"Everybody's Looking for Something"
This sermon’s bible text is available at https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=508399683
What are you looking for?
What a loaded question. What a simple, yet boulder-sized question.
What are you looking for?
As we stand in the doorway of a new year,
looking around at what has been
and gazing out from the edge of what might be,
it’s a question the rhythm of time and the ache of mystery
has lodged in our heart and set in our bones.
But sometimes we get so caught up in the hunt and hustle,
that we forget or never really considered what it is we’re even looking for.
This year I’ve seen more people talking about their New Year’s intentions rather than resolutions. Rather than focusing on preset outcomes, that you can either achieve or fail, this posture is about outlook and trajectory - setting wayposts that guide our gaze. Rather than a list of what we expect to accomplish, this practice sets our sights on how and who we long to be with room for our path to bend and grow as needed.
So instead of resolving to walk more or scroll less (which are surely noble goals) and bearing down on the might of our own moral fortitude to achieve them…perhaps we can set an intention to listen to our bodies, be in communion with nature, or be present to the people and moments around us.
Rather than declare what we plan to find, we’re invited to really ponder what we’re looking for.
What are you looking for?
Peace? Answers? Liberation? Belonging? Healing? Companionship? Meaning? Stability?
What are you looking for?
It’s an important question to ponder, even if we don’t quite have an answer, and even if our answer turns out to be incomplete or another doorway to another question.
We’d be in good company.
I think each of the people who see Jesus in this text are each looking for different things. John is looking for a savior, the lamb of God. Andrew and Peter are looking for a teacher, and find a Messiah. Philip didn’t seem to be looking for anything when Jesus finds him and he finds the one about whom Moses and the prophets spoke. As Nathanael looks out, a moody cynic after my own heart, he can’t see anything good coming from this particular horizon.
Maybe we’re looking for God, looking for ourselves, looking for a way to live with depth and dignity and divinity. Maybe they’re all tangled up together.
And sometimes, I think,
we don’t even know what it is we’re actually looking for,
we can’t quite seem to place ourselves or our longings
but we know we feel this yearning for SOMETHING.
Sometimes we don’t really know, or at least we don’t know until we see it.
Until we hear it, until we follow this curiosity and go and sit around the place where it is staying and remain there awhile. And there, even what we thought WE were looking for, find US
as something slightly different, and altogether more.
In the midst of all of this;
through and beyond all these different expectations or the lack thereof,
Along all these various roads and angles
Jesus is found and finds us.
God is revealed and reveals us to ourselves.
Before the commandment to go and do is the invitation to come and see.
This gospel road begins not with a confession of belief but a curiosity to explore.
Some things are so wonderful they can’t be expressed as much as experienced.
Come and see. Christmas is God entering so fully into the fabric of creation
and the flesh of humanity
to close the distance we construct between us.
It seems both deeply human and wholly divine
for the curious soul and wise explorer
to invite others to come alongside us in this wonder.
A sort of cosmic, “hey! Are you seeing this? I kinda wanna check it out, will you come with me? Holy cow! Look at that!”
John finds those closest to him and exclaims, “I’ve found something incredible, look here!” Among them is Andrew who goes to find Peter so they can creep along behind Jesus together, watching at a safe distance until they find themselves in the middle of the story, dwelling alongside the Messiah. Philip finds Nathanael to share what he had found, invites him to come and see, echoing Jesus’ own invitation, when Jesus shows them how deeply seen and known they are to God. Rather than trying to figure it out and navigate it on their own, each of them went looking for someone to share their wondering and their journey and their amazement.
Our family just came home from a road trip yesterday and as we drove along, we often cried out - “look out at the mountains on your left!” Or “hey! Are those deer or bighorn sheep?“ Or “wow! Look at this sunset tonight.” We were looking for natural wonder but I think what we found was a spiritual practice - looking with curiosity and wonder with an intention of sharing it rather than solving it and being met with holiness in the experience. I think God is showing us our own goodness and beauty as we look for, explore and notice God’s own wondrous nature.
I wonder…
…if sometimes we stay silent and siloed
because we think we have to say or share
something concrete or conclusive
I wonder…
…what faith might be born and nurtured in a posture of curiosity and openness
I wonder…
…how the church might grow if we invited others alongside us in wonder, less “come and subscribe to this thing I’m sure of” and more “come and look at this thing I’m exploring and need a partner in”
I wonder...
…What God we would experience and follow as we find Her living among us.
Look! God is here.
Come and sit together for a while and notice what’s around you.
Come and share what puzzles and amazes you.
Come and see the One who truly sees you
and will show you things that open up new horizons.
For reflection and conversation:
What are you looking for?
What have you seen/experienced that feels curiously sacred?