Lisa Sanders who is a child sleep consultant says that a child naturally gravitates toward their mother’s voice over any other voice. From the time they are in the womb, babies begin to tune into their mother’s voice.
In this article, she refers to a 2014 study that focused on babies born before their due date. These vulnerable little ones were exposed to recordings of their mother’s voice whenever they were using a pacifier. They found that these babies got better at eating and were more likely to go home from the hospital sooner.
They also found from this study, that a baby listening to their mother’s voice lowers a hormone level that can cause stress. And it also raises a hormone level that increases the level of a baby feeling bonded and socially connected.
Based on this study, Lisa Sanders encourages parents of toddlers who are scared to go to bed at night to not underestimate the importance of a mother’s voice to help their child feel more relaxed and secure.
She also said that fathers play an important role too, but there’s just something about the distinctive sound of a mother’s voice that helps a child to sleep better and feel loved and comforted.
I’m always amazed at how distinctive our voices are. Our voices reveal how we are uniquely created by God. In a way, they are kind of like our fingerprints. We each speak with a unique pitch, cadence, and use of words and phrases.
That’s why our Gospel reading this morning is so interesting to me because in using the image of a shepherd, Jesus is saying that we can know his voice and follow him. And when we follow him, we will be able to receive new life and be the people that God has called us to be.
That’s why the church is so important. We are here to help each other listen for the shepherd’s voice and to allow it to become familiar to us when we hear it.
And we’re actually pretty good at this, I think. We help each other to hear the shepherd’s voice through worship, through praying for each other, through serving together, through our conversations, and through our times of fellowship and meals.
Our church provides these ways so that we can help each other listen to what God is saying to us. The more we seek to grow in our faith through worship, prayer, and fellowship, the more we we can help each other to be open to God’s voice in our lives.
Confirmation Sunday always brings back fun memories for me. Confirmation is when Junior High youth prepare to become full members of the church by attending membership classes in which they learn about God, the Bible, the church, the Sacraments, church history, as well as our own denomination.
My confirmation class was held each week right after school, which was probably not the best time of the day for young adolescents to stay focused and want to learn.
I’m sure we gave Rev. Lippert all he could handle, but he was extremely patient with us. Even though we weren’t always very cooperative, we could tell that preparing to join the church was an important step in our faith journey.
And then, a few years later, when I was in the 9th grade, the new pastor in our church came up to me at some church event and said to me, “I think God might be calling you to become a pastor someday.” He could see something in me that I couldn’t see at the time.
Looking back on that moment, maybe it wasn’t just my pastor speaking to me. Maybe it was the shepherd’s voice speaking through him. I kind of brushed aside his comment and I went through my high school years. And then I went to college. And I was trying to figure out the future direction for my life.
But it was when I was thinking about all of this in college, that I got involved in a campus ministry where I met some other Christians. We became friends and went to church together on Sundays and met in a small group during the week. And one day out of the blue, two of these college friends said to me, “We think God might be calling you to become a pastor.”
It was at that very moment that I remembered what my home pastor had said to me when I was in the 9th grade. “I think God might be calling you to become a pastor someday.” Hmm… Could this be a coincidence. Why didn’t I listen the first time?
And so I prayed about it over the next few days and that’s when I realized that I was being called to become a pastor and I said, “OK, God, this time, I heard you. I’ll become a pastor but you need to lead me through this.”
The best part of this story is that the same pastor who had planted that first seed when I was in the 9th grade that God might be calling me to become a pastor was still serving as the pastor of my home church when I was in college.
And when I went home over break, I stopped by his office at the church. He was sitting at his desk and holding a bunch of papers. And I said, “Pastor Ed, do you remember when you told me to think about becoming a pastor when I was in the 9th grade? Well, I heard the call again and I said ‘yes.’”
And I’ll never forget this. He threw all of the papers that were in his hands up in the air as a way of celebrating and as those papers were falling down around him, he said, “Praise God!”
I share this this morning because there are times when the shepherd’s voice might sound very similar to the voice of someone we know, someone who cares about us, and who can see things in us that we so often cannot see ourselves.
And sometimes, we hear the shepherd’s voice and sometimes we don’t hear the shepherd’s voice. That’s why we need each other. That’s why being part of the church is so important so that we can help each other hear God’s calling in our lives and respond to those callings.
Penny and I watched the Fred Roger’s documentary that was on PBS. If you haven’t already seen it, I highly recommend it.
As many of you know, Fred Rogers was the creator and producer of the children’s TV show Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood which aired from 1968 to 2001. Fred was a Presbyterian pastor and this show was his way of helping children to know that they are loved for who they are.
There were a couple of times that I cried during the documentary and one of those times was when they shared a conversation that Fred had off the set with one of his cast members Francois Clemmons who played Officer Clemmons on the show.
One day, Fred said to Francois off the set, “I love you just the way you are.” And Francois was taken off guard by his comment and replied, “Fred, are you talking to me?” And Fred said, “Yes, Francois, and I’ve been telling you this for two years and you finally heard me today.”
Francois said that after Fred said that, he collapsed into Fred’s arms and started crying because that was the only time he heard someone say that he was loved. His parents never told him. His family never told him.
Fred was the first person who told him that he was loved. Francois finally heard the shepherd’s voice speaking through Fred and telling him that he was loved just the way he was.
Being part of the church family means helping each other to hear the voice of the shepherd.
Listen to the shepherd’s voice say that you are loved just the way you are. Listen to the shepherd’s voice invite you to follow him and become more and more like Jesus every day. Listen to the shepherd’s voice guide you to green pastures, still waters, and paths of righteousness. Listen to the shepherd’s voice promise to be with you all the days of your life.
This is what it means to be part of the church, the family of God. We help each other to hear the voice of the shepherd, the voice of Jesus.
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