Easter 4 - God-Mother-Tongue

Psalm 23; John 10:22-30

I read a study once that said that children who are exposed to a language while they’re in the womb will recognize that language for several years after they’re born, even if it’s never spoken to them after they’re born. So if a fetus hears its mother and those around it speaking in Cantonese, for example, even if they’re spoken to only in English from the moment of their birth, as toddlers they will still respond and turn their heads towards the speaker when they hear Cantonese. They’ll completely ignore Spanish or German or Norwegian, but they will show marked signs of attention when something is said in Cantonese. During their formation in the womb, their brain is shaped by the voices they hear, particularly the voice of their mother. It turns out that there really is such a thing as a mother tongue. Isn’t that neat?

I read another study once that said that families with small children should have smoke detectors in their house that can be programmed with voice recordings rather than with those annoyingly loud beeps. Those of you who have cared for small kids will know that once they’re asleep, they are completely out. You can pick them up, move them from one place to another, almost drop them when you’re moving them, and they. will. not. wake. up. Naturally, this is a concern if there’s ever a fire, because they’ll sleep right through the fire alarm. But what this study showed is that there is one thing that will wake a child up, and that’s the voice of their mother calling their name. In this study, these small children would wake up from the middle of a deep sleep if the smoke detector was programmed with their mother saying their name and they could then find their way to safety.

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.” The voice of Jesus is God’s voice, come to us in human form, what we might rightly call our very first mother tongue. As Psalm 139 says, “For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them yet existed.”

When you were in your mother’s womb, amidst all of the voices and sounds you heard, there was also the voice of God, speaking to you words of life and love, calling you into being and welcoming you to join God’s community and Creation. With the voice of a mother who is preparing for the birth of a long-awaited and already beloved child, God spoke to you the words spoken at Creation, words that cause life to form out of darkness, words that bring order out of chaos. God said to you, even before you were born, “I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.” (Isaiah 43) God said, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 66) Some of the First Nations Peoples believe that God speaks to us in the womb and that the babbling of babies after they are born is divine language.

This is why Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” Jesus himself knew the voice of God, more intimately than anyone else, and so he calls to us with the same voice we heard in the womb, and we turn towards it. Jesus speaks to us with the voice of care and love, with the voice of welcoming and belonging, and this is why we lift our heads and respond to this words. We follow him because he speaks the God-mother-tongue that we heard in the womb. We know that his words mean safety and well-being and welcome and love.

Interestingly, Jesus is not the only one to speak with this voice.  Anyone who speaks with the voice of care and love, who speaks words that welcome us, anyone who calls to us by name and tells us where we can find safety, any one of these people are speaking with the voice of God. We don’t usually describe it that way, but that’s what they’re doing. Each one of us knows the language spoken to us in the womb by God. It’s our mother tongue, even though we may know it in different dialects. You know when you’re hearing genuine words of love––we all do––because you’ve heard them spoken to you in the womb. 

And each one of us can speak those words, because each one of us was exposed to it in the womb. We might have forgotten the specific vocabulary, but the patterns of those words are hard-wired into us and they come out in subconscious ways. Whenever we speak words of welcome or compassion or forgiveness or love, we are speaking with the voice of God. It might sound like a bold claim, but the voice of love is the voice of God, and when we speak in love, people recognize and respond to it, because they, too, heard that voice in the womb. Individuals can speak with this voice, and so can communities. Churches, especially, are expected to speak with the voice of God, we are expected to speak words of welcome and compassion and forgiveness and love. When we do, people respond. When we don’t, they wander away.

When we hear the voice of Jesus––the voice of God––we follow, like sheep following the shepherd, like children following their mother’s voice. We follow because the voice of God leads us to places of safety and belonging. God brings us to green pastures - to places where we are fed and nurtured; to still waters - to places where we can rest and ease our thirstiness. God brings us to places where our souls are restored - to communities where people gather specifically to speak the words of God to one another, to speak words of love and life. God calls us, like a shepherd, like a mother, and we are so glad to follow. Thanks be to God. Amen.