Sometimes it’s not what you say, but how you say it. Tone of voice adds meaning to our words and provides a powerful non-verbal dimension to our speech. We can detect things like anger and frustration and affection and surprise simply by the inflection and pitch and quality in someone’s voice.
Most of us do a lot of communication by email or text – mediums of communication that make it difficult to add this non-verbal nuance to what we are saying. Consequently, the recipient may interpret a message quite differently and sometimes just the opposite of what was intended by the sender. That’s why we need to be so careful in what we communicate electronically.
Of course there are ways to add inflection to a text or email. Everyone knows that using all caps means you’re shouting. Emoticons – the little smiling or frowning faces can help to add the non-verbal feeling to the message. Or putting a period after each word adds intensity. As in Best. Movie. Ever.
So its fun to try to make our electronic communication reflect what we are trying to say. But people often misunderstand electronic messages, because tone of voice doesn’t come along with the message; and with misunderstanding come hurt and confusion. A lot of times a phone call or face to face chat is much better. Because it’s not always what you say, but how you say it.
Studies have shown that hearing the gentle, nurturing voice of our mother triggers in our bodies the release of endorphins – neurotransmitters that create feelings of well-being. Which is why when our older kids call home feeling a little stressed out about something, I just hand the phone to their mother and I know that instantly things will be better.
Our Old Testament reading today from Isaiah is about tone of voice. God is speaking through the prophet and he says, “Speak tenderly.” He goes on to give the content of the message but first he tells him HOW to say it. Tenderly.
The people Isaiah is preaching to are in exile. They are living far from home suffering the consequences of their sin against God. Their time in captivity was self-inflicted sorrow. This is suffering that need not have been. This is suffering that God’s people brought on themselves by turning aside from God’s ways. They worshipped false gods and forgot the covenant God made with them. Israelmade her own bed and spent 70 years inBabylonlying in it.
The prophets hammered away at their deaf ears for several generations. They spoke harsh words of judgment and condemnation. They stepped on the toes of disloyal kings and self-serving priests. They compared the unfaithful people to a prostitute. They delivered threats and warnings that were hard to hear. It was all an effort to help them avoid precisely the situation they find themselves in.
But through the voice of Isaiah recorded in our first reading today, God is announcing forgiveness and grace. He is announcing the end of their captivity – the full payment of their penalty. The time of their suffering is coming to an end. “Comfort my people!” God says. “Speak tenderly to them. Tell them ‘it’s over.’”
Hundreds of years after the exiles returned home, John the Baptist came to echo that comforting voice of Isaiah to a new generation of suffering captives. It is HIS voice in the wilderness that delivers the news of God’s grace and forgiveness. But was his a tender voice? I kind of think of John as being more of anALLCAPSkind of speaker. Loud and intense. John was there to get their attention and to pave the way for another voice – the voice of God himself.
When Jesus came he started his ministry with a similar message that John preached: “The Kingdom of heaven is near.” The Bible says John preached good news; it says Jesus preached good news. God didn’t necessary say anything new through Jesus verbally. The message of God’s love and forgiveness has been repeated throughout the generations as God continued to call his people back to him. But it was how God spoke through Jesus that made the difference. Scripture says, “In many and various ways God spoke to his people of old by the prophets” – including John – “but now he has spoken through his Son.”
So that there would no misunderstanding and no possibility of misinterpreting what God was feeling about us, he chose a face-to-face communication. He sent his Son – who spoke in human voice. Through Jesus God spoke tenderly. In a tender child – in tender frame – with a tender, fragile human life. God instructed the prophet Isaiah’s tender voice to announce to the people: “Here is your God.” When Jesus hung on the cross – his tender skin pierced and bleeding, God finally said once and for all, “HERE is your God.”
Do you know what it is like to suffer from self-inflicted sorrow? To feel the regret of words that can’t be taken back and actions that can’t be undone? To feel the disappointment from those you have let down? To experience the harsh punishing judgment of others? The consequences of sin are difficult to bear. They isolate us from those we love. They create distance and pain. They make us captive exiles. . .
. . . who are ready to hear a tender voice. Parents know that when a child has done something wrong and feeling the guilt of it, they don’t need another reprimand, they need a gentle word. Spouses know that when there is disharmony in the relationship it is healed, not with yelling but by soft and tender words. When someone is hurting we know that it is not always WHAT we say to them that matters most, but how we say it.
The tender voice of Jesus is the living voice of the Gospel. It is the language of unconditional love and grace. Paul says in our second reading that God does not want anyone to perish. He will not let us lie in the bed we have made for ourselves. He cannot stand for us to suffer the damning consequences of sin, so he took it on himself and now in the tender voice of the Gospel he is calling to you today.
Be comforted, my people. Your penalty is paid. It’s over. Don’t stay in exile any more. God doesn’t want you there. Here. Is. Your. God. Speaking tenderly to you.
