How long will you keep us in suspense?

Readings for today the 21st April 2013 include Acts 9:36-43, Psalm 23, Revelation 7:9-17, John 10:22-30

People ask Jesus "How long are you going to keep us in suspense?"
They want to know who he really  is?
His response is a rather incredulous:
"I have already told you, and you do not believe."
Now we are often told things
and we don't hear them
we don't hear for two reasons largely:
1. Because we are not listening
2. Because we don't want to hear.

Both of those things probably apply to you and me, at least some of the time.
We don't listen or we don't like what we are being told.
Today is often called Good Shepherd Sunday, because it opens up something of the intimate image of John 10, in which Jesus talks about caring for us...like the Shepherd of a small flock of sheep.
I know my sheep, and my sheep know me.
My sheep hear my voice, and believe.
We believe in this relationship
in which God cares for us.
The assurance that we have is not that we are kept in suspense
but rather that we have eternal life
and God will never let us go.
We will never perish.

Maybe this is not what we would like to hear
maybe we are not listening.
This is the surest way we have
of being unsure
or in suspense

John Henry Newman (see God has created me below)
reminds (along with many others)
"He has not created me for naught"
we may not always get it
we may not always understand
and this is what Faith is about.

Trusting that God is doing it right
we might be impatient
and think that God is being slow
we want to reach the end quickly
and skip the necessary middle
(see Teilhard's poem Patient Trust here)
but the Good Shepherd idea calls us
to faith.
To faith that Jesus knows us
that he calls us by name
and that we will never perish.

Can we allow that idea
this pastoral image
the Shepherd and the sheep
to strengthen us this week?
To speak
but perhaps more
to listen
"My sheep hear my voice"
What might Jesus be saying to me
about forgiveness
love
kindness and other things which challenge me.

If we do not listen
we will not hear
I we don't want to hear
we will not hear.

That will resolve nothing.
It will keep us in suspense!