So where is God? Perhaps the experience of Elijah was a bit more modern than we thought. He had been told that God was going to pass by. There were consecutive manifestations of awesome power: a mighty wind, an earthquake and finally fire. But God was not in any of these! They remained wind, earthquake and fire — and no more. It was the experience of the “sound of sheer silence” that caused Elijah to cover his face in God’s presence. This rather enigmatic phrase is variously translated as a murmuring sound, a still small voice and a whispering breeze but the point is the same. It describes divine presence, and that is often perceived by way of intuition and feeling rather than outward manifestations. That quiet “behind the scenes” manner also describes the way in which God works in our lives and in human history. Why do so few share Elijah’s experience? The answer is simple: we do not know how to be still or to listen. If we are submerged in constant noise, stimulus and frenetic activity, it is no wonder that we do not perceive God’s presence. 

“Sheer silence” is more than the absence of noise — it is the charged and captivating holy reality beyond our noisy, imperfect and changing world. Meditation is the art of attuning oneself to this divine silence. 

Paul had witnessed to Jesus Christ for many years, but his ministry had not borne much fruit among his own people. He marvelled at their long list of gifts from God and their credentials. They were first in line to welcome the Messiah, but to Paul’s chagrin they had not. So deep was his pain that he was even willing to be accursed and cut off from Christ for their sake. But faith does not always unfold as we expect, and perhaps Israel’s calling was to continue to be faithful to their tradition. God’s covenant with the Jewish people has never been revoked. 

Sometimes the manifestation of God comes in the form of a simple invitation to step out of our fear and to trust completely. Jesus had stayed behind after the miraculous feeding to dismiss the crowd and finally have the time for prayer that He had long sought. We can imagine their reaction when they saw Jesus walking to them across the water in the early morning. He attempted to calm their fear by assuring them that it was indeed He and not some sort of ghost or apparition. 

That was not enough for Peter and he demanded further proof. He wanted to walk across the water to Jesus and probably to his surprise Jesus consented. Since Jesus had ordered him to begin his walk out of the boat, he had no choice but to go through with it. 

All went well — he was doing the impossible. But that was the problem: he couldn’t handle it. As soon as he saw the wind and waves, fear and “common sense” kicked in. Walking on water was impossible and he should not be there. 

With that, the powerful bond of divine energy between Peter and Jesus was broken and he started to sink. Jesus insisted that it wasn’t the wind and waves that did Peter in but his own doubt and lack of faith. 

So it is with us — our own fear is our worst enemy, blocking the attempts of God to help us and derailing many wonderful things before they have a chance to come to fruition. 

Faith is not a list of intellectual propositions to which we assent — it is the opposite of fear and doubt.