I sometimes have to agree with Bruce Springsteen’s view of television: ’57 Channels And Nothin’ On’. But it’s always when you want it most that it fails to deliver. Quite simply our telly is on the blink. One minute it was fine, the next it was making a noise like crushed cellophane and the rest was silence and a blank screen. So you flick switches, stare at it, remembering Basil Fawlty and the good thrashing he gave his car with a tree branch. But that’s it. No telly tonight. Not exactly a crisis, you understand There’s the wireless, books, conversation. The latter option admittedly dominated with plans for a new telly.
The one thing you notice most is the silence. Like most people we’ve got it on even when we are not paying much attention. It’s almost as if we have a constant need to be distracted. And modern technology makes distraction possible every minute of the day. Out walking, running, gymning, travelling we can be plugged in to our favourite music. Years ago I heard a psychiatrist talking about people who on a train journey surround themselves with newspapers, magazines and books. ‘Why not just enjoy the silence?’ he said.
There was a moment last night when I could embrace that advice. With Gabrielle at the Holy Week service, I was on my own with the permanently muted telly and I heard some birdsong. Don’t ask me what species of bird but it was something that I would have missed if I had been watching the One Show.
Silence can be a challenge however and that explains why we need distraction. It’s in the silence that things we would rather forget are stirred up and anxieties about the future are exposed. Some years ago I visited a friend who was very ill and found him in some distress. It wasn’t pain or debility. ‘It’s the demons,’ he said. Taken out of his familiar routine and environment and at a moment of crisis he was having to face personal issues which were disturbing.
Jesus enjoyed ‘the silence of eternity’. We hear of him rising while it is still dark and finding a place where he can be alone in the presence of His Heavenly Father. I believe these would be times of refreshment, renewal and encouragement. His mission was demanding at so many different levels but he found time to be still in the presence of the Lord. Gethsemene was a different kind of experience. He had company but in the end he was very much alone as he contemplated the outworking of His mission and all that would be demanded of him. We are told that ‘he began to be deeply distressed and troubled.‘ He said to Peter, James and John: ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.’ (Mark 14: 33-34) No serene posture here but rather an anguished clawing of the ground. (Mark 14: 35)
It is awe-inspiring to envisage Jesus like this but as in so many things his darkest moments are our reassurance. Whatever the silence presents to us he has been there and he holds us in that grasp which will never be loosened. Speaking of those who are His sheep the Good Shepherd says:
‘I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no on can snatch them out of my hand.’ (John 10: 28)
