Most of you know that if you have a “smart phone”, whether it be an Apple phone or Android, you can train it to activate by voice commands. Rather than typing, swiping, or some other action, you can activate the phone by voice to look up information, call someone, open up an application, all without hands. However, as many of you know, to use this function, you have to train the cell phone to recognize your voice by repeating a line over and over again. The idea is that by calling out the magic words with your unique voice, the phone assistant will awaken and then you can proceed to command it. Yet it doesn’t always recognize your voice. It only recognizes your voice if you use the same tone, the same volume, the same pitch with the same rhythm as when it was trained, otherwise it may just ignore you.

In today’s Gospel text Jesus, names Himself as the Shepherd of the sheep. His sheep know Him by His voice. When He calls to them by name they follow Him. A stranger they will not follow, but “they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of a stranger.” The sheep hear and know His voice. They recognize Him by His voice. To hear and recognize the voice of the Shepherd implies that there is familiarity with the shepherd beyond what a cell phone can recognize. In the ancient Middle East, the shepherd would be with the sheep for many, many hours at a time, speaking to them, calling to them, singing to them, perhaps even playing an instrument to them to lead them, guide them, and calm them down. The sheep learn to know the different tones of the Shepherd’s voice. They know when the Shepherd’s voice takes on the tone of warning. They know the sound of rebuking, leading, guiding and loving. They know the Shepherd’s voice inside and out. This kind of recognition can only come from constant exposure to His voice. It is much like a baby which recognizes its mother’s voice after being born because it had heard her voice all the time while still in her womb.

This passage from John along with the entire 10th chapter describes the ongoing life of the Church which is represented as the flock of sheep who have Jesus as its Shepherd and Overseer. Jesus continues to call, gather, and enlighten His sheep from every generation through the voice of His Word in Scripture and His Sacraments as they are faithfully administered by His under shepherds. If these “pastors” are not faithful, if they are false teachers and preachers, then they are as thieves and robbers. The sheep should be prepared and able to recognize these charlatans and rogues because as sheep of the Shepherd, they would have been students of His voice having studied the scriptures, deeply and often at home and Divine Service. The sheep would understand the dynamic that when the sheep hear the voice of the shepherd they don’t just shrug their shoulders and pay Him no mind, but they hear His voice and follow Him. There is walking; journeying; following; obeying. They also are to be faithful to the Scriptures not just in thought but in action, as St. James writes: “Lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves”(James 1:21-22).

James sounds like he is speaking today by what he says next. “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of a man he was” Sadly, this is happening among many who claim to be members of the church today. Many have forgotten who they are and whose they are: they have forgotten the voice of the Shepherd.

The Christian culture in America is marked by one of plurality. It has been influenced by American consumerism and the thought that anyone is free to do what is right in their own eyes. It is perplexing…and very difficult to combat. They follow the voice they have come to know. There are churches that do not emphasize the voice of the Good Shepherd in historic truth of God’s Word and His sacraments. Instead, they emphasize the whims and wants of the modern individual. In such a case, the subjective desires or interpretations of the individual become the driving force on how one worships and what one believes. The voice that is heard and followed is no longer that of the Shepherd but voice of the “sheep who liked to stray”. The problem with throwing out the voice of the Shepherd to appease the itching ears is that people end up not having a shepherd in this world. They walk alone, searching and fighting to survive the spiritual onslaughts of the devil with very little protection. An individual who might claim to believe in Jesus, who may claim to pray to Jesus, but if he does not attend a faithful congregation, thereby avoiding a deeper contemplation of the Scriptures with brother and sister sheep to hear and be fed by their Shepherd’s voice in truth and purity, how can they stand against the evil wolf and dread satanic lion? Perhaps they attend a church that checks the boxes of programming, sports teams, favorite music, but if the Word of God is not there or diminished, then the voice of the Good Shepherd is not there or muted. Everything is trite and superficial. The true teachings of the scriptures sound foreign to those sheep and so the voice of the thief sounds completely reasonable. This is one reason why so many people today are leaving Christianity. They were misguided to begin with. They did not know, or they forgot, or they covered their ears from the voice of the Good Shepherd by placing a greater emphasis on voices other that the Good Shepherd.

All too often, we also forget the voice of the Shepherd or we ignore Him when we choose to skip Bible Class or Divine Service, when we conveniently ignore parts of Scripture that make us uncomfortable or tells us that what we are doing is wrong or tells us to do something we don’t want to do. Then we are not being sheep of the Good Shepherd, we are disowning Him by our sin and unbelief wanting to follow the voice of our flesh or the world. This is exactly what the Great thief, the devil wants. He wants the sheep to jump the fence, to avoid the Shepherd who is also the door, and then wander into the hands of those who mean us harm, who will bring us again under judgment and destruction.

Let us repent of our sin and our stubbornness.

Thankfully, the Shepherd has mercy on His sheep and Jesus is truly the Good Shepherd. He does not give up on sinful stubborn sheep, but He continues to call to you, to me, to unbelievers, to repent, to come back and enter again the sheepfold, the Church, through the only door that saves and protects from the evil one, and his band of thieves. This door is Jesus Christ. He is the Good Shepherd. Why? Because as He said in the verses following this morning’s reading in John 10: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” (John 10:11, 18)

Jesus has laid down His life so that the sheep may have life. This He did at the cross. He has suffered for you bearing your sins in His body on the tree, that the righteous wrath of God for your sin would be taken by Jesus Christ. By His wounds you have been healed. He has risen from the dead and taken His life back up again, so that we may have that resurrection life as our inheritance by faith in Him.

The voice of the Shepherd is the voice of life. His voice called your name to that inheritance and life with a loving yet thunderous tone in Holy Baptism. He continues to call you through His Word, to hear again His voice in all its tones. Tones of admonishment, to which we confess our sins and then receive forgiveness in the absolution spoken in tones of love and reconciliation by His undershepherds. This voice is His voice. The Word of God in the liturgy is that which familiarizes us again to His voice which leads us through the valley of the shadow of death to the still water, as we are invited by our Good Shepherd to drink and eat heavily and healthfully on the preaching of His Word and the eating and drinking of His precious body and blood given and shed for you in this bread and wine. Your Good Shepherd here continues to come to you and call you and lead you to the cross, and to the empty tomb: to the place where He now leads His sheep to have life and have it in eternal abundance. As we follow Him by faith, He leads us forth through this life to the life in heaven which He has prepared. Through suffering and persecution, through joys and triumphs, He leads us forth. We hear His voice and He hears us pray. He comes to us and picks us up and carries us when we are weak. Through Him we have salvation, hope, and eternal life.

May we be drawn to Him and His Word ever and always, so that by faith we may recognize His Voice, His Love, His direction and guidance throughout this life until the day, when His voice will once more call us by name to come forth from the tomb or from this life to eternal life in resurrected victory through Jesus Christ, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas