Vicar’s November letter

Dear friends,
Have you ever answered the phone and someone starts talking to you without saying who they are, assuming that you know who they are when you don’t have a clue? Sometimes this can get more and more embarrassing as the conversation goes on, and the longer it goes on, the more difficult it seems to ask who it is you are talking to. I’ve been in this situation several times myself and never knew quite what to do. I didn’t want to admit that I had no idea who they were but I was worried that I might suddenly get caught out by a question I couldn’t answer without knowing who I was talking to. I remember one time many, many years ago, just hanging up the phone in such a situation. The person called back, I didn’t answer and they left a message. Sorted. But not very elegantly. When I ring someone now, I try to make a point of saying who I am to avoid anyone getting into such a situation. My best advice if you find yourself on a call like this is to ask who it is straight away. Difficult maybe, but a lot less embarrassing than having to do that five or ten minutes later.
Anyway, that’s not my point. While I was thinking about this I thought about the passage (in John 10) where Jesus talks about being a shepherd and his followers being sheep. He makes the point that his sheep recognise his voice. What an awesome idea, the thought of recognising Jesus’ voice. I thought a bit about what this might mean for us today. If we are Jesus’ sheep then we should be able to recognise his voice. How does that work? Clearly not in the same way as recognising a voice on the phone. We are not literally going to recognise Jesus’ voice as we haven’t heard him speaking. And yet Jesus says that we will. So what does he mean?
Well, I think he his talking about the relationship that would form between a shepherd and his sheep, between Jesus and his followers. A relationship built on trust, a relationship developed by time spent together, a relationship defined by love. If we spend time with Jesus, if we spend time talking to him and spend time listening to him – in quiet time and through reading his word, if we truly trust him and seek to follow him, then, if we listen really carefully, we may start to hear his voice, and if we do that on a regular basis, we might come to recognise his voice. How awesome would that be?
Worth a try?
God Bless,
Mike