Village Shepherd

When the first astronauts went into space, they were awestruck by the strange beauty of all they saw. They didn't meet God in person face to face, but they had a sense of God's presence through this newly revealed wonder of his creation. Few of us are likely to venture into space, but many of us can identify with that feeling of the presence of God in a place of awesome beauty. The coastline of Cornwall, the mountains of Scotland, the Yorkshire Moors, the beaches of Norfolk and so many other places where the surrounding beauty is breathtaking.

It's easy to be aware of God's presence in such a place and to thank God for the wonders provided for us by the natural world. But how easy is it to be aware of God's presence in the sleazier back streets of the inner city or in a brothel or a strip club? How easy is it to be aware of God's presence outside a nightclub where teenagers are throwing up because they're so drunk, or in places where drug addicts sleep rough in shop doorways, or in those old peoples' homes where the residents stare blankly and hopelessly at the walls all day long, just waiting for death?

Where is God in this world of ours? Is God only to be found in beauty and perhaps, therefore, only where people are wealthy enough or fortunate enough to be able to find beauty, or can God be found anywhere? If God is in our church services, can he only be found in the Eucharist? Or in quiet, contemplative worship? Or in a traditional form of service? Or in a bright, loud, modern service with plenty of intense emotion?

If God is everywhere, why is it so difficult to find him much of the time and why are there so many ugly areas of life which seem to be entirely devoid of God's presence?

The Desert Fathers and mystics throughout the generations have always known that it is possible to find God in silence and solitude, and this knowledge has been rediscovered over the last thirty years or so. The Retreat movement is now an important part of the life of all mainstream churches and many people avail themselves of the opportunity to take off for a weekend of peace and quiet, returning home refreshed in a new and exciting way. Many local churches now provide a "quiet day" for their people and again, once the initial fear and anxiety of spending a whole day without speaking has been overcome, many people find God in the silence just as the Desert Fathers did so long ago.

The silence is one of the reasons why people are able to find God inside our church buildings and is a strong argument for keeping our church buildings open all the time. Some people find God more easily through ten minutes or so of silent prayer in an empty building than they do through an hour of a church service.

Jacob found God in silence. He had a number of encounters with God which are detailed in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament and in today's story Jacob met with God through his dreams. As he lay down under the stars after an exhausting day of travelling, he fell asleep and dreamed that he saw a mound of soil piled up into a ramp of the sort used by builders of the day to build high buildings such as the Pyramids. But instead of men toiling up and down carrying their loads of stones and bricks, there were angels going up and down, passing between heaven and earth.

Then Jacob realised that God himself stood beside him and was speaking to him. God promised to give the land on which Jacob was lying to Jacob and to his offspring. "And," said God, "your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

Jacob was stunned by this powerful experience and when he awoke, promptly set up a stone to mark the place and to act as a shrine for worship.

Jacob wasn't all good. There were some very questionable experiences in his life, the worst one being when he cheated his father Isaac and his brother Esau so that Jacob could claim Esau's inheritance for himself. Then he had to flee for fear of his brother. But despite all this, he was open to God and has enough silence in his life to be able to hear God. And God used Jacob, flawed as he was.

There are no places on this earth where God is absent and no situations where God is absent. In some places and situations it seems almost impossible to detect any hint of God, but that may be because we have insufficient silence in our lives to be able to hear God.

Jacob had long hours travelling across desert, where there are no distractions and the silence is unremitting even today. During time like that it's almost impossible not to be in touch with God, for when we are alone with our thoughts we soon reach a much deeper level that when we are constantly entertained or distracted.

Perhaps in those areas where God seems to be most absent, we in the church should aim to encourage oases of quiet and calm, places where people can sit for a short time undistracted and undisturbed. When God is sought, there is beauty even in ugliness and nowhere is beyond God's reach.

Mother Theresa found God in the slums of India and enabled those who were dragged down by the drudgery of daily life to find God too. God was present in those ugly slums, but needed a Mother Theresa to help other people to see him.

Perhaps one of the roles of the church today should be to enable those who are dragged down by the drudgery of daily life, to see God and to meet with God. And [perhaps we need to do that not by more services and more noise and more emotion, but by offering the opportunity for silence and by teaching people how to use it.

And when we do that, then maybe we too will be able to say with Jacob, "Surely the Lord is in this place--and I did not know it!"