Wouldn’t it be great if it worked that way all the time?
How about if we begin by closing our eyes,
just for a few
moments,
and
asking ourselves a couple questions…
What
am I praying for today?
Who
am I praying for today?
For
what, for whom,
have
I been knocking on God’s door, day and night,
and
now this morning,
hoping
and praying that the Lord will open up
and
give me what I ask for
and
help me find what I seek?
How
long have I been knocking on that door,
praying
for the same things, the same people,
seeking
and asking for the same gifts?
Perhaps
I’ve been praying for weeks or months or years
-
or all my life:
seeking
the same things,
interceding
on behalf of the same people,
asking
for the same help…
What
am I praying for today?
Who
am I praying for today?
(Open your eyes, please…)
Sometimes people speak to a priest as if he’s God himself.
When that happens to me I always say,
“Whoa
- I’m not God! I’m just the local
sales rep.”
Well, this scripture makes it difficult to be the local
sales rep.
Jesus seems to promise us everything here:
if
we’ll only be persistent, then God will come through for us.
And that’s true.
But the Lord’s public relations department has been clever
here
with
how the advertising is worded.
Yes, if I
knock, the door will be opened
(but
I’m not told what I’ll find on the other side).
Yes, if I
seek, I will definitely find
(but
I might find something I didn’t expect or want).
And yes, if
I ask, I will receive
(but
I’m asking a God who gives --and takes--
in
mysterious and often confounding ways).
What I find behind the door God opens,
what
I discover when my search is over,
what
I receive when my prayer is finally answered
might sometimes seem to be a snake when I asked for a fish
or
a scorpion when I was looking for an egg.
In fact, we have to read the fine print here to truly
understand
the
sweeping promises Jesus makes.
In all our seeking and asking
and
knock-knock-knocking on heaven’s door
even if no immediate response comes from God, we can be sure
that:
•
our prayer brings us always closer to God
because
it’s in and through our deepest needs and
hurt
that
Jesus comes to meet us
•
we can be sure that whatever we find when the door finally opens,
Jesus
will be there to meet it with us
•
we can be sure that
whatever
we discover at the end of our searching
Jesus
will be there to help us face it
•
and we can be sure that
whatever
we receive in response to our asking,
Jesus
will be there to help us accept it.
We can trust this because what Jesus really promises in this
gospel
is
not that we’ll always get what we want and pray for
but that God will never abandon us,
will
never fail to give us his Spirit
to
help us meet and accept whatever comes our way.
On the night before he died, Jesus prayed:
he
prayed to be spared the cup of suffering.
He knocked on his Father’s door,
seeking
deliverance, asking for relief.
And that door opened: to his arrest, his indictment,
his
suffering, his death – and his
rising from the dead.
His prayer was heard and answered,
the door was opened,
but
not apart from the Cross.
In the power of the Spirit
and
in the mysterious and confounding ways of God,
Jesus
rose to new life.
And that same life will be given to all of us who seek it.
To us a door will open to life
that
has no suffering, to life that has no end.
In fact, nothing less than that same life is ours, even
today,
in
the Bread and Cup of the Eucharist.
Here at the altar,
the
door to heaven is open to us.
And here we find all that we ultimately seek:
the
gift of the presence of God,
the
answer to every prayer.
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