Voices

Baptism of Our Lord C -2016

Voices.

 I invite you to close your eyes and concentrate on how many of the following peoples’ voices you can conjure and hear in your head:

President Obama, Martin Luther King Jr., Nixon, Churchill, the Queen, Jean Chretien, Rene Levesque, Joe Clarke, Peter Mansbridge, Lloyd Robertson, Barbara Walters, Pamela Wallin, Rick Mercer, Foster Hewitt, Brian Williams, Peter Gzosky, Anna Maria-Tremonty, David Suzuki, Mike from Canmore, Elvis Presley, Cher, James Earl Jones, Charlie Farqueson, Lawrence Welk, Miss Piggy, Bert and Ernie, the Friendly Giant … God.

Curious isn’t it?  I am sure that each of you could hear the voices of at least a few of the people and characters mentioned.  I hazard a guess that most of you had no voice in your repertoire for God.  Why is that?

Each of us has thousands of audio files stored in our brains; voices that are often filed along with certain phrases or songs said by that person:  Yes you can. I have a dream.  Ask not what your country can do for you. And that’s the way we saw things for…  Luke I am your father.

With a little more thought, does God sound like the actors who were cast in the role of God?  Morgan Freeman in the 2003 Hollywood movie, Bruce Almighty; Alainis Morrisette from the 1999 movie, Dogma; Graham Chapman in the 1975 Monty Python and the Holy Grail; or George Burns from 1977s, O, God!?  From such a list we might have a preference or hazard a guess as to which might be the closest – but, it would all be conjecture based on individual likes and dislikes.

Seriously though, there is something about voices.  How many of you have an audio file of your mother or father calling you in for supper, or calling when you were in trouble?  Do you have a file of a loved one’s voice when they were comforting or soothing you?

The voices of the people mentioned moments ago are unique – they are recognizable.  They have a compelling power, a mesmerizing cadence or accent.  The voices mastered medium, and specialized in crafted articulation and delivery of a message. At some points in their lives and careers could their voices have been the sound of the voice of the Lord?

Psalm 29 is an ancient Canaanite Hymn from the area of present day Lebanon-Syria and was adopted into the hymnody of the Hebrew people. It describes “the voice of the Lord.”

The voice of the Lord is over the waters. What do you hear?  Babbling brooks, roaring waves, lapping waves, raging rivers, thunderous water falls, or swelling seas?

We are told that the voice of the Lord thunders, is powerful, and full of majesty!

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.  Translation – we are talking large trees, think old growth forests full of straight tall trunks.  The trees large enough to be used as a complete mast for a ship or as a beam in the temples of the day.

The voice of the Lord flashes with flames of fire and shakes the wilderness.  Does this sound like spewing volcanoes, the crackle and rush of forest fire, or the sound of splitting earth and rock in an earthquake?

The voice of the Lord is such that it causes oaks to whirl/strips forests bare.  Does this sound like hurricane winds or the wind of a Nor’ester?

This is a pretty unique voice – not one I would have applied to God the beginning of this sermon. Is the kind of voice we are to be listening for?  Is this God’s voice?

In the passages from Isaiah and Luke the voice of the Lord, I perceive the sound of the voice to be different.  In Isaiah the voice says: I have called you by name, you are mine. ……. I hear soft and lilty, comforting, quiet.  In the Gospel of Luke, at the baptism of Jesus, a voice came from heaven, You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased. ……  I hear strong yet gentle, as a parent speaks affectionately to a child. How do you hear the voice of the Lord in these instances ---like I do, or like a voice that would fell a forest of trees, so majestic it would shake the very foundations of the earth?

Perhaps that is why we have no audio file for God’s voice.  The brain has a file cabinet waiting for soft and lilty, strong yet gentle.  In baptism we hear and see a sprinkle of water, do we actually think about or hear crashing cascade of abundant water, cleansing, life changing, and full of grace….a voice so full of majesty it consumes every particle of being?  If not, we miss the voice of the Lord.

The first reason we fail to hear the voice of Lord is we have reduced the voice to a sound far smaller than possible to contain God, likewise we fail to consider that there is no one container to hold and be God’s voice, so the voice of Lord has been parcelled out to be heard in its fullness and majesty.

Isaiah’s voice was the sound of God’s voice in his time.  It is Isaiah’s vocal cords that said: Thus says the Lord.

John the Baptist – was the sound of God’s voice -  the voice crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord. There was a host of voices: Moses, the judges, the prophets, Jesus, the Apostles, Paul; and that is just the articulation of God’s voice in Holy Scripture.  Others participated in speaking “the voice of the Lord.”

Perhaps in our time, we not have an audio file for God’s voice in our heads because we have been trying to hear a definitive singular voice.  Could God’s voice not be singular, but, plural?  And who is it that speaks the voice of the Lord?

I guess that is partially answered by asking, What does God’s voice articulated in sound say?

Well there is far too much to be articulated by any one sound or phrase: the words are cosmic, grand, earth shattering, forest splitting –

So the sound must articulate a Creator who first created in love; then gave freedom for creatures to continue in formation -

The voice of the Lord says – according to sacred text – for the words are repeated again and again:

 do not fear, do not be afraid; I love you, you are beloved. Peace be with you.

-throughout scripture from a variety of people, times, and places – a myriad of voices the voice of the Lord forms us with the words;

do not fear, do not be afraid; I love you, you are beloved. Peace be with you.

 So where have you heard these words continued in the speeches of today, in the voices of your every day lives? The people who articulate these words are the voice of the Lord for you at the time and place.

 The Queen’s 2015 Christmas address is an example of allowing her voice to be the voice of the Lord. This year she called on the voice of God from John’s Gospel, The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. These words were to dispel fear.  She also reminded listeners that the same sacred text continually reminded and commended human beings to be about the command, Love one another. In doing this she was the voice of the Lord in our time and place.

This week I am inviting you to be the sound of God’s voice:

If you noticed there is a note in the bulletin for God-parents.  How many of you are God-parents?  Show of hands.  To fulfill the vows made at baptism, where sponsors promise to share in lives of the child, to share faith and experience, to talk with God-children about God and living, to put in their hands the Holy Scriptures; God-parents are asked to send a note to their God-children.  Include in it the words of the voice of the Lord --- from Isaiah,  when you pass through the waters, I will be with you and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.  …or  you are precious in my sight, and honoured, and I love you…. Or do not fear, do not be afraid; I love you, you are beloved. Peace be with you.

No God-children: reach out to your own children or a niece or nephew who lives away; if you were a faith-buddy contact that young adult – give them a text or phone call, a card, a note and be the sound of God’s voice. 

Through you, may the voice of the Lord be unleashed on the world. May fear be dispelled and light shine in the darkness.  May being open to being the voice of the Lord, have you receive ten-fold the blessing of hearing the voice of Lord spoken to you.