July 27, 2016 – Words From Merton
Accused of Our Own Emptiness

“Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” John 8:1-11

“Those who love their own noise are impatient of everything else. They constantly defile the silence of the forests and the mountains and the sea. They bore through silent nature in every direction with their machines, for fear that the calm world might accuse them of their own emptiness.” Thomas Merton (The Pocket Thomas Merton, p. 72)

“Those who love their own noise….fear that the calm world might accuse them of their own emptiness.” This is why we not only need to read the words of Thomas Merton, but to meditate upon them, for they have such rich and deep meaning for our lives. Think about it….I am sure you know someone who likes their own noise – so much so that they never listen to anyone else. People who love their own noise most likely have a deep emptiness in their own soul. Several years ago I was having a conversation with a friend who was lamenting to me about the people he worked with. He told me that he was having a hard time with them because his co-workers played the radio so loud while they worked (he worked in a construction related trade). He said to me, “They probably are so afraid of their own thoughts that the radio helps to drown them out.”

I was talking to one of my parishioners this past Sunday who had just returned from a fishing trip to Canada. She said the best thing about the trip was the silence…sitting in the back woods of Canada without the noises of day to day life in our community, and appreciating the world of nature that G-d has created. Silence is the absence of noise – but it does not have to be the absence of substance. When Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees in the scripture above, he initially did not say anything. Was he forming his thoughts? Was he waiting to see what else they might say? Or was he hoping they may see the “emptiness” of their own motives? We may never know, but it was in the silence of the moment that the woman stood “un-accused” and un-condemned by Jesus.

We need more silence in this world, not more noise. We need opportunities to fill our lives with silence that will allow G-d opportunities to speak to us, the Holy Spirit to lead us, and the love of Jesus to remind us of our status as people who live in Grace.

Pastor Dave

July 26, 2016 – Words From Merton
Tasteless Crusts

“Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”  Luke 13:1-5

“I have watched TV twice in my life. I am frankly not terribly interested in TV anyway. Certainly I do not pretend that by simply refusing to keep up with the latest news I am therefore unaffected by what goes on, or free of it all. It is important for me to know about them too; but I refrain from trying to know them in their fresh condition as “news”. When they reach me they have become slightly stale. I eat the same tragedies as others, but in the form of tasteless crusts.” Thomas Merton (The Pocket Thomas Merton, p. 60)

The news media today is more interested in ratings than they are in giving us clear, accurate, and purposeful “news”. If a tragedy happens clear across on the other side of the world, the media can report on it almost immediately, with all of their speculations, postulations, and eventually back-tracking. People watch every image, hang on every word, hoping to get a glimpse of some gore and forming their opinions on information that may be “fresh”, but may also prove to be clearly “wrong”.

Although Merton has accomplished something I could never do, watching TV only two times in his life, still I find myself trying neither to jump to conclusions nor hang on the words of those who are reporting news “as it is happening”. Although I know that the news media would cringe at the thought of delaying the reporting of news until the “facts are secured”, perhaps we should delay our watching the news until the facts are presented rather than the “supposed facts”. Perhaps a taste for “tasteless crusts” instead of “juicy fresh news” might help us all gain a better, if not more informed opinion – and maybe level heads may actually prevail, finally.

Pastor Dave