Context
- Christians in Egypt have welcomed an unexpected voice.
- In a time when a lot of ugly and divisive speech is emanating from the White House, there is appeal in a different voice.
- Despite centuries of repression, women’s voices and faces are bringing positive changes.
- A welcoming human presence helps fight depression.
- In a time of walls going up between cultures, there is a community where someone wants to learn your name.
Reflection
We have no way of knowing whether or not Peter and Andrew, James and John had ever heard Jesus preach or teach prior to his calling them to follow him. So, what must they have heard – in Jesus’ voice and in their calling – to make them leave their nets and livelihoods immediately (!) and follow Jesus?
For those old enough to remember the record label ‘HMV’, you may remember that it stood for ‘His Master’s Voice’, and the logo depicted a dog listening to the sound of his master’s voice on a vinyl record. In other words, the recording was so true-to-life that the dog sat with rapt attention. This image springs into my mind whenever I read the account of Jesus calling his first disciples. Something about Jesus’ voice, his presence and the call itself, was compelling enough for these four disciples to leave their work – and families – and follow Jesus, they knew not where.
The first disciples were not simply sitting and waiting for God to call them, yet – in addition to the general Jewish hope for the Messiah – there must have been a sense of expectancy in their faith, that God might reach out to them.
In the story of Jonah (3.5), the Ninevites trusted the message of a foreign prophet, speaking a foreign language and proclaiming the judgement of a God they did not know or honour. What authority must they have heard in order to dismiss their natural human scepticism of this foreign prophet?
Being called by name, by someone we do not know, can be a powerful experience. I was once climbing a rock face in a small group of strangers, when I noticed that the person ahead of me had frozen in fear. Because we literally had to go up before any of us could go down again, I had to get this person moving. When I got next to her, I used a firm, but calm voice to get her attention and bring her out of the terror that gripped her. As I could not carry her (!), all I could do was use was my voice to assure and calm her. I kept speaking her name and reassuring her until we reached the safety of the ledge above. But don’t forget, for her part, my fellow climber had to trust what I was saying to follow me up the cliff – not necessarily easy under those circumstances!
Prayer
This could be used after the Gospel reading, but before the sermon.
Loving God, we gather here today, not because we must, but because we may. We gather here because we should like to hear something better than the chatter of television, our myriad electronic devices and the noise of our busy streets. We long to hear something better than the things we say in our own hearts or the many voices that compete for our attention, but do nothing to make us the people you would have us be.
Creator God, in the beginning your voice spoke creation into existence. Your creative word filled the seas and covered the earth with rich vegetation. You brought humankind into existence, not leaving us solely to our own devices, but inviting us into relationship with you. You spoke to us then and you speak to us still.
Divine Word, throughout history your voice has come to us through prophets and by the written word. In the most amazing communication of all, you came to us in the person of Jesus, your living Word. And you continue to speak to us today. So, silence in us any voice but your own, that we might hear what you have to say to each of us.
God of human communion and relationships, one of your prophets, Martin Luther King Jr., once said that, ‘We can live together as brothers or perish together as fools’. In this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, help us to remember that our words can unite or separate us. Open our hearts, eyes and ears to comprehend fully that, as Christians, we have more to unite us than to divide us.
Lord, as your people we want to hear your word—to hear you yourself—for we believe that you are alive among us, and that you desire to say to us the words we need to hear: words of consolation, words of admonition, words of encouragement or comfort. We know that in your power and wisdom you have the things we need most but cannot obtain by our own ability.
Lord, we are attentive and wait upon you.
Speak Lord, for your servants listen.
Keep a time of silence, then say the Lord’s Prayer.
Questions
- Do you feel that we are focusing more on what divides us these days, rather than what unites us – as communities, societies, as the Church?
- There is a distrust of news media today. What ‘voices’ can or do we trust?
- How do we know when a ‘voice’ really is God’s call? Where do we have to be in our lives in order to hear and be receptive to God’s voice?
- As mentioned above, the first disciples were not simply sitting and waiting for God to call them, but were living with a lively sense of expectancy of God’s activity in their lives. Do we have such expectancy in our lives?
All-age activity
Why do we immediately respond to some voices but not to others? Read 1 Samuel 3.1-10. Then invite someone to sit in a chair with his/her back to everyone else in the room. Ask someone else to call that person’s name. Can the person in the chair recognise the individual’s voice? Try this with a number of people of different ages. How hard or easy was it to recognise an unseen person’s voice? How hard or easy would it be to trust that faceless voice? And what of God’s faceless voice?
Young people
A lot is being made about ‘fake news’ these days. How do you know which stories to trust among all those that appear on Facebook, Twitter and news feeds, or come to you via text, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.? Have you or anyone you know ever been the subject of a false story spread by social media? If so, how did that make you feel? Has it changed how you approach stories about others? Has it your relationship with the truth?
Dr Jack Lawson is a retired Mission Enabler for the East Anglia District of the Methodist Church, but continues to lecture in Hebrew Bible and is a free-lance author. He is the author of the novel Doing Time which is based on his years as a chaplain in a Southern US women’s prison.
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