1 Peter 2: 19-25                                                                                                           Rev. Dr. Galen E. Russell III

John 10: 1-10                                                                                                                                           April 26, 2026

“When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.  They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.”

Prayer: O Christ, the good Shepherd of our lives, help us to listen to your voice. Help us to follow you. In your name we pray, Amen.

 Last Sunday I preached about responding to the voice we hear within our spirit. I suggested that God is Stillspeaking in our consciousness. Well, today I want to offer some thoughts about listening to the external voice of Jesus, what we hear coming from outside ourselves in Jesus’ words, his teachings, and other kindred voices.

And for sure, those sacred voices with sacred messages have to coexist with all the other voices we hear in our culture, right? I mean in today’s information age, everyone has a voice. And the medians are numerous. There’s the old school stuff, like books, TV, film, newscasts, speeches, and sermons. There’s also the new medians like weblogs, blogs, podcasts, chat rooms, online forums, X space, and just about the entire social media arena is a place where you can make your voice heard.



So with all the voices in our world, I am amazed that the voice of the Shepherd still manages to get in there. We can hear Jesus’ voice through his teachings. We can hear God’s Stillspeaking voice as preachers call for us to live with grace and love. We can hear the Spirit’s prophetic voice when protestors call for politicians to act with justice for all.

We can hear the Good Shepherd’s voice with ads that tell us “He Gets Us.” By the way, did you know that the NY Times ranked the “He gets us” ad during the Super Bowl among the top ten of all Superbowl ads (The New York Times, February 6)? I loved it. There it was, right in the middle of all the ads—you know the ones preoccupied with money, material goods, consumption, gambling,—the voice of the Shepherd telling us, There's more to life than just more. Other ads say,“I get you. I know you. Listen to MY voice.” And I don’t mind that the ad creators are evangelical conservative Christians. So what. God uses all of us and thousands of ways to get Her voice heard! YES!

And that voice I believe needs to be listened to by our culture, which is, if I may be so bold, like sheep. Changing on a dime. Consuming, consuming, consuming with their head down not aware of where their doing. Influenced by the loudest voices, often not the voice of the Shepherd. In our time of cultural and moral decay and apathy, as is evident in the shooting last night in DC at the Correspondence Dinner, the voice of the Shepherd is muted, or drowned out, or overpowered by all the other voices. But you can still hear it, if you listen.

And sometimes it takes some hutzpah, because there may be an occasion when you listen and do what’s right and suffer for it. But, God calls that good. Like I was blown away in January when Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned from Congress on account of the victimized women in the Epstein case and at Mara Lago. “MTG” stated, “I realized I was part of this toxic culture. I really started looking at my faith. I wanted to be more like Christ” (The New York Times, December 29, quoted in The Christian Century, April 2026, p. 11). Wow! Right? I think maybe God calls that good. That, I have hope, is Marjorie listening to the Shepherd’s voice.

And can we know the sound of the Shepherd’s voice the way that a family dog hears the master’s voice and jumps for joy when the beloved master comes home? I read a story of a woman talking with a neighbor in her living room. The kids were all over the place making noise. And the black lab was just chilling keeping a wary eye on a slam-bang toddler who just loves her doggie. And then the husband came home, and walking up to the house, he randomly cleared his throat. And the dog went wild! She started jumping up into the air, over and over, trying to see her master over the top of a gate. It’s you, it’s you! You’re home, you’re home! was the message (based on Leach, Amy, The Christian Century, April, 2026, p. 27).

Do we know the voice of our Shepherd like that? Do we follow him because we recognize his voice in his messaging?

      The voice of the Shepherd speaks of the highest good, the value of all people, the strength of character, of decency, of respect, of love and covenantal relationship with humanity. As a side note, if you haven’t already done so, please read my Sharing the Journey article in last Thursday’s NET about Covenantal Agreement. In my opinion, we, as participants in our culture, have to listen to the Shepherd’s voice, because his message speaks of a covenantal relationship with God. He speaks of those highest values. Can we get back in touch with those?

And by listening to Jesus’ voice, we know that there are other voices akin to his voice. In those voices we hear the message of his teachings. And these urge us to learn and practice his highest values.

As well as to discern what are the voices of strangers. In recent weeks, we heard that militarism was identified as God’s will. And God was identified as an agent of violence by some of our leaders. And every bullet, drone, rocket and missile was God-guided to its target. The voices that spoke and continue to speak these values are, in my opinion, biblically, spiritually, morally, and ethically way off base and are not the voice of the Shepherd. They are the voices of strangers, thieves who continue to steal people in our culture away from the Shepherd’s values.

I pray that the cease-fire in Iran continues to hold, even if it is “shaky” at best. Listening to the voice calling for a permanent cease-fire followed by diplomacy is perhaps listening to a voice that is akin to the voice of the Shepherd.

I think there are other voices that are akin to the Shepherd’ voice that we can listen to. How about if we listen to the voice of the earth?

This is Earth Week. And I had the pleasure of listening to Rev. Dr. Matt Lenahan on Friday night. He made a strong case for the connection between the earth, you and me, and with God. He said that God is a gardener. And the Garden of Eden is the earth. And even in the Easter resurrection story, Mary mistook the risen Jesus to be the Gardener. The voice of the earth and all creation is an off-shoot of the Voice of the Shepherd.

How about if we listen to the voice of forgiveness? That’s a voice that comes from the Shepherd. As you know, we’ve had a lot of funerals in our church lately, and I’ve heard some stories of how things that happened long ago are still unforgiven, even though God and others have offered forgiveness. There’s perhaps nothing sadder than when someone hangs onto old junk that was long ago forgiven, and it comes back again as a way to hurt another person. We should listen more to the voice of forgiveness.

 How about listening to the voices of those who call for a just world for all? Voices like Martin Luther King, Jr.? Or Abraham Lincoln? April’s a tough month in certain respects because those voices akin to the voice of the Shepherd were silenced in April—April 1968, for Dr. King. And a hundred and three years before that, April 1865 for President Lincoln. And for all we know, Jesus may well have been crucified in April of 33.  We listen to the Voice of Jesus, our Shepherd. He speaks of abundant life, a life of flourishing in God, a life filled with love and joy. He speaks of growing into the fullness of being human. Friends we listen to his voice that still speaks of extravagant love of God that loves everyone, no matter what! He speaks of welcoming saint and sinner alike, for we all are like sheep that go astray. But we know his voice, and his voice leads us home, to the Shepherd, to the guardian of our souls, to the God who loves us madly. We listen to the voice of the Shepherd. Amen.