Key Bible Passage(s):
Luke 5:15-16; James 3:1-12
Tier 1:
If we say we want to live as Jesus lived, then we need to study His life, identify His habitual practices and emulate them. We may not have noticed how much of Jesus’ life is punctuated by periods of sustained silence and solitude. We may not have seen the relentless focus that allows such simplicity to His life. But we must notice them, and learn how to create the space to imitate them in our own lives.
Tier 2:
The world has always been busy and noisy; and Christians have always strived for silence in the midst of it. That is not to advocate systemic withdrawal, nor an asceticism as an end in itself. Neither is to offer a spiritualized de-cluttering of life programme as an end in itself. It is to intentionally create the space to draw aside with our Father and to learn from Him what is truly important and significant, so that we can focus our time and attention on that and that alone.
Tier 3:
Silence and solitude can be a frightening place to be. We have to face ourselves, and the questions, doubts, fears, inconsistencies and sin that we usually manage to avoid in our busy-ness. We don’t know ourselves as we think we do. We need to be revealed to ourselves by the Spirit, through the Word He has inspired. And yet only here, being still before our God can we learn to re-align ourselves to the foundational realities of our world, and live in resonance with them.
‘Souls possessed with Divine Love rejoice when they are called to go up to the house of the Lord ... They never think of themselves as so happy as when, having retired from the world, and freed themselves from the noise and hurry of their affairs and silenced all their inner clamour and passions, they have placed themselves in the presence of God, and have fellowship and communion with Him’.
Henry Scougal
Group Discussion:
Does ‘silence and solitude’ feel more spiritual than ‘celebration and feasting’?
Does the idea of ‘silence and solitude’ fill you with joy or anxiety? Can you identify why that might be?
main discussion:
How can we create space and time for silence and solitude… time to be alone with God in prayer and meditation? What are our biggest challenges?
What do temptations to avoid this look like? How can we resist and overcome those temptations?
What do we lose as disciples if we don’t develop this discipline?
and later in the session:
Read: James 3:1-12
Why do teachers in the Church face stricter judgment (v.1)? What do you think this means?
Is the tongue the hardest part of the body to control (vv.2-5)? Why do you think that is? Can it be tamed (v.8)? How?
What does James mean when he says the tongue is ‘a world of evil among the parts of the body’ (v.6)?
Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring (vv.9-11)?
How does any of this connect with the question of silence?
Homework:
Over this half-term we will be working to memorise Matthew 5:33-37. You will have to keep refreshing Matt.5:1-32, Matt.6:5-34 and Matt.7:1-28 whilst you do this.
(we’ll memorise the whole of the Sermon on the Mount over the 3 years of DTP)
Can you make a 1 degree change to create silence and solitude for… 10 minutes? 30 minutes? 1 hour? A day? How could that become a regular part of life?
Susannah Wesley (mother of John and Charles Wesley) famously trained her several children to recognize that their mother was seeking such silence and solitude when she put her apron over her head!
Create a chart listing the Spiritual Disciplines we’ve looked at so far this term, and with a column for the number of times you would like to engage with that discipline over the next month. Tick the columns off when done it.
