“Who Will You Listen To?”
Preached Sunday, February 26, 2023
“Can I ask you a question?”
If there are any Taylor Swift “Midnights” fans out there - no, I’m not referencing her latest album - I’m talking about our new Lenten sermon series called “Seeking: Honest Questions for a Deeper Faith.” Every week’s sermon title and theme will be shaped around a question. This is fitting for Lent, a season of seeking God, of listening for God, of asking ourselves questions, and self-reflection so that we might go deeper in our walk with God.
And - if we are going to be asking questions over the next six weeks, questions of ourselves and questions from God - we have to first consider if we expect those questions to be answered. And how will we open the ears of our souls to hear the still, small voice of God speaking to us? And perhaps, there will be other voices that aren’t the voice of God, shouting over, trying to drown out the voice of God, so we hear those voices first. And so today as we embark on this Lenten journey of questioning and of seeking God, we first have to ask: Who will you listen to?
In the womb, babies start developing the ability to hear around 18 weeks. They can hear their mother’s heartbeat and the gurgle of the stomach and other sounds we are generally oblivious to. At about 27 to 29 weeks, they can start hearing sounds outside the womb. And by the time they are full term, 38 weeks, their hearing is at about the same level as an adult’s. Studies have been done that show that babies recognize voices that regularly talk to them in utero, the voices of their parents and even other loved ones. They recognize these voices in and out of the womb - something instinctual within them reacts to their mother’s voice - their parents’ voices, the voices that spoke to them before they were born.
One of my favorite images from Scripture is the God who knit us together and knew us intimately in our mother’s wombs. I imagine God whispering to us in that space that we are beloved. And this fits with our Methodist theology of prevenient grace, that God offers us grace before we even know that there is grace to be had - including as infants - one of the reasons we baptize babies in the UMC. And so, using my spiritual imagination, I began to wonder, do babies instinctively know the voice of God that spoke to them before they were even born? Are all of us born with the ability to discern the voice of God in the world? Perhaps that is what it means to have a childlike faith, to be able to easily hear and see and know God in this world.
So at what point in our lives do we lose that ability? Do we ever truly lose the ability or do we just start focusing on other things, listening to other voices, and losing the voice of God in the din of our world?
Because while we believe that God is always talking to us, always offering us grace and love, always trying to get our attention - whether we know it or not - we also know that there are lots of other voices and forces in this world vying for our attention - and that attention then shapes how we vote, how we use our money, how we treat one another, how we live our lives.
Have you ever seen an image like this? Of course you have. An angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. It’s kind of a trite, cliché image but it has staying power for a reason.
There is the constant voice of God in this world which is the voice of love. Scripture calls it the still, small voice. It may come to you in prayer, in music, through a loved one or a stranger - whatever voices in our lives compel us to better love God and love neighbor as self - that is the voice of God speaking to you. But there is also the voice of, well, Satan, the voice of the Tempter, the voice of lies - whatever voices in our lives push us away from God, drive wedges between us and our neighbors, and cause us to question our worth. That is the voice of the tempter speaking to you.
The bad and hard news is: those voices that represent that little Devil on your shoulder? Those voices are often louder, more persistent, more appealing than that still small voice of God. And they come very well disguised. Not as a snake as in Genesis, but in your own voice, many of us have a voice that sounds like your own voice that is constantly saying things to us like “You’ll never be good enough. You’ll never amount to anything. Who do you think YOU are?” Or they are the glamorous voices of celebrities and commercials that tell us things like: own enough, amass enough, buy THIS product, have THIS much wealth or fame or likes, or finally be THIS size, shrink yourself as much as you can, whittle away at your body… and you’ll finally be happy. They are also often the voices of our go-to network news channels acting as the bogeyman - making us afraid of people who aren’t like us.
As the snake in Genesis led Adam and Eve away from God, what voices in your life are leading you away from God and neighbor and love? And what are those voices disguised as? What voices are lying to you?
In the musical Hadestown based on the Greek myth, Orpheus goes down to Hell to rescue his love, Eurydice. But there is a catch. He has to trust her and himself, walking the long dangerous journey back without checking if his love is following him. And if he turns back she will be sent back to Hell, never to return. And this is where the Fates come in. Throughout the musical there are 3 women who are the Fates. And they are the voices of doubt and fear and lies throughout the musical.
They sing things that cause the characters to question themselves and what they know. And when they sing, things get slightly out of tune. As Orpheus is guiding Eurydice out of Hades, the Fates sing, bringing dissonance into the music and doubts into his mind, as they sing, “Where is she?” Orpehsus is flooded with doubts “Who do I think I am? Who am I to think that she would follow me into the cold and dark again?” Eurydice sings, “Orpheus, are you listening? I am right here…I will be with you to the end.” But over the dissonant voices of the Fates, the voices of lies and doubts, he can’t hear his Love, even though she is right there….he turns, and she is sent back to Hades forever.
I’d play the song for you but then our live streaming would get flagged for copyright infringement - so I urge all of you to listen to the musical, it’s online and on Spotify, and the song that I’m referencing is called, “Doubt Comes In.”
(Listen to "Doubt Comes In" here)
I reference it to ask: What voices do we listen to that bring the world out of tune? That bring dissonance into the world? Dissonance between what God wants and what we do? What voices lie to us and obscure the voice of God that is right there with us - but we can’t hear it?
The Good News of today’s Gospel lessons is that Jesus also knows this distortion. He’s heard the voice of the Tempter, of lies. He knows what it’s like to have that figurative devil on your shoulder saying:
Aren’t you hungry for more?
Don’t you want power and prestige?
Don’t you want riches?
Don’t you want….
And Jesus knows that voice and he says, “No. I will not listen to the voice of lies.” And Jesus helps us to tune out those voices of lies and tune in to the voices of Love, tune out voices that would lead us astray, and tune in to voices that draw us nearer to God.
My prayer for us this Lent is that we can ask God to make God’s voice known to us. That as we seek God together, as we ask questions, we would also be training our hearts and our hearts to hear and see and know God and follow the voice of Love.
This Lent, my prayer for us is that as we seek God, we will then find God, and listen to the voice of God. Find God in worship together. Find God in Holy Communion. Find God in prayer. Find God in each other. Find God in service to others. Find God in friends and family and loved ones. Find God in strangers. Because God is all around us, just waiting for us to come seeking, and to listen to God’s voice of Love.
Who will you listen to?
Amen.
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