Some years ago, I went on a pilgrimage to Iona. This is a lovely little island off the coast of Scotland in the wild and windy Atlantic. It is difficult to get to Iona. You leave the west coast of Scotland on a ferry that takes you to the Isle of Mull. Then you drive 20 miles across Mull to another ferry that will take you to Iona. There are about 70 buildings on Iona and most of them belong to the permanent residents. No cars are allowed on Iona except for those cars belonging to the residents. So, if you arrive in a pouring rain, you walk a mile or so in the pouring rain to the only hotel while your luggage, thank God, is brought up in a car from the ferry dock.

Iona has a long and mythic history. In the 6th Century, the Irish monk, Columba, sailed in a small boat with a few companions from Ireland and landed on Iona. Columba established a monastery there and brought Christianity to the folks living on the islands and west coast of Scotland. Since this was the most important Christian spot in Scotland, over the years, the Scottish Kings wanted to be buried on Iona. By the 11th Century, 48 Scottish kings, along with bishops and princes, were buried on Iona, and you can still see some of their gravestones. Columba’s monastery was attacked repeatedly by the Norse and finally fell into disuse and ruin. But, in the early 20th Century, a movement began to restore the abbey, and now pilgrims from all over the world wind their way to Iona to worship.

Most of the island is open communal grazing land, and there are hundreds more sheep than people. The summer evenings are long, and some friends and I decided we would join the sheep as they grazed on a knoll near the abbey. There were lots of lambs twitching their white tails and keeping their little black faces close to the ground to eat a last snack before bedtime. At some signal unrecognized by us humans, the mother sheep began calling their babies home for the night. Twin lambs near me snapped to attention and went bounding to their mother who was some 60 feet away with a dozen other sheep. In the midst of much bleating and baaing, those little twin lambs went straight to their mother without hesitation.

All the lambs got paired up with the right mothers and off they went in their family groups to settle down for the night. It was an amazing maneuver to watch, and we, too, decided that it was time for bed.

My fellow pilgrims and I stayed in the St. Columba Hotel next to the Abbey. Every morning at 9:00, we attended Morning Worship, and every evening at 9:00 we attended Evening Prayer. Each service was planned by a group of four or five young people who were working at the Abbey for the summer. The liturgies and music were fresh and beautiful. When the Lord’s Prayer was said, we each said it in our own language. Hearing French, Spanish, German and various English dialects all saying this universal Christian prayer was moving. All of us pilgrims, no matter where we had come from, were drawn to this island by a call to encounter The Holy.

Jesus, when he was walking in the Temple portico one day in December, was confronted by the Jewish hierarchy. They wanted a straight answer from him about his identity. Was he the Messiah? If he was the Messiah, he didn’t look like the one they were expecting. They wanted a messianic king who would stand up to the Romans and free Israel from Roman rule. But, this Jesus was a peasant who hung out with fishermen. He healed the blind and the lame. When he spoke to a Samaritan woman at the well, she proclaimed him to be the Messiah to her entire village. He drove the money changers out of the Temple. And he fed 5,000 people.

Jesus did not meet their expectations for a messiah.

Jesus must have been fed up with these Temple elders who followed him around. Jesus said that his works done in God’s name spoke for themselves, and yet they did not believe him, because they did not belong to his sheep. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” He wasn’t interested proving himself to the chief priests and elders if they couldn’t understand who he was and what he was doing to bring in the Kingdom of God.

There are many voices that call to us each day. Some voices frighten us, threaten our sense of security—voices from Wall Street, or the housing market or Al-Qaeda.

Other voices try to seduce us—buy this car or these clothes or that furniture, and you’ll have lots of friends and good times. Perhaps one of the strongest voices is the voice of denial in our own heads. This voice says, I don’t have a drinking problem, when everyone knows you do. This voice says, our marriage is just fine, when your partner is threatening to leave. This voice says, I can still manage on my own, when you daughter wants you to sell the big house and move to a condo near her.

In the midst of this cacophony of voices is the voice of Jesus. Jesus calls us to a deeper and more truthful relationship with God, with other people and with ourselves. Jesus calls us to a still point where we can be quiet for long enough to silence all those other voices. And when we finally can focus on the one voice, we find that time and space have expanded. We find that we have room within ourselves to be curious, open, awake and aware. Jesus has been calling people for centuries to be awake and aware. The Jewish hierarchy couldn’t hear his voice, and there are many who have not heard him over the ages. Some people think they already know all the answers. They think that silence and stillness are a waste of time, and time is money. Others are so overwrought with fear and anxiety that they cannot find a calm still point to listen to his voice. Others have shut down because of depression and despair.

You can hear Jesus calling on Iona. It’s easy there to hear his voice on a windswept island with a beautiful abbey and pilgrims and white sheep grazing on green hills.

Amen

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Readings

Numbers 27:12-23

The Lord said to Moses, “Go up this mountain of the Abarim range, and see the land that I have given to the Israelites. When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin when the congregation quarreled with me. You did not show my holiness before their eyes at the waters.” (These are the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.) Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, “Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint someone over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep without a shepherd.” So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand upon him; have him stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and commission him in their sight. You shall give him some of your authority, so that all the congregation of the Israelites may obey. But he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the decision of the Urim before the Lord; at his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the Israelites with him, the whole congregation.” So Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and had him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole congregation; he laid his hands on him and commissioned him—as the Lord had directed through Moses.

Acts 9:36-43

Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, “Please come to us without delay.” So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, “Tabitha, get up.” Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.

John 10:22-30

It was the festival of the Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

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