Sermon 11th September 2022 – Creation Sunday

 Sermon 11^th September 2022 – Creation Sunday

As you wake in the morning the sounds begin. It may be the alarm clock that wakes you – or the neighbour’s car starting as they leave for work or their car alarm which annoys you rather than concerns you. It may be your dog or your neighbour’s dog or some other pet telling you they need food.

From there it’s noise from everywhere – TV, Radio, traffic, people. Which is quite sad in a way because we actually miss the beautiful sounds of creation that are all around us. The birds tweeting – the wind blowing and rustling – even the sound of sheer silence – which is a sound as we remember that God revealed himself to Elijah in sheer silence.

We have grown so accustomed to noise that we don’t know how to listen to the sounds around us. Notice the difference – noise and sound. We cannot hear the sounds around us in creation – in the voice of God – because of the noise all around us. And when we don’t hear noise we feel uncomfortable. We put the TV on when we get home not to watch something but to continue the noise.

When we sit with someone in silence we feel uncomfortable and feel we need to speak and say something and so often we end up saying something we wish we hadn’t. Think of Job in his great suffering visited by his friends. They sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was. It was when they began to speak that problems began.

Why is silence so hard to deal with? Do you ever surround yourself with noise intentionally because the silence is so difficult to deal with? Are you afraid of what you might hear in the silence.

St Francis of Assisi would preach to the birds in the morning and believed that their greeting of the new day with their chirping  was a song of praise to God. How many other sounds of creation are simply “noises” that annoy us rather than enthral us as a symphony that God has created in creation. In fact St Paul talks about the sounds of creation that join our suffering and anguish to God: In Romans he says: We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Has the birds tweeting – the dogs barking – the wind howling – the possums screeching been rejected as noise because we don’t understand them – rather than seeing them as part of God’s symphony in creation. Are they joining in our voices of concern for the state of the world and we pulled the pillow over our head or thought or shouted I wish they would be quiet?

So many times we ponder and wish God would be more active in our lives – that he would speak to us. Perhaps he is but we have drowned him out. Perhaps he is speaking to us in ways we don’t understand through the sounds of creation that we have translated as noise. “Do you wish God’s voice would be louder in your life?” Does all the noise in our lives make it hard to hear God? Remember Jesus invitation. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest – rest for your souls. Psalm 4 says -  when you are on your beds resting, search your hearts and be silent.

Isn’t it interesting how silence plays a big part in God’s communication. We often think of silence as God’s inaction but when Elijah was stressed and worried about all the things going on around him God spoke to him in his creation – but not in the wind or the fire or the earthquake – but in the sound of silence. Have you spent the same amount of time worrying and talking about your difficult, confusing situations as you have spent in silence, listening to what God might be saying to you? Do you sometimes avoid silence because you’re afraid of what God might actually have to say to you?

Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed but it doesn’t say what he prayed – maybe he listened in silence. “Is it possible that you’ve been searching for God in the voice of creation - in the winds … the earthquakes and fires … and he’s already speaking to you in the silence.

Let us wake each morning and spend time in silence before we turn on the noises of the day to listen to God speaking to us. But remember that speaking may also be silence – so much so that it becomes a deafening silence. I remember in my first Parish in Minyip. The chairman drove us around showing us the farming community. He stopped the car and we got out. It was a still day – not a breeze to be seen, heard or felt. We got out and looked at the flat plain and I experienced what I’ve never experienced before. The sound of sheer silence – and it hurt – it was uncomfortable – it was a deafening silence. And I’ll never forget that. God’s voice is all around us in his creation but sometimes we need to stop and be silent.

As Jesus said when he was told to make the crowds keep silent when they were praising God – The whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” All creation is crying out praises to God – let us take that time each day to stop and listen and hear God’s voice of creation even in the silence.