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Today’s lectionary readings, the scriptures that are assigned to be visited on a given Sunday throughout a 3 year cycle, have something obvious in common. Sheep grateful for a shepherd. I wish I grew up with sheep when it comes to immersing myself in this familiar religious metaphor. I have friends that can relate many a story underscoring the wisdom of this teachable relationship, sheep and their shepherd, shepherds and their sheep.

I guess sheep are not the brightest animal in the pasture. They rely on caregivers to tend to their basic needs and safety. They depend on the shepherd to be dependable. If you have seen the movie Babe, you know sheep have thoughts and feelings. Bossy dogs barking orders and nipping at your legs is one way to be cajoled into following. Babe had a different leadership style. He also had a different appearance – he was a pig. At first, the sheep and humans were skeptical. But it didn’t take long for Babe’s gentle personality to convince the sheep that following a pig was a good idea. And being sheep, they believed him, they followed him, and they loved him.

It’s likely not many of us gathered here know a genuine shepherd - someone who leads and follows a band of wooly mammals from one feeding ground to the next. Dogs and trucks generally do this nowadays. Raising sheep, unlike cattle or hogs (sorry Babe), is less about going to market and more about growing wool. Sheep are known by their shepherd and the shepherd is known by his sheep.

The sheep to which Jesus related lived their entire lives within a flock. They formed a relationship with their caregiver. They learned to trust the shepherd’s leading. They learned to recognize seasonal rhythms. They learned to follow the voice who accompanied them in times of rest and in times of danger.   

John’s gospel evolved through a community for at least sixty years before it was written down. This community struggled as we do in our culture with many voices competing for our loyalties. Whom to follow? To whom to listen? In these struggles the community developed what many consider the most profound understanding of Christ and Church in all of the Christian scriptures. The fourth gospel portrays Jesus as the only authentic Word, Way Truth, Life, Light, Vine, Bread of Life as well as the only true Good Shepherd and Gate to Life.

Patricia Datchuck Sanchez, a scripture commentator, suggests that dissenting voices within the church plagued the community of the beloved disciple. These dissenters eventually withdrew or seceded from the community. The strangers, thieves, and marauders in today’s gospel perhaps refer to such inauthentic leaders whose voices and directions do not lead to salvation. Beware of those preying on the vulnerabilities of the sheep. Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.

“The sheep hear his voice as he calls his own by name.” In order to truly recognize God’s voice, one must daily maintain contact with the divine. God knows and calls us by name. Are we listening to what we are hearing? Hearing with much more than our ears. Hearing the restlessness in our soul and listening for what it says. Hearing the laughter on the school playground and listening for what it says. Hearing the toxic tension in conversation and listening for what it says. Hearing God’s “Yes!” in the steady pulse of my carotid artery and listening for what it says. God is speaking to us all the time. God is calling us by name, all the time. And, no, I don’t hear God calling my name everyday. I don’t hear when I don’t listen.

There are communication skills many of us learn along the way. Active listening is a big one. Active listening is focusing on what the other person is saying, not focusing on what we want to say to the other person. Active listening is repeating back to the person what we think they just said in an effort to catch misunderstandings from the get go. This repeating back practice also affirms that we are indeed listening. We are focusing on what the other is saying. The other is important to us. It can be tedious and awkward. However, assuming that each party truly understands what the other said without checking it out, is, well, we all know, dangerous.

Something I find interesting is that when a person says, “You are not hearing me,” they sometimes mean, “You are not agreeing with me.” If we are being heard, if others are truly listening, then they would have the same opinions/conclusions/feelings as we do. Not necessarily.

Active listening is endeavoring to be clear in understanding what the other person is saying. The next part is respectfully responding with a question or comment that follows what was just said.

What I heard you say was that you wanted to go for a bike ride. Is that right? Yes. I want to go right now. Okay. You want to go right now. I need to finish filling this bag with leaves first. I understand that you want to go sooner than that. Please be patient a little bit longer and we will go for a bike ride. Do you want to help me fill the bag or do you want to ride your bike on the patio some more?

I have conversations with God that are often similar to this. We move around in the dialogue, God the one eager to go for a ride or God certainly not in a hurry. I have screamed to God, “Listen to me! You’re not listening!” And in the drawn out silence I hear, when I listen, “Yes I am. Let’s talk.”

In the Buddhist tradition there are five mindfulness trainings, areas of reflection and practice. A newsletter came my way recently that was highlighting a meditation on the fourth training, loving speech and deep listening. It caught my attention.

Unmindful speech and the inability to listen causes suffering. Loving speech and deep listening can lead to healing. It is important to practice habits of truthful speech which will inspire self-confidence, joy and hope. The gathering, which the newsletter advertised, was a discussion on mindful speech in highly emotional situations. How do we use mindful speech when we are already fired by anger or weighed down by sadness? Tich Nhat Hanh says that the first function of mindfulness is to recognize what is there, positive or negative. Note the word, recognize. It is a spiritual phenomenon. The disciples recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread. The sheep recognized the voice of the shepherd.

There are moments in our listening that life changes. Can you recall a moment in a worship service when a song was sung, a word was spoken, or a dance prayed, when suddenly or gradually, you felt a new energy enter the space? The Holy Spirit does appear. She is alive and well in our being awake, in our listening. No one can orchestrate that kind of energy except God. The voice of the sacred may not be a voice at all.

Can you recall a moment in a work related meeting or something at school when a hush came over the room? Maybe not a literal hush but a group wide sense that you were witnesses to something bigger than yourselves. Perhaps this sense, this feeling, beckoned you to listen to what you were hearing. Something has changed. The question may now become, “What is available to us that wasn’t before?”

There are moments that solidify a relationship, a group, a nation. I believe moments that embody active listening, when we move beyond hearing to listening, these moments have the capacity for us to recognize the voice of the one who calls us by name.

We are hearing voices. Many voices. Go this way. Go that way. You are damned. You are blessed. Life’s success is defined by this possession. Life’s meaning springs forth from this experience. Follow me. No, follow me.

To some, we are crazy. Yes, crazy following the voice that we hear. Crazy for considering a no good shepherd an instrument of God. Crazy for believing loosing one’s life is the way to find it. Crazy giving authority to something we cannot explain yet know in our bones.

“The sheep hear his voice as he calls his own by name.” In order to truly recognize God’s voice, one must daily maintain contact with the divine. God knows and calls us by name. Are we listening to what we are hearing? 

Amen.

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