John 10:22-30
At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. 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. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”
GRACE AND PEACE FROM THE MYSTERY IN WHOM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING
shepherd of the lambs
Journalist and pioneering travel writer, H.V. Morton studied the habits of Palestinian shepherds. He witnessed the peculiar calls unique to every shepherd. Their sounds and songs were as diverse as the numbers of herds. One lamb could become distracted eating a tuft of grass and wander into a different flock. Morton reported hearing shepherds with distinctive voices or sounds used to call their sheep. They might use animal calls in a specific sequence, a laughing whinny, or a familiar tune from a flute. Only the lambs who belonged to the shepherd’s herd would respond and hurry back to the shepherd.
Jesus told Peter to feed his lambs and sheep. Perhaps this is the very reason Peter is to feed his lambs and sheep. Sheep will gravitate to those who will nurture and sustain them and over time recognize the shepherds voice and ways. The Spirit of Christ has a voice and a way.
The disciples learned the unique voice of Jesus by being fed by him. The disciples would remember the loaves, the fish and the grains of wheat. The last supper had the call to remember his voice. This all becomes important when Jesus is gone and the second coming of his voice is in people like the disciples.
The story goes, that Moses went out to find a sheep who had wandered off. He followed him into a ravine and drinking from a well. Moses said, “I did not know that you ran away because you were thirsty. Now you must be weary.’ He took the kid on his shoulders and carried it back. Then God said: ‘Because you have shown pity in leading back one of a flock belonging to a man, you shall lead my flock, Israel.”
listen to the voices of jesus
In John, this belonging Jesus is speaking of is clearly about those who have walked with him and been fed by him. The term belong here may be an unfortunate translation. Perhaps Jesus was referring to the intimacy between he and his disciples. For Jesus often went to others who were not disciples and gave them the good news of their intrinsic belonging to God.
The disciples had listened day after day, to his compassionate voice and unique tone.
For example, he said “Love your enemies.” How shrill this instruction must have sounded to tribes set on conquest and victory. But this was the unique voice of their master. Peculiar to him and his followers and decipherable to the oppressed.
This makes me want to pay attention to the voices I listen to. How many times I have wandered off, listening to voices of rumor and inuendo. The calls of emotional de-regulation and defense mechanisms. The voices of law versus love. All voices that are not my masters.
Jesus was the unique voice of God. The revelation of God’s very compassion. Unlike tribes that might choose revenge over mercy, arrogance over humility, hypocrisy over fidelity, judgment over justice, greed over charity, and hate over love.
Due to the fast-paced flood of provocative internet voices, the mouths of our sheep are parched, and bellies are empty, and prone to consuming false promises made by social media influencers. Populists, authoritarians and opportunists take advantage of lambs without a voice.
What are the voices and sounds that beckon from the God of all things? The Shepherd of our valleys?
It is the One who calls us to a banquet table laid out for us in the presence of our enemies.
That voice is the same as the voice that guided Jacob to Rachel as she watered her camels.
The same voice heard by a woman standing alone, waiting to be stoned. She hears it say, “and neither do I accuse you.”
Even a lifeless dry-stone wall heard the words of a shepherd say, “pour out water” as he led the captives through the desert.
A temple man who was told to pick up his mat and walk after thirty plus years of paralysis.
Then there’s the thief on the cross hearing, “Welcome! Today you will be with me in paradise,” before his last breath on earth.
We are God’s sheep, and we can learn his voice.
How do we do this?
We listen to the invitation of the voice who say’s in so many words and at so many times. “I want to hang out with you!” A call to intimacy with God.
Isaiah 53:6 makes more sense when it says, “all we like sheep have gone astray.”
Salvation is the voice of the Shepherd inviting us back on The Way.
Every day we can become distracted by tufts of grass and find ourselves wandering in a desert of our own making. There is a voice that rises from within our chaos and impulsiveness, our demands and our darkness. It is the call of the shepherd.
Who is my Shepherd?
Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd; *
I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures *
and leads me beside still waters.
He revives my soul *
and guides me along right pathways for his Name’s sake.
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; *
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; *
you have anointed my head with oil,
and my cup is running over.
Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, *
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Amen
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