The Voices We Hear

 

John 10:22-30

Easter 4 / Year C

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.  I know them, and they follow me.” 

After a detailed study, anthropologist Roberta Salmi determined babies recognize the voice of their mother within a few hours of being born.  During the last ten weeks of pregnancy, she found, a baby begins to absorb what it is hearing and shortly after birth can demonstrate a familiarity with the language spoken by its mother.  Even before we are born we learn to recognize a specific voice and begin to follow.

And while a mother’s is the first voice we hear, it won’t be the last.  In fact, there are so many voices competing for our attention, one of the most essential life skills we must develop is learning how to focus our attention on what matters most while tuning out rest of the stuff which can be little more than noise.  We call this skill discernment, which is something more vast than simply what we listen to, but it does involve this, and it is comforting to know we get a leg up in the womb when we begin to home in on one of the most important voices we will encounter during all our days.

In today’s reading, when Jesus tells his critics his sheep know his voice, he is (in effect) telling them they don’t know who he is because they are not his of his flock.  Most often we turn this around and take from it the message Jesus is the shepherd who calls us to follow him.  It harkens back to one of the unique features of shepherding, namely, sheep, even when intermingled amongst other herds, respond to the call of their specific shepherd.  They associate his voice with the one who leads them to food and water, protects them from harm, tends to their wounds, finds shelter from the storms, and (perhaps like David) even sings to them, creating an atmosphere of calm and peace.  

When we are baptized we promise to turn from…

·    Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God,

·    All the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God, and

·    All sinful desires which draw us from the love of God.

As I say to those in baptismal preparation, we commit to renounce Satan, the world, and the self in order to turn to Jesus as our Savior (the One who frees us from the bondage of sin), our Lord (the One who we will obey), and our Guide (the One who shows us the way).  Satan, the world, the self, our Savior, our Lord, and our Guide: each has a voice that speaks to us and we must discern which is which.

I don’t think I have ever met a person who openly cultivates the voice of Satan, but I do know some colleagues who say they have.  I do know many who have followed the voices of evil which calls us (among other things) to dominate the weak or to seek revenge on our enemies or to use power to inflict pain for the sport of it. 

As for the world, it has many voices telling us how materialism is the path to happiness, beauty is the path to self-esteem, and consumption is the key to inner fulfillment.  Some people speak to us in a worldly way, perhaps an old teacher who said you will never amount to anything or a subordinate who butters you up for his or her own advancement.  I could go on, but you are discerning enough to do this work through your own analysis.

But what about the voice inside you?  What does the self say to you? 

I spent a summer in college scooping ice cream at a store in a shopping mall.  One night we had to work late and at some point the mall’s large fountain shut off.  The large concourse became dead quiet, like I had never heard it before in that space.  It was only when the fountain was still that I became aware of how much sound it was constantly making.

Our inner voice can be like this.  It is always on to the effect we may not even realize it, although we do hear it.  This can be good or bad, depending on what it is saying to you.  It might say, “You can do it!”, “Tomorrow will be a new day”, “You are good enough just the way you” or a thousand other things which remind you of your value and affirm your basic dignity and worth.

Or, your inner voice can be incredibly harsh and unforgiving: “Why am I always so stupid?”, “What else did I expect to happen given I’ve always been a failure?”, “Why didn’t I just keep quiet?  When will it ever sink into my head no one wants to hear what I have to say anyways.”  For some, this voice is cruel and unrelenting.  But it is not the voice of the Good Shepherd.  It is not the voice we turn to at our baptism.  It is the voice we renounce with the full conviction what Jesus says to us overrides everything else we are hearing.

God spoke to Jeremiah, little more than a child at the time, saying what we might expect a mother to say, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you” (Jeremiah 1:5).  Our shepherd’s voice is like this, speaking to us of how we a precious, special, deeply loved, and valuable beyond all measure… just as we are.  This is the voice we hear, and it is the one we follow because we know to whom we belong.  Learning to discern this voice amidst all the other voices vying for our attention and responding to it in the way a flock responds only to the voice of its shepherd is an act of discipleship.  It demonstrates we are followers of Jesus because we know his voice.