The Ones Worth Listening To
A sermon about those who speak about God's deeds of justice and truths, should have our ear.
Psalm 145: 8-14 Rev. Dr. Galen E. Russell III
Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30 July 5, 2026
“… no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Prayer: Holy God, may we grow in faithfulness to you and speak on your behalf. Amen.
What a week this has been! What a weekend! Let’s see, Travis and Taylor got married! Some are calling them American royalty. Really? FIFA is in full swing. Team USA is in the running—they play Belgium tomorrow night at 8:00 PM. And, of course, it’s America’s 250th birthday yesterday! Crowds gather, celebrations take place. Cookouts and concerts. Fireworks. Some rescheduled. And speeches by politicians. All good, except maybe for that last one.
Because to be honest, I’m tired of the politician’s braggadocious claims. I’m tired of the arrogance that comes with power. I’m tired of the reneged campaign promises. But mostly, I’m tired of the lack of a spiritual and moral center in the political world which helps to elude and avoid the ways of God and God’s realm.
You know God has a history of sending people who speak God’s truth to power. People who reveal God and God’s ways, calling for transformation. They were called prophets. Isaiah. Jeremiah. Hosea. Amos. Zechariah. And all the rest. These people held up verbal images of God’s ways. They called for God’s way of justice. They called for peace. They called for attention to be given to the poor, the downtrodden, the outcast, the marginalized.
They were also called psalmists. Songwriters who called for faith and trust in God. Who called attention to the God of the Exodus who heard the cries of an oppressed people, and to the glory of God, rescued them from bondage. God who upholds those who are falling and raises up those who are bowed down.
I think Martin Luther King, Jr was a modern-day prophet of God here in America. Because he called for justice. Peace. Attention be given to the outcasts. He called for an oppressed people to be free from the bondage of unequal civil rights. His voice sounded out to the people in power. But people in power often don’t want to hear the call for transformation. To help those oppressed. They like things the way they are; they don’t want the status quo to change.
Jesus says that they are like children who sang and played the flute, but none of the listeners danced. Or they wailed in a time of death, but none of them mourned.
Those are metaphors. Then Jesus told them exactly what he meant. John the Baptist had a message of repentance, simplicity, and prophetic warning. He lived an austere life, refusing many of the comforts and privileges of society. Yet instead of hearing John’s call to justice, the religious leadership dismissed him as extreme and a whack-a-doodle, claiming he had a demon.
Jesus was the opposite of John. Jesus was a party animal! He “came eating and drinking,” sharing meals with ordinary people, celebrating community, and extending radical welcome to those pushed to the margins. He taught of God and God’s ways. He showed how God loves. Yet he too was rejected and accused of being a glutton, a drunkard, and a friend of sinners.
So, I concluded that anyone who speaks of God’s deeds of saving power, God’s ways of love, grace, compassion, justice and peace, anyone who calls for repentance back to God—these voices are the ones worth listening to. These voices should have our ear. Those voices, I think, are the ones that most clearly reveal the principles America was founded upon.
As I was thinking about our nation’s birthday and about the voices that speak of God’s ways, a memory came back from when I was in 6th grade in Illinois. At the end of the school year, our class went on an excursion to Springfield, Illinois to visit Abraham Lincoln’s tomb and to learn about him and what he believed in.
Among other things, we learned about the US Senatorial debate over slavery Mr. Lincoln had with incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas. How Mr. Douglas, with his dynamic speeches and animated gestures, wanted the white voters in the states to determine if slavery would exist in that state, and if it would be allowed to exist in new states as they got formed later. Mr. Lincoln, on the other hand, with his more quiet, intellectual approach believed that slavery was totally wrong, morally, spiritually, politically. And he believed it should not only not exist in new states, but it should be banned altogether throughout the nation.
One man focused on governments with less emphasis on the human being. And the other man focused on the human being, with less emphasis on the government. Which one’s voice do you think was worth listening to? We know who won the Senate seat and who later became President.
Matthew indicates that God knows Jesus and Jesus knows God, and God has given Jesus the authority to choose anyone who would reveal God. Which I take to mean anyone who shows God’s ways, anyone who lives by and practices the dynamics of God’s realm here on earth as it is in heaven. Those are the ones worth listening to in America as we celebrate 250 and go forward into the next 250.And God knows those who have the wherewithal to speak God’s truths.
And the ones worth listening to may be the least of these in society. These may be the frequently ignored voices. The marginalized. The children, the poor, the immigrants, the uneducated. Women, racial minorities, LGBTQ people.
People who have experienced exclusion and injustice often perceive realities that make their voices worth listening to. Their experiences can reveal both the wounds of injustice and the way forward toward healing, toward personal and social transformation, toward a just world for all. For a world where arrogance diminishes and a willingness have grace and to learn from each other increases.
I’m reading a book by the late Rachel Held Evans, and she described how she came from a conservative evangelical church that forbade women from ever being a pastor, let alone being able to preach. She never went to seminary and felt insecure about that. But God used her voice, and she offered perspectives on faith through her blog that continue to reverberate even today.
When Rachel left the evangelical church, she joined an episcopalian congregation. She met with the rector who sat in an office lined with books. Some he wrote. And instead of making Rachel feel inferior, like she was beneath him, he said to her, “We’re so glad you’re a part of this community. You have so much to teach us!” (Evans, Rachel Held, Braving the Truth, HarperCollins, 2026, p. 203). That’s a humble perspective that opens the door and reveals the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I invite you to ask, how do you reveal the gospel of Jesus Christ? How do you experience God’s grace? What has God done powerfully in your life? How does your story show the good news of God? Speak of this. Because you’re one of the ones worth listening to.
If anywhere along the way you reveal God and God’s ways, or you humbly learn from others, or God redeemed you, or gave you life, or gave you rest from heavy burdens, or the Spirit found a place in your life where you needed healing, speak of these things.
For your voice is one worth listening to. God can use you. In our church. In our community. In our nation. In our world. Amen.
