To what or to whom do you listen most?

News? Sports? Satellite radio? Talking heads yelling at each other?

Your spouse? Your parent? Your sibling? Your child? Your friend?

Or maybe your employer? Your supervisor? Your barista?

 Most likely, you can give multiple answers. Yet, as we’ve learned over the last 6+ years, we all tend to silo ourselves. That is, we tend to listen to the same, few voices over and over — and those voices tend to sound like ourselves. Additionally, we’ve learned, acutely over the last 6+ years, that to whom we listen — our sources for information and ideas — can cause great harm. Harm to our neighbors, which, really and truly, is just another way of harming ourselves.

So what are we who self-identify as followers of Jesus — people who purport to be committed to truth — supposed to do? Especially considering our texts for this week come from some of the most commonly heard voices in all of scripture: Isaiah (2:1-5), Paul (I Corinthians 1:25-31), and John (1:1-5)? How might we even go about hearing something new from that crew?

 For one, we begin with the text itself. As we have been doing since the beginning of Advent, we’ll read translations of those scripture provided by the Rev. Dr. Wilda Gafney — a Black woman whose experience includes Army chaplain, AME Zion pastor, Rabbinical Seminary teacher, Episcopal priest, Divinity School professor, and biblical scholar.

 How might it change our hearing and understanding of the texts if we sought out still other voices whose training, experiences, and traditions were largely different than most of ours?

How might we change by doing so?

 Pastor Dave will attempt to wrestle with that and more this Sunday, February 27th, in his sermon, “Wide World of Wisdom”

 All are welcome as we worship together Sunday mornings at 10:00 a.m. in person and online via our Woodridge UMC YouTube channel.