Ministerial Intern Eve Stevens

In light of our upcoming May worship theme of curiosity, I recently remembered a sermon a friend of mine gave in seminary about how curiosity had deepened his faith. In the sermon he told us that he felt he had a great gift for curiosity. He had taken apart old radios as a kid to see how they worked. He also had a plastic ant farm so he could see for himself what ants were up to underground. After his first plane ride he went to the library to check out all the books he could find about flight. But as he was growing up, he found that the one thing that was off-limits to his curiosity was his faith. If he asked questions in Sunday school he was told that his curiosity was disrespectful or showed a lack of faith. And so as he began to pursue ministry he tried dutifully to keep his curiosity quiet even though it felt like he was stifling an important spiritual wellspring.

Our first month of Old Testament class our professor taught us that the Old Testament was not written by Moses, but by different people with varying political and social motivations. Our professor showed how the creation story in Genesis was a lot like earlier Mesopotamian creation stories and cited archeological evidence that disputed various Old Testament stories. My friend explained that these new perspectives he was learning about the Bible threatened to shatter his faith, until he remembered his gift for curiosity. The more he allowed himself to ask honest questions and to explore for new meaning, the deeper, more complex and more life-giving scripture became. A single word in the Bible could have four different meanings! My friend's faith was unbound by his curiosity. The Bible was still alive with undiscovered truths, not stagnant in fixed meaning.

Unitarian Universalist minister Victoria Safford says, "To see, simply to look and to see, is an ethical act and intentional choice; to see, with open eyes, is a spiritual practice and thus a risk, for it can open you to ways of knowing the world and loving it that will lead to inevitable consequences." One inevitable consequence of exploring the world and ourselves is a deeper and more complex understanding of our faith. Do you approach your faith with curiosity? What do you risk when you do? Maybe you have not explored what you believe about human nature, never going below the surface of "the inherent worth and dignity." Maybe you have thought little about what death means for your life. Maybe you always stop short when you start to think about why the word "God" makes you angry or why it brings a sense of peace. As Rev. Laura asked, "What is alive in you?" This month may we ask, what questions are alive in us? Whatever your faith questions are, may you find the courage to follow your curiosity, opening yourself "to ways of knowing the world and loving it."

In the spirit of curiosity,
Eve