“THE VOICE”

Rev. James Singleton

4/25/10
JOHN 10:22-30 

“My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.”

Traditionally in the Church, the fourth Sunday of the Easter Season is called “Shepherd Sunday.” Perhaps it is a tradition that has seen its day and it’s time for a new tradition. I mean, in 21st century America, do the images of Shepherd and sheep still communicate? When was the last time you saw a shepherd herding a flock of sheep? And how do you feel about being called sheep? After all, their reputation is not that of being the most intelligent of animals. Is there another image that would be more up to date and complimentary?

Maybe it would be more acceptable to us today if, instead of being called sheep, we were called computers. “The Lord is my technician, I shall not crash…He restores my gigabytes…my hard drive over flows.” I don’t know. Even though I have rarely ever seen a Shepherd and am not flattered by the comparison to sheep, I still like the image.

I recently read an article written by a self-proclaimed humanist and atheist who made the statement that people who believe in God are weak and need religion as a crutch. It is only the humanists, he said, those who believe in the power of humans alone, who have the strength to take life on their own. It is only the atheists who have the courage to live without the need for any outside help, he preached.

I disagree with that writer’s depiction of religious people, obviously. But I disagree with him only because he uses the wrong metaphor. I don’t believe in God because I need a crutch. I can get through life on my own. I can stand on my own two feet. I don’t need God to help me move through life. In fact, I spent years living without God in my life for all intense and purposes. I lived by myself and for myself. It’s not a crutch that I need.

But I admit that I do need something, or rather, someone. I need a Shepherd. As strange sounding as it may be in this 21st century where shepherds are as foreign as slide rules, it is a Shepherd that I need. I know enough about sheep to understand that Jesus’ depiction of his followers as sheep may not be flattering, but it is truthful.

Sheep can move on their own power through life, they don’t need crutches. That’s not their problem. But sheep are notorious for moving in all the wrong directions. They are wanderers. They will go wherever the grass seems greener, even if it leads them astray and they end up getting lost. They follow their desires without any thought given to where there may be danger, or how they will find their way back once they have wandered off too far.

I’m like that. That’s the tendency in me that made me realize that I need God in my life. I follow all the wrong things. On my own, I want to go where my desires want to take me, wander off to seek greener pastures because I covet everything I don’t have, until the next thing I know I am lost and have turned my back on the blessings I do have and I don’t know how to get back home.

I need someone besides myself to follow because I don’t always know the way I should be going or the best path to take for my own good. And self-help books and advice aren’t enough because ultimately I need more help than what I can give myself. On my own I never find those still waters. On my own I walk away from the green pastures. I need a Shepherd, not a crutch.

On Friday, April 9th an 11-year-old autistic girl named Nadia Bloom rode her bike away from home and somehow got herself lost in the swamp land of central Florida. Search crews desperately looked for her expecting to find the worst when on Tuesday, April 13, a member of Nadia’s church, James King called on his cell phone to say that he had found her.

What is interesting is that both the lost girl and her rescuer were reciting over and over the same passage of Scripture: Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding," the passage reads. "In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." In other words it was a Shepherd that she turned to for comfort and a Shepherd he acknowledged he needed to guide him to the girl. We need a Shepherd.

Sheep are the most vulnerable of all animals. They have no ability to fight off predators and are always the victim, never the victor. I’m like that, too. When it comes to the powers of this world: sin, death, fears, despair, grief, anger, greed, pride, jealousy, prejudice, hatred, and anyone of a number of other wolves that try to devour me, I know that on my own I don’t stand a chance.

I try to be good, but I still end up doing the very things I don’t want to do and not doing the things I want to do. I try to be brave and courageous, but this world has a way of intimidating me and overpowering my self-confidence. I need help. I need Shepherd confidence. I need a Shepherd who will defend me from these predators that seek to devour my life and protect me from my own tendencies to self-destruct.

Today we are bombarded with voices from those telling us to buy some gadget that will make life worthwhile to the endless voices telling us what to believe and how to think and who’s right and who’s wrong until all these voices become one big constant hum of noise like the traffic.  

What voice can we believe? Whose voice can we trust? They all seem to have an agenda and that agenda is to use us by getting us to do something or believe something. Most all the voices we hear are out to brainwash us.       

But there is one voice that cuts through all the noise and clamor of the world. It’s not always easy to hear because it requires us to pay attention. It is a voice that we must tune ourselves into.

It is a quiet voice that reaches us in a conversation or through worship or during a desperate prayer. It is a voice that is different from all the other voices. Just as an infant recognizes the voice of her mother over the voices of strangers, so we recognize the voice of the One who cares about us and to whom we belong—the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. James King said he knew the voice in his head telling him which way to go to find the girl was the voice of the Shepherd.

“Follow Me,” the voice of our Shepherd says, and we realize that of all the varied paths and people we can follow, there is only one that really matters. We don’t always understand. We don’t always agree with the way this Shepherd wants to go, but we believe that there is no one better to follow because he alone has our best interest at heart. Here is the voice we can trust.

“I am the way and the truth and life,” the voice of our Shepherd says. We have tried other ways and listened to other truths and lived other kinds of lives, and none are more authentic or abundant than His way, His truth, and His life.

Other voices are telling us how great we are, but with a hidden agenda or they are telling us how bad we are in order to ruin us. But this voice tells us what is true about ourselves, whether we want to hear it or not, but always in love and always with the intention of building us up.

“Love one another as I have loved you,” says the voice of our Shepherd. We have come to believe that as impossible as those words can be to live, they are what life is all about. And when we wander away from them and fail to love others as we should, we discover the extent of this Shepherd’s love in the form of grace and forgiveness.

“I give my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish,” says the voice of the Good Shepherd.  Where other voices speak of doom and despair and fatalism, here is the voice of hope. He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies where we can feast without fear.

Imagine that you were that little girl lost in the swamp, surrounded by alligators and snakes, all alone, defenseless. You don’t know which way to turn and what to do. Everyway leads to more danger and deeper confusion. Day turns to night and you are seemingly at the mercy of your bad decisions and mistakes when suddenly you hear a voice calling your name. It is a familiar voice. It is the voice of someone you trust. It is the voice of someone who has risked his life to find you. It is the voice of a Shepherd.

Out there we get all mixed up. We get lost and confused. But someone who loves us calls out to us and we hear His voice. We hear his voice because we belong to His flock. It is a voice calling us to come home; to come and gather with the rest of the flock and find the shelter we seek.

It is a voice that speaks more to our souls than to our ears. Sometimes it feels gentle and soothing. Sometimes it feels stinging and confrontational. But always it is a voice seeking to lead us out of the valley of shadows and to restore our souls.

“My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me.” You have heard that voice because you have followed it to church this morning. Isn’t it comforting to know that in this 21st century, through the din of all the voices that bark and scream at us, there is one voice calling out to us that knows us and knows where to find us? Keep listening for that voice.

Those who seek it will find it. And when you hear the voice, follow it and goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life until you dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

AMEN.