Struck Dumb By Silence?

What if the primary call of the Church of Jesus Christ, on planet earth, this December is sharing God's gift of silence??? Sharing silence..... with a world, and a Church that is often bent on filling the silence with noise. Have we become uncomfortable with the gift of silence? Do we work diligently to fill every moment of time with something, or can we be still.....and wait......and listen for The Coming One?

In, When God Is Silent,  Barbara Brown Taylor helps us to ponder the gift of silence, writing:  "....silence is as much a sign of God's presence as of God's absence - the divine silence is not a vacuum to be filled but a mystery to be entered into, unarmed with words and undistracted by noise - a holy of holies in which we too may be struck dumb by the power of the unsayable God."

Philips Brooks, an Episcopal clergyman, and later Bishop of Massachusetts, penned the verses of, "O, Little Town Of Bethlehem" after returning from a trip to Palestine in the late 1800s. We can hardly imagine an Advent or Christmas in which we wouldn't sing this hymn. At the dawning of Advent 2013, this is the verse, in particular, that the Church seems called to embody and proclaim. Will we dare to share God's gift of silence ? .....

                                 How silently, how silently,
                                   The wondrous gift is given;
                                 So God imparts to human hearts
                                   The blessings of His Heaven.
                                 No ear may hear His coming,
                                   But in this world of sin,
                                 Where meek souls will receive Him still,
                                   The dear Christ enters in.

Still In ONE Peace,

Jon(theMethodist)