Looking Ahead to January 14, 2024 -- 2nd Sunday After Epiphany, Year B

 The Scripture Reading this week is John 1:19-51

The Sermon title is Curiosity – a Virtue

Early Thoughts: What makes you curious? is It a good thing to be curious? Is it a dangerous thing? Is it a healthy thing? Is it maybe good, dangerous and healthy all at the same time?

Then again they say that curiosity killed the cat....

I suggest that without curiosity this week's story from John's Gospel would never have moved forward. This is John's account of the calling of the first disciples  but if a number of people, starting with the Baptizer, had not piqued the curiosity of others in the story they may not have been there to be called.

In his ministry John the Baptizer has laid the foundation. He has talked about the one who is yet to come, the one who is greater than the Baptizer, the Chosen One. Then he sees Jesus walking along and says "there he is". This gets two people curious and they go investigate further. Then Andrew shares the news with his brother and gets Simon curious so he too goes to check it out.

In our final scene this week we find Phillip and Nathanael. Nathanael's curiosity has a tinge of skepticism in it. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?". But he too is won over. The story moves forward because of a combination of curiosity and (possibly more important) people who invite others to come [or go] and explore.

In this story, and in the ongoing story of inviting people to follow The Way of Christ, curiosity is certainly a virtue. It leads us to new places. It opens us to new possibilities , new understandings, and and new experiences. It takes us to a healthier place. 

But there is possible danger in all that goodness. There is something unsettling in being led to new places, understandings, and experiences. There is a risk in following a path that diverges from the tried and true. There is peril in not following the crowd at times.

So what makes you curious? How do we make others curious about this path we call The Way? And then what do we do with that curiosity?  

I suspect that there is sometimes a desire to push our curiosity aside, to stick with the way we know. Familiar often brings comfort. But we need to indulge ourselves. We need to let ourselves explore those places that curiosity leads us even if, or maybe especially if, it sometimes makes us uncomfortable.

We also need to invite others to join us along the path. We need to be ready to spark a desire to go further. We need to be open to hearing and exploring, maybe even answering, questions about who this Jesus is and where does he want to take us.

God is always at work in the world. God is always up to something. When we allow ourselves to be curious, to check out the new thing that is happening transformation can occur. It might be unsettling. It might seem dangerous. It might even have killed the cat. But in the life of faith curiosity is indeed a virtue.
--Gord