Play the Quiet Game.
Hi everyone! I’m so glad you are here today.
So I was hoping to play a game with you today. Is that okay? And it’s a game called… The Quiet Game. The game is easy. Once we start, we’re super quiet…and then when someone makes a sound, they’re out. And the person who stays quiet the longest, wins the game.
Will you play the game with me? Okay. Let’s…start.
Be quiet. See how long kids last. If they keep making noise, great. If they play it and be super quiet, after a bit, you break the silence.
It’s hard to be quiet, isn’t it? Usually we want to say something, right? Or maybe be a bit loud? Or do something that ends up making noise – like playing with something or using toys or whatnot. For many of us, being quiet is hard….and makes us uncomfortable.
But being quiet – that silence – can sometimes be just as powerful and intense as the loudest noise. I was reminded about the power of being quiet yesterday when, as I was watching on tv, one of the speakers at the big march in Washington DC stood on the stage and was just quiet. She stood there, in silence, for over five minutes. Which is pretty amazing and really hard. Because she was talking about something that made her tear up and emotional. And she was speaking at an event where hundreds of thousands of people were staring at her. And she was hooked up to a microphone so her voice was super, duper loud. But she just stood up there, playing her own version of the quiet game…but even in her silence, everyone knew what she was saying and what point she was trying to make.
Today is Palm Sunday where we wave palms, play music, wave the palms around, and a make a lot of noise. And we do that because we’re remembering that Jesus, when he entered the city of Jerusalem for the last time, entered to a parade. His followers and others celebrated and shouted and waves palms and put clothes on the ground and made noise. They were loud. But that noise was matched by lots of periods of quiet that followed. The quiet when Jesus was praying in a garden. The quiet from people as they listened to Jesus teach in the temple. The quiet Jesus offered by not answering the questions a guy named Pontinus Pilate asked him. And the quiet when all of Jesus’ friends ran away from him.
So much of today is about Loud…and Quiet…Loud…and Quiet…and how God is both in those loud and quiet moments. God isn’t only with us when life is good and we’re marching in a parade. God is also with us when we are sad, or lonely, or feel like all we have is silence. But even when we think God isn’t speak – Jesus is right there, in our quiet moments with us, because – as the Holy Week story shows – there is nothing we go through that Jesus won’t go through with us.
Thank you for being here and I hope you have a blessed week.
Each week, I share a reflection for all children of God. The written manuscript serves as a springboard for what I do. This is from Christ Lutheran Church’s Worship on Palm/Passio Sunday, 3/25/2018.