Silence – Introduction and Our Wordy World
Silence completes and intensifies solitude. This is the conviction shared by the Desert Fathers. In such a (wordy) world, who can maintain respect for words? … All this is to suggest that words have lost their creative power. … The word no longer communicates, no longer fosters communion, no longer creates community, and therefore no longer gives life.
Our words do not have power to create. Our words do not give life. Though this is a popular teaching, it is only God’s words which have any power and which bring any life.
"Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess." (Deuteronomy 32:46-47)
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (John 5:24)
Words that do not communicate, bring community or foster communion are human words. Human words fail, lead astray and prove untrue. True preaching is the communicating of GOD’s words to man. That does not fail.
This God—his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. (Psalm 18:30) "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:25)
In Scripture, Jesus warns against ‘babbling’ or repeating many phrases in an effort to be heard by God (Matthew 6). But we are not taught to instead retreat into silence. We are reminded that our Father knows what we need before we ask Him. Our attitude is to be one of trust and faith. And we need to ask for what we need, using words.
It is Biblical to speak carefully and thoughtfully and to stay away from pointless chatter or ungodly speech. The ability to communicate using language is a gift from God to us. The Biblical opposite of many words is not silence, but care to speak the truth God has revealed, and not our own ‘truth’.
Silence
By ‘silence’ Henri Nouwen does not simply mean being quiet. It is the reaching of a spiritual void that is being taught.
…the word is the instrument of the present world and silence the mystery of the future world. If a word is to bear fruit it must be spoken from the future world into the present world. The Desert Fathers therefore considered their going into the silence of the desert to be a first step into the future world. From that world their words could bear fruit, because there they could be filled with the power of God’s silence.’
There are a number of statements here that either conflict with or have no basis in the Bible. It appears that ‘the future world’ here refers to heaven, or a future life with God. Looking carefully at several Biblical references to heaven (defined here as the place where God is) it is quite clear that silence is definitely not a normal state there. Rather, God’s Kingdom is continually filled with praises.
From the Bible, we learn heaven is full of noise and activity! There is no such thing in the Bible as ‘the power of God’s silence’.
When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army. (Ezekiel 1:24)
I heard the wheels being called "the whirling wheels.” (Ezekiel 10:13)
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise— the fruit of lips that confess his name. (Hebrews 13:15)
And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices… (Rev 4:5a)
Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." (Rev 4:8-11)
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" (Rev 5:10-12)
It is quite clear here that the place where the God of the Bible dwells is not a silent place! Where then is the silent place Henri Nouwen and the Desert Fathers seek?
First the term ‘silence’ should be defined as it is used in the Bible, and then the definition used by the Desert Fathers can be compared with that.
The term ‘silence’ used in the Bible (NIV used here) has the following meanings:
-made to stop speaking or boasting, to be shamed
-waiting for someone (human) to speak, listening
-silence of death or Hades -silence of utter destruction
-grief, sorrow or mourning -humility (as before someone greater)
-fear (not capable of words, terrified)
-respectful silence, as before a king
There is only one instance we read of a different silence, and it is found in Revelation 8:
When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
This unusual silence precedes a specific judgment, and is notable for its uniqueness as well as the fact we are told how long it lasted. This also confirms the idea of heaven not normally being a silent place.
So where is the silent place? The silence is the place of the dead!
Let me not be put to shame, O LORD, for I call upon You; Let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol. (Psalm 31:17)
If the LORD had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. When I thought, "My foot slips," your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up. (Psalm 94:17)
The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any who go down into silence. (Psalm 115:17)
The prophets of the Bible, who received Words from God, did not retreat into mystical silences in order to connect in a supernatural experience. God’s spoken revelations were always initiated by God, not by man. In Acts 18:9. the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision, saying “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent”, for it was through speaking that people heard the good news. We are told to speak the truth in love, to proclaim Christ. To do that we need to speak!
Can you imagine if all the apostles had retreated to the desert, with vows of silence, instead of proclaiming the truth?
Silence Guards the Fire Within
This inner heat (of religious emotions) is the life of the Holy Spirit within us. Thus, silence is the discipline by which the inner fire of God is tended and kept alive...implies a need to ‘tend’ God, as the inner fire. This is not only unbiblical, it is blasphemous.
Silence Teaches Us How to Speak
A word with power is a word that comes out of silence. A word that bears fruit is a word that emerges from the silence and returns to it. It is a word that reminds us of the silence from which it comes and leads us back to that silence. A word that is not rooted in silence is a weak, powerless word that sounds like a ‘clashing cymbal or a booming gong’ (1 Corinthians 13:1)
This statement does not have any practical meaning. The quote from 1 Corinthians actually has to do with speaking with love, or speaking without love. Love is not ‘silence’. References again are made to ‘the divine silence’ which is not a Biblical concept of God, but of hades.
It (the silence) allows us to speak a word that participates in the creative and re-creative power of God’s own Word.
Biblically, before the fall, it was intended for humanity to rule over God’s completed creation. We do not participate in God’s creating. Nor do we use human words to participate in recreating ourselves or anything else. God alone is the Creator.
The Ministry of Silence - Silence and Preaching
There is a way of preaching in which the word of Scripture is repeated quietly and regularly, with a short comment here and there, in order to let that word create an inner space where we can listen to our Lord. If it is true that the word of Scripture should lead us into the silence of God, then we must be careful to use that word not simply as an interesting or motivating word, but as a word that creates the boundaries within which we can listen to the loving, caring, gentle presence of God…This meditative preaching is one way to practice the ministry of silence.
The phrase used in this section (and repeated many times throughout the book) ‘slowly descend with the mind into the heart’ is a term for contemplative prayer. Every mystical branch of every religion…Kabbalah (Judaism), Sufism (Hinduism), yogic traditions, Gnostic, new age or ‘christian’ contemplative practices…they all use the same technique of entering the same mystical ‘silence’, and they all have the same goal: union with the ‘divine’.
The God of the Bible is a set-apart God, who will not share His glory (Isaiah 42:8 and 48:11) with the god of the silence.
The Ministry of Silence - Silence and Counseling
Here it is recommended that counselor and counselee together enter ‘into the loving silence of God’… waiting there for the healing Word.’ The claim is that this is the way to ‘discern God’s will’. Yet His will for all of us is clearly and fully revealed in Scripture:
Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the LORD'S commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? (Deut 10:12)
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. (Ecclesiastes 12:13)
I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. (Acts 20:27)
The Ministry of Silence - Silence and Organizing
Here he states that what guides a pastor’s role is helping keep people from becoming so busy ‘that they can no longer hear the voice of God who speaks in silence.’ They are, he says, to call them ‘away from the fragmenting and distracting wordiness of the dark world to that silence in which they can discover themselves, each other and God.’
God is not unable to make Himself heard. He does not need OUR silence in order for us to hear Him. He does not speak when WE decide to listen.
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)
If one’s heart has been changed from a heart of stone (self-willed) to a heart of flesh (seeking God’s will) through true repentance and the forgiveness of sins, then one will have a hunger, given naturally by the Holy Spirit, for God and His Word. It will never be a discipline to spend time learning of Him and praying to Him, pondering His will and repenting from one’s own. We will grow in our trust of Him and we will have joy in obedience as we walk with Him!
Henri Nouwen teaches that it is through the self-discipline of our efforts that we acquire this heart of flesh, and that is Biblically untrue. God and God alone gives this new heart. The Holy Spirit teaches, counsels and guides in everyday life, as we work out the will of God in our life through obedience. The spirit that comes in the silence Henri Nouwen teaches of is not the same spirit. The spirit that inhabits that dark stillness is not God.
Conclusion
If we do not come near to God in silence, as Henri Nouwen teaches, how do we come near the God of the Bible in a way He allows, and grow in faith?
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. (Acts 17:20)
Persevere in trials, believing and not doubting…ask God for wisdom, Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry…get rid of moral filth and humbly accept the Word planted in you…Do not only listen to the Word, do what it says… look into and continue to look into the perfect law that brings freedom…keep a rein on your tongue…look after widows and orphans in their distress…keep yourself from being polluted by the world. (James 1)
Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. (2 John 1:9-11)
It IS Biblically valid to say that ‘resting in God’ or ‘resting in Christ’ means living in a deep and abiding trust in Him in all situations and at all times. And living out that trust in our everyday choices and actions.
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