"Shepherd Heard"

Shepherd Heard

(1 Pet 2:19-25; Jn 10:1-10) JG White ~ 10:30 am, E4, Sunday, April 26, 2026, FBC Amherst

I have sung songs in Church about sheep many times, though I don’t really know the first thing about them. I have seen a thousand stained glass windows with Jesus as the Good Shepherd, with a lamb in His arms, but don’t really know what shepherds actually do today. I have read and even preached many scriptures that use the flock of sheep imagery, but have yet to spend any time with live sheep.

The Good Shepherd and the flock of sheep remain strong in our imaginations, probably because of their use in Christianity. We can call today Good Shepherd Sunday, and worship Christ with these terms upon our lips and our hearts. We have heard about this in Psalm 23 and John 10, and even 1 Peter 2. The Shepherd and Guardian of our souls was the Shepherd and Guardian back then for the Christian slaves and others who first got these words in a letter. Makes us wonder how Jesus cares for and leads people who face very different lives from ours. Yes, this bit of 1 Peter is, in part, directed to folk who were slaves, slaves of other people. There was plenty of that in the ancient world, even as slavery persists today. How does a slave, or a prisoner, a refugee, a disabled person, a destitute person, a dying person, hear the voice of the Shepherd?

The wonderful words of John chapter ten tell us that the sheep know the voice of the Shepherd, and are not led by those voices they don’t know and won’t follow. So it is for any sheep of Jesus’ flock, be they like me or you, or quite different.

Even though what we read here in John 10 is more about the Shepherd than about the flock of sheep - look again and take note - we do get inspired to consider our part: how we know the Shepherd. Maybe we are curious, or even have our doubts that we do know.

Last week, Sharon and I happened to watch a film, just for the sake of watching something. It was a ten-year-old Martin Scorsese movie simply called “Silence.” It is a harsh story, from four hundred years ago, about a few Jesuit priests facing severe persecution in Japan, when the leadership was trying to eradicate Christianity, which had got a foothold there, thanks to Francis Xavier.

It is a fictional tale of severe persecution of Christians, of torture and death, of faith and suffering and denouncing faith. One young priest, on his secret mission, despairs at times at the silence of God, as good, faithful people are captured, tortured, and put to death. What can he say to the devoted Christians in the villages, who are willing to become martyrs rather than deny Christ? God seems silent.

Real life experience can surely be like this. Our recent study of Job in the Bible illustrates this experience. “Where is God, so I could contend with Him?” In the end, Job gets to meet God - not giving answers, but giving Godself to Job. Now, we acclaim Jesus the Christ as the great Shepherd of the sheep. The sheep who know His voice.

In desperate times people cling to any way they can find to know God and be known to God. Perhaps, if they have kept up a good relationship already, they are ready when disaster strikes. They already know the Voice. They know the quiet presence.

The little study group I’m leading now is getting some teaching from Dallas Willard about Hearing God. As challenging as last week’s lecture was, about God the Trinity, this week’s lesson will be clear and practical, about ‘the still, small voice.’

We heard Jesus say that the Shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. …He goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger…

As I read this again, for the hundredth time, I did wonder what other voices, what ‘strangers’ I have followed in my life, instead of this Good Shepherd? And what about all the people who pay no, or very little attention to Jesus in their lives. Not to mention you who claim to be of Jesus’ flock. How distracted are we, following others?

Do I follow friends I want to stick with, or impress, or keep happy? Do I follow leaders, of all sorts, who may excite me far more than the well-hidden Jesus? Do I follow little addictions and the things that can delight or distract me? Do I follow the technological algorithms and social media that keep me watching screens everywhere I go? Do I follow the habits I’ve had for so long, and stay in a few well-worn ruts?

Jesus’ figure of speech here, of shepherd and sheep, has them all on the move. Going somewhere. Somewhere new, perhaps?

Perhaps there are two main things here to consider. One is just how we get to know the voice of the Shepherd. Two is the how interested are we in the Shepherd in the first place? Do we want to let go of where we are in life and trust Him enough to follow Him?

About number two, our trust in this Shepherd… I know the words of all these shepherd songs get me thinking, reflecting.

Shepherd of love, Forever I’ll stay by Your side. I guess there is part of me, down deep inside, that has great faith in Jesus. Confidence in the Saviour. Trust that what I’ve learned is real. It’s just up at the surface of every day I get floating around without any depth, and don’t pay much attention to God, sometimes. Do I stay by the side of the Shepherd?

I just wanna be a sheep, baa baa baa.

Pray the Lord my soul to keep. Hey, that line is from the first prayer I was ever taught. Jesus, the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls, is looking after not just our spirit. The human soul can be considered something more than just some spirit of us that can be separated from our physical bodies. The soul, in the best sense of the term, is our whole selves. Does my whole self just wanna be a sheep? Maybe, and if I sing this kind of song often enough, it might point me in that direction.

I nothing lack if I am His And He is mine forever. Here’s a key feature of Christian spirituality. This confidence that, if I’ve got God, nothing else matters. Well, I know how important everything else is to me. My family and friends. My safety and security. My money, my leisure, my freedom. But, right out of Psalm 23, is The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. I shall want for nothing; I won’t be in need of anything, in other words, modern words. No wonder fasting and solitude would be good for me: I might learn what it feels like to be hungry, or quiet, or bored, or weak – and then know what relying upon a Good Shepherd can be like.

Now let us end with issue number one I just mentioned: how we get to know the voice of the Shepherd. I have been looking for this all my life. Because I think I did not like lots of the usual religious answers I saw to this. And there usually was not much explained about it. And also because I did find, from time to time, some better options. Less miraculous. More realistic. Believable, to me, anyway. I guess I am a natural born sceptic. I have not been a big believer in miracles, the supernatural, the intervention of God. I have not seen things the way other people seemed to see God doing stuff.

So I resonated with Christian philosopher, Dallas Willard, when he spoke of the three factors in the Voice of God, when we are wondering if some thought we have in our minds is actually from the Spirit. 1. The Tone of what comes to mind: not forceful, not pushy, but calm and strong, confident. 2. The Spirit of what we hear in a thought: it is peaceful, reasonable. 3. The Content of the Voice inside us: the suggestion is the sort of thing we could expect God to communicate.

Tuesday’s study group will get a lot more detail about all this. Let me just think of one personal example… Perhaps I was guided a couple months ago. At a little meeting of folks from across our Cumberland Baptist Association, someone strongly suggested I could be the representative to serve on the Ordination Council for the Atlantic Baptists. You know, the big committee that interviews new ministers and gives them official permission to be ordained as Baptist ministers. Well, immediately I thought, ‘No,’ not a job for me. I talked more with the acting Moderator, who suggested it. He tries to be quite persuasive. But as I reflected, I realized that ‘No’ was the right answer for me. ‘No’ seemed to be the clear, confident answer. ‘No’ was not just my strong reaction, it had a calm spirit about it. And ‘No’ made perfect sense, because there are a few problems that I think make me quite inappropriate to serve on that Board.

Perhaps the Spirit of Jesus helped me say ‘No, not this.’

As I pray that our Shepherd be heard by all of you, let me end with this poem, of sorts, called, ‘How To Be A Mystic,’ by Jan Phillips. Maybe you don’t aspire to be a Christian mystic; not many people do, I suppose. Most of us are not suited to it, gifted for it. But all of us have to cultivate that side of us, the listening quietly for God within and around us. Getting to know and follow the voice of the Shepherd. Here’s the poem.

Wake up every morning with thank you on your lips. Brush your teeth with gratitude bubbling up in your mouth.

Leave the newspaper folded, the phone off, and the door to your prayer place closed to the world till you have taken the call from the One Who Speaks in Silence.

Let your mind empty and fill with ten thousand thoughts and remember there is nothing that is not holy.

Be aware that the words you speak on Monday become the life you live on Thursday.

Look deeply enough into the eyes of those who speak to you that you see yourself in there.

Embrace thoughts that are contrary to yours and travel to the place where there is nothing to defend.

Crawl into bed at the end of the day singing thank you and thank you a hundred times.