Risk it; Dare you

 ‘…Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.’ (Luke 11:9)

Luke 11:1-13 (Year C: Trinity+9)

It is getting dark. You are on the other end of the city in a neighbourhood you are not familiar with. The GPS-Sat-Nav-google maps thing is not working here. Why does the Eircode on google maps not work anyway?  You have the address but have no idea exactly where you are and how to get to the address through a maze of endless roundabouts and similar looking housing estates with absolutely no signs at any junction (in other words, unless you happen to live there, you are somewhere on the western outskirts of Dublin!). There is nobody to ask: the streets are empty. Hold on – a human being is walking on the other side of the road. Ask. Poor vernacular.  You ask a second being. OK you have a vague idea, now, how to get there (4^th left, 2^nd right, ignore the little turn off, watch out for Mylos pub, avoid ending up on the M50 again, take the last turn right ….). You seek out the road and, after a few wrong turns and another helpful inquiry you find the place. You approach the flat – it is number 2A around the side of house number 145 on Mystery Way. You knock on the door (in case the bell is not working).

• And you wait.
• But, is there someone in?
• Maybe the person has moved?
• Maybe you have the wrong address?

Often, we think of the spiritual life as an endless quest and frustrating journey entailing many deviations, getting lost, starting out again, moving forward and all the time not quite sure that the person or thing you are looking for is where you think he/she/it is.

Religion is turned into something that we do, ask for, search for and knock down the door for. And the harder we try and the more we ask and the greater the number of meritorious acts the more entitled we think we are to receive an audience and reception. (‘Give me a break’ God says?)

Yet, the good news as told by Luke is that we are found out and this fact is more important than all our efforts and plans put together.

Where is the door handle?

There is a painting by William Holman Hunt hanging in St Paul’s cathedral showing the figure of Christ knocking at a door. The door is overgrown with ivy and brambles.  Have a closer look at the picture at the top of this blog. Notice anything? There is no door handle on the side of the door where Christ knocks. Another feature of this painting is that the light is on the outside – flowing from a lantern held in the hand of Christ.  There is no evidence of light coming from inside the house while Christ is outside. The painting was inspired, apparently, by a passage from Revelation (3:20):

‘Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.’

(A contemporary song of worship recognised by some is ‘Light of the World – you stepped down into darkness’)

And that person you sought wasn’t in that evening on the other side of the city.  When you get home you find a note ‘Just called – sorry to have missed you’. Ah.

Saint Augustine, too, wrote about this experience in his work the Confessions (Book IV):

Too late I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient and ever new! Too late I loved you! And, behold, you were within me, and I out of myself, and there I searched for you

Am I ready for that visitor from within who never tires of asking, seeking and knocking day after day? Just stay still ‘at home’ in your own soul as you still go out to the Other in others and listen carefully to the gentle tapping sound. And have the table set.

When we allow ourselves to be visited and won over we can pray with a full heart the following Collect for the 17^th Sunday after Trinity later this year (inspired as it was by St Augustine’s famous ‘our heart is ever restless until it rests in you’):

Almighty God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you: Teach us to offer ourselves to your service, that here we may have your peace, and in the world to come may see you face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Never stop asking why

Sometimes, children can be annoying. They are prone to ask ‘why, why’ and much more besides. They never tire. We might do well to observe and emulate this practice in our own lives.  ‘Never stop asking why’ was the slogan on some sign seen at a Dutch university some years ago. The key to living and learning from cradle to grave is need, wonder, curiosity, striving, relating to others and gratitude. The day we stop asking, seeking and knocking is the day we die. The job is never finished as long as we live because we hope for something new, different, more beautiful, more whole, more true and more meaningful.

• To ask for is to question – ourselves and others.
• To search is to look out for and to go forward not content with where one is at.
• To knock is to politely request in anticipation of entering in more fully into truth, goodness and beauty. To stand and stare is not enough. We must go ahead and enter in more fully.

And the one (anyone – not just religious people or people who think they are religious) who asks, who searches for and knocks ALWAYS finds, receives and is welcomed in – not perhaps as they thought or planned it or in the way and time they assumed best.

Jesus gave his disciples a formula. It is called the Our Father. The beauty of this very Jewish prayer is that it can be recited by almost anyone regardless of their denominational or creedal affiliation or linguistic convention. If you wish, for Father read Mother. For Parent read Hope and Life.

The disciples asked Jesus for advice on how to pray. He gave them (and us) the Our Father.  St Teresa of Avila was asked by her sisters about prayer. She advised them to take the Our Father but spend an hour with it. Might we do that too at least once in a while? We don't have time? Brother Martin Luther of Erfurt used to say that when he was extra busy he would rise an hour earlier than normal to pray more!

Ultimately what we seek and need is none other than the Holy Spirit! And if we ask for the Holy Spirit we will not be denied.  But, do we really want this gift and are we ready to really ask for it?

Risk it, dare it.