The Voice

Are you a good singer? Come on, you can tell me. Now maybe you are not a performer, but I bet the shower makes a pretty good studio for you. Do not tell me you don’t sing in the shower. There is a television show called “The Voice,” and it must be popular because it has made it through many seasons. It is the one on which four music celebrity-judges sit in huge, red, mechanical swivel chairs with their backs to the performer.  If they like what they hear they punch the button to turn their chair and get a look. Each judge that turns begs the singer to select him or her to develop them toward the finals. (Tell me, are contestant singers John Holiday and Jim Ranger still in it?)

I know you are wondering: the answer is no, I have never been a contestant. Sometimes I sing a canticle in Morning or Evening Prayer on Zoom. All the fellow worshipers have the option of killing the volume on their end of the video conference session. And even those who don’t mute me out are so polite, they never grimace.

I’m just having some fun, but I am hoping to catch your interest and consideration of another voice. The voice of which I speak has caught the attention, not for a handful of seasons but the past 2,500 years. It is not a singer’s voice but that of a prophet. The material from his writing and preaching is preserved for us in chapters 40-55 of Isaiah. After the fall of Jerusalem to the king of the Chaldean Empire in 605 BC, deportations began eight years later and Judeans were detained over the next sixty years.  This part of Isaiah’s message came forth during the end of this captivity in Babylon. The message emphasizes the certainty of release, proclaiming the power and love of God. The poetry of this prophecy is so beautiful and effective in prompting hope it is preserved in the scrolls of the prophet Isaiah. It clearly lives on thereafter in the written and memorized religious tradition of Judaism right to the days of Jesus.

Now, who should pick up this message in a whole new fashion? None, but John, son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. You know, John the Baptizer. He sounds out with his own cry to make straight the way of the Lord. It is not the chairs of four music celebrities that turn to take note and listen up, but people throughout the region. This includes scouts from authorities in the Temple of Jerusalem: priests and Levites come to John in the desert to make inquiries. They want to know what he is about, and who he might say he is. John has to straighten them out and quiet their speculations. He says he is not the Messiah. He says he is not Elijah (although in a profound way he does fulfill the Malachi prophecy of the return of Elijah). They insist he tells them who he is and it is when we hear the words of Isaiah taken up afresh; it is then we hear the voice:

Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.   — John 1:22-28

John did not need to impersonate some Hebrew prophet of old. He, in his own skin—in his own role—would cover their ancient songs in the most ultimate fulfillment of prophecies. Isaiah’s oracles of mercy, redemption, and release were powerful for the forlorn in the days of exile. That prophet’s voice prompted comfort and joy. When John gives voice to these words, in the light of the misery of his day, the message breaks out as never before. It is still turning our chairs around today. The fulfillment announced by John concerning Jesus, the savior, and ruler of all, is still ringing out and reaching our ears. It makes you and I want to link up and partner with John to get his message out everywhere.

Let’s get back to your voice. It is okay if you are not a contestant on “The Voice”. It’s even okay if you are unwilling to belt out a classic in the shower, but I am telling you: you are the voice that can get to someone in your life-path. You may be the one who turns the corner for someone to let hope flood into their heart. Jesus is the light people need. Jesus is the one toward whom Elijah, the other prophets, and John pointed; he is the one to whom you point. Now, you bear witness. Know who you are: be bold with your capacity. Be the voice, your own unique and true voice that proclaims, “Jesus, is the light, the true light which shines upon every soul as he comes perpetually into the world. You too can offer the message of the certainty of release, the power of the mercy and love of God in the here and now. Let’s have it. Use your diaphragm; this time with feeling. Sing, sing out!