St. Patrick Presbyterian Church, Epc

We are not people who can endure silence very long. Trained by iPhones and text messaging, when we hit send, we expect to have a reply immediately. The expected time for response to a message is very short and, if we don’t hear back from one of our loved ones, it is not long before we panic. What if something happened? They must have had a wreck? Maybe they are ignoring me? In our instant message world, we meet silence with panic.  Now historically, this was not true. Before cell phones, people didn’t assume the worse if they didn’t hear back from you immediately. Silence from a communication sent usually took a lot longer before panic set in. When Teri and I were dating long distance, over forty years ago, silence before a letter or a phone call communication was measured in days. Now, if I text her a question and she doesn’t answer in a few hours, panic sets in.  But what if heaven is silent? What if we pray and pray and we hear no word of comfort or assurance, and the overwhelming evidence around us is tha