"Knock, Knock"

Diana Sash

Recently I attended a Lion’s club meeting with David. The purpose of this particular meeting was to thank those farmers who donate crops or land for the food resource bank.  The speaker, a gentleman from the food resource bank began his presentation with the following:

There was a pastor who on several different occasions had stopped by one of his parishioner’s homes, but never seemed to find him at home.  So this time the Pastor left his card in the door; writing on the back of the card - Revelations 3:20.

The next Sunday a card was left in the offering plate with Genesis chapter 3:10 written on the back. The Pastor quickly opened his bible to that chapter and verse and upon reading it burst out laughing.  For Revelations 3:20 states “Here I Am!  I stand at the door and knock.” Genesis 3:10 says “I was afraid because I was naked – so I hid.”

Of course we all laugh upon hearing this joke. These two verses when put together and taken literally are very funny and it is easy to brush them aside as just another joke. But upon further reflection there is so much more to this “joke” than meets the eye.

That Pastor is not unlike Jesus knocking at our door, with many of us afraid to open the door to him, afraid to ask him in; afraid to face him with all of our shame, in all of our weakness; in all of our nakedness. From our human perspective it is hard for us to fathom and understand that God already knows our every weakness; he already understands our brokenness, our frailties; it is hard for us to open that door and expose our shame to him.

Several months ago in one of our Adult Sunday School classes we watched a video called Lump by Pastor Rob Bell. In the video Pastor Bell relates the story of his son.  One day while cleaning Pastor Bell found a ball in the house. When he asked his sons if they knew where it came from they both denied knowing anything about it, but the oldest son was vehement about his denial, saying over and over again I didn’t put it there; I don’t know where it came from; don’t look at me.  Later in the week, the boys got into a fight and the older one pushed his brother, who went crying to their mother. When confronted the older boy vehemently denied pushing his brother --- saying over and over again: “It wasn’t me; I didn’t do it; I don’t know how it happened.” His Mom looked at him and said, “So you didn’t push your brother just like you didn’t know anything about that ball.”  The boy froze and with a look of utter shame he ran upstairs and hid. He was busted.

          When Pastor Bell came home he went upstairs to find his son who had been hiding several hours under the covers in his parent’s bed – too ashamed to come out. His Dad pondered what to say to him, to his son who was so clearly ashamed of what he had done and so clearly wanted to hide.

          Pastor Bell went over and sat down and slowly pulled back the covers. His son was dripping wet from sweat because he had been lying under the covers for so long. He slowly began rubbing his son’s back - saying over and over again, “there is nothing that you can do to make me stop loving you; there is nothing you can do to make me stop loving you.” At this point his son had a choice; he could pull the covers back over his head and continue to hide or he could climb out and face his father. He chose to climb out of the covers onto his Dad’s lap and laying his head on his Father’s chest he sobbed, while his Father said over and over again, “there is nothing you can do to make me stop loving you. There is nothing you can do to make me stop loving you.”

Isn’t this what God’s love is all about?; such that there is nothing we can do to make God stop loving us. Jesus stands at the door and knocks, waiting for and wanting us to open it, to ask him to come in. But we in all of our frailties, with all of our shame, with all of our nakedness, are afraid to do so, - not recognizing and understanding that there is nothing we can do to make him stop loving us.

The Scripture for today is Revelation 3:20 -22.  “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 him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on this throne.  He who has an ear, let him hear.”

In this scripture Jesus is saying that anyone who 1. - hears my voice and 2. – opens the door to him – ( it is a two step process ) then he will come in and eat; they will eat together, and then Jesus will give the right to that person to sit with him on his throne, just as Jesus overcame death and suffering to sit with the Father on his throne. By answering the knock and asking Jesus in the right for everlasting life will be granted.

The words in this scripture were written to the Church in Laodicea . The Laodiceans were known for their great wealth, for their cloth and dyeing industries and for the eye salve that they had developed to heal eyes. The Laodicean church had become complacent and rich. They were satisfied with themselves and had lost Christ’s presence among them. Christ was knocking at the door of their hearts, but they were so busy enjoying their worldly pleasures and possessions that they didn’t notice that he was trying to enter. They were so busy with other things in their lives that they couldn’t even hear his knock.

The pleasures of this world (material possessions, money, security) can be very deceiving because they can keep us from answering God’s knock on the door. They can keep us from experiencing God’s offer of love and everlasting life. Our material possessions provide us with temporary satisfaction, often times making us complacent and indifferent to both Christ and the church – and we end up trading temporary satisfaction for everlasting fulfillment.  (You do know the old saying – “You can’t take it with you”)

God was trying to get the attention of the Laodiceans as they continued to fall away from God and were becoming indifferent to his word. He was trying to get their attention because as Christians they also had an obligation to reach out to others; to teach others about Christ and the Gospel. They had a responsibility to help others develop the courage and willingness to open the door and ask Christ to come into their hearts when they hear him knocking.

Just as it was with the early Church we too as Christians have an obligation to help lead others to Christ, to look for opportunities to bring the Gospel message to someone in need, or to help them find the way – to help them to be willing to open the door to him or as in the case of the little boy throw back the covers and receive the Father’s unfailing love and amazing Grace.  

Have you ever had that sense that you just had to pray for someone or something, or call on someone or just do something – you don’t know why; but there is something you just need to do? Could that be Jesus knocking – calling to you? When you have that sense do you turn to him? Or do you keep him on the other side of the door? Jesus is very patient; and yet he is persistent. He is polite – He will stand at the door and knock, and knock and knock, but he won’t break in.  It is our choice to open the door; and he would love for us to do so; but he will not force us to do so.

As many of you know I attend the School of Lay Ministry. The first session of School was facilitated by Don and Sue Mendenhall. Some of you may remember Sue. She was invited to our church to do interpretive dance one Sunday by Pastor Diane, many years ago. This session covered an introduction to Lay Ministry School with much encouragement to explore our spirituality. To explore one’s spirituality however, one has to give oneself time for reflection. One of the exercises that we were asked to do was to select a favorite bible verse; write it on a card so that it could be sent to us later as a reminder of what we covered in class. My verse was Psalms 46:10 - Be still and know that I am God. It is one of my favorite verses because it is a reminder to me that I need to find that quiet time to listen for God, and to God; to find time to reflect. This reflection time is important because I could see that more often than not, my communication with God was one way. The prayers were always going up, but more often than not, I wasn’t taking the time to listen to or for his response.

You see, before we can open the door to God, we also have to be able to hear him knock. There is so much noise and clamor in our lives that it can become difficult to hear that knock on the door.  First we have to hear him knock and then we have to gather the courage to answer the door and open our hearts to receive him in.