April 26, 2026, Fourth Sunday of Easter: Listening for the Shepherd’s Voice

New Testament Reading  Acts 2:42-47 (Page 949)
The Gospel:   John 10: 1-10 (Page 933)

Do you ever feel, with so much going on in our lives and in the world, that you don’t even have time to think, or that  you don’t know what to think or do? It is so easy to be overwhelmed by so many different voices coming at us, that we sometimes forget to listen for God.

I think this was what Jesus was trying to tell his disciples in this parable-like story of a shepherd opening the gate and calling the sheep. Actually, there is also a 3rd player involved here, the Gatekeeper. As the scripture says, “The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice.” 

Jesus’ disciples did not get what he was saying so he spelled it out for them, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.” 

Ok, so I can relate to the disciples being confused as we try to break down the multiple metaphors here. In the first portion of the scripture it seems that Jesus is the Shepherd and God the Creator is the gatekeeper opening the gate for Jesus; the disciples, or essentially all of God’s people, us included, are the sheep. That makes sense but then Jesus says he is the gate itself. Hmm was this easier for the disciples to understand? 

But if we think about it, both metaphors work for Jesus. Jesus is the gate through which we enter to connect to God the creator: the door of welcome that we are invited into in an acknowledgment that we are part of God’s family.

 Jesus is also the shepherd guiding us, his flock. We are reminded that “the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger…because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 

We are also told that “anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit” (John 10:1) and “The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy” whereas Jesus came so that the sheep, all of us, “may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

The problem is that there are a lot of strangers’ voices out there that come to steal our attention away from Jesus aren’t there? Whether it’s the news, advertisements, memes, social media posts, music, movies, friends, neighbors or even fundraising letters, there are just too many distracting voices coming at us and just too much to do that it creates a cacophony that makes it hard to hear God with us. 

And yet, think of the comfort it brings to sheep to hear their shepherd’s voice. They hear that voice and it means safety, it means home. Don’t we need that voice too - the calm amid the storms of our lives?

Of course we need that centering, anchoring, comforting voice of peace. That reassurance that God is indeed with us through every challenge and that God has been with God’s creation throughout every challenge before this. If we look at the history of mankind, this present chaos really is just another in many times of chaos, as distracting to us as the times were for the disciples who struggled to understand Jesus’ voice even when he stood right in front of them. 

So how do we quiet the noise around us that steals our attention from hearing what God, the shepherd, is saying?

Well, it takes work. It takes carving out time to listen. It takes faith to believe that God will speak to each of us, if we go through the gate of welcome and listen. We can take some advice from the desert mystics of long ago who sought to find this connection with God and who, like the Buddhists, took time for contemplation:

Issac of Syria advised, “Until the mind is freed from the multitudes of thoughts, and has achieved the single simplicity of purity, it cannot experience spiritual knowledge.”

Nicephorus the Solitary said, “Attention is the beginning of contemplation, or rather its necessary condition: for, through attention, God comes close and reveals Himself to the mind. Attention is serenity of the mind, or rather it’s standing firmly planted and not wandering, through the gift of God’s mercy.”

The monks Callistus and Ignatius advised: “Collect your mind from its customary circling and wandering outside, and quietly lead it into the heart by way of breathing.”

I like this last piece of advice as a starting place and it is one used in many forms of meditation from prayer to yoga: breathing as a way to stop our wandering, distracted minds in order to give our attention to God who is always with us but whom we cannot always hear. It’s why I often use “When I Breathe In” from Sarah Dan Jones to help us Center Peace as we begin our service. The idea of breathing in peace and breathing out love by itself is a comfort but the act of taking a few deep breaths pauses those distracting voices and gives us a chance to connect with our heart’s center which is God, who is Love, who is Peace. 

Let’s give it a try now with a box breathing technique. Close your eyes if you are comfortable but it is also fine to keep them open. Sometimes when I am here alone, I like to look at the Stained Glass of Jesus, Mary and Martha and talk to Jesus as I do this. 

We are going to imagine a box and we will breathe in as we go up one side of the box. Hold the breath across the top of the box, breathe out as we go down the other side of the box and hold the emptiness as we go across the bottom of the box. I will guide you through it and we will hold each breath in or out for the count of five. We will do this three times. Begin by picturing a box. Now breathe in for 1-2-3-4-5. Hold that breath for 1-2-3-4-5. Now release the breath for 1-2-3-4-5. Hold that emptiness for 1-2-3-4-5.  

Breathe in for 1-2-3-4-5. Hold that breath for 1-2-3-4-5. Now release the breath for 1-2-3-4-5. Hold that emptiness for 1-2-3-4-5. 

Breathe in for 1-2-3-4-5. Hold that breath for 1-2-3-4-5. Now release the breath for 1-2-3-4-5. Hold that emptiness for 1-2-3-4-5. 

Now let’s take an extended moment of silence to listen for God with us, for God within us, a voice guiding us. (Try to wait one plus minute).

What if we were able to carve out a few minutes each day to turn off the distracting voices and to listen inwardly for the Shepherd's voice calling us? Maybe we won’t hear it every day, but even the act of breathing, of trying to listen, is calming. That by itself is connecting to the peace of God. Maybe if we keep working at this, we might even extend the time beyond a few minutes for a few more minutes of peace each day. Maybe, we take a walk in the woods or in our gardens and we pause to just breathe and be there, listening for God. 

The reality is God is always calling to us, whispering, guiding but we struggle to find that calm, quiet time where we can feel God's presence and the peace it brings and listen for God’s loving voice. But if we can take the time to breathe and listen for God, we will feel that calm amid life’s storms. We will remember that this present challenge isn’t the first, won’t be the last, and it too will pass. We will regain a sense of awe and wonder at God’s creation and be inspired to do our part to protect it and all the creatures in it. 

We will look around and see that we are not the only sheep here, we are a fellowship of sheep listening for and being nourished by God’s voice so that we may realize that many of us do indeed have an abundant life and we can work so that all will have life and have it abundantly. Amen.