Reflection - "What is More Important, Questions or Answers?" - October 25, 2026

Sermon: “What is More Important, Questions or Answers?”

Traci Hubbard

Genesis 19:1-26

The story in the text is a myth. A myth written by patriarchal generations in bondage and dreaming that their nation will be the one chosen to outnumber their enemies and become the government ruler. In Genesis Chapter 18 we read that the Holy shows up at Abrahams and Sarah’s tent and has brought two angels, two messengers along. For countless generations many of us have been taught that this divine visit was the beginning of that dream. Sarah would become pregnant in her nineties, proving Jehovah could do anything, and the children of Abraham and Issac would outnumber the stars in the sky. Meaning, Isreal would outnumber and rule their enemies, and they would prosper. Since the beginning of recorded human time, all created things from waters, the mountains, soil, all creatures, and humans were created in the image of divine essence of diversity and inclusivity – “Let us create humans in our image.” As we understand the historical context of the time and mindset of writer, we learn that “what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine” became an entitled male mantra beginning with the story of Cain and Able…actually with Adam and Eve who had everything they needed but wanted what God said would hurt them – they deserved everything and more! Greed was in the garden of perfection. Why? Because humans were there and they had been created with free will. In chapter 18, the story informs us that God is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because the desires and behaviors of the people had corrupted it to its core. Abraham negotiates with God and gets her to relent and save ten righteous people if She can find them. What we need to understand about this story is that the accepted patriarchal norms/beliefs in families and communities were: Be hospital to strangers…to all visitors, help the poor, and women are dehumanized…lower than a dog’s worth.

So, the story goes on to tell us that God in his mercy sent two angels to Sodom and Gomorrah to warn Lot and his family, to save them from the hostility of the men in the city. Why were they hostile towards Lot and his family? They were angry because Lot spoke to their greed, pride, excess, neglect of the poor, and violent exploitation which included sexual domination, physical and emotional humiliation, and crowd intimidation.

In the ancient Near East, guest-host relationships were sacred. Progressive scholars emphasize that the demand by the men of Sodom to "know" (yada) the visitors is akin to ancient prison-style gang rape or ritualized power assertion—rather than romantic or sexual attraction. When Lot offered the angels refuge in his home, the old boys network wanted to dominate them. So, what does the Hebrew toxic systemmic belief empower Lot to do? Protect the stranger at all costs and offer his daughters to the old boys instead. Imagine how his wife felt. Imagine how his daughters’ sense of self was formed and played out in their lives. They were less important than their family dog. And as they ran with their father and mother away from the city to save their lives, knowing the angels told them to run and not look back or they would die. Running as they weep, their mother, Lot’s wife, pauses for a moment…maybe to catch her breath, and she turns around. Why? What was she feeling? What was she thinking? Grieving? What happens? We are told she is instantly turned into a pillar of salt. How did they know? They didn’t turn around to see…they just kept running.

I believe it is our questions that are most important. As a mother, as a parent, we are concerned about our children, our teenagers, and the current social, political, and AI pressures that surround them every day. We want to make sure, and we try very hard to ask them the right questions. Why? So, we may discover how to help, support, and guide them. As a minister, called by the Spirit and surrendered to that call to forsake ourselves and follow the call to humble themselves and to love without question, it is imperative that we ask ourselves, “Am I asking the right questions?” As the spiritual leader with, not over, with the congregation, whether the minister is with a person one-on-one, or standing as I do now in front of all of you, it’s wholeness and hope filled meaning I seek to live into the present moment. My questions offer me the ability to walk into my day and into our future together for the sake of our collective call. Why? So, I can help, just like a doctor when he or she meets with a patient, their hope as they actively listen and explore is that they will ask the right questions so they can diagnose what needs their help, what needs attention, what is possible. I believe our questions are the most important. Why? Because when our intention in our questions is for the highest good of all, for the sake of love, for the sake of the call of the Spirit in our hearts and lives, our questions will reveal what is needed…why it is needed, when that thing is needed…where we need to administer our help, how to administer our help, and to whom. Perhaps this is why Lot’s unnamed wife turned around and asked why? Could we have done this a better way? Could we have governed ourselves, our families, our communities, our nation a better way? Could we have stood up and spoken to the issues differently instead of offering our daughters or our sons to the wolves out there? Could room have been created for women and children to matter? Could we have asked better questions because that is worth more…the questions are worth so much more than a grain of salt and folks, back then, salt was a precious and expensive commodity.

This past week, I have talked/communicated with JR over a dozen times. A lot is going on for him and Andrea in Brownwood, Texas. Andrea has come down with a wicked rash. She does not have shingles or the measles. The doctors think the cause is environmental, but they still don’t have answers, they are questioning. JR went to a laundry mat to wash all their clothes, towels, and sheets on hot. While he is there, a 60 yr old lady walks in to do her laundry and she has a gun strapped to her side.

The question isn't why was she wearing it? No one is going to rob a laundry mat. The question is how did a state, a nation, become this ill? What is poisoning the minds of humans and who is offering the poison and why are they offering the poison? What happened to the people of Sodom to make them strap on guns and bang on doors demanding homeowners to throw their personal visitors out to ravenous wolves? What kind of fear is more powerful than love that a father would rather give his daughters to the wolves? Who among us would not turn around and deeply grieve over what could have been...over all that was lost because the healing questions, the courageous ones, were not asked?

Human history has dramatically changed and at the same time, it hasn’t changed very much at all. Our questions today need to be around knowing who we are…who am I? Am I practicing – actively connecting with the Spirit in my life? Who am I connecting with and why? And what is my purpose today? What am I passionate about and no matter my age, how can I love and serve with my whole heart? Do you know who you are and why?

I believe the story we read today, is about compassion and mourning over judgement. I believe Lot’s wife turned around because of a profound empathy and how good mothers, and most women, are unable to abandon others to destruction. And her defiant act of turning around was a radical choice and act of solidarity that condemned the patriarchal beliefs that had turned into spiritual cannibalism. Lot’s moral failure is later talked about in scripture as “righteous” behavior while his wife is remembered as sinful. Progressive critiques utilize this text to challenge a "masculine-aligned God" archetype that forgives severe patriarchal misdeeds while maintaining zero tolerance for female agency or deviance. As I read this text in its context through a psychological, narrative, and trauma lens, I read the "pillar of salt" not as a magical physical transformation, but as a profound metaphor for the paralyzing nature of trauma. Witnessing the sudden, catastrophic destruction of one's entire life and homeland induces shock. To look back is to be caught in the grip of past trauma. The salt represents being emotionally frozen, stationary, and unable to move forward into the future because the magnitude of the grief is too heavy to carry away.

Lake Country has countless people who are frozen like pillars of salt. We need to know who we are, and whose we are, so we can ask the right questions and help. May our story be more than a myth. May it be so, amen.