Hearing the Call of the Good Shepherd John 10:22-30

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd.

 

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday, and our Message is Hearing the Call of Our Good Shepherd, based on Psalm 23, and on our Gospel, especially verses 27 and 28: 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 

 

As we go on in life, some of our senses can weaken, especially sight and sound.

 

Hearing the call of our Good Shepherd, however, isn’t about the ears but about the heart.

 

We can have 20/20 vision, and still not see our Good Shepherd leading us, not see His will for us.

 

And we can have perfect hearing, but not hear and heed His call.

 

It takes the Holy Spirit to open the mind and the heart to see our Shepherd’s leading, and hear His calling.

 

When the Holy Spirit lives in our heart and enlightens our mind, then we can hear our Good Shepherd’s gentle call above the roaring of the world.

 

It’s a noisy world we live in, even though technology has quieted some things.  For some of the newer dishwashers, for example, you can’t tell if they’re even running. 

 

The same for some electric vehicles and motors.

 

On the other hand, some things roar as they run; like a jet engine, or to a lesser extent, a diesel engine. 

 

It’s hard to hear anything else when you’re around those things.

But there’s noise of another kind that can be even more annoying and distracting, the noise and clamor of worldly words and ways, meant to deceive and mislead us, pretending to have our welfare in mind, but intending to bring us harm.

 

And there’s the noise of the adversary, the devil, who Peter says, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

 

Instead of speaking the truth softly in love, the devil and the fallen world would shout their lies at the tops of their lungs, hoping to drown out the message of good, of the Gospel, and the call of the Good Shepherd.

 

But if you know His voice, you can hear His call above the nonsense and the noise of the world. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

 

Where do we hear His voice? In His Word to us. In Scripture our Shepherd speaks to us.

 

Everything He has to say to us in this world, the Holy Spirit has put into the Bible.

 

In Heaven, we’ll hear the voice of Jesus literally and physically, with our ears as well as with our hearts. We’ll hear what He sounds like. 

 

On this Mother’s Day, I think of my mother who’s lived in heavenly glory for 25 years now, as we know them on earth. I miss the sound of her voice; I can’t wait to hear her voice again someday. I know I will. 

 

However we will sound, we know for sure that being glorified and made holy in Heaven means that we will speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and speak it love, to build up, never to hurt or mislead.

 

For now, we hear our Good Shepherd’s call through the Gospel, and in our Baptism.

 

We hear a lot of nonsense in this fallen world; and as fallen people we sometimes speak a lot of nonsense, or at least some. 

 

Our Good Shepherd would teach us to speak the truth in love. In Scripture, the Holy Spirit would teach us words of wisdom to share.

 

For most of us, we first heard our Lord’s call to us through the voice and actions of others – our parents and sponsors who brought us to the fount to be baptized; our parents and grandparents who taught us God’ Word.

 

Again, on this Mother’s Day, we give to thanks to God for our mothers who cared for us, and sacrificed for us, and most of all taught us God’s Word, and showed us His love.   

 

As we grew, our pastors and teachers and Sunday School teachers, taught us about Christ and His love and His ways; and in some churches DCEs, and youth workers and other church workers spoke and showed God’s Word and His love to us.

 

For some people, the first time they heard their Shepherd’s call was when a friend shared the good news of the Gospel with them. Sometimes right then and there, that day, that moment, they heard and answered the call, they repented and believed. 

 

Sometimes weeks or months or even years later, they came to faith and believed and followed Christ as their Shepherd.

 

What this tells us is, as we hear and believe the voice of our Good Shepherd in His Word, we also relay His voice and His call to others; and that’s how the world hears. And some will believe and answer God’s call.

 

Thus our mission: first to know Christ, then to make Him known.

 

We have all kinds of technology that can help us in doing this, but can’t replace us speaking and sharing the good news, inviting others to Christ with a loving voice, and then backing it up with deeds of love.

 

 

 

I sometimes listen to podcasts when I drive or walk, and a couple of months ago, I was listening to a podcast about a book a person had written, describing the technological advances throughout western history that have impacted the transferring and passing on of information. 

 

And to my surprise, what he chose to talk about was… any guesses… the invention of paper, or the mass production of paper. 

 

Before that, things were typically written on animal hides or textiles, but with the mass production of paper, there was an explosion of the number of books in Europe, millions more per year.

 

All these centuries later, we’ve benefitted from that technology, and from a bit later, at the time of Martin Luther, the invention of the printing press. 

 

Because of theses inventions, we have the Bible, and many educational and devotional books about the Bible, printed on paper, as a book, and readily available to us, and for us to share with others. 

 

And there have been many more inventions through which information has been shared: the telegraph, telephone, television, radio.

 

Does any recognize the name, Walter A. Maier, Rev. Dr. Walter A. Maier? He was an LCMS seminary instructor who started the radio program, the Lutheran Hour in 1930, which we have to this day. But when he started it, it was cutting edge.

 

More recently we have digital technology: computers and the internet, that we make use of in spreading God’s Word. 

 

We need to be careful, because as we know, not everything that claims to be true, is. On the internet, and elsewhere, there’s a lot of false information about lots of things, including about religion and beliefs, and about God and His Word.

 

And there are things that are just clearly evil; not subtly but blatantly evil, things like identity theft, bullying on social media, or even worse, preying on children, child predators, and other sick and twisted uses of the internet that promote evil, and serve not God, but the devil. 

And many more wrong or irresponsible uses of digital technology.

 

We resist these evil works by identifying them, by exposing them and speaking out against them; and by speaking truth, by sharing true information in our daily conversation and in our use of technology; especially by sharing the truth of God’s Word and extending His call, inviting a friend, or a family member, or a co-worker, or even a stranger, to walk in the love of the Lord, our Shepherd, and live in His peace.

 

So in summary, as we hear our Shepherd’s call in His Word, as by the power of the Holy Spirit, we answer and follow Christ by faith, as we’re comforted by His words of love, and grow in His words of truth, we, in turn, relay His call to the world, making diligent use of the tools and gifts we’ve been given, including, and especially, our presence, and our voices. 

 

And we back it up, we authenticate it with deeds of love, so that His Word and His call are heard, and His love is seen above all the noise and clutter of this distracted world.

 

May we always hear our Shepherd’s voice in His Word, and gladly answer and share His call.

 

And as we do, may His peace, which passes understanding, guard our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, our risen Lord, and our good and loving Shepherd. Amen.