Ask, Seek, Knock

I was so inspired by Rev'd Lauren's sermon this week, I couldn't help but reflect further on the message and all that is going on, within myself, but also in our community at the moment in a blog.

Here is the sermon if you missed it: Prayer - an open door to God

I pray you will humour me dear reader, as I share some thoughts and prayers with you about this.

"So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.​ For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.​" - Lk 11.9-10

This passage is written on the lintel of the Chapel at St Francis Theological College (featured in the image above) where I formed for ministry over 10 years ago, and I saw it so regularly there that I can't help but close my eyes and see the caligraphy style writing carved into dark wood with the bell hanging just above it and the dark entryway to the chapel beckoning the unlocking of the door, and the entry into the sacred space that has held the prayers of so many students as well as others over the years at Mliton.

It became a bit of a mantra for me as I traversed the difficult terrain of formation education, often not knowing where I was going, what I was seeking and what I would find as I continued to say yes to God in that season of life.

There were times when I begged God in that chapel. Things like:

"Give me guidance, show me the way, make it clear what I must do to answer the call you've given me"

I also recall the moments when an epiphany would visit and provide insight for just the next step or just the next thing I needed to attend to. 

It often still wasn't clear...

It often didn't make sense to me...

I often still didn't know what I was doing...

And yet looking back I see now just how held I was. 

Hindsight often offers this perspective.

And perhaps this can reassure us when we next feel like we are lost, or in need of a new door to open.

Seek and ye shall find, knock and the door will be opened to you...

ask and you will recieve...

pray and you will be delivered...

trust and it will be good on the other side...

yearn and you will be met in that and transformed.

All that Jesus offers us in this passage is abundant and generous and extravagent in God's attentiveness to our lives.

What we do matters, what we think matters, what we seek matters.

And as I reflect on the chapter of life that I am now in, preparing for a baby, and that our community is in, as we approach our fifth year of digital mission together at Holy Hermits Online - it is as if this mantra - "seek and you will find, knock on the door and it shall open" - is needed to be carved into our own hearts as we discern and feel into the coming future.

If we could write this onto our hearts (the passageway to our souls union with God) what kind of text would you write it in? 

We are invited ever deeper into the experience of sacred union with God who is active in the world around us, especially when we feel unsure or the way forward seems unclear.

We are entrusted with a sacred charge in these words - and a sacred invitation.
We are invited to allow God to re-invent our inner selves with the Holy Spirits leading every day, instead of leaning on our own understanding or ability. 
This is a hard thing to do. 

• It involves opening up to yearning 
• living the reaching out
• embracing the unknown and unseeable future with trust and hope that God will make it good. 

It also means that we do not make the future ourselves with our own striving, but rather step into the emerging creation that God is weaving around us every moment. 

Ok - that sounds nice right? But this is the real world... How do we do this? 

In a world where we are encouraged to get a handle on things, often using the technology that we employ to serve us as we make and keep plans, add things to the to do list, cram as much into our time as we can to get the most out of each day, it might seem impossible to lean on the emerging Holy Spirit. 

We can be so good at filling our days that we organise the Spirit right out. 
I've even expereinced this in observing a "frantic rest" when I've been unwell - trying to heal as fast as possible, where the emptyness made in the schedule to rest is filled with TV shows, phone screens or other distractions from the pain of living. 

It can feel as though we don't have any time to spare, or opportunities for creative surrender to God's guidance. 
It's all so loud and fast around us. 

How can we possibly ask and recieve, search and find, knock and move through the doors as they open before us?

When we participate in God's emerging kingdom we are contributing to something eternal.

This is something bigger than ourselves and our own worries and struggles, and yet we are invited to bring those into the work with us. 
We don't have to sort them out in order to present ourselves for service.
The yearning and seeking is not something to be solved or avoided, but rather embraced and nurtured. 

When we are feeling uncomfortable, we are encouraged by Jesus to rely on Gods love, faithfulness and presence with us - and to be persistant.

Remebering Jesus' story about the one in need, who kept banging on the door in the middle of the night, to get the help that he was asking for from his already asleep and tucked up friend. 

And to remember that nothing is permanent - everything is always being re-created and shifting towards the goodness God has promised.

So in that recreating, even if a door seems closed right now, if it is needed, and is the right pathway, it will be opened - the friend will get up and let you in and offer help.

Often this practice of persistance might see us make room for spending time with God in solitude so that we can pray, as many of our Hermits did, but also in the time that we spend with others, sharing our burdens and joys and being together and asking one another for help or discerning next things together rather than by ourselves...

We can soak in God's love but also the love of God's children in community.

I finish this blog with the collect from Sunday as well as a poem from our beloved guest preacher Steve:  

Provident God,

with the prayer your Son taught us always on our lips, we ask, we seek, we knock at your door:

help us so to seek that we may truly find, so to ask that we may joyfully receive, 

and so to knock that the door of mercy may be opened for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Ask, seek, knock

             Ask, and it will be given to you;
             search, and you will find;
             knock, and the door will be opened for you.
                         —Luke 11.9

God is not a vending machine,
             but the Mystery is abundantly generous.

Jesus doesn't promise that we get what we want.
             He invites us to question, to seek, to explore.

Ask questions, even doubtful ones;
             in wondering find blessing, and gifts.

Eyes open, look for the grace that is always here
             and you will find.

God is not the secret behind the door;
             God is the door.

Always beckoning. Seeking you. Asking: knock.
             Always opening.