Fourth
Sunday of Easter, Cycle C – John 7:
Pastor Gayle M. Pope
Hearing
the Voice of the Shepherd
Shhhh … I want
everyone to be real quiet now. Be still.
Hush. Just listen. Close your eyes and listen for 30 seconds. Don’t think about anything. Just listen for
the voice of the Lord. …
Did you hear
anything?
In our gospel reading
this morning, Jesus said to some of the Jewish religious leaders who did not
believe in him: “You do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My
sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.”
Do we belong to
Jesus’ sheep? If you believe in Jesus, you belong to his sheep. And Jesus says
that his sheep hear his voice and follow him. So how does that work? Can you just close your eyes and listen for
Jesus’ voice?
Actually, yes! That would be one way to hear the voice of
the Lord. Psalm 46 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” We could do more
of that.
Of course, the most
basic way God speaks to us is in the words of Scripture. The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to
His people.
2 Timothy 3:16 says,
“All scripture is inspired by God.” When we hear that Scripture is “inspired”
by God, we often think of the inspiration that went into the writing and
assembling and passing down of the Scriptures. But the word “inspire” is from
the Latin “inspirare” which means, to breathe into.
God has “breathed
into” the Scriptures. They are a living Word, so that, when we hear and read
them, God is speaking to us in a living way, here and now, through the Holy
Spirit.
So, when we, as
Jesus’ sheep, read or hear Scriptures, often something will just grab our
attention in a different way today than it would have last week, or in a
different way than it would touch someone else.
For example, last
week Pastor Greg Busboom announced that he had accepted a call to St. John’s
Lutheran in
Imagine being in a
situation like Pastor Greg, trying to decide whether to accept this call, and
then hearing this Scripture from Isaiah, “Then
I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go
for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!" It takes on a whole new meaning.
Sometimes, the Lord’s
voice speaks to us through Scriptures that just come to mind when we are in a
particular situation. Again using the example of Pastor Greg’s call, another
aspect of that process is the difficulty of leaving the people he has come to
love so much.
As I thought about that
part of his struggle, I remembered Jesus saying in Matthew 10: “Whoever loves
father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the
cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”
In other words,
devotion to following God’s call trumps devotion to even the strongest human ties. I shared with Pastor Greg how that Scripture
had come to mind and he responded that he had thought of that, too.
So, not only does God
speak to us directly through Scriptures, but we can also find in the Scriptures
information about how God speaks to us in many other ways. The Scriptures attest that God speaks to us
through creation, through angels, through the voices of prophets, through the
witness of ordinary people of faith, through people who are outside the family
of faith – even through a donkey!
God does speak in
ways we least expect sometimes. In First
Kings, Chapter 19, God told the prophet Elijah to go and stand upon the
mountain before the Lord and, Elijah said, “And, behold, the LORD passed by,
and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks
before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an
earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a
fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”
Sometimes it is that
still, small voice of God we hear speaking to our hearts. The Lord said,
through the prophet Jeremiah, “But this is the covenant that I will make with
the house of
Isaiah 30: 21 says,
“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice
behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it.”
This past week in our
Bible Study about God and Suffering, the topic was prayer – not only how we
talk to God in prayer, but how God responds. So, as part of our discussion,
people shared some of their experiences of how they have heard God speak to
them or sensed God’s presence leading or just reassuring them.
Our experience and
the experiences of other Christians, and the Scriptures all attest that God
does speak to our hearts, sometimes in words, sometimes in promptings or signs.
Even when we’re not paying attention, God sometimes can be persistent in trying
to get our attention.
Now, if someone says,
“God told me to do this or to do that,” chances are we are going to be somewhat
skeptical, and rightfully so. The Bible says in 1 John 4: “Beloved, do not
believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God;
for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the
Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from
God.”
Because of our sin, it’s possible for
us to THINK we hear God’s voice leading us in a particular direction when it’s
really just our own desires speaking, or even the voice of the devil tempting
us. So it’s always good to look for
affirmation in the Scriptures and from brothers and sisters in Christ.
Yes, God speaks to us
in many ways, including at Worship services such as this. But to really hear
the voice of the Lord, one must listen with an open heart and ears of faith.
Psalm 95 says, “Come,
let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is
our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today,
if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
All throughout the
Old Testament, we hear about the many times that God’s people hardened their
hearts and did not listen to the voice of the Lord speaking through the Law and
the prophets.
So … how has God been speaking to you
lately? Have you heard his voice? If so, I encourage you to share with others –
talk about how and where you see God leading.
It will help you clarify for yourself and will also be a testimony of
God’s presence to the other.
If you have not heard the voice of the
Lord speaking to you leately, I encourage you to listen more closely!
Remember, Jesus said, “My sheep hear
my voice, and they FOLLOW me.” How can
we FOLLOW if we’re not listening for Jesus’ voice?
This business of following Jesus is
not all ease and glory. It can be
inconvenient, if not downright difficult. It takes some discipline, and it
often goes against our natural inclinations. So, it’s no wonder we aren’t very
good listeners at times.
This is when the
words of the 23rd Psalm are so reassuring: The shepherd who speaks to us and leads us is
a good shepherd who promises to protect us, care for us, and provide everything
we need, not only in this life, but ETERNALLY.
“I give them eternal
life, and they will never perish,” Jesus says of his sheep. “No one will snatch
them out of my hand.”
The apostle Paul
affirms that statement in Romans 8, when he says, “For I am convinced that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
As we heard in the
second reading today, “the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their
shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will
wipe away every tear from their eyes.” When we hear the voice of the good
shepherd and follow his lead, we can rest assured that he is leading us home.
Amen.