My Sheep Hear My Voice
A sermon based on John 14: 23-29
by Rev. Cynthia Huling Hummel

            I met an old a friend last week and we were getting caught up with one another.  She offered to show me pictures of her baby.  To tell you the truth, I was somewhat taken aback.  I didn’t know that my friend even had a baby.  It turns out she didn’t and doesn’t.  The pictures were of her “baby”, a pet lamb that she adopted when the lamb was just 12 hours old when the mother rejected it..  She named the lamb Charlotte.  Charlotte was cute baby.  She had beautiful eyes and a sweet face and her wool was soft and white.   My friend started caring for “her baby” when the lamb was just twelve hours old.  Charlotte grew up in her  kitchen, but was now living in a nearby farm.  My friend goes to see her daily and takes the sheep for  walks.   Whenever she calls Charlotte, the sheep comes running, even from across the field.   The sheep is happy when she hears her voice.  In fact the sheep will start blahing as soon as she hears my friend and will cry when she leaves.   The sheep hears her, and knows her,  and follows her.

             In John's gospel- Jesus is speaking to the Jewish people who have gathered around him.  The scene is Jerusalem and it is winter.  It is the festival of Dedication: the celebration of Hanukkah.  The crowd is anxious.  They want to know, “Don't keep us in suspense any longer Jesus.  We want to know and we want to know now.  Are you or aren't you: the messiah, the anointed one?  The chosen one of God?  Give us a plain answer.”  But Jesus doesn't give them a plain  answer: a yes or no answer.  Instead he makes a comment- an observation:  He says to them: “Look, I've told you before, but you don't believe me.   I've shown you before- but you don't believe- and here's the reason: you're not my sheep.  You don't belong.  And here's my litmus test folks: my sheep hear my voice, my sheep know my voice and I know them… and my sheep follow me.”  That's how it is pure and simple.  Now Jesus isn't saying to his listeners that they  can never be his sheep.  He's just stating a fact  that at this moment, they aren't his sheep.  They aren't his followers.

            But what about us?  Could we pass the test?  Because the questions that comes to you and to me are the same:  Do you (do I )  hear “The Shepherd’s” voice?  (Would we  even recognize it if we heard it?)  God speaks to us in different ways: in dreams, in music, in nature…  Are we listening?  And if we are we listening for the shepherd’s voice,  are we doing the shepherd's bidding?  We need to hear and to know and to follow.

            My friend went to visit Charlotte the other day  and the sheep was busy eating some grass.  She called, “Charlotte!”  The sheep raised her head and kept eating.  Charlotte knew that “her mother”e was there.  Charlotte heard her and recognized her but the sheep chose to ignore her.   Charlotte was too busy enjoying her lunch.  My friend was calling Charlotte to take her over to a patch of clover, but Charlotte wouldn't come.  She wouldn't budge.  She simply wouldn't obey.  The sheep listened, but she wasn't about to follow.  The sheep thought that she knew what was best.  Sound familiar?  It did to me!  M friend knew what was best for that sheep, but the sheep couldn't see beyond what she had right then and there.  Charlotte thought that what she had, was what she wanted.  And it’s the same with us.  Sometimes God calls to us, and we ignore God because we think what we have, is what we want.  And we miss out on abundant living!

            The shepherd knows each of us.  The shepherd knows our needs and our shortcomings.  The shepherd  knows what makes our hearts sings.  The shepherd knows what is best for us, but the shepherd doesn't force these things upon us.  They shepherd waits for us to follow him.  The hymn says it well:

            Softly and tenderly Jesus is waiting- waiting for you and for me.

             Patient and loving, he's waiting and watching-

            watching for you and for me- Come home, come home! 

            All who are weary come home.

            Earnestly tenderly, Jesus is calling- calling O Sinner come home. 

Jesus words are about  hearing, and knowing and following him.  He  says "My sheep hear my voice.  I know them and they follow me.  I give them eternal life and they never perish.  No one- will snatch them out of my hand."  What about you and me?  Do we know the shepherd? Will we listen to the shepherd?  Will we follow?  The choice is ours.  Amen!