After a Moment of Silence

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon's captions — published in summary form; watch the full sermon at the source.

The text is Ecclesiastes 3:1-7 — to everything there is a season, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to weep and a time to laugh — read down to the line the whole sermon hangs on: "a time to keep silence, and a time to speak." Around it Williams sets the command the worship had already sung: "Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth" (Psalm 46:10). Silence makes us uncomfortable — there is a named fear of it — because in the quiet we don't know whether to move or sit still, speak or remain quiet. But a moment of silence is not necessarily a bad thing. It is a point of transition, taken in reflection on what has happened and in anticipation of what is about to happen; and every season, including the season of silence, comes to an end.

The Bible's own silences prove it. Job searched and could not find God forward or backward, on the right hand or the left (Job 23:8-9) — if you can't find him in the noise, maybe you will find him in the silence. Elijah stood on the mountain and the Lord was not in the wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire; after the fire came a still small voice (1 Kings 19:11-12). Even a fool, holding his peace, is counted wise (Proverbs 17:28) — stop complaining, be still, and let God work it out. And at the Red Sea the trapped people heard the original command: "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD... ye shall hold your peace" (Exodus 14:13-14) — stand still not meaning do nothing, for they could go nowhere anyway, but stand in silence: don't cry out in fear, don't murmur, and watch God do his best work. Troubled on every side, yet not distressed (2 Corinthians 4:8-9).

What comes after silence, he says, is fourfold. Deliverance — the sea parts. Revelation — on the boat in the storm of Mark 4 the disciples only knew what manner of man Jesus was after "Peace, be still." Mercy — what he himself learned in a prayer meeting weeks before: he went asking for a miracle and heard, "Mercy is what a miracle is" — the cry of Bartimaeus and the ten lepers. And salvation — Jesus stooping silent in the dust before the woman's accusers, and Jesus silent before Pilate, "as a sheep before her shearers is dumb" (Isaiah 53:7). Jericho gathers it all: six days of marching in silence, seven circuits on the seventh day (Joshua 6:2-5) — and then the time to keep silence gives way to the time to speak: shout. The altar call is simply the season turning — I'm going to wait right here till my breakthrough comes; I'll praise till the chains fall off.