Listening With Imagination
June 13, 2010
1Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there. 4But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” 5Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” 6He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. 7The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” 8He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.
9At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” 11He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” 15Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram.
1 Kings 19:1-15
Many of you remember where you were on November 22, 1963. But even those of us who were not alive 47 years ago are aware of that date’s significance. Because it is a day that has been etched into the collective consciousness of American life. November 22, 1963 was, of course, the day that President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed while visiting Dallas, Texas. And that terrible event became a turning point in our nation’s history, a moment when hope for the future was overwhelmed by the grief and tragedy of what had occurred.
In the midst of those dark days following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a man named Paul Simon sat down and begin to write a song to try and make sense out of what had happened. These are the lyrics he wrote: Hello darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again, Because a vision softly creeping, Left its seeds while I was sleeping, And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains Within the sound of silence.
It is a song that is now listed as one of the top 20 most recorded hits of the 20th century—The Sound Of Silence. And it is this song I think of every time I hear our passage of Scripture for today. The text says that the prophet Elijah was waiting in a cave where God was about to pass by. And there was a great wind, but God was not in the wind. And there was a great earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake. And there was a great fire, but God was not in the fire. And then finally, verse 12 says that after the fire, there was the sound of sheer silence. And it was in that sound of silence that Elijah heard God speaking.
Today is the second of four Sundays here at Park View in which we are examining the life of the prophet Elijah. Last week, I began the series by talking about what it is that a prophet really does. And I made the claim that a prophet’s job is not so much about predicting the future as it is about imagining a new kind of present. Y’all remember that? I talked all about the importance of imagination.
And so, what I want to do for the next three weeks is to flesh that out a little bit. Because I think that this is a big concept and I think that it’s an important concept. And I want us to spend some time over the next few weeks really breaking that idea down and thinking about what it might mean for us today. But the specific image I want us to focus on this morning is the one that is mentioned here in the text—the sound of silence. What is the sound of silence?
To help answer that question, I’m going to start at an unlikely place—a rollercoaster. Riding a rollercoaster is probably not the first thing you and I associate with the sound of silence. As a matter of fact, most folks on roller coasters scream at the top of their lungs. Now, I used to like roller coasters a whole lot. And I can remember being at an amusement park at night, after the crowds had kind of thinned out, and me and my friends would run through the lines again and again to try and ride the roller coaster as many times in a row as possible.
But these days, things are different. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I’m 30 now or what, but I just can’t do it anymore. If Molly and I go to Busch Gardens, I find myself gravitating more towards the train than the roller coasters. And if I do get on a roller coaster, I have to pop about four Rolaids before we get started.
So, I guess the moral of this story is that I’ve gotten old and wimpy. But I think there’s another lesson to be learned here, which is that there comes a point in time for every person when we no longer have to go to an amusement park to feel like we’re riding a roller coaster. Do y’all know what I’m talking about? We often use that metaphor of a roller coaster when describing our lives. And I think it’s very appropriate, because on the roller coaster of life, just like on a real roller coaster, there are ups and downs, and twists and turns, and unexpected loops that have us shouting with laughter one moment and screaming in fear the next. On the roller coaster of life, there are times of anticipation as we slowly climb up the hill and then there are times of release as we crash down to the bottom.
And had he known what a roller coaster was, I think the prophet Elijah might have appreciated the idea that life is like a roller coaster. Because Elijah’s story is certainly one of dramatic ups and downs. And before we can begin to understand the sound of silence that is mentioned here in this text, I think we need some more background on what brought Elijah to this moment in the first place.
In the previous chapter of 1st Kings, we are told of Elijah’s greatest triumph as a prophet. I’m sure you all remember the story. Elijah challenges 450 prophets of Baal to a showdown and the winner is supposed to be the first one who could get their god to burn up their sacrifice. So, the prophets of Baal do their thing, and they cut themselves with their swords, and they wait for Baal to burn up their sacrifice. But nothing happens.
So then, Elijah takes his bull and places it on the altar and throws three buckets of water over it just for the added effect. And sure enough, when Elijah calls out to the real God, God scorches the bull and even the water in the trench. It’s such an effective demonstration of power that the Israelites confess their allegiance to the real God right then and there. And of course, all the prophets of Baal are killed. And if that was the end of the story, we might say, “Well, Elijah succeeded. The people repented and the bad guys were destroyed. And so, it’s a clear victory.”
But then we get to 1st Kings, Chapter 19. And instead of taking a victory lap around Israel, we find that Elijah is in trouble. It seems that Ahab and Jezebel didn’t take too kindly to having their prophets murdered. They want revenge. And so, Elijah is on the run for his life. Now, keep in mind that this is the same man who just defeated 450 false prophets and rained down fire from heaven. This doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would be easily intimidated. But in verse 4, we read that Elijah was so scared about Ahab and Jezebel’s threats that he begged God to let him die.
Life doesn’t get to be much more of a roller coaster than that. In just a few short verses, Elijah has moved from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. But that is where we get our story for today. It is precisely in his moment of hopelessness that Elijah is brought to the cave where he encounters God in the sound of silence. It is in that moment of sheer desperation that God is suddenly revealed in a new way. And I think that is why you and I need to start learning how to listen with imagination.
Because all of us in this room are like Elijah. We‘re on a roller coaster ride. In any given week, we may be up on the top of the hill or we may be down at the bottom. That is the complexity of our life. We hold our joys and sorrows together. In the same week, we might experience the delight of an old friend calling us on the phone or the discouragement of being sick. We might feel excitement about the anticipation of an upcoming birth or we might feel anxiety over whether or not we’re going to lose our job. It’s a roller coaster.
And the same thing is true in the life of our church. There are times here at Park View Baptist Church when we are charged up and full of energy. And then there are the times when we have a low attendance and some unexpected expenses and things look bleak. I mean, today is a perfect example. Because on the same day that we are celebrating the lives of our graduates, we are also remembering the loss of a beloved church member. So, it’s impossible for us to separate the good from the bad. Our journey is marked by these constant ups and downs. And after a while, the roller coaster ride of life becomes emotionally exhausting because we never can be sure what’s coming around the next bend.
That is why this story from 1st Kings, Chapter 19 is so important. Because in this text, we discover that God is not only present with us in our moments of triumph, but that God is also with us in our moments of loss. God is with us not only in our victories, but also in our defeats.
And that is why we need to learn how to listen with imagination. Because without imagination, it is easy for us to confuse the sound of silence with the absence of God. Did y’all catch that? Without imagination, it is easy for us to confuse the sound of silence with the absence of God.
Sometimes, I think it’s easy for us to hear God in the wind and the earthquake and the fire, but it’s not always so easy for us to hear God in the sound of silence. It’s easy for us to hear God when the children are laughing, but it’s not always so easy for us to hear God when the children are gone and the house is quiet. It’s easy for us to hear God when the sanctuary is full and we are the largest Baptist church in the city of Portsmouth, but it’s not always so easy for us to hear God when the offering plates are empty and the congregation has dwindled to the faithful few.
And that is what sometimes happens to us in our moments of greatest fear and grief. We convince ourselves that God is not present in the silence. And so, instead of being a comfort, the silence becomes a void in which we are overwhelmed by our own despair. And without imagination, it is in those moments of silence when we echo the words of Elijah and we tell God that we might as well be dead.
But a prophet knows how to listen differently. A prophet knows how to listen with imagination. And with that prophetic imagination, you and I are capable of hearing a new reality. You and I are able to discern God’s presence in the sound of silence.
It’s like the story of the mother and her son, Bobby who were washing the dishes in the kitchen one day while the father and daughter were out in the living room watching TV on the couch. And all of a sudden, there was this loud crash and the sound of breaking plates, followed by a complete silence. The daughter turned and looked at her father on the couch and said, “It was mommy!” And the father said, “Well, how do you know that?” And the little girl replied, “Because she didn’t yell at Bobby!”
You see, sometimes we learn more from the silence then we learn from the noise. But we have to know what we’re listening for. Because without imagination, the sound of silence is just that—silence. And silence in and of itself is okay, but it doesn’t do anything. Only with imagination are we able to sense God’s presence in the sound of silence. And only with imagination can that silence open us up to new possibilities.
After his encounter with God in the silence, Elijah was sent out again on a new mission. And by going into the wilderness and experiencing God, Elijah was following in the footsteps of Moses, who had a similar experience on the same mountaintop many years before. And of course, we know of another man many years later, who went out into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights and who also encountered God in the stillness.
So, there is something to this idea of finding God in the silence. It is a recurring motif throughout the Bible. And I think it is one to which we should be more attentive, as we consider what it means to be a prophet in our own day and age.
It’s true that the roller coaster of life is not always fun. And my sermon this morning is not intended to dismiss the reality of pain and grief that you and I experience in our lives. But as people with imagination, we must remember that there is a different reality. And we must not confuse the sound of silence in our lives with the absence of God.
Because this passage of Scripture gives us hope. This passage of Scripture suggests that far from being absent, God is present and at work in the sound of silence. And this morning, I believe that we can take comfort in knowing that God is with us all the time, even in the moments when we least expect it, even in the moments when we are depressed and ready to die. That is the good news of the prophet Elijah. And as the song says: The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls And tenement halls. And whispered in the sounds of silence. AMEN