The still small voice …

What a summer this has been! Wouldn’t you agree that these past few months have proven to be challenging in so many ways? Each of us can identify places of struggle. It is important to name them, to acknowledge them, to recognize what has been most difficult in our lives.

That kind of naming, of speaking truth, is not a new thing, of course. Our biblical ancestors were quite familiar with giving voice to their concerns, their worries, their doubts. In fact, the Bible is full of stories of women and men, of even the earth itself groaning for what once was, or what might be. Those folks uttered their cries aloud, trusting that the God of creation would bend her ear or turn his head and listen.

And the people, well … the people weren’t always patient. They had a hard time waiting on God, a difficult time listening for that still small voice. I’m not very patient these days. Nor should I be. And nor should you. Aren’t you yearning for an end to the divisiveness that permeates so much of our society? I think we have stopped listening … to each other, and perhaps to God.

At least the God we know from Scripture. The God who demands that we love our neighbor. The God who trusts women, who looks out for the outcasts, who comforts the grieving, welcomes the stranger. The God who brings down the mighty and lifts up the lowly, who calls out liars and those who would turn a profit at the expense of a life.

I sometimes look to the heavens, raise my fist and wonder aloud: How long, O God?

And then I pause and remember that while I may be crying out to God wondering what is taking her so long to respond, to fix our broken places, to restore goodness and kindness and love … I remember that Scriptures are full of God uttering those same words. God, too, cries out, “How long? “How long before you, my beloved creation, turn away from your foolishness, your greed, your desire for power and back toward my ways of justice and love?”

Early in the biblical story, God, angry at how God’s own had turned away, sent a flood to destroy the earth. But God didn’t destroy the earth. Instead, as the flood waters receded, God placed a rainbow in the sky as a sign, a covenant with the whole of creation, to try again.

This summer we’ve seen too much that is disheartening. It can wear us down. But beginning today I am going to look up toward the heavens once again — this time searching for a sign that God is indeed making all things new.

And if a rainbow is not to be seen, I won’t despair. Instead, I’ll make my way to the ice cream parlor and indulge in the sweetness that can be found there, or the public library where Sarah the librarian knows my name and delights in the joy I take in reading.

Friends, you will have your own special places. Places where families delight in being together, friends and neighbors laugh, where the sweetness of ice cream can make even a bad day a little better and the worries of the day can take a rest, and maybe just maybe a still small voice will speak just the words we need to hear.