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Edit — Quaker worship began without pastors or clergy leading. It was simple gathering where Friends would seek to hear what the Spirit of the Living God had to say in their midst. Out of the silence, a Friend would speak when they felt led by the Spirit to share what they heard in their hearts. This sitting in silence together, in the presence of Christ Jesus who “is come to teach the people himself” (an early statement from George Fox about the real presence of Christ in their worship gatherings), was for Friends their practice of communion. One does not need the bread and wine when Christ is present with you. Over time, Friends’ practice has shifted. There are still Friends who meet in this expectant waiting silence (they are sometimes referred to as “unprogrammed” Friends) and there are now Friends who have pastors, sing, pray, share in teachings from the bible, and practice silence (they are sometimes referred to as “programmed” Friends). Both groups generally understand listening to God’s Spirit, experiencing communion together as a meeting, and participating in the co-leading of worship to be central to their worship but they practice that in different ways. Whereas for early Friends “unprogrammed” worship was the norm, today, there are far more “programmed” Friends around the world.

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Body: SILENCE You can learn in silence what sound can never teach you. Howard Thurman tells of one of his University students who was a deep sea diver. He wrote of his experience of being on the bottom of the ocean. The water was clear, and he was in the midst of a coral rock garden. He sat down to look around. Occasionally a fish would swim up to take a look at him, and then pass the word to his friends, for soon there were many curious fish about him. As he sat there, the beauty of the garden became more intense. Plants had opened up revealing what looked like blossoms. He felt like he was in a beautiful flower garden. It was wonderful. He enjoyed it for a long while, but then he realized he could not stay there forever, and he started to go about his business. As soon as he moved all the flowers disappeared. They were living things, and they emerged only when there was silence and stillness. The activist sea diver who comes splashing through such a garden would never see its full beauty. He learned that there are marvelous things you will never see unless you sit in silence. The point of Psa. 46:10 is that there are things about the Creator, as well as His creation, that can only be learned by those who have developed the discipline of silence. "Be still, and know that I am God." An unknown poet wrote: In every life There's a pause that is better than onward rush, Better than hewing or mightiest doing; 'Tis the standing still at sovereign will. There's a hush that is better than ardent speech, Better than sighing or wilderness crying; 'Tis the being still at sovereign will. The pause and the hush sing a double song, In unison low and for all time long, Of human soul, God's working plan Goes on, nor heeds the aid of man! Be still, and see! Be still, and know! The Bible has a great deal to say about the value of quietness, but it is greatly neglected in our culture because we are a sound-oriented culture. We specialize in making everything that makes sound portable so that we can have the sound even at the beach, or out on the lake, or camping in the woods. We have made it possible to escape silence completely, even if we find ourselves in the most remote area. We have made it possible to banish silence from our lives almost completely. There was a tunnel down in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where radio waves did not penetrate, and there was a 20 to 30 second break as motorists went through. A man got permission to set up a system inside the tunnel to give weather information so drivers would not have to endure the agony of that few seconds of silence. We live in a culture which is anti-silence. Even Christians have a very difficult time identifying with a Biblical value of quietness. Eccles. 9:17says, "The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools." Because of radio and TV, we tend to hear the shouters and noisy voices rather than the quiet ones. Psa. 131:2 says, "But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me." The peace and contentment of a satisfied child is an ideal state of mind. The crying aggravated child whose hunger pain makes it a noise box of perpetual disturbance is not the ideal. Christians tend to fall into these two categories: The bawling baby always discontent, and with spiritual colic, who disturbs the family of God continually, or the contented child who feels loved and satisfied, and gives pleasure to the family with perpetual pleasantness. It takes a lot of silent feeding on the milk of the word to be such a contented child. Most Christians in our culture do not know how to enjoy the silence of being still and knowing God in this way. Paul wrote in I Thess. 4:11, "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life." He wrote to Timothy and urged him to pray for kings and all in authority. Why? Because he goes on to say in I Tim. 2:2, "That we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness." It is obvious that the noisy and riotous lifestyle is not a Christian ideal. We cannot look at all the Bible says about the importance of silence, but we want to focus on the fact that God so often does His greatest works in silence. An anonymous poet wrote: Silently the green leaves grow In silence falls the soft, white snow Silently the flowers bloom In silence sunshine fills the room Silently bright stars appear In silence velvet night draws near... And silently God enters in To free a troubled heart from sin For God works silently in lives For nothing spiritual survives Amid the din of a noisy street Where raucous crowds with hurrying feet And "blinded eyes" and "deafened ear" Are never privileged to hear The message God wants to impart To every troubled, weary heart For only in a QUIET PLACE Can we behold GOD FACE TO FACE! Simon and Garfunkel sold their song in vast numbers called The Sound of Silence. And in the naked land I saw ten thousand People, maybe more, People talking without speaking; People hearing without listening; People writing songs that voices never shared. No one dared disturb the sound of silence. SILENCE CAN BE DELIGHTFULLY WISE. Eccles. 3:7 says, "There is a time to be silent and a time to speak." It is often hard to know which is the best at any particular moment, but there are some great examples of when silence was the wise choice. A service station attendant foiled a robber without saying a word. It was around three in the morning when the intruder walked into the station, pulled a revolver, and said, "This is a stickup." When the man didn't reply, the thief repeated: "This is a stickup." Again, the attendant remained silent. This was too much for the thief, and so he turned around and went out the door saying, "All right, then, I guess this isn't a stickup." The ability to speak in several languages is truly an asset, but to be able to hold your tongue in one language is often priceless. Thomas Carlyle once said, "Silence is more eloquent than words." There were several occasions when Jesus refused to speak. He let His silence do the talking. In Matt. 27:12-14 we read, "When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, He gave no answer. Then Pilate asked Him, don't you know how many things they are accusing you of? But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge-to the great amazement of the governor." To be silent in the face of such charges was a guarantee of conviction, but Jesus refused to defend Himself, for He needed no defense for one thing, and secondly, He was submitting to their crime for our salvation. Silence was actually a means to our salvation. We were saved by the Savior's silence, which sent Him to the cross. In Luke 23:9 we read of Herod trying to get all he could out of Jesus, and this was what he got: "He plied Him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer." This was the Herod who put to death John the Baptist; the one Jesus said was the greatest man of the Old Testament era. Jesus would not give him the pleasure of answering a single one of his curious questions. Jesus illustrated that there is a time for silence. Silence can also be a positive form of communication. The best thing the three friends of Job did was during their first week with him. They sat on the ground for seven days and seven nights, and Job 2:13 says that no one said a word to him. Their silence was golden, and it said to him, we care and we sympathize. It was only when they opened their mouth that they became cruel and obnoxious. The Quakers make a science out of silence, and by the power of silence they did things others could not do. During World War II they walked boldly into the Berlin Gestapo office of Himmler's Deputy Chief Reinhard Heydrick. They implored him to let them take persecuted Jews out of Germany. He listened, and then asked them to wait in an adjoining room for his reply. Unknown to them the room was wired, and Heydrick was listening, for he expected them to criticize his cruelty, and blast the evils he perpetrated on the Jews. But the Quakers sat silently in prayer and did not say one negative word. Their silence impressed even this butcher, and he granted their request. Many Jews were spared by the power of silence. Many Christians would have been so busy condemning the evils of this monster that they would have, by their mouthiness, condemned their Jewish friends to the gas chamber. Only disciplined silence could have saved them, and only rare Christians know how to be so disciplined. We live in an electronic age where silence is practically a sin. The worse thing that can happen on radio or TV is for there to be silence. It is called dead time. Any pause in sound is the equivalent of evil. Silence is the feared demon, and this spirit invades our culture. We need to go against the grain and be non-conformist to develop the positive side of silence. Silence has the advantage of being a two-way street. By silence we speak to God, and also allow Him to speak to us. Silence is both saying something and listening to something being said. Let's consider each of these: The language of silence, and the listening of silence. A. THE LANGUAGE OF SILENCE. Thomas a Kempis said, "Thou, O Lord, hearest my voiceless tongue, and my silence speaketh unto Thee." The Bible urges us again and again to praise the Lord, and to sing and shout to Him in expressing our joy. This is a vital part of worship. But we forget that the opposite of a good thing is not necessarily a bad thing. A liquid is not bad because it is not a solid, and white is not bad because it is the opposite of black. The point is silence can also be a means by which we communicate with God. By silence we can convey respect. If the president, or any dignitary, was in our presence speaking, we would listen in silence, and not be blabbing away as if what we had to say was more important than listening to them. Hab. 2:20 says, "The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him." Even praise must stop at times, so you have a chance to listen. Silence is saying that I love your Word Lord, and I desire to know your will. I silently wait and listen for you to speak and give guidance. As much as God loves your flow of praise, He also loves it when you stop praising and start listening. This will lead you to ever fresh reasons to renew your praising. Silence is a vital part of a total worship experience, for silence gives God a chance to love you back. Since we are a sound-oriented culture this is hard for us. We do not like silence, for to us it is like empty time. We have an urge to fill it with sound. In our culture everything that makes sound is also made portable so we can take it everywhere we go, lest we find ourselves stranded in some place of silence. Silence on our part says to God, I am open to you to speak to me. I honor your right to have access to my mind, and to give me that which you desire for me to possess. Psa. 46:10 says, "Be still and know that I am God." B. THE LISTENING OF SILENCE. God listens to us, and He appreciates it when we return the favor and listen to him. Often the answer to our prayer is received by listening. The solution to many a problem is found in having the mind of Christ, and this comes by listening to His Spirit. Friendship between two people is hard to develop if there is all talk and no listening. We miss the depth of the friendship of Christ if we do not learn to listen. Our worship service does give opportunity for listening. We have a period of open worship, where we listen for the holy spirit. There is the special music, and there is prayer and the sermon. All of these you listen to, and God can and does speak to us through them. But silence is seldom used as a means of worship. The reason is because people are not accustomed to silence as a way of listening. It is a value that must be developed in. We need to learn to pray, "Lord, what is your will for me today in these areas of my life?" Then we need to listen to hear if God puts any ideas into our head. "Be still and know that I am God." There is a knowing of God that can be learned only in silence. Silence plays a major role in the learning of God, for we need quietness when we study and meditate on His Word. This is hard to do for us as Americans, for we are conditioned to keep our minds busy. Jamie Buckingham followed the footsteps of Moses and tells of being camped at Mt. Sinai. I lay on my back in my sleeping bag, my hands folded beneath my head to cushion it from the pebbly rocks and stared upward at the unbelievable canopy of stars overhead. The outline of Jebel Musa-Mt. Moses-was an awesome granite shadow against the glistening black of the sky with its billions of flashing pinpoints of yellow and green. It was cold-and silent. I remembered something an old monk had written, hundreds of years before, of his first experience in the Sinai: 'It is the silence that speaks the loudest.' That night, looking up into the magnificent display of God's creation in the heavens, a cosmorama that yet defies description, I, too, experience the silence of Moses and Elijah-an outer silence that only accented the noise within. It started when I heard, for the first time in my life, my own heart pumping blood through my veins. Turning my head, I could hear the bones of my neck rasping together. But it was the deeper noise that caused the ultimate distraction. The moans of things left behind. The clatter of anxiety for things to come. The ping of guilt. The rumble of fears. The sigh of memories. The tearing sound of homesickness. That night, at the base of the holy mountain, I understood why God had to keep Moses alone for 40 days and nights before Moses could hear him speak. For God speaks in silence, and silence is hard to come by." He went on to climb the mountain in silence, and experienced a unique sense of the presence of God in that silence. I don't believe most American Christians will ever learn the value of silence, but I share it today because it is a vital part of God's revelation, and a way to spiritual growth that many have not discovered. May God grant us the power to heed his call to be still and know that He is God. May it be the blessing of some that they discover the deeper life of sanctified silence.

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