Attention Can Change the Story

Jeremy Duncan

Jan 12

Written By Kevin Borst

Sunday, January 5, 2025

Scriptures: John 5:1-7

The second sermon in the series, The Art Of, is dedicated to the art of attention. In the message, Jeremy wanted to emphasize practicing intentional attentiveness in our relationships. Our intentional curiosity and active listening can deepen connections with have with people and reshape narratives.
Jeremy argued that in John 5, Jesus learns about a paralyzed man through conversation, and that Divine attentiveness that Jesus models here always prioritizes relational engagement over mere knowledge.
Attention is about more than exchanging information; it is a way to affirm others’ worth and offer them new possibilities for seeing themselves.
Community is shaped by the conversations we share. These questions and reflections are a tool to help you meaningfully engage with the themes of this week's teaching.

Connect: What place does curiosity occupy in your interactions with people? Are you a naturally curious person or does it come to you through some inner work?
Jeremy mentioned that he often practices curiosity with the phrase "Tell me more."
What are some of the ways that you show others that you are curious and that you are listening?
Share: When talking about how Jesus listened to the paralyzed man at the pool, and making a distinction about listening for just information and listening for everything else that is offered in the conversation, Jeremy made a connection to prayer.

“Sometimes we have these questions about prayer
Why do I need to pray if God already knows everything about me?
What can God possibly learn just because I vocalize my concerns.
Well, I'm not suggesting God doesn't know.
I'm simply saying maybe God just wants to listen…
That maybe God knows there's more to a conversation than simply information.
That maybe speaking, and listening, self disclosing, and offering our attentive presence, maybe that is as important, more important even, than just what is said.”
How does this perspective on prayer resonate with or challenge your current practice?
Reflect: What do you think about this idea that in John 5, Jesus learns about the man at the pool through conversation rather than supernatural knowledge?
“I don't think this passage [in John 5:1-7] is a set piece for Jesus to perform a miracle. I think this is Jesus who is genuinely curious, attentive to the people who cross his path.
And I’ll tell you what, I think a Jesus who pauses his travel plans, who starts to converse with a man who is ignored by everyone else,who genuinely wants to know who this man is, I honestly think that sounds more divine than a Jesus who just knows things because he does.
For me, divine doesn't start with supernatural. It starts with perfectly loving. And I think that changes some of the calculus in how I imagine Jesus’ interactions.”
Engage: with the idea of how our attention can help shift narratives.

How can truly paying attention to someone's story help them see themselves differently? Have you experienced a time when someone’s attention shifted your perspective on yourself or helped you “exit a narrative” you held about yourself?
Feel free to engage with this quote from the sermon:
“Jesus has listened to this man. He’s paid attention to this man. He’s learned about this man and empathized with the way that his options have been narrowed and constricted,
constrained by circumstances beyond his control.
How he has had to put his hope in a story that can’t help him.
And the answer to Jesus’ question [Do you want to be made well?] isn’t obvious.
Because his question isn’t about whether this man will get to the water first.
The question is about giving this man agency over his own story.
The option to exit the narrative he's put his trust in
And to believe in something different. Something that can actually help him.
And look this is gonna sound grandiose, but here's the truth:
We do the same thing for each other every time we truly pay attention to each other’s stories.
Because we give each other the option to exit that narrative —however small it is — that voice somewhere in our head that tells us “we are alone,” “we are on our own,” “we are uninteresting and unwanted.”
The attention you extend
The listening that you receive
That is about more than just information
It is about reshaping the narratives we carry about who we are and why we matter.
And it is part of the wellness that Jesus invites us into.
To know, unequivocally, that we matter."
Takeaway: What’s one specific way you can intentionally practice attention and curiosity this week?
Prayerfromthesermon:
Our attentive God,
Who surprises us with an infinite ability to look again with grace-filled eyes,
To see what has changed in us and around us,
And to take us as we are in this moment — unencumbered by past mistakes.
Might we begin today
with the assurance that you are always interested in our story,
Willing to listen,
Motivated to come and search us out.
Might we trust truly today
that your love for us is not contingent on what we have done to earn it,
But on your continued imagination for everything
we might become once transformed by your love.
And then, might this divine instinct
To believe in what could be tomorrow
Reorient us toward what is possible today.
Help us to love ourselves in the way you first loved us,
And then help us to love our neighbour in the way they deserve to be loved.
Help us to be intrigued by the unknown person we encounter this week,
Trusting that there is always more to tell
And always more to discover.
Might we come to believe that perhaps our next great friendship
Lies on the other side of your holy curiosity.
In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray, amen.
CALL TO WORSHIP Psalm 147
MUSIC Curated by Nathan Funk
Hillsong Worship - See The Light
Commons Worship - Be Thou My Vision
Bethel Music - If The Lord
Austin Stone Worship - How Deep The Father's Love For Us
Eucharist Invitation
Written by Yelena Pakhomova
INTRO
As part of our worship today, we gather around the Eucharist table.
Around a simple meal that helps us live as people of hope.
As we break bread and crush grapes together:
We remember Christ's death, and we celebrate Christ's resurrection.
We take an honest look at the world around us – with all the uncertainty, brokenness, and pain – and we choose to hold on to hope, believing that none of these things will have the last word.
On the night when Jesus was betrayed, when all hope seemed about to be lost, he also gathered with his friends at a table. While they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to his friends, saying,
"This is my body, which is for you."
Then, he took the cup, blessed it and gave it to them, saying,
"Drink this all of you, to remember that God is making everything new."
INVITATION
So, receive this invitation:
Come to this table, not because you must but because you may,
Not because you are strong but because you are weak.
Come, not because you have done the work to be here and deserve these gifts,
But because you need mercy and grace.
Come, because you love God a little and would like to love God more.
Come, because God loves you, always.
Come and meet the risen Jesus, in whom we have hope.
PRAYER
Let us pray together,
Loving God,
Would you meet us today through this meal
in the disappointments and anxieties we carry,
in the fears that weigh us down,
in the pain we live with or share with others.

And as we look ahead,
would you renew our strength for this new year,
most of which is yet to unfold.
May the hope you invite us to
take deep root in our hearts
so that we might live truthfully in this time and space we inhabit,
love mercy and have the eyes to see it,
and seek goodness in the smallest things we can do.
Amen.

SERIES BUMPER
The Art of