What this Kingdom is like, in what sense God is our Father, how His truth can be sought – there is a lot to be said about this, but still there is no better way to say it than in the Gospel. But we can be sure that if God is our Father, then there is a meaning in everything that happens to us, even in suffering, and he will one day reveal himself to us if we really want to.

2. The Voice of Cold Is Thin

There is one beautiful image in the Bible that is not often remembered – it is lost behind other images, much more sonorous and colorful. Elijah, the great prophet, in a difficult time for himself, when the Israelites persecuted him and worshipped idols, asked the Lord to appear to him Himself. The answer was given to him as follows: "Go out and stand on the mountain before the face of the Lord, and behold, the Lord will pass by, and a great and mighty wind will tear the mountains and break the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord is not in the wind; after the wind there is an earthquake, but the Lord is not in the earthquake; after the earthquake there is fire, but the Lord is not on fire; after the fire there is a blowing of a gentle wind, and there is the Lord." In Slavonic, the final words sound even brighter and more mysterious: "The voice of cold is subtle, and there is the Lord" (1 Kings 19:11-12).

Elijah was all flame and storm. He denounced the king and destroyed the pagan prophets, brought down fire from heaven and was himself taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. It is no coincidence that it was about him that our ancestors spoke when they heard a thunderstorm: this is the prophet Elijah rolling through the sky. It is to such a prophet that the Lord shows in the most graphic way that He enters human life not in a whirlwind, not in an earthquake, not in a flame, but in something so quiet and inconspicuous that it is very difficult even to translate this expression into any modern language. One can object and be surprised, because the Law on Mount Sinai was given to the people just in an earthquake, and more than once the flames brought down from heaven confirmed that the Lord is God (including through the prayers of Elijah), and even the Lord answered Job from the storm. All this is true.

But the Old Testament itself is rather about something else: about how the Lord chose an inconspicuous and unfamous people. The Egyptians had great pyramids, the Babylonians had canals, the Sumerians invented the first written language, and the Phoenicians invented the first alphabet. All these peoples created great and glorious states, a powerful culture, and spread their influence over the surrounding countries... but the ancient Hebrews had nothing to boast of but God. As a special honor for Solomon, the most noble and richest king of Israel, the Bible mentions that the Egyptian pharaoh himself gave his daughter to him! When you read this, you understand what the Jews looked like in the ancient Near East. Even to their sworn enemies, the Philistines, they were inferior in cultural development: later they learned to work iron.

And so the Lord reminded them that the purpose of the chosen people in this world is not in glory and power, not in state greatness and not in cultural and technological superiority, but in something completely different. The same is true of the New Israel, the Church. After all, all the most important things that we find in the New Testament are not given in storm and fire, but namely, that "in the voice of cold is subtle." The birth of the Infant in the cave, the conversations with the fishermen on the shore of the lake, the Supper with the disciples in the upper room of a private house – can all this be compared with the royal feasts of Herod, with the splendor of the temple rites, with the power of the Roman army and the many learning of the scribes and Pharisees? But the Lord did not appear in all this.

Today, as in the time of Elijah, as in the time of Christ, the outer, pagan or atheistic world amazes with many, but above all, with its brilliance and noise. You turn on the TV, open a news site on the Internet - whirlwinds, earthquakes, and flames fall on you. Not very conscientious journalists consciously try to give each news the most biting headline or announcement, and preferably with a negative one. If you present a small scandal as a global disaster, the reader will be hooked by such a headline, he will click on the link, listen for a second to the TV announcer's mumbling – even if the essence of the event disappoints him, but for a minute or two his attention will be drawn, which means that the goal has been achieved.

To an even greater extent, this applies to advertising. Today, a person is bombarded with such a flow of information that you can only shout to him. There is no time to explain to him what is good about this particular product, you need to tickle his nerves, touch the most sensitive strings in him (for example, vanity or sexual hunger), and "hook" him at any cost. And since there are more and more such leads, we have to come up with new, more and more sophisticated and powerful ones. So the company of teenagers warmed up by beer shouts louder and louder, waves their arms wider and wider - everyone needs to shout over the others. If one of them says any, even the most important thing, in a calm, even voice, no one will simply hear him. Time passes, they get used to it, and what cannot be shouted, they can no longer express; What surpasses the complexity and depth of a commercial or a music video is incapable of perceiving. "Well, this... I'm like... And he's more, in short, like this..."

What to do with such people is a separate topic, and I don't have a single answer. But one thing I can say for sure: this whirlwind of nonsense cannot be imitated, this brainshaking cannot be competed with. You'll lose anyway, and if you even win, you won't be happy about it.

But Christian media, Christian blogs, and just private conversations of Christians are also often involved in a similar cycle. To speak in a low voice means not to be heard, and therefore the most scandalous topics are chosen, the hottest facts are given, the harshest assessments are given. Nothing, if not everything said later turns out to be appropriate - at least it was possible to attract attention. And if the topic of conversation itself is very important, then, perhaps, you can neglect the side effects, the main thing is that people hear. Isn't that right?

No, not like that. Even if we do not remember such concepts as empty talk or condemnation (and their boundaries are easily and imperceptibly crossed in shouting), such behavior turns out to be simply irrational. We will still not be able to shout over advertisers and "newsmen", as well as teenagers with a beer. Moses might as well have taken up the construction of pyramids higher than Pharaoh's, or the apostles could have built a temple more magnificent than Herod's. If today we shouted to be heard, then tomorrow we will have to shout even louder, and the day after tomorrow, and so on ad infinitum. We are drawn into a competition that is doomed to lose.

There is such a thing as "environmental friendliness of the solution". Sometimes one or another solution to the problem turns out to be the most profitable and effective in the short term, but it causes significant and long-term harm to the entire situation as a whole. For example, they built an oil rig, made a profit, but ruined the surrounding nature for decades. Or another example, from the summer of 2010: a fire pond was filled up and put into construction, fire equipment was not updated and even the rynda was scrapped - and a few years later they were completely defenseless against fire. To avoid such decisions, you do not need any special wisdom, ordinary experience and common sense are enough. And it seems to me that where they begin to shout about God, where the Gospel is preached through a scandal, they make extremely environmentally unfriendly decisions, even for very pressing problems.

But even this is not the main thing. Our world, deafened by the scream, blinded by the false brilliance, nevertheless sometimes remembers: after all, there was something else important, half-forgotten, ancient, childish... And perhaps we will be able to remind him of this with the words of our ancient Book: the blowing of a gentle wind, the voice of cold is subtle — and there is the Lord.

3. Rations or grace?