John 10: 22-30 Listen to God- Pastor Paul Larsen

When I was at the health club a couple of weeks ago a guy came up to me and asked, Did you used to be a pastor at All Saints in Cottage Grove? When I said yes, he said, I kept looking at you and I thought that was who you were, but then I heard you say something and I recognized your voice. It turns out it was Rick Schmidt. He was a teenager in my youth group 30 years ago when I was a pastor there. I remember him as a skinny kid who was active in Boy Scouts. Now he is in his forties and weighs at least 280 pounds. He described himself by saying, I am twice the man I used to be! He recalled a conversation where he had told me that he was considering being a pastor. I had told him that I thought that would be wonderful, but that as he tried to discern God’s calling in his life he should realize he could serve God in all kinds of vocations. He eventually concluded that working with computers was more his calling. It is interesting that Rick recognized my voice.

In our Gospel text Jesus says that his sheep recognize his voice, that he knows them and they follow him. Throughout the Bible God is constantly using his voice and calling people.

Abram is called to move to the promised land and become the father of a new nation.

Moses sees a burning bush and God speaks to him, calling him deliver the Israelites from slavery.

Young Samuel is hears his name being called in the middle of the night. He thinks it is the old priest, Eli calling him, but eventually Eli realizes it is the Lord and tells Samuel to say, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. The Lord then calls Samuel into service. Isaiah has a vision and the Lord says, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? And Isaiah responds, Here am I; send me.

God called Jeremiah to be a prophet even though he was a youth.

Jesus called the disciples and they followed him.

He also called Saul, even though he had been persecuting him.

God continues to use his voice to call us and to speak to us. As Christ’s followers it is important for us to listen for his voice, to hear and recognize it.

That isn’t always so easy because there is a cacophony of voices that make it difficult to hear and discern the voice of God. Most of us suffer from a steady dose of noise pollution: TV, radio, iPods, conversation. Constant sound bombards us until the naturalness of silence sounds foreign, unnatural, and threatening. We'll do just about anything to cover it up. We are addicted to noise. A blaring of the TV is a constant companion for many. Muzak fills the elevator. We jump in the car and immediately switch on the radio to fill the uncomfortable void. Even a lapse in social conversation is viewed with alarm, and someone has to rescue the moment by talking. Even in church, if a few moments of silence are called for in worship, most people have this internal response: When will this be over?

Often we use noise to drown out our honest thoughts, mask our true feelings, and obscure the voice of God. Let's suppose we decide to do something differently and close our mouths. After all, we can't hear God if we're constantly talking. So, we commit to spending more time in prayer and solitude. Even then our prayer time generally consists of asking for things, pleading for forgiveness, offering God our praise and thanks. Those are all good things, but they are still prayers controlled by us. They are the product of our efforts. We've simply decided to close our lips! The internal chatter continues.

Suppose that we decide not only to turn down the volume in our lives, but also in our thoughts. We stop our internal chatter and really listen to God. The problem is all these other voices chime in. Our mind starts churning and we ask ourselves, What are we going to have for dinner? What will I do if Mom has to go to a nursing home? Did I leave the kitchen light on when I left home? I wonder what Bill meant when he said that to me? Or that old reliable standby, I should have said... Given this behavior, our chances of really hearing the voice of God are just about nil. And yet, God still speaks to us.

God speaks to us like he spoke to Elijah on Mount Horeb: not in the whirlwind or the earthquake or the fire, but in a still small voice. Can you hear it?

In his book, Stress Fractures, Pastor Charles Swindoll once found himself with too many commitments in too few days. He got nervous and tense about it. He writes, I was snapping at my wife and our children, choking down my food at mealtimes, and feeling irritated at those unexpected interruptions through the day. Before long, things around our home started reflecting the patter of my hurry-up style. It was become unbearable. I distinctly remember after supper one evening, the words of our younger daughter, Colleen. She wanted to tell me something important that had happened to her at school that day. She began hurriedly, ’Daddy, I wanna tell you somethin ’ and I’ll tell you really fast.’ Suddenly realizing her frustration, I answered , ‘Honey , you can tell me - and you don’t have to tell me really fast. Say it slowly.’ I’ll never forget her answer, she said, ‘Then listen slowly.’"

That’s good advice for all of us. Listen slowly; listen intently, for God’s voice is often a gentle whisper, a still, small voice. When we learn to listen for it we recognize that He speaks rich and enlightened thoughts to our spirits.

In the words of Thomas Merton, Silence is the first language of God; all else is a poor translation. In Psalm 46 God says, Be still and know that I am God. When we are still, when we are silent before God, we are saying to God, I want to know you; however you want to speak to me, all the doors of my heart are open; you're as close as my breath - just help me to know you, to listen to you, and to hear your voice.

God will answer your longing - you can count on it. You don't have to try harder. This is not about your efforts; it's about your willingness to be surprised by God. This means letting go of your agenda, of your assumption that you know how and where God will lead you.

Let's face it, we usually listen for those things that will confirm what we already think. We want God's stamp of approval on what we've already decided. We aren't willing to be blindsided by grace.

Many of us are like Elijah, straining to hear the voice of God over the whirlwinds and earthquakes of our lives. But the truth is, life seems to constantly intrude on that process. Our best intentions get derailed by the busyness of life. Now, most of us can't move to a monastery. Therefore, we need to carve out the time to listen to that still small voice and hear it in the midst of the whirlwind, in the very ebb and flow of our daily lives.

We can listen deeply through holy Scripture; we can listen to the words and experiences of saints before us. The shared stories of others can stir our hearts.

So often we hear what we really listen for. Two men were walking along a crowded city sidewalk. Suddenly, one of the men remarked, Listen to the lovely sound of that cricket, But the other man could not hear the sound. He asked his friend how he could hear the sound of a cricket amid the roar of the traffic and the sound of the people. The first man, who was a zoologist, had trained himself to hear the sounds of nature. He didn’t explain to his friend in words how he could hear the sound of the cricket, but instead, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of coins. Then he dropped them onto the sidewalk, and watched as a dozen people began to look for the coins they heard clanking around amid the rumblings of the traffic and the noises of the crowded city living. He turned to his friend and said, We hear what we listen for.

If we were to listen to God, what would we hear him say to us?

Last Sunday we heard from a group of people who have heard God call them to mission work in Tanzania.

We have a whole bunch of youth and adults who have heard God call them to go and help the people in Appalachia this summer.

There is a group people going to pack food for Feed My Starving Children on Wednesday.

Twenty-six young people have heard God’s call in baptism and will affirm their baptismal covenant in the Rite of Confirmation this afternoon.

St. Paul frequently reminds us that we have a variety of gifts and that we are to use our gifts to build up the body of Christ.

Even little children can answer that call. That was the message Dan Baier shared with the Sunday school children last Sunday. He talked about a mission trip he is going on to Guatemala and how poor some of the people are there. He told how many of them don’t have enough to eat and sometimes the children don’t have any toys to play with. He reminded them that even though they are young they can still help. They can pray for people who are in need and they can give a portion of their allowance to help people have enough food to eat. At the end of the class five year old John Bendix, who was born in Guatemala, came up to Dan. He had a plastic, gorilla, action figure in his hands. He handed it to Dan saying, I want you to take this on your next mission trip and give it to a child who doesn’t have any toys.

If we listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd we will hear him call us to follow him on the path of service. We will hear him call us to use our gifts and share our gifts for the good of others.

We will also heard the Good Shepherd promise to protect us and care for us. Jesus says in this text, My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.

Jesus is not promising us that bad things will never happen to us, but he is promising to be with us and help us. He is also promising us the ultimate victory.

The author of Psalm 23 recognizes that there will be problems in life. He acknowledges that there will be times when we find ourselves in the darkest valley – even the valley of the shadow of death. But in those times we do not need to be afraid because the Lord is with us to protect us and comfort us. He promises that goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives and that we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Listen to God. Take some time each day to be still and know that God is God. If you do you will hear God’s call to use the gifts God has given you to serve others. You will also hear God’s assurance that he will provide for you and protect you as he promises that nothing can ever snatch you out of his hand. Amen.

GUIDED BY THE GOSPEL: GATHERING • GROWING • GIVING