His Master's Voice
Speaker: Rev. Matt Henry
Location: Whitney United Methodist Church
Date: January 11, 2009
Now, raise your hands if you remember the trademark of the Recording Corporation of America. What was it? Huh, what was it? Say it out. “His Master’s Voice.” It was a beagle puppy to be exact, sitting in front of the horn with his ear slightly cocked. Now, the whole idea behind that image was that the dog is sitting in front of the, is that a dog? It will have to do, won’t it? So the dog is theoretically sitting in front of the horn with his ear cocked and the ear’s cocked because the dog is mistaking a recording of his master’s voice with the real thing. That’s what RCA wanted you to believe, that their recording value was that good the dog would think it was the actual thing, the master’s voice.
Now in the Genesis creation story this morning we have Biblical metaphors for death. First of all we have this formless void. Second of all we have this darkness covering the face of the deep, and we remember that the deep….water. Water is a synonym for chaos, disturbance, death. After all this is a time when landlocked people would watch others go out to sea and never come back. So for them, water in that way was death. So we’ve got this formless void, we’ve got this darkness covering the face of the deep, and it’s interesting when you pay attention closely to this story, God’s presence is also formless. It is represented by wind brooding over the waters….I just love that word in the Hebrew, brooding,,,,and it’s pre-creation, and there’s only God and death. Did you get that? Before God says anything there’s only God and death.
And there’s something not quite right about this. It’s not clean; it’s not whole; it’s not fully worked out. So God is alone with death and darkness and, as John will later say in John’s Gospel, the darkness cannot comprehend God. So God, literally, becomes something out of no thing by speaking creation into being just like this sermon, speaking creation out of being, out of a formless void, life out of death, light out of darkness, salvation out of sin, existence out of chaos, something out of no thing. However, this is very interesting folks. When you look at the story very carefully…now the darkness does not go away. It now has to share the stage and cohabit with light and life. Isn’t this fascinating? The two then, darkness and light, will soon begin to and continue to vie for control throughout the creation. And the Master’s voice has spoken and is speaking to you still.
Now, Baptiser John. Baptiser John is also speaking in the wilderness and he’s speaking repentance out of sin. He’s speaking forgiveness out of shame. He’s talking about God’s future out of Israel’s past. He’s preaching about change, he’s preaching about justice, and John’s getting them ready to hear a sermon, to hear the Master’s voice that has been incarnated in the here and now, amen? But, John’s message is incomplete and this is what makes his voice not the Master’s. He’s not speaking about God being pleased, and he is not referring to anyone of us sinners as beloved. There’s a difference between the record recording and the real thing. Often we hear judgment alone whether from others or, worse, from ourselves, and we mistake it for our Master’s voice, don’t we? But the real thing, the actual voice, always couches that in “You are my beloved” language, right? And that we call grace.
Baptiser John’s not peddling grace you see, just recrimination. It’s an incomplete message and there’s something not quite fully worked out about it. It’s not whole. The Master’s voice has spoken and is speaking to you still. And out of the faith of the deep, once again now breaking through it, life issues up out of death as Jesus comes up out of the surface of the water, comes up out of chaos….do you get this?....reminding us that, while for a time death and life, light and darkness, may yet co-exist. The line has now been crossed and eventually darkness will cease to exist altogether. Just as God has always blessed the creation, and it was good, God continues to do so now and with you and me. And it was good. When is the last time you looked in a mirror and said that out loud? And it was good. Isn’t it? Yeah. It sure is
I see many of you grieving this last week, numerous times. God speaks life and light into being once more thus completing the Baptiser’s message. You are my beloved child, you are my beloved child, you are my beloved child, with whom I am well pleased. The Master’s voice has spoken, friends, and is speaking to you still. Now, eventually in time at the future end of the story, death and darkness and mourning and crying and pain and loneliness and drug addiction and family breakups and child pornography and land mines and nuclear waste and poverty and hunger and dictators and Wall Street hustlers and AIDS will all be things of the past as now water, the thing that used to represent death, has become the water of life…and no arsenic, no cadmium, no lead in that. And on either side will be the tree of life that now represents God’s formed presence. And darkness will be gone for good, replaced by the light of God, by the life of God, but it won’t come out of the darkness but out of us. Life from death, light from darkness, blessing from judgment, and we will be the Master’s voice, the real thing, not just a recording attempting to fool gullible people, amen? The Master’s voice has spoken, friends, and is speaking through you still. What’s coming out when we open out mouths…death and darkness or light and life?
These words I speak to you this morning I give you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.