My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:27)

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.  (Psalm 23:1)

Last week I was having coffee at a friend’s house.  Its one of my favourite places to visit.  My friend is one of these people that just lets you into her house, pours you a coffee, and lets you curl up and chat in one of her big armchairs by the woodstove.  She’ll even give me a blankie if I want it.  She runs a farm and last week there were new baby chicks in a little pen that were these darling little fluffy peeping things that are such a reminder of new life and Spring.

My friend is at a different stage of parenting than me; her kids (three of them) are under 12, and homeschooled; so often the house is this jumble of kids, Lego, cats, chicks, science experiments and sprouting seedlings.  In the midst of it all is their mama, pouring coffee and handing out blankies to her friends, instructing the kids on their school work and working on her latest craft project.  Its fun.  Its cozy.  It’s a special place to be.

While we were chatting last week, her youngest kid, a 6 year old, was struggling with his tablet and accessing something to download.  Secretly, I think part of the problem was that his mom had a whole lot of ‘controls’ on his tablet so that he didn’t download malware or questionable videos, but that’s not the point of this whole thing.  He was grunting and complaining off in the corner; and about every three seconds or so would pipe up “Mommy, I can’t do this”.  My friend, obviously used to this interaction, would patiently give an instruction.  Her little wouldn’t listen and kept poking at buttons, muttering and grunting and then finally repeating “Mommy, I can’t do this”.

Finally, with a hint of frustration, my friend said “Son!  Come here and listen to my words”.  He did – poking and muttering the whole way.  She launched into an instruction.  He interrupted her and turned away.  Finally, she said “look at me and listen to my words”.  He looked up.  She gave her instructions.  He followed them and

Problem solved.

My friend, being my friend, rolled her eyes at me and said “if he had listened in the first place we could’ve saved 15 minutes of grumbling and the development of my latest crop of grey hair”.

I laughed.  I totally remember those parenting days.  Frankly I don’t think I was nearly as gracious as she is.

When I picked up the Lectionary readings for this week and remembered that it was Good Shepherd Sunday, I started pondering about what it means for us to actually listen to God’s voice when we’re so busy trying to solve things on our own.  And I wonder if God stands there, hands on her hips, and says to us “Look at me and listen to my words” and instead of following this instruction, we poke at a bunch of new initiatives, or old initiatives that we think might work, and mutter and grunt at the world.

Like we hit the button of “Lets start a Youth Group” to fix the problem of an aging congregation.  Or we mutter about social decline or rural depopulation.  Or grunt at things like older crumbling buildings and declining budgets, when God is just asking for us to

Listen.

Listen to God’s voice.

And I know, that really, most of us don’t hear God’s voice in an audible tangible way.  And so, what we first need to do is learn to ‘recognize’ the voice of the Shepherd.  We need to hear it.  Recognize it, and then listen to it; not stand in our own corners muttering about the problem.

Yeah, I totally can hear all of you saying “How do you hear and recognize a voice that isn’t so tangible”?

And the short answer to that is that we have to learn a new language.  We have to learn the language of ideas and concepts instead of numbers and stuff.  We have to learn to hear for Truth, for Peace and for Love instead of the acquisition of stuff and power.

And how do we do this?  How do we learn this new way to hear God’s voice?  Well…..by listening to God instead of just standing in our corners muttering about our problems.  Because, you know, the more you listen, the more you’ll recognize God when God speaks.  In that deep abiding kind of Shepherd way that leads us by green pastures and still waters.

Because in the end – it will save us a whole lot of time and effort, right?

Blessings today and remember you are Loved – in the Good Shepherd Sunday kind of way.

~Rev. Lynne