Noise!

On Sunday, Brigitte and Tanner offer a half-hour long service centered in silence at 8am. They will also be offering a sumptuous coffee hour following it. It will be a one time opportunity to worship in a slightly different way in our sacred space.

Last week I wrote that our two services at 8am and 10am were driven by, respectively, silence and music. I was drawn to that observation by a passage in CS Lewis’ great book, The Screwtape Letters. In that book, an elder Demon writes letters of advice to a younger Demon. Here’s the passage. See if it strikes a chord with you…

“Music and silence- how I detest them both! How thankful we should be that ever since Our Father entered Hell- though longer ago than humans, reckoning in light years, could express- no square inch of infernal space and no amount of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable forces, but all has been occupied by Noise- Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile- Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples and impossible desires. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. We have already made great strides in this direction as regards the Earth.”

Lewis wrote those words in 1942. The world has only gotten noisier since. Come Sunday at 8am and strike a strong stance for the Holy beauty of silence.

At the 10am service, my colleague the Rev. Kirsten Snow-Spalding will be leading and preaching. I will be leading the 10am service at Redeemer and the Rev. Jim Ward will be leading services at Nativity. This is simply one of our occasional pulpit swaps to continue nurturing connections among our northern Marin Episcopal parishes.