Personalized Voice Proclaimng Hope in Christ, the Holy Light

Sermon on the Voice of God

St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Youngstown, PA

Sunday, January 11, 2009,

Baptism of the Lord, Year B,

(word count: 868)

Personalized Voice of God Proclaiming Hope in the Holy Light

In our readings, we hear about the voice of God. In Genesis 1, God's voice causes light to exist. In our psalm, we feel the voice of God shaking the world with power. In our gospel, Mark 1:4-11, as Jesus stands naked in the Jordan, God tears the sky in half, the Holy Spirit swoops down to penetrate Jesus, and the voice of God announces, “You are my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

The voice of God – I have heard it. So have you.

Jesus teaches in Matthew 25, “Whenever you minister to the least of my brothers and sisters, you minister to me.” Therefore, when you visit a person in the hospital and he says through his oxygen mask, “Thank you,” you are hearing the voice of God. When you talk with a prison inmate, even if she has committed disgusting crimes, you are hearing the voice of God. An illegal alien begs for food for his starving daughter, and we hear the voice of God. Whenever we minister to a person in need, we minister to Jesus Christ, to God himself.

When else do we hear the voice of God? We hear it when we listen to someone read the Bible, for the Bible is the Word of God. Sure, humans wrote down the Bible. The book is not perfect, because there is a human influence. Even so, the Bible is still God's Word. Therefore, when we hear the readings, we are hearing from God.

We hear the voice of God in the sermon. Granted, we preachers are flawed. We are often boring, irrelevant, even heretical. Still, the sermon arises from Scripture and the Spirit. So then, despite its flaws, the sermon contains the voice of God.

We also may hear the voice of God inside our head. You've heard that voice. It's hard to know for sure the origin of the inner voice. Sometimes the inner voice is the devil, and sometimes that voice is just us. Then there are instances when that inner voice is from God. Figuring all that out, of course, is challenging. We can help each other with that discernment.

It can indeed be a struggle to hear the voice of God, not only in our selves but also in the world. Last Wednesday at Bible study, Nancy and I lamented the death of children in the Gaza strip. That carnage has slain many. All that absurd violence – where is the voice of God in that?

Then Nancy told me about a doctor over there working to save as many lives as possible. On TV he mourned the slaughter and spoke about how there were many more casualties than there were people to tend to them. Nevertheless, that doctor was doing whatever he could to help those victims, and there are others doing the same. That doctor, telling us of the horror, is the voice of God. That doctor, speaking comfort to Israeli and Palestinian children, is the voice of God for those victims.

In other words, sometimes God uses us to be his voice for the sick, the broken, the hopeless. After all, he Bible tells story after story of God using people to accomplish his work. For example, God uses King Cyrus of Persia to liberate the people of Israel. God uses us, too. We can be the voice of God.

We the baptized, God's adopted children, like Devin, have a holy calling to love God and love the neighbor. Part of loving God and neighbor is being God's voice for a world struggling to hear harmony over the cacophony of clanging, crashing sin. God says to you, the baptized, “Because of my dear son, your king, you are among my beloved. Because of my son, with you I am well pleased. So now, go. Be my voice for all the unloved, soulbroken, war-beaten.”

Last Sunday, I proposed that, in 2009, St. James focus on being a congregation of hope in Christ, the holy light. Let me add that St. James focus this year on being the voice of God. We, St. James, in personal ways, are the voice of God that proclaims hope in Christ, the holy light.

Indeed, the Spirit has blessed our congregation to excel at being God's voice. One of the beautiful features of St. James is that our moderate size makes it easy for us to get to know one another. Knowing one another well makes it that much easier to be the voice of God for and with one another. There are many benefits to a large congregation, but one of the benefits of a smaller congregation like ours is that personal touch. We can speak a personal word to each other because we have a size that enables us to get to know each other. Our size makes it easier for us to speak a personalized word as we strive to be the voice of God proclaiming hope in Christ, the holy light.

Picture it. You and I, St. James, part of the baptized, the beloved, will find new ways in 2009 to be the voice of God which proclaims hope in Christ, the holy light.