Article in Stretton Focus, November 2015
I am an avid Radio 4 listener. Recently there have been more memorial services than usual, partly due to World War I and II but also to more recent tragic events. Listening to a memorial service programme it occurred to me how many demands we make on God. If we cut out the music, readings and eulogies the memorial service was all about asking God for his mercy, celebrating the lives of those who had died and asking for his compassion for those who mourned. But God did not get a word in.
How often do we sit and listen to God? Do we ever sit and listen? Do we doubt so much as a society that we can find no time to listen to God and have to fill every moment with our requests? Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying we shouldn’t make requests. I am seeking connections with God, indeed I want a relationship with God. The one thing we learn very early in our life about relationships is that two-way communication is essential.
Viewed this way the memorial service was very worthy, caring for members of our society past and present is important but it was communication in one direction only. The suspicion is that everyone involved was deaf – those who don’t stop talking often have hearing problems and use talking to mask their disability.
The obvious question is, of course, were the pleas heard and was a response attempted? How would we know if God tried? Maybe God knew no-one would be listening. Faced with an unrelenting barrage of requests I think I would have gone for a cup of tea and waited for the noise to die down. That of course is the mistake. We should not presume that God might act like us, act like a human. We make God in our own image far too often. Our books of religion tell us about divine attributes that are actually human and by extension God’s behaviour is human. It’s not like that at all.
Christ taught us of the spiritual nature of God, how we can reach out, build our faith and be sure. Our own understanding of God grows as we seek and find, listen and reflect, treasure the challenge of our growing relationship.
Many attending that service or listening on the radio will have felt a tug at their emotions, have recalled their love for one departed, been distracted by a random thought, have reached a conclusion to some problem, or modified a firmly held belief during that service. That is the kind of way in which we hear God, calling on our spirit, not on our ear drums. The hope is that through the music and the emotional involvement, our spirit will find silence, open up and create the foundation for a lasting relationship in the knowledge and love of God.
Roger Wilson *Silence is golden
