Voices everywhere .....

There are lots of different voices speaking in our lives. Usually in August the world of politics is quiet. This  year is rather different. After all, we are hearing the voices of two people who are standing for election by the Conservative party as their new leader.  Our new prime minister. I wonder how real the voice will be when in power. Will views have changed ? Will there be a different focus ?

These are the questions that we can only ponder. In the readings for this Sunday Jeremiah 1:4-10; Hebrews 12:18-29;  Luke 13:10-17 we read of different voices and a response to them. In the reading from Jeremiah we read about the call of Jeremiah to speak God’s word. 

The reading begins with God calling Jeremiah and there is an exchange of words as God explains to Jeremiah that He has known him since conception. God had appointed Jeremiah in the womb. To be fair from the point of view of Jeremiah, this is the type of voice which says that you have a job to do. A job that has been set out before your birth.  Just a slight moment for Jeremiah to feel that he has been caught out, and of course perhaps in his state of almost denial he decides that it makes sense to reason with God.  

So many vocation stories since have gone this way - ‘God can’t be calling me’, ‘you made a mistake God’. Of course for Jeremiah he had to accept that God knew what Jeremiah was doing. The final voice in the passage is that of God who puts His words into the mouth of Jeremiah.

In the reading from Hebrews we can see that there is a call back to grace. By contrasting the meeting of Moses the law giver with the wonderful news of a a joyful mount Zion or to put it another way, heaven. We are reminded that we are called by grace. The grace of God means that we can live freely in the love that God gives. However, this only comes by acceptance of Jesus the mediator of a new covenant. The old way of the law was gone, now the only way to accept Jesus and experience grace is to listen to His word, to turn to Him and accept Him.

There is a theme happening with voices here. The theme is that we need to listen to the voice of God. The experience of Jeremiah and countless others who tried to reason with God shows that the voice of God always wins. This is what make the gospel reading quite such a surprise. 

In the gospel reading, we read about Jesus healing the woman who had been suffering for 18 years.   There is another exchange of voices here. Jesus tells the woman she has been healed. The leader of the synagogue trying to keep order makes the point that there are other days for healing. The sabbath is really not the appropriate day. It is a day of rest not for work. Two voices, the one signals freedom the other signals freedom but only within strict guidelines. The more reasonable voice, that of Jesus, makes the point that we can put up our own barriers in an attempt to make things better when actually what is best is listening to the voice that cuts through the barriers we create as we turn to Him.

The voice of God , bringing freedom, showing love, calling us back to Him is the only voice we need. Back to politics, well who knows what will happen but the most important bit for each of us is that we turn to God listen to His voice and put Him first, this is the voice that wins. 

And the Psalm (71:1-6) helps us with this as it reminds us that in the midst of different voices we have a refuge and a shelter who will always protect us as we turn to Him. Like the Psalmist may our prayer always be to our refuge, our God and His love, our hope.