The Sign in the Vestry

I've decided that it may be a good thing to put my sermons on the web. This isn't for any pride in my ability to preach, but rather that God has called me to be a Reader in the Church of England, and I must preach His word. In truth to hear me speak of my own power is like listening to a car with a dodgy starter motor making several failed attempts to get going. This sermon, however, is what I received of God, I pray that He speaks to you as He spoke to me. The imperfections are mine, the glory is God's.

Sermon preached on 15th January 2006 at St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Swanscombe based on 1 Samuel iii:1-20, Revelation v:1-10 and St John 1:43-end.

Karl heard the voice about seven years ago.
So he answered the call
and now he has just been ordained priest.
So where does he go from here?
Which parish should he apply to?
Karl thinks that the best thing to do
is to ask the One who called him
in the first place.
So he prays,
"Dear Lord show me where to go."
Silence.

He prays again,
a longer prayer this time.
"Dear Lord, I really want to serve you.
If I am to do that,
then show me which way to go."
Silence.

So Karl does what other Christians have done
throughout the centuries.
He prays,
he fasts,
he goes on retreat,
he goes to all the services -
Matins,
Lauds,
Prime,
Terce,
Sext,
None,
Vespers,
and Compline each day
for a month.

He says novenas,
rosaries,
lights candles,
burns incense,
goes to charismatic prayer evenings,
speaks in tongues, sings songs.
Nothing.
Silence.

Is Karl wasting his time?
[PAUSE]

Did you hear how Samuel
was called to serve God?
The boy is woken up in the night
by a voice calling him.
He answers the call
and in so doing enters the Bible
as one of the great heroes.
Simple as that?

Did you hear how Nathanael
is called to serve God?
The man is sitting under the fig-tree
when he is called by his friends
to come and meet the man from Nazareth.
By answering that call,
Nathanael learns that something good
can come out of Nazareth,
and he himself calls others
to follow Christ.
Simple as that?

Well, it’s alright for these Biblical blokes,
they get called and they do something
to serve God.
Is it really as simple as that?
What about Karl?
What about us?

[PAUSE]

And then there’s St John the Divine,
writer of the last book of the Bible -
the Apocalypse,
the Book of Revelation.

Let’s join St John in what he is seeing.

We see God on a throne
in a blaze of His Glory.
He holds a scroll,
a book covered in very small print
and bound up with seven pieces of string.
Each piece of string has its ends stuck together
with a wax seal.

So what’s in the book?
What has God got to tell us
in this wonderful looking tome?
Surely it’s going to be good!
He calls us to look and see.
Does this book hold the answer
to what Karl needs to hear?
Does this book have something to tell us?

[PAUSE]

First, the Lamb of God
has to break the seven seals
in order to open the book.
This takes ages,
and every time one seal gets broken,
things happen.
The famous four horsemen run amok,
we meet the martyrs under an altar,
there is an earthquake.
You could say that all Hell is let loose
but that happens more towards the end.
In short, there’s chaos.
That’s the first six seals.
Only when the seventh seal gets broken,
can the wonderful book be opened.
Then what happens?

[longish PAUSE]

There is silence.
Silence in heaven for about half an hour.

All that calamity and then silence!
Think of Karl,
he has had seven years of upheaval,
wrestling with his calling,
trying to obey the voice that calls
insisting that he follow.
His life has been terribly complicated
having to fill out forms
and meet bishops
and directors of ordinands
and vocations advisors,
go to selection conferences
and then go back to University
to study.
His life has been utterly changed.

And now he sits,
having obeyed God,
clad in his dog-collar
desperately trying to hear
what God wants him to do now.
All he gets is silence.
Why?

[PAUSE]

Silence in Heaven for about half an hour.

Perhaps God has gone
to watch Coronation Street on telly?

But why half an hour?
Surely God doesn’t need to rest again,
he’s already taken one day off.
No.
It isn’t for God’s benefit that there is silence.
It’s for us.
It’s for St John who has just seen
the world torn apart
by four horsemen on a spree,
by earthquakes,
winds and fires.
This silence is for Karl,
a chance to catch up on himself,
to take stock.
A chance just to be with his Creator
- our Creator -
who sometimes just wants us
to keep still so that he can look us over
and delight in what He has made.

As Jesus is baptised in the Jordan,
the Father cries out,
"behold my beloved son,
I am so pleased with Him."
And then Jesus spends a while in the wilderness,
almost in silence.

In the same way,
there are periods in our lives
when God just wants to stop
and look at us and say "This person is mine,
and I’m over the moon about it."
He wants to consider carefully who we are.
But do we really let Him do this?

[PAUSE]

Karl has been trying to fill this silence
with the noise of his prayers,
readings,
organising retreat after retreat,
because he believes that God’s silence is wrong.
But Karl hasn’t presented himself
in that silence
to God who would dearly love to say
"You’ve become a priest.
I am so pleased with you."

Whatever God wants Karl to do,
He will give Karl plenty of time to do it.
At this moment,
He wants to see what Karl has become.
Karl isn’t alone,
there are silences for Samuel,
and Nathanael too,
indeed for all the people of God,
since we are all called.

[PAUSE]

Sometimes the silence of God
occurs when we least want it -
when we’ve got a big decision
to make in life,
or if we’re ill,
or losing one we love.
Then the silence of God swallows us up
and we feel He is not there.
We shout and scream and make noises,
but God is not going to break His silence,
because He knows what He’s doing
even if we don’t,
and He is in charge.
Yes, He is in charge.

[PAUSE]

There’s a sign in the vestry in this very church.
It says "Silence" in large menacing letters.
What is this sign telling you?
How will you respond?