Thin, quiet

I Kings 19:9b-14

Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”

 He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake;  and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.  When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”

*God wasn’t found in that great wind. The breath of power and annihilation. The hot air that blows through a desert, or fills up a chamber where voices contend for dominance and space to be heard. The destructive force of anger, violence, greed, or chaos.

God was not found in the earthquake - in strength of purpose or ideological change; in shaking up to destroy without paving the way to something to come next. In creative energies competing with ideas that are different or frightening. In unsteady ground where nothing can be trusted or counted on.

God was not found in the fire. The fire of passionate embrace or ardor or longing or fear. Or the boundless energy that burns the spirits of those in its wake. The fire of wild-eyed optimism or the slow burn of mournful pessimism.

God was found instead in the sound of sheer silence.

But the other translations say in a gentle whisper.

Or a still small voice.

Or a quiet, gentle voice.

Or my favorite: 

A sound. Thin, quiet.

God is found when we give way to the immensity of patience, calm, meditation, prayer and the wide and generous space of God’s time - Kairos time - in front of us reminding us with humility that we are but a small part of the immensity of God’s dream for the world unfolding and that to understand our parts in that dream, we must listen with attentive ears to that thin, quiet, yearning, and hopeful voice.

God of all creation, attend me to your voice calling me in stillness out of the chaos into the work you have planned for me. Amen

* with many thanks to Linda Ward who inspired me with her insights on this reading from Sunday's lesson.