Selah (Part 2)
Indianapolis First Friends
Pastor Bob Henry
November 10, 2019
Habakkuk 2:20
But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him!
Back when I was an Anglican Priest serving at the Cathedral in Rochester Hills, MI, my bishop would enter for morning prayers, raise his hands to the heavens, and say those words, which David read for our scripture passage this morning.
The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!
After those words we entered a time of silence and pause. It slowed our pace, it made us look around our sanctuary with reverence and awe, and even began to center us into the silence of worship.
Yet, I remember one day, sitting in the Cathedral sanctuary and hearing those words, and being stopped in my tracks. I had been preparing for a sermon on 1 Corinthians 6:19 which reads…
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”
I wondered to myself, how I had missed this. The Lord is in his holy temple – that holy temple is me and my sisters and brothers surrounding me, and not the cathedral I was sitting in for prayers. This is one of the great spiritual migrations within Scripture and for us as Quakers – a migration from the brick and mortar temples to the bodily temples of flesh and blood. Thus, I realized a Quaker truth that our physical bodies or temples must become silent so that the God within us may be heard and experienced.
This morning I want to spend some time sharing some thoughts, but also inserting a couple of Selahs (as we talked about last week) for pause, silent reflection, and listening.
To begin, we often talk about the center of our temples being the heart. This comes from our Jewish roots. The Hebrew people believed that the heart was the center or core of our being because it was where the breath of God co-mingled with our blood, entering our bodies to give us life.
I have heard people say that it is our heart which yearns for God, when in reality it is our heart, or the core of our being, that is our most precious and powerful connection to God. As Quakers we would call this “connecting to our Inner Light or the Christ or God within.”
Yet, let’s be honest, there are so many distractions in our world that get in the way of us attaining the proper posture to make this heart connection.
Last week our scripture spoke of how this heart connection may be made. Psalm 46 read, “Be Still and Know that I Am God.” A simple phrase we often overlook or assume we understand.
Being still, is not so easy in our fast-paced world. Even when we slow down and silence our lives, our minds continue to work, and our lives continue to distract us from making this connection. A couple of years ago, Sue told me how doctors said that we should not be looking at our smart phones before we go to bed, because our brains are so stimulated that they cannot fully become still and rest – so as we sleep technology keeps are minds working. And technology is only one of the distractors we face in our world that keep us from stillness.
For you and me, being still, finding time for a Selah-pause, and entering silence can be hard, but in reality, it should be a welcomed process. This means it will take some set-apart time, practice, discipline, committed dedication and the removal of distractions for us to make a deeper heart connection.
J. Krishnamurti in his book, Freedom from the Known said it this way…
If one wants to see a thing very clearly, one’s mind must be very quiet, without all the prejudices, the chattering, the dialogue, the images, the pictures–all that must be put aside to look. And it is only in silence that you can observe the beginning of thought–not when you are searching, asking questions, waiting for a reply. So, it is only when you are completely quiet, right through your being…then you will begin to see out of that silence how thought takes shape…
With that thought, let us take a Selah and quiet ourselves this morning to begin to make that heart connection with our Inner Light or the Christ or God within.
Selah [Pause]
As we continue, let us think about the concept of surrender.
As the quote indicated, quieting our minds, our prejudices, the chatterings, the dialogue, the images that we are bombarded with at every minute will take personal surrender.
As Quakers we believe we are all created equal, but we must realize we all do not access our Inner Light or the Christ or God within in the same way. Some of us have a much more difficult time surrendering to the distractions than others. Surrender to some is weakness or giving up, and even others cannot surrender because they feel gripped by fear or pain.
Yet, when we are willing and able to enter this place of surrender to that of God within us, we are able to experience a sense of personal forgiveness and true love in an intimate and personal way.
It becomes a force that surges through our bodies and minds - a power that lifts us beyond ourselves in ways previously unimagined. George Fox and the Early Quakers called this “The Power of the Lord.” Scott Martin in Friends Journal wrote,
“The Power of the Lord” had multiple meanings for Fox and other early Friends, but the most common use of the phrase was to refer to a sensible, divine power or energy. Friends would experience this power surrounding them or flowing through their bodies under a variety of conditions, but most often at the point of convincement, when facing a trial, or during meeting for worship. An experience of the power was often associated with some kind of involuntary physical or mental phenomenon. When seized by the power, some Friends quaked, vocalized, or fell unconscious to the floor, while other Friends saw brilliant light, had visions, experienced healing, or felt a force emanating from them that was capable of subduing an angry and hostile mob…
Isaac Pennington’s advice to the seekers of the 17th century applies equally to the seekers among us today: Oh, sit, sit daily and sink down to the seed and “wait for the risings of the power … that thou mayst feel inward healing.”
When we surrender the distractions and make a connection to our inner light or the Christ or God within, we too may experience “The Power of God.” Something, our world and Quakerism so desperately needs. I sense the “power rising” at First Friends. People among us are speaking up, are experiencing physical, spiritual, and emotional healing, are having visions and taking action to help change our world.
Again, let us take a Selah to quiet ourselves, to seek connection, and ask for “The Power of the Lord” to rise within and among us here this morning.
Selah [Pause]
Finally, Richard Rohr says:
The Good News is that it’s not about being correct. It’s about being connected. When the Spirit within you connects with God’s Spirit … you are finally home. Now you know that your deepest you is God, and Christ is living his life in you and through you and with you.
Once we have experienced that connection and power that longs, rises, and, and responds outwardly through acts of beauty, Truth, goodness, and healing, we release ourselves from much of what occupies our daily life, our ways of relating, what we talk about, who we talk about, and what usually directs our actions. You and I are not only being guided by our inner light or Christ or God within, but we should also be recognizing and realizing that of God in each person we meet. Once we realize and acknowledge that of God in ourselves – we cannot dismiss that of God in our neighbor – no matter their gender, orientation, race, status, culture, or religious experience.
As we Quakers make our own heart connections, a natural response should rise up inside of us to seek and begin to see that of God in those around us. People we can practice a better way of living with. A way rooted in the connecting love of God. A way that seeks to trust each other, to build each other up, to encourage and support each other, and learn to live in ways we cannot currently imagine. This is what I consider living the Quaker Way rooted in love.
Laura Madson imagined it this way.
“A Light begins to grow within us that reveals Life in a way we couldn’t see before. A boldness emerges within us that we are held by. We know experientially, simply, and humbly, that Life is very sweet and precious. That all that we seek individually in our busy separate lives finds its rest by finding its place within the recognition of our Unity.”
May this morning our heart connections, find “The Power of the Lord,” and unite us together in this Quaker Way rooted in love.
As we enter our final Selah this morning, let us consider this our waiting worship in the manner of Friends. Take a moment to pause and reflect on what has been said, seek to make the heart connection, and consider the queries for this morning.
Why is it difficult for me to get completely quiet? What are my distractions?
When I finally become silent, do I sense the presence of God?
What connections in the silence bring life to me?