The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
December 10, 2006
Vol. 9 no. 48

Everything But...
           I don’t know if I should express such unbridled emotion to say that I thrill at the words and music of that old hymn, “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say.” Written in 1846 by Horatius Bonar, it was adapted from an English and Irish traditional melody by none other than Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1906 and transfigured into another hymn, “I Feel the Winds of God.”
           It the “voice” which gets me every time. Would that one could audibly hear the actual voice of Jesus speak. Very few people indeed had the opportunity, which is a shame. The human voice carries so much personal quality, along with accent and tone and timing. It would make a difference if you heard the voice of Jesus say something to you and would probably do anything he suggested. That is why sermons are usually better heard than read. The prose may be quite good, but the voice carries and sings the poetry.
           Our final hymn today will be “There’s a Voice in the Wilderness,” straining to hear the voice of Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist. Perhaps John’s “Repent” is not the tone of voice we want to hear, but out of the wilderness, out of our barren nothingness comes our faith. Never underestimate the power of a particular voice to shape what we hear.
           What did Jesus’ voice say in that old hymn? I found in Jesus’ welcome to my weariness a resting place; I found my thirst quenched and soul revived in his words; and I found in him the star and sun, the light by which “I’ll walk till travelling days are done.” You will hear a different tone of voice than I do along the path and it will only be a voice in the back of your soul that will keep you heading in the right direction. Here we are waiting in Advent, waiting to hear the voice of Jesus say....