Sermon Archive

The Sounds of God

Last Sunday evening, I was, as is my custom, multitasking—you know, reading The New York Times while watching football. Cincinnati, the city of my birth, was, as is its custom, getting beaten up pretty badly by that arch-rival Pittsburgh, so I finally gave in and changed the channel from the ridiculous to the sublime, from football to the PBS series "Religion And Ethics NewsWeekly." And there, the very first sight and sound to greet me was that of a trimly bearded gentleman in a white yoga-outfit chanting:

A-U-M.......................................................................................
A-U-M.......................................................................................

Have you yourself ever heard someone chanting "Aum," or, as it's more familiarly known, "Om"? Or have you yourself perhaps even chanted "Om"?

Well, India's most ancient religious tradition, Hinduism, teaches that there are in the universe certain syllables, certain words, that embody the very sounds and vibrations of creation. And Hinduism urges people to chant those sounds so that through them they may be linked with the energy of the Creator. Hinduism calls these syllables, these sounds, "mantras." And the most sacred of them all is, of course, "Om." Hindus believe that anyone who chants "Om" becomes linked through sound with God. And I can attest from personal practice that, at the very least, the vibrations of "Om" do indeed produce within me both peace and renewed energy.

Now, Hinduism is not the only religion that believes certain sounds can link us with the divine.

The sacred text of Islam is called the Qur'an. And "Qur'an" is the Arabic word that means "recitation." Islam believes that first the angel Gabriel recited to the prophet Muhammad the words of God now written down in the Qur'an and that then Muhammad recited these words to his followers. Yes, Islam insists that Muhammad, who could neither read nor write, received this revelation from God aurally, by ear, and then delivered it orally, by mouth. Now, following the death of Muhammad, Muslims have handed on the Qur'an both orally and in writing, but its transmission by sound has been the primary mode, the mode considered more faithful to the revelation's original form. And Islam continues to hold as an ideal that a person should memorize the whole of the Qur'an and be able to recite it for the rest of the community to hear.

There's quite an art involved in reciting the Qur'an. To become a reciter one must study what Muslims call "the science of euphonious recitation." Well, there are many who have qualified as reciters, and if you travel in a Muslim country, you will hear them chanting the Qur'an on radio and television, on tapes and CD's— always in the original Arabic, never in translation.

Now, most Muslims throughout the world don't speak Arabic and understand very little of it, yet they are frequently brought to moments of intense religious reflection, even tears, simply by hearing the sounds of the Arabic words, even though they don't know what the words mean, for these sounds seem to have a mysterious power in and of themselves. There's a famous Islamic saying that goes like this: "When the Qur'an is recited, God's peace descends." And again, I can attest to this from my own personal experience. My spirit has indeed been deeply moved by recitations of the Qur'an, even though I understand hardly a word of Arabic, save for the name of God—"Allah." Yes, Islam teaches that the sounds of the Qur'an are the vibrations of God's own voice—sounds that soothe, support, and strengthen whoever hears them. Muslims believe that those who hear the Qur'an become linked through sound with God.

Hinduism. Islam. What of Judaism and Christianity? What do these religions teach about the sounds of God? Well, last Sunday, our Lay Reader, Dina Phelps, recited as our First Lesson the first five verses of the whole Hebrew Bible—that is, of the Old Testament—the part of the Bible we share in common with Judaism. Dina recited the opening verses of the Book of Genesis.

Now, Genesis proclaims that what set creation in motion was the sound of God's voice. Listen: "In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth,... God said, 'Yehî 'ôr,' 'Let there be light'; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good..." Then in that same first chapter of Genesis, God goes on to speak many more times, and after each utterance, after each set of sounds, yet another stage of creation unfolds.

Well, that was last Sunday. Three Sundays ago, on Christmas Day, I read as one of our lessons the opening verses of the Gospel of John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. All things came into being through (the Word).... And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a parent's only child, full of grace and truth."

Thus, we hear that the Gospel of John joins with Genesis in proclaiming that creation occurred through the sound of God's voice. Indeed, the Gospel of John goes far beyond Genesis in proclaiming that at a specific point in time this creative, creating voice of God—this Word of God with a capital "W"—took bodily form in the person, in the voice, in the sounds of Jesus of Nazareth.

And this morning's scripture lessons also carry us into the realm of what I call "sonic spirituality," into the realm where our ears are serving as God's gateway to our soul.

Our First Lesson, recited for us by Jacquelyn Carpenter, comes to us from that same first chapter of the Gospel of John. And it speaks of a man named Philip, who is drawn into becoming a disciple of Jesus, a disciple of the "Word of God" whose name is spelled with a capital "W." Philip is drawn into becoming a disciple of Jesus solely by two words Jesus speaks—by these sounds whose source is the Creator of the universe, by these sounds received through Philip's ears and directed straight to his soul, by these sounds that are the very voice of God—Jesus's first and only words to Philip, "Follow me."

Our Second Lesson speaks of a boy named Samuel, who lived a thousand years before Jesus and Philip, in a time when words from God were rarely heard, when people were, figuratively speaking, hard of hearing—which is to say, hardened of soul. Indeed, so unattuned to the sounds of God were the people of Samuel's time that not once, not twice, but three times, Samuel mistook the source of the words he was hearing. Three times in the night he heard this voice say, "Samuel, Samuel." And three times he mistakenly ran to his foster-father, the aged priest, Eli, who was asleep in another room. There, three times the boy said to Eli, "Here I am, for you called me."

Twice the groggy Eli sent him away with the cranky reply, "I didn't call; go lie down again." But the third time, Eli, who was one of the few good men of his era, realized that Samuel must be hearing the voice of God. So Eli instructed Samuel that the next time he heard the voice he was to stay where he was and reply to it by saying, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." So when yet a fourth time that voice called out "Samuel, Samuel," the boy was at last attuned in his hearing. Yes, he was drawn into becoming a servant of God, drawn by sounds he heard, the utterance of his own name, drawn by sounds whose source was the Creator of the universe, drawn by sounds received through his ears and directed straight to his soul, drawn by sounds that were the very voice of God.

Our era is also a time when people are deafened—now, by the empty noises of our ever-so-materialistic culture—deafened in ear and in soul. Yes, we too seldom journey into the realm of "sonic spirituality," so just as in the days of Samuel and Eli, we rarely hear the voice of God.

But God's sounds are still there, all around us, just waiting to be received by us, just waiting to become a source of strength and renewing energy for us, even if many of us are so ill attuned to them that we just don't hear them.

The Word of God is still there to link us with the divine when prophets like Martin Luther King, Jr., call us to "Follow Jesus." So let those of us who have ears to hear, hear. And the sounds of God are still there to connect us with the strength and support of our Savior when folk like James and Rosamond Johnson call on us to: "Lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of liberty." So let those of us who have ears to hear, hear. For all around us, creation is humming with the sounds of God. Yes, let those of us who have ears to hear, hear.

Today, we are sharing so richly in the sounds of Black spirituality, sounds that truly are a sonic portal into the realm of God—"Lift Every Voice and Sing," "We Shall Overcome," "Precious Lord, Take My Hand," "Oh, Freedom," "We Are Marching in the Light of God"—divine sounds, indeed.

On the Martin Luther King, Jr., Weekend three years ago, the PBS series "Religion And Ethics NewsWeekly" featured a discussion among Correspondent Kim Lawton, Dr. Vincent Harding of the Voices of Hope Project, and Dr. Allen Callahan of Presbyterian-related Macalester College. Let me now quote parts of that discussion for you. www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week620/feature.html

   "Harding: Martin King was an artist in a whole variety of ways. And one of the ways he was an artist is in his use of the language of the people. In a way, you could say that his preaching was a kind of singing...
    Lawton: Art in the form of music played a key role in the civil rights movement. During meetings and rallies and marches, people sang songs from the rich musical tradition of the black church. Often, they sang the old spirituals of slavery, with new words and meanings.
    Harding: I'm remembering ... what people looked like when they were singing these freedom songs… [P]eople in a sense were singing their freedom.... The young people sang the song "I'm going to let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine." . What they needed to do was powerfully, through the song, affirm that they had a spirit in them that they were going to share with the world, and no one in the world was going to stop them from doing it.
      Lawton: King himself always had songs at his meetings.
      Harding: For King, the songs were as much a part of his life as breathing. It was nothing that had to be added on or brought in; he didn't have to say, "Oh, we ought to have some songs in this mass meeting." There was no way you could meet without singing.
     Callahan: [Singing] was something that was indispensable to the maintenance of the spiritual fortitude that these people showed in the face of great danger and even death.
     Lawton: King was especially inspired by gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who joined him in several rallies. She also sang at his funeral.
     Callahan: She sang "Precious Lord, ... Take My Hand," which was his request.
     Lawton: The musical heritage from that era has spread throughout the world. Songs such as "We Shall Overcome" became part of the struggle against communism in places like East Germany.
     Callahan: They've got plenty of great hymns in Germany. Why sing a Negro spiritual? But by the time the Wall fell, that song had become identified with freedom, not just for a bunch of people who were the descendants of slaves in the United States but for everybody." End of quotes.

Black music: the sounds of God that are a source of strength and peace. Black preaching: the sounds of God that are a summons to follow Jesus. This music and preaching are "God-come-to-us-in-sound," and to the truth of that I believe we can all say, "Amen!" Let us say it: "Amen!".

Yes, God comes to us in music, and we draw strength from God in music. God comes to us in words, and we draw strength from God in words. Certain sounds do indeed link us with the divine, with God.

We are created for "sonic spirituality," and God's good sounds are always all around us. Our ears are a gateway to our soul, a gateway that God wants to use regularly. And we need to keep that gateway open and operating. May we indeed have the ears to hear both the words and the music of God in all the sounds of God that come to us.

Let us pray: Speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. May it be said of us in the years ahead, "The sounds of God were regularly heard by them." This we pray in the name of Jesus, who was and is Your Word among us. Amen.