Sep 6th: Living with Wide-Eyed Wonder, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski.

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Living with Wide-Eyed Wonder, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon.
Do you feel stuck in certainty, judging instead of listening? This Sunday we’ll explore how curiosity opens us to wonder, love, and a fresh way of seeing faith. Rev. Dr. Steven Koski will share stories from Nicodemus to Ted Lasso, showing how asking questions can transform our lives. Join us in person or online for a warm, welcoming community. If you’d like to talk afterward, feel free to reach out to a pastor or a friend.
Transcript:
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Here I am in what we call the Wonder Room, which is just across the hall from our sanctuary. It’s our children’s space where we invite children to experience God’s love for them through, through wonder, imagination, creativity, curiosity, and play. You know, we are created for wonder and curiosity is a spiritual practice. Abraham Heschel said, our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. Get up in the morning and look around at the world in a way that that takes nothing for granted. Be curious about everything. Never treat life casually. To be spiritual, he said, is to be amazed. , does that describe your spiritual life. My absolute favorite, favorite television show is Ted Lasso. It’s a really joyful and smart comedy about a, an American football coach who is hired to manage a soccer team in England, . And Ted, Ted knows nothing about soccer, but he loves coaching, loves his players, and, and genuinely seems to love life.
Speaker 0 00:01:19 He’s curious. He’s not naive. He’s experienced tragedy, suffers, panic attacks, yet he still manages to get up in the morning and is curious about everything and takes nothing for granted. My favorite scene is when a, when a bully tries to belittle Ted, and he quotes Walt Whitman, be curious, not judgmental. And the bully challenges Ted to a game of darts in a bar at a pub making a substantial wager, assuming Ted’s a novice at darts . Here’s how Ted responds. Guys have underestimated me my entire life, and for years I never understood why. Then one day I saw a quote by Walt Whitman, be curious, not judgmental. I like that. And then Ted throws a dart that clearly shows he’s played darts before, and he continues. So it hits me, all them fellas that used to belittle me, not a single one of them was curious. You know, they thought they had everything figured out, so they, so they judged everything and they judged everyone. If they were curious, they would’ve asked questions, questions like, have you played a lot of darts, Ted? And just then Ted throws another dart with precision, and he continues to, which I would’ve answered, yes, sir, every Sunday afternoon at a sports bar with my father from the age of 10 until the age of 16 when he passed away.
Speaker 0 00:03:18 And then Ted throws a, a double bullseye to win the game. Be curious, not judgmental. You know, it’s curiosity that first brought Nicodemus to Jesus in our Bible reading. Now, Nicodemus is a highly respected religious official, and he comes to Jesus at night not wanting to be seen, talking to Jesus who was, who was thought to be a, a heretic and a troublemaker by the religious authorities. And here’s how the gospel writer John describes their meeting. Now, there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish Ruling Council. He came to Jesus at night and said, rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God for, for no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him. Jesus replied, very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. How can someone be born when they’re old? Nicodemus asked, surely they cannot enter a second time into the mother, into their mother’s womb to be born. Jesus answered very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they’re born of water. And the spirit flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised. I be saying, you must be born again.
Speaker 0 00:05:12 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear it sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it’s going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit. Now, Nicodemus is saying to Jesus, what I see in you, Jesus is a mystery. I don’t understand. Tell me your secret. Give me the answers. What’s the formula? You know, we, we crave answers. We don’t like not knowing. We, we like certainty, but when we clinging to certainty, we stifle curiosity. We lose our capacity to wonder. The opposite of faith isn’t doubt, it’s certainty. You know, judgment comes out of a sense of certainty because of your certain, well, everyone else is wrong. We’re closer to God when we’re curious, when we’re asking questions than when we think we have all the answers. Jesus replied to Nicodemus in a rather curious way. Jesus said, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.
Speaker 1 00:06:44
Speaker 0 00:06:45 The phrase, um, born again, you know, carries a lot of baggage from many people. And we sometimes associate born again with Christians who, who have theological certainty. And, and if you don’t share that, that same certainty, well, you’re in a lot of trouble. I’m always a little amused when, when churches advertise themselves as a, as a Bible believing church, which means if you don’t read the Bible the way they read the Bible, believe what they believe about the Bible. Well, you’re just wrong. Judgment, judgment always comes out of certainty. But certainty leaves no room for curiosity. No room to learn from others’ experiences. No room for wonder, no room for mystery. Jesus said to Nicodemus, unless you are born again, the Greek word we translate as born again can also mean born from above or, or it can mean born anew. What if born again means being born anew, letting go of preconceived ideas and, and starting fresh, starting all over again with, with curiosity and wonder. Poor Nicodemus, with all his theological sophistication and his religious status, he seemed to have absolutely no imagination. I mean, you couldn’t recognize a metaphor if you tripped over it.
Speaker 0 00:08:50 You might call Nicodemus the first fundamentalist. I mean, he’s a, he’s a literalist . Nicodemus asks, well, how can anyone be born after growing old? Can anyone enter a second time into the mother’s womb? You know, that’s the kind of mental gymnastics that are necessary when you take the Bible literally. Now we at First Presbyterian take the Bible seriously. We just don’t take it literally. I mean, you can almost hear Jesus’, enormous, enormous sigh.
Speaker 1 00:09:30 Oh,
Speaker 0 00:09:31 How do you explain the full spectrum of color to someone who’s certain that only black and white exists? Jesus didn’t say, you must be sure of yourself without any questions or doubts certain with ready answers for every question in a, in a Bible verse, suitable for every occasion. No. Instead Jesus says the most, the most remarkable thing, you must be born anew, which means I presume to have the wide-eyed wonder and trust of a child. You know, Jesus said something similar to the disciples who, who asked that, that the question that we would probably ask, who’s the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And rather than answer, Jesus welcomes a child into the midst and says, unless you possess the innocence, trust, curiosity, wonder of a child, you will never taste the wonders of heaven. You know, if I was asked to write a faith statement today after 35 years of ministry, I mean, when you’re ordained, you have to write a faith statement. And I’m suspecting my faith statement today may not, I may not pass my ordination exams, but, but here’s what I would say today. The more I have come to know, the more I realize how little I know,
Speaker 0 00:11:27 And the more I have come to accept not knowing and approach life with wide-eyed wonder and curiosity, the more life-changing encounters I have with the love of God that can never be fully known, maybe you must be born again, means being open to the movement of the spirit, like the blowing of the wind, open to growth and change even in your most deeply held convictions. Maybe being born again means moving from judgment to curiosity. Being willing to say, I don’t know. You know, saying, I don’t know is a spiritual practice I encourage for all of us saying, I don’t know, is an act of vulnerability that opens us up to learn and to grow and to be changed, to be transformed, to be made new. Saying, I don’t know, opens us to love because love really is at the heart of curiosity. You know, when certainty says, if homeless people would just help themselves, there would be, there’d be less people who are homeless. Curiosity asks, I wonder what that person’s life has been like and what would love, what would love look like for that person? When certainty says, you know, I just don’t get people who use they them as pronouns. That’s just silly.
Speaker 0 00:13:27 Curiosity asks, I wonder what these pronouns mean for this person. How can I understand them better? How can I help them feel seen and heard? When certainty says they’re wrong and ignorant, curiosity asks, I wonder how their stories shaped their beliefs. I wonder where life hurts for them. I wonder what I can learn from someone who sees the world so differently than I do. Judgment always comes from a sense of certainty. Curiosity cures, judgment and leads to love. Nicodemus came to Jesus at night looking for answers instead of answers. Jesus invited Nicodemus into a whole new way of being. A whole new way of seeing. You know, we did don’t really know what happened next. We do know that three years later when Jesus was crucified,
Speaker 0 00:14:49 Two men with great courage at great risk asked for the body of Jesus and they took his body down from the cross and anointed it with precious oils. One of the men had brought along and they buried the body of Jesus in a garden tomb. One of the men was Joseph of Arimathea and the other Nicodemus, who is born again, born anew because this time it was daylight and Nicodemus was alive as never before, showing the world the fullness of his love for Jesus. Blessed are the curious because they can truly be born again. May it be so.