St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church
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Help! I’m Talking and I Can’t Shut Up! Psalm 46 November 27, 2005
1. You’re perhaps seen the commercial for LifeLine, the personal help button worn around your neck. An older lady has fallen, and she says, "Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!" Some wag took that line and made a t-shirt that says, "Help! I’m Talking and I Can’t Shut Up! If I could have ordered one of those t-shirts for each one of us, I would have done it! We need that t-shirt today, the first Sunday of Advent. 2. Why would we need another t-shirt? I don’t know about you, but I have more t-shirts than I can ever wear! So it’s not the t-shirt itself that we need, it’s the plea emblazoned across the front of it – "Help! I’m Talking and I Can’t Shut Up!" Those words almost speak for themselves, don’t they? I suppose I could do that, let them speak for themselves, and shut up and sit down. But I’m preaching, for heaven’s sake – I can’t shut up! 3. But Advent is a time for listening and watching for God to come again into our lives, and we cannot hear if we’re talking, and we can’t watch if we’re distracted. Can you imagine how different the world would have been if Joseph had been discussing politics with his friends; or Mary had been exchanging recipes with her relatives! Thank God they had learned the discipline of silence. They could "shut up" long enough to hear God’s messengers telling them what they needed to know. And the rest, as they say, is history. 4. Mary and Joseph knew what the Psalmist knew – they knew how to be still so God could be God. So how can we "be still" unaccustomed as we are to being quiet and listening? Start in small doses. Turn off the radio in your car when you get where you’re going, so it won’t turn on automatically the next time you get in it. Then wait a minute or two before turning it on. And relish the silence of those minutes. And wait three or five minutes before turning on the TV when you get home; soaking up those moments of silence. Add more time to your silence, little by little, until you can go maybe 30 minutes without any outside distraction. 5. Advent is about waiting and listening for God. It is expressly for the purpose of making a place for Christ to be born anew in our hearts. That cannot happen if our hearts are noisy places. Shut up; quit talking; be still, and listen for God to speak. |
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