In Myer’s café Melbourne for a lunch time coffee one day, I was looking at a baby in his pram. Shopper’s voices everywhere yap yap yapping away loudly, and baby looking blankly straight ahead. That is until he heard his mother’s voice and then straight away his eyes and ears were fixed on his mum and her attention fixed on him. The two engaged, mum talking to her little lad, and he flapping and kicking in response.
On another occasion at Werribee zoo one afternoon, I
was watching a young girl playing in a sandpit. Her attention was very focused
on what she was doing, quite oblivious to the voices of others around her. Then
to my left came a voice, Lucy! And immediately Lucy recognized her mother’s
voice, dropped what she was doing and ran towards her mum.
Then there’s a short video clip of a deaf baby being
fitted with a hearing aid. Up until that point, his life was one of silence. Imagine
being the mother or father, knowing that your child can’t hear you. Anyway, as
soon as the doctor turned on the hearing aid and mum said baby’s name, the
child’s eyes and full attention turned to mum. He heard sound for the very
first time, his mother’s voice for the very first time. The expression of
amazement in the child’s face says it all. It was a moving moment for both
mother and child. Mother knows her child so well that hearts and minds are
desiring of relationship. That’s what makes it work. She is the shepherd and he
is her little lamb.
Jesus talked about himself as being our shepherd and
we his sheep knowing his voice. As Lucy at the zoo, and baby in Myers,
recognized their mother’s voice, so we too recognize our Lord and master’s
voice when we hear it.
One of the Bible’s answers to the
question of personal identity is that human beings are those who are known by
God. And when a person is drawn into a covenant relationship with God through
Jesus Christ, that takes on a deeper and more intimate meaning. Let me put it
this way: a mother and a father know their own child in a deeper and more
intimate way than they would someone else’s child. So it is with those who have
become children of God. And it is they who know their master’s voice, just as a
child knows its mother’s or father’s voice and responds to it.
Being known by God meets our need to
be recognized and acknowledged in the most profound way. Who am I? I am known
and loved by God; I belong to God; I am no longer an autonomous self, but
rather I am found in Christ. And that’s why I recognize my master’s voice. It
is not a question of I think therefore I am, as Descartes’s dictum says, but
rather I am known therefore I am.
Let’s now consider how we recognize God’s voice and what
sort of response that might produce.
As the writer of the letter to the Hebrews reminds us,
God speaks in many and various ways. And no doubt every one of us here this
morning has a story to tell about how that goes for us. But some things I have
noticed over the years appear to be common ground. One thing we cannot do is
simply switch on the sound and expect God to be there on our terms. It doesn’t
work like that. God is encountered and heard by disclosing himself in thought,
word and deed. Only then will we be able to discern his voice.
It’s a gift that matures as the years go by through
our participation in, and experience of, that covenant relationship we are in
with God. That’s why Jesus said MY sheep hear my voice. They (we) are in that
special covenant relationship with him. Those who are not won’t recognize it. That’s
why Jesus said to the Pharisees, you don’t believe me because you are not my
sheep. And it’s why none of the other kids in the zoo’s sandpit batted an
eyelid when Lucy’s mum called out.
There’s also the problem of other voices demanding to
be heard and consuming our attention, and they are a loud cacophony. One of them
is Mr Busyness. Always insisting there is something else to occupy our time.
Never stops. Far too busy to attend to the things of God and be present in his
house.
Another is Mr Worry. Always pointing us to the next
thing to worry about. Always shouting, Oh dear what if. And soon we are too
tired and drained to attend to the things of God and be present in his house.
And by far the loudest voice is Mr Myself. I am first;
it’s all about me; I can do it my way, and so and so on. Always appealing to
the centre of self. And soon we are slaves of the advertising industry. God is
pushed out the front door. And when God is pushed out the front door, what
climbs in through the windows? The ghosts of loneliness accompanied by Mr Worry.
So what can we do about all this? Is there a solution?
Well yes there is. And it’s found in the book of 1
Kings: Elijah’s experience of a still small voice. Recall the story of how
Elijah was on the run hiding in a cave. There was a loud and powerful wind, but
the Lord was not in the wind. Then there was a noisy earthquake, but the Lord
was not in the earthquake. Then there was a raging fire, but the Lord was not
in the fire. All those noisy competing voices. Then after the fire came a gentle
whisper, and when Elijah heard it he pulled his cloak over his face and stood
at the mouth of the cave. He had heard and recognized the still small voice of
God.
That’s one of the keys, ladies and gentlemen. The use
of silence to pay attention and hear God’s voice in whatever way or means he
comes to you. That’s why Jesus said when you pray go into your room and shut
the door. Get off the noisy street. It’s why the rule of St Benedict has a chapter
on the use of silence for the monks and nuns of his order. Its why clergy go on
silent retreats. Shut out the noise and the cacophony of competing voices that
seek to drag you away from the Lord who knows you by name, by name.
As I said earlier, God can speak to us in many and
various ways, but the place where we really learn to listen is when we listen
to his word in the scriptures. This is the best school for learning how to tune
in to him in other contexts. Are you reading the bible during a time of
anxiety, or thanksgiving, or when you are facing an important decision?
Reading for listening is not the same as reading for
content. We all know what the content is, but have we asked ourselves how we
respond when we hear a bible verse or passage? How does it affect us? Do the
words we hear resonate with us in some way, as in give us a heightened sense of
alertness or attention? Or perhaps they disturb us emotionally. How tuned in to
that are we? Did not the two who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus comment
afterwards, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the
road and opened the scriptures to us?
That’s why the lessons are read aloud on Sunday
mornings. And they have to be read well. Are you excited by what you hear? Is
your spirit quickened when you hear? Do you turn towards God? Is your attention
focused on what you are hearing, just as baby heard its mothers voice for the
first time?
Does not your heart burn within you when you encounter
God in the quietness of your sacred space? God is the solution to the loneliness of the
human spirit. I am known therefore I am. And when God speaks in to that,
nothing else matters.
So when we are reading to listen (it’s called Lectio
divina, or sacred reading), we need not be afraid to let our hopes and fears
become part of our reading as we strive to understand what God is saying to us.
It helps us tune in to the heart, which is the place where the Holy Spirit
dwells within us.
Mary Magdalene wept at Jesus’ tomb thinking his body
had been stolen, her hopes dashed and her fears realized. But then in the early
morning light, Jesus appeared alive and well, although at first she didn’t
recognized him, that is until he called her by name. At that point the voice of
the shepherd entered in to Mary’s heart, opened her eyes, aroused her senses,
and affected her in such a way that she could do little else but surrender
herself to him in adoration and worship, knowing that her lord and master was
alive and knew her by name. She had heard her master’s voice.
Ladies and
gentlemen, when you retire to bed this evening, I encourage you to think about
how God speaks to you, and how you might hear and respond to your master’s
voice.
Philip Starks
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