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His name was Jerome Hines—world-renowned opera icon; a bass whose four plus decades with the Metropolitan Opera was longer than any other artist in the Met’s history—and he was coming to play the title role in our small town production of BORIS GODUNOV...When he first opened his mouth to SING, stentorian tones of color and depth poured out of him with such voluminous power that every molecule of space in the auditorium was filled to capacity. Today’s psalm uses images from nature to describe the awe-inspiring VOICE OF GOD: full of thunder and power.

Sometimes I wonder if we haven’t gone overboard in our attempts to make the Incomprehensible, understandable; to make the Divine, “accessible,” with the result that the god we worship is so thoroughly housebroken, he is no longer the God of the Scriptures. Sometimes I wonder if we haven’t completely lost sight of the risk that attends being in relationship to the God whose voice shatters trees and makes mountains skip like a young wild ox.

The Voice to which the Scriptures testify this morning is no domesticated voice. It’s a Voice that makes every molecule of space vibrate with purpose, strength, and urgency.

St. Mark tells us that when Jesus was baptized at the Jordan he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove and a VOICE came from heaven, saying: YOU ARE MY SON, THE BELOVED: WITH YOU I AM WELL PLEASED. This same VOICE uttered words over baptismal waters when you were baptized.