Voices
O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people; Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. - Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Book of Common Prayer, p. 225
Yesterday, we heard the story of the Good Shepherd, which we hear every year on the fourth Sunday of Easter. The portion of the Good Shepherd narrative we hear varies from year to year, but it is always a story about the Good Shepherd on the fourth Sunday after Easter. And, in every year that we hear a portion of the Good Shepherd, we encounter a line about hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd. It seems that listening to this voice is rather important as we journey beyond Easter and continue in the walk of our spiritual lives. The collect for this particular Sunday in Easter helps us to focus on the importance of our listening so that we can know the voice of the Good Shepherd when it shows up in our lives, so we know how to listen to it and are able to respond to that voice.
Voices in our lives are many and varied. The voices surrounding us can come from almost anywhere and have different impacts on our lives. The world has, quite simply, gotten a good bit noisier than it used to be at one time. It is likely that many of us, throughout our days, hear television, radio programs, podcasts, YouTube or TikTok videos, the voices of family members, and the voices of strangers. All of these seem to get layered one on top of the other until it simply begins to sound like a cacophony of sound that makes no sense and does not seem to be doing much to build us up in our spiritual lives. In fact, the noise can become so dense that it feels nearly impossible for us to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd as he calls out to us by name. We are required to have some intentionality around our listening to the ways that God is showing up in our lives and to the ways that Christ is calling us forward by our names. The noisiness of the world is inviting us to create space in our lives that we are far more intentional about our practices of (daily) prayer so that we are able to hear that voice as it calls us forward by name.
And this, it seems to me, is a very important part of practicing a life of prayer. If we are not spending some part of our time in prayer as listening for the ways that God is speaking to us, we are missing a big part of what it means for us to be in relationship with God. If we fail to listen to what God is saying to us, how will we ever be able to recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd as he calls us to join the flock? It really is no different than the ways that we are in relationship with others. We learn to grow in vulnerability with others by trusting someone with a small thing at first before we begin to trust them with the big things. We learn how to discern if a friend’s voice is truly being a voice of friendship in the greatest understanding of that word or not. Our relationship with God is not so different in that it requires that we practice being in trusting and loving relationship with God to recognize the ways that God is working in our lives. It takes us listening to God as part of our time in our prayer practices, and sometimes, our listening feels like a big moment of silence in which we are not hearing very much at all.
The silence that I experience in my listening is often because I have forgotten to practice prayerful listening in my prayers. I experience the silence most acutely when I have not been attentive to saying my prayers each day and have forgotten the sound of the voice for which and to which I am listening. To know the voice of the Good Shepherd, I am invited to open the ears of my heart to listen and to better know how the Good Shepherd is calling me by name.
For reflection:
Take a moment to name the different sources of different voices in your life and write them down on a piece of paper. Next, write beside each of those voices the amount of time you spend with that voice (TV, radio, podcasts, prayer, etc). Rank each voice by the amount of time you spend with that voice from most to least. Where does prayer and listening to God fall in the mix? What might it take for you to increase the amount of time you are spending in daily prayer?
Take another look at the voices you identified in your life. Consider each one in its own right. Which of those voices are helping you to love God and neighbor more fully? Which of those voices are taking you away from loving God and neighbor more fully?
Take a moment to quiet yourself, place your feet on the floor, and take a deep breath. Invite God into your heart and into your space. Spend 5 minutes simply listening to God. Close by thanking God for that time of prayer and listening. What was it like to pray only by listening? Did you hear something surprising? Take a moment to journal or reflect on what you heard.
