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Sounds of Silence

Posted March 11, 2008

Recently, I attended a Quaker meeting. You know what we did? Nothing! We sat there for 55 minutes—in silence(!), , , shhh.

Most of us don’t do silence very well. Americans, I mean. We’re about business, action. We don’t like to wait. And silence feels like waiting.

Silence, though, is a very important part of spiritual development. Growth requires listening. “Waiting on the Lord,” is what the Psalmist calls it. That’s how you renew your strength, right?

Maybe the Quakers are on to something. But that’s not easy for professional clergy to accept. We are much more comfortable with the common expectation that worship is doing something. We have to justify our presence (and salaries). That means filling communal worship time with stuff—what we call liturgy: songs and sermons, choirs or rock bands, even prayers (but preferably not the silent variety).

I used to think we don’t really need communal silence. There’s plenty of silence in our lives: when we sleep, on our solo commutes (most of the time), umm, when we watch TV. OK. So TV is not really silence.

But we can be silent when alone: During moments of reflection or when you go fishing or gardening, golfing or sailing.

That’s true. But I discovered something surprising during the Quaker meeting. At first, I was intimidated by the prospect of nearly an hour of silence. Mind you, the basic idea is that people are listening for God’s word. And if an individual perceives a word from God for the community, it is understood that those words will be expressed to everyone present.

But you basically spend most of your time in silence. What would I do? Get bored? Fall asleep?! What if I heard something from God? What if I felt compelled to share it? That would feel tacky, since I was a first time visitor.

None of those things happened. That was my surprise. Not that I didn’t "hear" anything. I did. But it was not necessarily for the whole group so I was not compelled to speak it out.

I was surprised because I never grew bored. I never came close to falling asleep, even though I was tired. The energy and faith of the community was a source of strength. The presence of the community provided a sustained focus that I have never found during a similar duration of individual reflection.

God calls us into community. God wants to be reconciled to all creation, not just an individual or two. Our souls find relief from boredom and loneliness not in prayer closets or in busy-ness, but in community. That’s surprising.