February 7, 2010 - Zephaniah 1:7

"Be silent before the Lord God!"

I went to Quaker meeting today. It's been on my heart to go for a while. Perhaps because I started reading The Peaceable Kingdom again. But I didn't want a sermon, I didn't want music, I didn't want canned prayers. I just wanted to sit silent before the Lord. You would think I would have plenty of opportunity to do that now, but I don't. When I'm home there is always something to do, so "silent" time is at a premium.

I went, for once, without the usual questions floating around in my head when I attend a new church. How friendly are the people? Will I fit in? What sort of programs do they have? Do I feel comfortable there? Could I bring my brother's family there and would they be comfortable? I really didn't expect any of those questions to be answered...that's not what I went for. I went to be with God, and sometimes, sorry to say, church is last place God seems to be.

Why is that? Why is it that God's house becomes a house of frantic activity, (always for the good of the congregation, of course)? There are classes and programs and choirs and prayers by rote. And I'm not necessarily knocking those things, but somehow in all this, God seems left out of the equation.

Rarely in a traditional church is there time to just be quiet before the Lord. People come into the church and they're still talking, talking, talking...talking about where to go to lunch, and did you hear about so-and-so, and blah-blah-blah.

Where is the reverence for being in God's house? Where is the preparation for worship? Is worship just something that you do because everybody else is doing the same thing? The words to the songs come up on the overhead, and that's what you sing. The classes are given and something sounds interesting, so that's what you take. The preacher says the same beginning prayer and the same ending prayer and that's what you get used to.

Where is the one-on-one with God? How on earth can we hear what God is saying to us if we're talking all the time? How can we tap into the creative energy of God if all we hear in church is the same-old-same-old?

Be silent before the Lord, and listen...