The Voice of Jesus

John 10:22-30 

April 17, 2016

Jesus Solomon's Portico

We’re flashing back to a moment 

during Jesus ministry.

Jesus is walking through the portico of Solomon

a covered walk way around 

the temple in Jerusalem.

and as usual, he’s attracting a crowd

People want to see him and talk to him.

This time some people want him to tell them

who the heck he is and what he’s doing.

They say 

“how long are you going to keep us in suspense.”

Some say that that phrase is better translated,

“How long are you going to annoy us?”
In other words stop using all these metaphors

and stories and figures of speech.

Just tell us plainly if you’re the Messiah.

Give us the absolute sign. Let us know.

Now, undoubtedly, some of these people

are trying to catch Jesus and trap him

and get him in trouble with the authorities.

Some of them are probably hostile to what Jesus represents,

And some might be naturally skeptical,

But I’m sure that some of the people

asking Jesus are really searching and hoping

and wanting and waiting for the Messiah

they want to hear that Jesus is the Messiah.

And in response, Jesus tells them,

My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.

 

Sheep do get to know their own shepherd’s voice.

Each shepherd would have a hundred or so sheep.

And there were always other flocks of sheep around

and they tend to all look alike.

Sometimes the shepherds and their flocks

would meet to go to sleep

and they would all get mixed up at night.

But in the morning, the shepherds

could call their flock and the sheep would instinctively

follow their own shepherds voice.

Sheep know their shepherd’s voice.

Jesus was saying that the ones who will be

Jesus followers will just know him.

They will hear his voice and follow.

Flash forward a couple of thousand years,

Today if you are a church person,

or you hang around church people enough,

or read any information about the church,

the discussion often goes to the decline

of Christianity.

People just aren’t going to church,

If you read some of the more panicked articles,

all Christian churches are closing next week.

We know that’s not true.

But people’s lives just don’t seem to be centered around

Christianity or the church as much as it was

as it did fifty or even 20 years ago.

There are some people these days are hostile to Christianity

they like to catch the church doing something

wrong or contrary, or fouling up and they don’t

hesitate to point it out at every turn.

But like those people that were talking to Jesus,

some people haven’t really heard Jesus voice speaking to them.

I think there are a lot of people who are still searching

for their shepherd’s voice. But what are they hearing?

For a culture that is experiencing a decline in

Church attendance, God and Christ are still

pretty widely talked about, even outside of church.

Our politicians feel they have to invoke God,

and prove their faithfulness to get elected,

and lots of messages come out

with God’s name attached to it,

But is that message that people are hearing?

From Christians, I have heard hateful rhetoric

about immigrants and refugees,

especially our Muslim brothers and sisters.

Some Christians say terrible things about the poor,

and the homeless too.

Is that the voice of Jesus talking?

Donald Trump says his favorite bible verse

is an “eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth”

completely forgetting that Jesus followed it up

by saying “I say turn the other cheek”

I can’t say that I’m too surprised,

But are some hearing this as Jesus message?

 

And these crazy laws that are predominate now

in the south, that pass themselves off as

“religious freedom laws” touted by Christians and

by Christian politicians,

giving Christians license to discriminate

against gay, lesbian, and transgender people, and really anyone

it’s was used to defend throwing an interracial couple

out of a trailer park.

Some people are hearing this as the voice of Jesus.

The Westboro Baptist church is still

getting their 15 years of fame in by being

horrible and picketing at inappropriate events.

And some Christians spend an inordinate amount

of their time mercilessly yelling hurtful things

at young women going into Planned Parenthood to

getting low cost health care

because they might possibly be considering an abortion.

Is this the voice of Jesus?

Now we might know that these voices

are not the voice of Jesus.

But people who aren’t as intimate

with Jesus life and stories, how would they know?

Even if we agreed with the message

that some of these people are committed to,

We know that this was not at all the way

that Jesus would speak to other people or confront injustice or sin.

Jesus got most irate with religious leaders who were

misleading other people.

He didn’t yell at poor people or young women.

But those who don’t know about

Christ’s way, how would they know?

These are the voices, these are the messages

that are filling the airways and getting in the news

and filling the ears of people.

Even Pope Francis is struggling

to get his message to rise above

this din of hate and exclusion .

And I think that a lot of people

have heard these messages for so long

that they believe that it is Jesus voice

and they want no part of that.

I know a lot of my friends from my past

are in that boat right now.

They can’t get around  all the voices

of fear and hate and exclusion

to hear Jesus real voice.

And I can’t say that I blame them.

We know that Jesus is not a voice of hate

Jesus voice is a voice of life, of resurrection,

of welcome at the table, embracing those who are different,

eating with sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes,

loving your enemies, praying for those who persecute you,

lifting up the poor and unfortunate.

We at Gethsemane know that is the shepherd’s voice.

And I believe that people are waiting to hear that voice,

they are longing to know that shepherd.

But, of course, we’re Lutheran and we mutter it

or hope that people will read our minds.

But Jesus said, when my sheep hear my voice they will follow.

They will never perish.  No one will snatch them out of my hand.

The good news today is that Jesus won’t stop calling

those sheep over and over again.

Jesus won’t stop just because we didn’t hear the first time

or because the noise of the world is too loud,

or his followers don’t have the courage to speak up.

The good shepherd knows that there are lots of people

just waiting to hear that story, that message and that voice

the voice of the living word of God, the voice of forgiveness,

The voice that we have followed here this morning,

And Jesus won’t stop calling until all creation has come home.