Good morning! I am Tim Roberts, the pastor here at Sunrise and I would
like to add my welcome to you for worshipping with us here this morning. I also
want to take just a moment to thanks our scouts for assisting us with the
service and for the parents for bringing them to scouts. Scouting was a very
integral part of the formative years of my life. It was about thirty-five years
ago that I was first exposed to the basic tenets of Boy Scouts, the Scout Law
(A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent). I attribute much of who I am
today because of my experience with scouting. So, once again, thank you
parents, and thank you Sunrise, for allowing these boys to develop some
positive life-forming traits through Scouting.
One
of the qualities that I learned through scouting and through my careers as a
paramedic, firefighter, and as a pastor is the need for a balanced life. It is something
we all want and yet find it impossible to maintain. There is little doubt that
we live in a fast-paced world where there are always things to do, deadlines to
meet, family members to take care of or people who need us. We work long hours
and rarely, if ever, take the time to stop and "smell the roses." Most
of us now just accept all that "hectivity" as just the way of life.
Yet we know we need to find balance.
So, I ask you, how do you balance the busyness of life? Take just a
moment and share with those sitting near you how you manage or try to manage
your life.
This morning, we continue looking at some of the disciplines that many
people of faith have developed over the centuries to help them grow in their
faith. These are disciplines that we are calling holy habits and today we will
consider picking up the habit of solitude.
But solitude isn't always a word or a practice that many of us relish. What
do you think of when you hear "solitude"
Some have positive first impressions and some are not so positive. That
is often indicative of our personality.
Who has heard of the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator? In this test
asks a battery of questions and then groups the respondents in one of sixteen
personality profiles. Each person is initially determined to be either an
introvert or an extrovert.
A common misconception is that an introvert is shy and an extrovert is
outgoing. But that's not the case. It has nothing to do with level of shyness
but rather, from where we draw our energy. Extroverts draw their energy from
being around other people while an introvert gains energy from being alone. In
either case, solitude has a definite place for spiritual growth (just with
extroverts, it will require more determination and a modification of our
understanding of it's purpose)
The bible is filled with examples of people engaging in solitude:
- Jesus, in the wilderness
- Jesus calling his disciples
to "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some
rest"
- Peter enraptured in a
heavenly vision while praying on a rooftop
- John, the revelator,
captivated by vision of Heaven and of Jesus
- Ezekiel, witnessing a
strange wheel and a valley of dry bones
- Moses on Mt. Sinai, where
he meets God face-to-face
But there is one story in particular that I would like to consider this
morning - the story of Elijah. Take a look at this story with me.
1 Kings
19.1-12
1 Ahab
reported to Jezebel everything that Elijah had done, including the massacre of
the prophets. 2
Jezebel immediately sent a messenger to Elijah with her threat: "The gods
will get you for this and I'll get even with you! By this time tomorrow you'll
be as dead as any one of those prophets." 3
When Elijah saw how things were, he ran for dear life to Beersheba, far in the
south of Judah. He left his young servant there 4
and then went on into the desert another day's journey. He came to a lone broom
bush and collapsed in its shade, wanting in the worst way to be done with it
all - to just die: "Enough of this, God! Take my life - I'm ready to join
my ancestors in the grave!" 5
Exhausted, he fell asleep under the lone broom bush. Suddenly an angel shook
him awake and said, "Get up and eat!" 6
He looked around and, to his surprise, right by his head were a loaf of bread
baked on some coals and a jug of water. He ate the meal and went back to sleep.
7 The angel
of God came back, shook him awake again, and said, "Get up and eat some
more - you've got a long journey ahead of you." 8
He got up, ate and drank his fill, and set out. Nourished by that meal, he
walked forty days and nights, all the way to the mountain of God, to Horeb. 9
When he got there, he crawled into a cave and went to sleep. Then the word of
God came to him: "So Elijah, what are you doing here?" 10
"I've been working my heart out for the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,"
said Elijah. "The people of Israel have abandoned your covenant, destroyed
the places of worship, and murdered your prophets. I'm the only one left, and
now they're trying to kill me." 11
Then he was told, "Go, stand on the mountain at attention before God. God
will pass by." A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered
the rocks before God, but God wasn't to be found in the wind; after the wind an
earthquake, but God wasn't in the earthquake; 12
and after the earthquake fire, but God wasn't in the fire; and after the fire a
gentle and quiet whisper.
Elijah was a man on the run and for good reason. He had just finished a
showdown at Mt Carmel with four hundred fifty prophets of Baal. It was a
matchup that would make Friday Night
Smackdown look like an episode of Mr.
Roger's Neighborhood. All of King Ahab's prophets were there trying to
prove that their god, Baal, was the supreme god. After several rounds of them
attempting to have Baal demonstrate his power, but to no avail. Then Elijah
stepped up and called on God. God poured down a rain of fire that consumed not
just the sacrifice there, but also the rocks and water nearby. With that, all
of the prophets of Baal were quickly killed.
But as we begin to read today, Jezebel, Ahab's wife was none too happy of
the outcome, since she was a follower of Baal. She sent word out to Elijah,
that while he won this round, he would wind up the biggest loser by the next
day. So, Elijah started running for his life.
It is quite ironic that in many instance in the bible, when those who
find themselves seeking solitude, they are drawn to it through some
supernatural occurrence, like Jesus being led into the wilderness by the Holy
Spirit, or Moses on Mt. Sinai seeking the meaning of the bush that burns yet is
not consumed. But not in Elijah's case here - he is led out of fear for his
life.
Once he gets there, he does what most people would do - he complains. He
pleads God to just let him die (which is exactly what Jezebel was wanting to
have happen).
Elijah wasn't purposefully seeking this time of solitude, nor was he
looking for a teaching moment from God, but that is what he got. He was told to
go out of the cave and watch as God passed by.
The story tells us that first there were a great wind, then an
earthquake, then a fire. Now hold on, where have we seen something like this
before? On yeah, in that encounter Moses had with God - that's how God was
manifested to Moses. But not this time. In this instance, we are told that God
was not in any of these. Where was God?...in the silence.
That is something that we need to learn about solitude - it doesn't
always happen when we want and we can't always control what happens in these
moments. But we can learn from them, if nothing else,
we learn when to speak and when to listen.
But to make solitude a spiritual discipline or, in our case,
a holy habit, we look to those sacred moments that we can instigate. So, for
our purpose here today, solitude means withdrawing from the busyness of our
lives to a place of privacy.
The Christian philosopher, Dallas Willard, puts it this
way: "In solitude, you are learning
to stop doing, stop producing, stop pleasing people, stop entertaining
yourself, stop obsessing — stop doing anything except to simply be your
naked self before God and be found by him." No pretenses, no expectations, no walls to hide behind.
Now, you may be asking, what is
the purpose of solitude? Think about the purpose of any of these habits - to
deepen our faith.
15th century priest, Thomas à Kempis, likened
solitude as developing a “familiar friendship with Jesus.” Doesn't that make
solitude worthwhile to become a habit?
Now, let's take a look at some of the benefits of solitude.
Benefits
of Solitude
- Clarity of purpose
- Increased faith
- Physical and spiritual restoration
- Greater control of the tongue
While I was writing these benefits down, this video
clip kept coming to mind.
(video clip of Gomer Pyle - Thinking with a bucket on his head)
By now, you may realize that the
benefits are unquestionable and you may be starting to ask, "How do I put
this into practice?"
Many people believe that solitude is the same as practicing
a form of Yoga or some other meditation. While those practices may have
benefits, they are not the same.
Dr. Richard Foster, in his book, Celebration of
Discipline, explains that the goal of eastern meditation is “to empty the
mind,” to literally think upon nothing, while through solitude, the Christian
seeks to fill his or her mind with God.
So with that, here are some suggestions to begin the
practice of solitude:
- Find a quiet place that you can be free from interruptions. If you have a favorite place somewhere outdoors, this might be appropriate. But go to the same place each time, rather than trying to explore new surroundings.
- Focus on releasing your fears and worries to God. In a short prayer, give God your concerns about an exam, finances or relationships. Continue by asking for God’s peace and wisdom to deal with your specific issues. Sit in silence and listen.
- Meditate on scripture. This is in contrast to the study of the scripture where you might try to find deep meaning in a passage. Instead, read a passage as if it were written to you. Do not analyze it, but accept it and ponder it in your heart.
- Finally, don’t try to make anything happen. Just allow God the opportunity to speak and for you just to listen.
As
Dr. Foster puts it, "The purpose of silence and solitude is to be able to
see and hear." (Celebration of Discipline, p. 86). The Spirit
speaks to us when our heart is still and silent before the Lord – not when
we’re rushing about and doing our own thing in our own way.
If
solitude is a practice that you think that you want to make a habit, it will
probably be one of those that you will need to build up to. While our hearts
may yearn to hear God's voice in the quiet, the world will not let up on its
screaming at us and demanding our attention. So, let's start by finding those
moments of solitude.
Moments of Solitude
- Early morning before the family awakens
- Bumper to bumper traffic, no radio or cell phone
- A quiet place in nature
- A church sanctuary
- A chapel
- A closet
Solitude is not always the easiest habit to form, but it is
one that can become foundational for so many others. That's what makes it a
discipline worthy to become a holy habit.
While the band is coming up to close us out of this time of
worship, take just a few moments to share with someone sitting near you
something that may have resonated with you this morning.
Solitude is not
a private therapeutic place. Rather, it is the place of conversion, the place
where the old self dies and the new self is born… (Henri Nouwen)
