Silence.

“God deflects our attempts at control by withdrawing into silence, knowing that nothing gets to us like the failure of our speech. When we run out of words, then and perhaps only then can God be God. When we have eaten our own words until we are sick of them, when nothing we can tell ourselves makes a dent in our hunger, when we are prepared to surrender the very Word that brought us into being in hopes of hearing it spoken again – then, at last, we are ready to worship God.” – Barbara Brown Taylor, When God Is Silent

We watched Jesus Camp last night – a documentary about the state of fundamentalist Christianity in America. It was disturbing. It showed again and again how much liberty certain persons and organizations are taking in speaking for God – a commission that American religion has always understood to be part and parcel of the Christian faith. But to suggest only American Christians abuse the right of speech would be wrong. In fact, it seems much more of an overall cultural problem. The vast majority of words from every media angle, the splattering of text on billboards, the constant access to news: we are saturated with messages as though we are experiencing the mind numbing indoctrination of They Live (okay, no one is really going to get that reference).

Elsewhere in her great study, Barbara Brown Taylor acknowledges the work of George Steiner (a literary critic) who speaks about the “broken covenant between the word and the world.” Steiner states that western civilization has long placed a significant emphasis on the relationship between word (logos) and world (cosmos). This relationship was clearly critical to early Christian thought. However, for a number of reasons, “word and world” has been greatly severed. Words – more and more – do not connote truth or reality. Some do. But, most have become conscripted and drafted for advertising or manipulative reasons. Words are now most valuable for the impression or image they create.

Given the profuse and profane use of words, Barbara Brown Taylor makes the astute point that God’s best defense in such a world may just be to retreat into silence for a time – to give humanity time to realize the famine that surrounds them. Thus, an irony is born: at a point in history when people all over the world seem just as willing as ever to talk about (and for) God (despite all the taboo, secular embarrassments to do just the opposite), there is an ever growing absence or silence from God.

God’s silence or absence is not a realm anyone really wants to address or think too much about. Frankly, it’s frightening. And for me, it is doubly so, for I accepted a call to speak and proclaim the “Word of the Lord.” Without a word from the Lord, I am out at sea without a paddle to get home. But, then again, so is everyone else. If there really is only silence behind all that has ever been than our souls seem to take a collective hit to the stomach.

Still, despite the harsh, cold reality of silence, it cannot be avoided – especially when speaking of God and faith.

The silence of God, which seems so unattractive or heretical to fundamentalist Christian ears, is nonetheless a pivotal piece of Scripture. In commenting on another scholar named Richard Elliot Friedman and his work The Disappearance of God, she writes: “Working his way from Genesis to the minor prophets, he paints a portrait of God that fades as he goes. Divine features that were distinct at the beginning of the story grow blurry as God withdraws, stepping back from human beings so that they have room to step forward.”

And, as a Hebrew scholar, Friedman is also aware of the distinctive between the Hebrew Scriptures and the Old Testament. While both the Hebrew and Christian tradition consist of the same texts, the ordering is different – such that in the Hebrew tradition, the progression flows from “action to speech to silence” (here, I am quoting from Jack Miles’ God: A Biography). And, as Miles also points out, the “silence” consists the book of Esther, which is unique in that it no where even mentions God.

Christian tradition – as alluded to above – alters this a bit – choosing to place the “ten books of silence” in the middle of the Old Testament and closing with the prophets who speak for God (Miles). Although, a critical or sober examination of the New Testament and of Christian history also suggests a similar theme of action to speech to silence. First is the action of the “Word made flesh” through the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. After that, come the works and words of the apostles – those sent to carry the good news to the nations. And while not dramatic or prolonged, the early church did have to wrestle with why God had not yet returned or given another word (as in Paul’s letters to the Thessalonian church).

Furthermore, the very last revelation given to John is ripe with poignancy and irony. In conclusion, the Lord says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” To which the one receiving the revelation gladly affirms, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” The door is opened for hopeful expectation that God will soon return, act and – through the Word – create a new heaven and a new earth. This is precisely where the period of silence seems to break in again.

Yet, how long is “quickly?” Two-thousand plus years sure seems like a long time to me and most, but, then again, that may just be a drop in the ocean to God. In any case, the last words of Scripture convey an immediacy of action about to break upon the world, and, yet, the Church has labored through two millennia.

This is not an easy, clear-cut issue. Many assert God continues to speak and has spoken through the long course of the Church – through various miracles and through the persistent, yet hopeful display of the Gospel in the world through sermon, sacrament and community.

Other Christians have been even more blunt – confidently declaring that various natural acts of destruction or political events were the voice, action or judgment of the Lord. Or, in the more personal realm, many persons have claimed experiences of divine revelation and speech – anointing them for various purposes, comforting them during a crisis, or just appearing like a ghost in some common elements of nature – a tortilla, a sunset, etc.

But could it be that God is purposefully creating space for silence? Silence is not intrinsically a bad thing. Silence often raises our awareness. It cultivates readiness. Indeed, it may be these very things that make silence so attractive to God. God may just delight in crafting times for us to respond to God’s silence by lifting up our own voices. As giver of life, God’s most courageous, vulnerable gift might just be waiting in the background, letting His children take turns trying to order and create.

If so, that is incredibly risky – as proved by the many, destructive ways humanity has taken great liberty to speak up for God and thereby spoken against God’s original message.

In any case, I have been thinking about what God might say when God does show up again. Here’s my best guess so far:

As God condescends to God’s creation, to speak a final word, God’s hand extends towards the earth. And on God’s hand, the index finger extends – taking the position of blame and accusation, aimed at the whole of humanity. And as men and women, babes and elders take cover to hear the mighty force of God’s voice yet again, the same hand of God now retreats towards God’s face. And that index finger poised to blame now falls gently over God’s lips.

“Shhh,” is the first word. Silence. Again. At last. God has something to say.

Wes