Bill - Holy silence: the gift of Quaker spirituality

HOLY SILENCE

THE GIFT OF QUAKER SPIRITUALITY

J. BRENT BILL

SECOND EDITION

WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY

Grand Rapids, Michigan

WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING CO.

2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505

www.eerdmans.com

2005, 2016 J. Brent Bill

All rights reserved

First edition 2005

Second edition 2016

22 21 20 19 18 17 16 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

ISBN 978-0-8028-7403-0

eISBN 978-1-4674-4597-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bill, J. Brent, 1951-, author.

Title: Holy silence : the gift of Quaker spirituality / J. Brent Bill.

Description: 2 [edition]. | Grand Rapids : Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2016. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016032259 | ISBN 9780802874030 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: SilenceReligious aspectsSociety of Friends. | Society of FriendsDoctrines.

Classification: LCC BX7748.S5 B55 2016 | DDC 248.088/2896dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016032259

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by Permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All Rights Reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (RSV) are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NJB) are taken from The New Jerusalem Bible, 1985 by Darton, Longman and Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Reprinted. Used by permission.

Never marry but for love;

but see that thou lovest what is lovely.

William Penn

For Lovely Nancy

CONTENTS

Ive known Brent Bill since the early 1980s, when our ministries with Quaker youth brought us together. If youve ever worked with teenagers, you know they can be both annoying and exhilarating, sometimes in the same minute. I was often frustrated and flamed out pretty quickly, but Brent had a knack for it, nurturing the kids with a deft touch, never taking himself too seriously, as gracious and welcoming to the awkward and nerdy as he was to the jocks and prom queens. I was working with computers at the time, getting my stint in purgatory out of the way early, while Brent was starting a family, and devising clever ways to turn impulsive Quaker youth into thoughtful Quaker adults. It was right around then that he began to write, mostly books about kids and culture and how to cultivate the best in both. They were strong, sturdy books and received well-deserved attention far beyond the Quaker fold.

Brent moved on to other endeavors, as did I. We circled back together a decade later when I began to write. Brent had been honing his craft all those years, each book more compelling than the one before it, which isnt easy to pull off, but he did. Writing breeds complexity, and Brent was no exception. Demands upon his time increasedrequests for workshops, speeches, spiritual counseling, editing. Most writers soon find they are talking about writing more than they are actually writing. The quality of the writing suffers, and the love for the task diminishes. So when a writer like Brent Bill continues to move from strength to strength, people notice.

Eerdmans Publishing Company has certainly noticed, and secured the rights to re-publish this lovely book, Holy Silence. They have seen what Ive suspected all along: that this is one of the few books that will endure, that will be read not only next year, but fifty years from now. It has all the earmarks of a classictimeless wisdom, strong writing, practical application, well-considered theology clearly expressed. Trust me when I tell you that doesnt often happen.

If this is your first Brent Bill book, count your lucky stars and thank God for this happy discovery. Im confident it wont be the last Brent Bill book you will ever read. So read it, then read it again, absorb it, savor it, treasure it. Then think of the many people you know who could benefit from holy silence and tell them about this book, so they can know what we Quakers have long known: that Brent Bill is a friend to seekers everywhere.

Philip Gulley

One fine fall day in 2003, I drove with a friend to a writing conference in eastern Indiana. Now, eastern Indiana is not known to most tourists as must see, especially after the harvest, when the land lies bare. Its not as traditionally scenic as the leaf-covered hills and valleys of Brown County in autumn. Or as the waterfalls that tumble from soaring cliffs into the Ohio River around Madison, Indiana. Still, to a Midwestern fellow like me, these seemingly flat lands hold a certain charm. Especially on an autumnal blue-sky day when the sun sits low on the horizon and casts golden shadows across the gentle risings and fallings of the farm fields, shorn corn and soybean stalks shining. As we drove I said that the scenery was almost sacramental. Then I changed my wording, dropping the almost. We Quakers believe that every moment, every scene, every action is God-imbued and thus sacramental. If, that is, we learn to quiet ourselves and our soul and partake in this means of grace, this visible rendering of an inner and often invisible work of God.

Throughout the drive my friend and I returned to that conversation. I said I thought I paid attention to the light and shadows and sacramentality of the quotidian Hoosier landscape mostly because of my training in photography. She wondered if my level of attention came more from my being a Friend, with the Quaker emphasis on silence and stillness opening my eyes to things busier eyes could not see. Youre used to paying attention, she declared. And I want to know more.

To be honest, so did I. I wanted the chance to explore this idea of holy silence leading me into a greater awareness of Gods presence around me in all places at all times. One of the ways I explore best is by writing.

By the end of the writing weekend, the seeds for what became Holy Silence: The Gift of Quaker Spirituality had been planted in me as surely as the corn and beans would be in the Indiana soil the next spring. It marked a change in my own writing witness. I found myself sharing from a deeper place than I ever had before. I even became more personally revelatory about my own spiritual life and daily life. And it gave me an opportunity to share with others the Quaker way of silence that shapes my life day by day and minute by minute.

In the years since its publication, Ive been blessed by people who have shared how my little book touched their lives in good ways. Readers have told me that Holy Silence helped them get centered and quiet in renewed relationship with God, that they found it offering useful information in how to integrate silence into their lives, and that reading it deepened their own spiritual practices.

Such stories humble me. And delight me.

So you can understand why I was thrilled for the chance to revisit Holy Silence and freshen it. While its always been one of my favorite books, I often longed for the chance to tweak it and make it better. What you hold in your hands is the result of that good fortune.