubt that Peter and James and John were deeply affected by their vision on the mountain. Conditions were exactly right for a vision. The mountain was high so they were inevitably tired after their climb, and perhaps the air was quite thin. There was something special about the atmosphere, just the three of them especially chosen to be alone with Jesus.
Perhaps all those things enabled them to experience a state of altered consciousness. The interesting thing is that they all experienced the same vision. Visions are usually personal to individuals, so there must have been something very special about this particular vision.
Everything spoke of God. Jesus' face shining like the sun, the radiance of the garments, the presence of Moses and Elijah representing the law and the prophets, the voice and the bright cloud signifying the presence of God.
And what was the reaction of the three who experienced it? They were terrified! Peter tried to bring it all down to earth by offering to build three dwellings. Bringing an experience down to earth, removing the mystical side, does seem to make the experience more manageable. We humans are in control of earth bound experiences, but we are never in control of mystical experiences. They are under the control of God.
Perhaps part of the fear is the lack of control, and perhaps also the uneasy feeling that these experiences may not be from God, but from some evil source. There seems to be a feeling that the depths of being hold unimaginable horrors, horrors which might escape to the surface if space is allowed, and therefore, it's much better to ignore those depths, to pretend they don't exist.
One way of pretending they don't exist is to tie them very firmly to earth by some means such as building three dwellings.
The voice from the cloud, God's voice, reiterated the words heard at Jesus' baptism, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. " It's scary hearing God's voice, but without the space and the silence, it's practically impossible to hear him or to listen to Jesus.
The trouble is, those who hear God's voice or see his visions will never be the same again. Once you know yourself to have been touched by God, it's very difficult to look back. You lose your old life and your old self. And God sometimes asks difficult and dangerous things from those he touches - Francis of Assisi, St. Benedict, Mother Teresa and Desmond Tutu.
I don't believe God only speaks to special people or saints. I believe he speaks to everyone, but very few hear his voice. Some people hear his voice because they are put into a situation which completely changes their priorities. It's as though they're stripped of all their armor of comfort, and suddenly find themselves face-to-face with themselves and their God.
Some people hear his voice through their church activities, through prayer, Bible reading, and worship. But others attend to those same activities faithfully and regularly throughout their lives, and never hear his voice.
Jesus heard God's voice by regularly withdrawing from the crowd and seeking out a place of silence and stillness. It was this activity more than any other which kept him in touch with God.
By and large, silence has disappeared from our lives in the early 21st century. We are constantly busy. We are constantly bombarded by sound - traffic, television, radio and all other kinds of electronic messages.
Many people are terrified by silence, find it difficult to handle even the slightest moments of silence in a Church service. There are few who sit and do nothing, who simply sit without reading or praying or even thinking. Yet, if my mind is focused on my thing, even if that thing is verbal prayer, how can I hear God speaking to me?
There is no doubt that silence can be disturbing and difficult. But as Jesus knew, it's handled more easily if you're in a small group. He didn't ask Peter or James or John to go alone to the mountain to meditate, but he took all three of them together. Together they experienced the disturbance and the fear but also the overwhelming radiance and brightness and meaning and light. Together they heard God's voice, and together they did nothing but sit and watch and listen.
It changed their lives and it continues to change lives today. If you are like most Americans though, finding a solitary space may be easier than finding the time in your schedule for silence. But, if you want your life to be built around things that are truly important rather than things that are simply urgent, you have got to take positive action. And the only way to be absolutely sure that silence happens is to schedule it.
The beginning and the end of the day are popular times to seek solitude. Often, they're quieter than other times of the day, and they allow you to pray and reflect on the day ahead or the day just completed. But others find more success with a midday prayer walk that allows them to leave the office or home for a few moments of focused, intentional meditation.
Don't run from silence. Accept God's gracious invitation to the joys of solitude. Don't fill your day with noxious noise or your nights with a constant stream of vapid sitcoms, or boring night time television. Step into the cool, calm, water of silence and seek God there. We all need enough silence in our lives to enable the deep inner voice of our own true self to be heard at least occasionally. And, this listening may just transfigure us into true disciples hearing the voice come from out of nowhere- "This is my beloved disciple in whom I am so pleased."
And do you think we will accept God's invitation to transfigure and discover our true selves through silence? I hope our answer is an affirmative one. Amen.