My sheep hear my voice. I know them
and they follow me.
We’re still
taking in Tom Irlam’s death.
The good
shepherd theme leads me to reiterate what I shared at his funeral on Wednesday
about Lieutenant – sorry I said 'lootenant' on the day – Lieutenant Irlam’s days of active military service. He was
evidently a leader who knew his men, and, I said, that encouraged me to be a
shepherd who knows his sheep.
By that
analogy I said he was my sheep dog at this service! We’re filling in the gaps
for coordinating and serving and let’s work together on that.
We miss
that voice, raised with its melodious Welsh flow. I’m afraid we 8 o’clockers
have to be sheep not only who hear Jesus’ voice but sheep whose voices are
heard by Jesus – and the priest his under shepherd. I’m sure Tom would back me
in giving you this reminder – turn up the
volume in your responses, brothers and sisters! Without his stentorian
tones that marshalled voices in liturgy we now have an uncertain feel.
It couldn’t
be as bad a feel as the description of St Giles’ worship 100 years ago from Land of hope and glory author Arthur
Benson whose home was at Tremains with the Archbishop, his father’s widow Mary.
Mary Benson’s biographer Rodney Bolt has a couple of strange anecdotes. One is
the absent-minded Truro parson whose sister had to secure him to the altar rail
with a dog chain and padlock to prevent him wandering off before the service
was over. The second amusing story is of Mary’s attempts to get Arthur to church
here at St Giles. In expressing his disdain Arthur described our worship here
as ‘people penned in rows like sheep intermittently crying out together like
ducks in a pool’. How very unkind!
My sheep hear my voice. I know them
and they follow me.
I must
change gear into the substance of today’s scripture from which Tom’s demise has
made for a sad but necessary diversion.
How do we hear God’s voice?
Reading the
Bible, of course. I commend the new website resources mentioned in the news
sheet, especially Bible Alive show as a means of getting insight into
the readings used in the Lectionary for weekday eucharists. Systematic bible
reading helps us more fully lay hold of the word of God as we give time to it
and to trying to make sense of the difficult bits.
Besides
Bible Alive I would commend New Daylight show
from Bible Reading Fellowship, not least because they’ve recently commissioned
me to write for them.
We can hear
God’s voice speaking to us as parts of scripture light up as if they were
written for us individually.
We can also
hear God’s voice speaking through the preacher, yes, and also through people we
know as they encourage or challenge us.
Then he
speaks direct, yes, he does, and for
that to happen we need a disposition to silent reflection. Be still and know that I am God says the Psalmist. Maybe a few
minutes a day, to stop what we’re doing, sit and listen, perhaps after reading
the Bible, maybe even after reading the paper. What would you like me to pray
for from this morning’s Telegraph, or whatever?
My sheep hear my voice. I know them
and they follow me.
We serve a
living God who is always present with us, always close to us, who loves us
through and through, so we shouldn’t doubt he will speak to us when we ask him
to. Let’s use the silence now to listen
to him as best we can.
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