Seeking: Honest Questions for Deeper Faith“Who Will You Listen To?”

Reader:  Instead of a sermon manuscript, we are providing a transcript of the podcast episode Music Director Nate Strasser and Pastor John Hilley did based upon what was shared Sunday February 26, 2023. To listen to the podcast: listen here. 

John: In this episode, and for the next 5 or so episodes we are focusing on questions. A mentor of mine once said “there’s nothing like a good question. A good question is one that makes the asker nervous in the asking.”

Throughout the turbulence of the past few years, many of us are asking big questions about our lives and our faith. We hope that what is said today and in the next couple of episodes will help unpack some in a way that is honest and faithful to some of the big questions out there. 

Many of our weekly questions will feel restorative. Some questions are hopeful and curious (“How do we begin again?”) Our questions won’t necessarily lead to answers, but they can help us find clarity, a new perspective, and a wider grace. 

Let me bring in Nate here. Nate, as a good question is something that makes the asker nervous, are you feeling nervous at all?

Nate:  I can’t say that I am at the moment, we’ve been at this podcast thing awhile now, but I DO understand how those big questions in life can make a person nervous. 

John: Nate, I will give you honors. You get to ask the question…

Nate:  “Who Will You Listen To?”

John: Simple question …but maybe not so much?

Whose voices—and what messages—take up too much space in your head?  And who are you listening to?

Nate:

Your doctor/

Financial advisors/

Your mother/

Your gut/

Your pastor/

Your therapist/

As a kid, I looked up to athletes and listened to what they had to say. As an adult,I may be inclined to listen to people I really respect in the music industry. The list goes on and on. 

John:

Elon Musk/

New York Times/

Fox News/

Politicians on legislative hill/

Out of Georgia is it voices like Jimmy Carter or Marjorie Taylor Greene/

And then there’s …

The wisdom of the Enneagram/

The rumor mill/

The sounds of children playing/

The wind as she blows/

The Book of Psalms/

Your sense of self/

The snake/

Jesus, when he says, “You are my beloved”/

Jesus, when he says, “I am with you, always.”

What sources do you seek for news, information, and media? Whose voices—and what messages—take up too much space in your head? From the onslaught of messaging we receive, we are invited to choose carefully. What can help us listen and filter what we’re hearing to discern God’s voice?

Behind today’s question “who will you listen to” and indeed what is behind all these questions is this thought that we are all seeking something. What we hope is an unveiling of a more authentic, rooted faith. So the title of the episode is Seeking: Honest Questions for a Deeper Faith. And today’s question - it  feels like a charge or a challenge - is “Who will you listen to?”

We are drawing upon the resources of some great people with A Sanctified Art, a group of talented individuals - artists and pastors - who support worshiping communities in integrating art and creativity into their spiritual practices. Lisle Gwynn Garrity, Lauren Wright Pittman, Sarah Are Speed, Anna Strickland, and Hannah Garrity. They do outstanding work and are so pleased to be incorporating their creativity in what we do on a Sunday morning, our faith formation materials, and when it comes to this podcast. .

Nate: Yes, we’ve incorporated Sanctified Art into our worship services a number of times now and I’m always blown away by their poetry, artwork, devotional booklets….they’re always so well-done and meaningful.

John: weighs in on the poetry and art.

Nate: yes, I took one of their writings - a benediction- and put it to music and it is in this episode so be on the lookout for that later in this episode. 

John: In order to engage in the spiritual practice of seeking, we must maintain a posture of listening, staying open and curious instead of calloused and closed off. In the rotation of scripture, there are two Scripture passages where you will see  two different examples of listening. One is the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden encountering the serpent. Adam and Eve allow the snake’s manipulative voice to become louder than God’s voice. Then there is the story of Jesus In the wilderness where the Tempter tries to deceive Jesus but Jesus defies the deception of the tempter by listening intuitively—to God, to his inner moral compass, to the teachings of his faith. 

Sanctified Art invites guest contributors. Danielle Shroyer is one and she wrote something very tempting: “in the ancient world, she wrote “snakes were a symbol of transformation. Their venom held the possibility of both poison and medicine.”

Thanks for listening. I hope you will keep listening when I come back and play a little with this thought in light of the two scripture passages you will find in the episode description and how faith practices can help be medicine for these times. I will be back after Nate’s music.

Here’s the prayer of the “Music, Word, Hope and Prayer”

God,

Listening is always easier said than done.

We try to quiet our minds,

but the list of distractions is long.

We need your help to listen.

So today we ask that you would

marinate us in your Word.

Dust the cobwebs from our ears.

Crack open our hearts to make room for you.

We want to hear you.

With hope, we pray,

amen.

Introduction

Well, the snakes have come out. With this week’s warm weather they emerged from the temporary fallow of winter. Hard to believe snakes are out as it’s only February. Saw one that didn’t make it across the road this week. And on Thursday’s warm blustery day, while out on a walk, a stranger coming from the opposite direction said “there’s a snake on the trail.” Said out of curiosity or caution I couldn’t tell. I walked in the direction where the snake was supposed to be; honestly a bit more observant than I had been moments before. In the fading light of dusk no snake to be seen. 

But I did spend the remainder of time thinking about my Louisiana childhood, chasing snakes among the duckweed in my red Ouachita canoe - be they a water snake or a moccasin. l am sure you have your own snake stories that we could tell. Chances are the snake stories  would play more upon our fear and phobia, than upon our sense of wonder.  

In the ancient world, snakes were a symbol of transformation. Their venom held the possibility of both poison and medicine. (If you have ever seen the presbyterian church downtown, the interior is adorned with 16 paintings of the Egyptian God Aman-Ra, twin cobra and hawk’s wings. Snake handling…). 

 1-2-3

Our human story begins in the same crux of possibility - poison and medicine - as the first humans embark in the garden and the “snake” is on the trail. 

In this week’s rotation of Scriptures appears the story of the temptation of Adam and Eve, told in Genesis. The story: Adam and Eve are created to be equal partners in tending the world, God’s garden as God’s Beloved. Eden: a home of beauty with riches for the soul and the body, the heart and the mind - described as ‘myth as reality,’ - where every need anticipated, every desire fulfilled. They are given tremendous blessing and freedom but also have limits set for them – in particular, that they may eat of the fruit of every tree in the garden except that one that gives them perfect and complete knowledge. 

And that’s when the Tempter enters the story -  the snake is on the trail in the Garden - questioning God’s command and inviting them to question their relationship with God. Adam and Eve falter and fail - notice I said Eve AND ADAM - no blaming of the woman for all of this; there are too many centuries of awful theology from this toxic perspective.  

“God knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be opened,” the serpent says. And while the serpent didn’t lie - indeed their eyes did open - as it often goes with crafty tricksters, that isn’t the whole story. Seeking the fruit of the garden, Adam and Eve allow the snake’s manipulative voice to become louder than God’s voice.   Bottom line: Adam and Eve mistrusting God’s promises and taking matters into their own hands. Wanting knowledge. The bite?  The death of their innocence. 

And when Adam and Eve heard God walking in the Garden and calling out “Where are you?” they understood with their eyes open, experienced the full force of awareness bearing regret and shame. Throughout the ages, the word we have used: sin. I like the way Michael Livingston recently described the condition of sin in a recording he did for Day 1 as “the garden disappearing all around you.” Picture that. And with that description asks this question: “do you know this reality, this sense of the garden disappearing all around you? Relationships eroding, mistakes multiplying, tongue-tying secrets inhibiting freedom of speech? The sure knowledge that God knows where you are and what you’ve been up to? That no matter what you put on, your skin is exposed? All of it. I do.” I do, too.

Perhaps you have been watching The Chosen that has been streaming. It is of the life of Jesus and offers insightful character treatments of his disciples and how each of them come to see Jesus as The Messiah. Watching it, I thought it is  both too simple, yet so deeply and profoundly true, to say Jesus is the answer - at least for the Christian community. How could one man, however exemplary, be the answer? In the Book of Romans (5:12-19), the Apostle Paul says just as Adam stands in for humanity, Jesus, in his divine particularity, stands in for us.

We could be like him, just as we are like Adam. And if there is a key concept, that Jesus brings to life in the encounters we read about in the New Testament - and which The Chosen treats with integrity - that concept, that word that we know, but can spend a lifetime understanding is - no, it is not just a word but a reality - …. is GRACE. That free gift, unmerited, renewing and surprising gift of God - grace.

The voice of Jesus - with its message of a wider grace - is what I invite you to attune your life to.

Turn to Matthew’s gospel (chapter 4:1-11) and the proverbial snake is out on the trail presenting Jesus with the same choice of poison or medicine. Jesus is in the wilderness.  

Matthew 4:1-11

4Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.

 3The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 

5Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” 7Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” 11Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

How will Jesus respond? Will Jesus use his gifts as a Tik Tok tease for power, dominion, and kicks or as a sacred balm? Will he use his glory for fame or for peace? Will he use his power for domination or for justice? Danielle Shroyer writes:

 “Jesus shows us the way by choosing medicine, every time. And as he does so, he teaches us what we all need to know as we fumble toward wisdom east of Eden. When he refuses to turn bread into stone, it’s because he knows his gifts and abilities are in service to something far greater than hunger. When he refuses to test God, it’s because he already trusts God. And when he refuses the kind of loyalty that leads to worldly authority, it’s because he knows power is meant for connection and not domination. Jesus knows all of this because he has been listening. Day after day, he dwells with his Divine Parent. He embodies the teachings he has received in the Temple, on his mother’s lap, in his father’s shop. Jesus shows us what it looks like to walk in wisdom, to become adept at parsing out the many voices that call for our allegiance.”

In the wilderness, Jesus defies the deception of the tempter by listening intuitively—to God, to his inner moral compass, to the teachings of his faith. And so, who will you listen to? What sources do you seek for news, information, and media? Whose voices—and what messages—take up too much space in your head? From the onslaught of messaging we receive, we are invited to choose carefully.

Whose voices—and what messages—take up too much space in your head?  And who are you listening to? What voices offer poison and which medicine? What names would you add to the list?

Yes, the snakes are out today with temptations offering poison passing as  certainty and control. We hear them across the land and here on the hill in Nashville no longer wanting to contend with alternative and conflicting ways of living. Scripture is quoted with certainty and in knowledge and, just like the tempter in the wilderness, to coerce. 

The scriptures are not used with wisdom and certainly not with grace. For the Bible has a lot to say to a lot of people all at the same time, but as it is a living Word - pointing us towards the New Heaven and Earth -  it might not be the same thing for all. We’re so invested in a straight and narrow view of the world where there’s certainty and absolutes. I don’t think that’s the biblical world, and I don’t think that really gets us into deeper faithfulness.

I was listening to a talk by Emilie Towns, the Dean of the Vanderbilt Divinity School and she was sharing how she teaches a graduate class at Vanderbilt about the big questions. The premise behind the class is: if you can come up with a pretty good question, that’s gonna take you a lot further than trying to come up with an answer that may not even fit the situation. And I think we tend to do that often, we want answers, we want them now, we want certainty, and for me, faith is all about trust in the unknown. It’s the evidence of things unseen as the Apostle Paul once said. And she says be fearless. We act like God can’t handle our questions.Or our doubts. Therefore, we would be disrespectful to God to say I have a question, or I have a doubt. When in reality, we’re just not being honest about the fact that we are hesitant to dive deep into our questions.

Thankfully Jesus knew the scriptures and not only knew the words, but was the Word. In the wilderness, Jesus defies the deception of the tempter by listening intuitively—to God, to his inner moral compass, to the teachings of his faith. 

And so, who will you listen to in this wilderness where the snakes and the loud voices, but also where we find God’s mercies and the angels that attend to us?

Here’s what I want you to underscore today: if we are to be like Jesus, we also must begin by first listening to the voice of God at our center. This voice tells us, above all and after it all, we are God’s Beloved. When we know this, we filter out so much of the silt and grit that traps us. We release ourselves into the arms of love. We make space for the work of transformation to be born in us.

It’s time to wrap up and what I want to say is this and it is an invitation:

Faith practices can help us listen and filter what we’re hearing to discern God’s voice.   I invite you into the study of the scriptures)

We begin this Lenten journey. Consider what voices might be pulling you toward more poison than medicine. Carve out time for silence, that the still, small voice of God may come into fuller focus. Listen for God, who is always there, right at the center of your heart, inviting you into a life of belovedness, even as you travel east of Eden.

I invite you to take time every day. Take time every day, give yourself a space and I’m not talking about hours and hours. Maybe sometimes it’s only five minutes, but give yourself space to simply sit and listen to God’s mysteries in the world. That will open you up in ways you can’t believe and then when you pick up a Bible, you’ll come to it with new eyes and a much more open heart and know that this is something you practice your whole life. You don’t get it perfect; this is not about perfection.” Notice I said “pick up a Bible.” We can grow by picking up the Bible and letting the Bible do its thing in our lives as we ask it questions and realize sometimes in questions we have today, answers may not be there, but they might be in the community that’s studying the Bible with you.  

Conclusion

Yes, we are all on this journey of seeking. And to help us on our way there is nothing like a good question: Who will you listen to as we hope for lives transformed?  The voice of Jesus - with its message of a wider grace - is what I invite you to attune your life to. 

Here is the Scripture passage from the Hebrew Scriptures:

Genesis 2:15 - 17; 3:1-7

15The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.

16And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

3Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” 4But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; 5for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.