Courtenay Evans, “Knock and the Door Will Open”

E.O. Wilson stated, "We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.”

And in conjunction, a Native American proverb states:

"The longest journey you will ever take is from your head to your heart"

In an era where data is constantly at our fingertips, whether news feeds, social media posts or A.I. overviews, as a society we seem to be moving farther and farther away from a culture of deep listening and relationship. In our fast paced, hurried lives, why would I take the time to call a fellow gardener about how to dry chamomile flowers when in seconds, I can learn through a quick google search? Why would I take the time to learn about her experience growing the flower? Yet, if I did, I also might gain great wisdom and insight into my friend’s chamomile journey that could help me in my process….the do’s and the don’ts…and I also might learn about how her day is going and how she is feeling, and maybe she’d ask me about how my day is going and how I am feeling. Yet, I chose google. Recently I attended a talk about Artificial Intelligence, and the argument was made that although A.I can be helpful, A.I also cultivates and reinforces this trend away from conversation, creativity, relationships and intimacy. We are untethered in the sea of information access, we’re losing our rootedness in that for which we were created: relationship with God and with each other.

In our Gospel reading today, when praying in a certain place, Jesus’ disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray.

Let’s take a moment to look at prayer. What is prayer?

Prayer is intimate. Prayer is relational. Prayer is conversation. Prayer is unguarded speaking, speaking our mind honestly and fully before God.

Among us modern day high achievers, we may often believe that we must pray exactly right. To pray correctly, our lives need a little fine tuning—those five minutes in the morning we don’t have. Or the need to learn more about prayer before starting. Then the questions circulating around self-doubt arise: What if my prayer is too mundane or trivial? What if I can’t find the words to pray? I’ve never prayed, so why would God listen now?

When we think we must get prayer exactly right, we place ourselves in control and we place ourselves in a place of competency. Yet prayer in fact, is the exact opposite: Prayer is an intimate conversation with God where we deliberately surrender control and where we deliberately become completely incompetent. And it is important to remember that by praying, we are not starting a conversation with God, but rather we are joining in a conversation that God has already begun with us.

In our passage, when His disciples ask, Jesus teaches the Lord’s Prayer. He also conveys the importance of persistence in prayer. Since the Lord’s Prayer is so incredibly full, I will only focus on two aspects in this short sermon: Jesus asking us to address God as Father, AND the words: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

“Father, hallowed be your name.” Jesus’ uses the word Father to imply that we each have an intimate relationship with God—you are my son or daughter and with you, I am well pleased. This intimacy is important as the term “Father” reinforces that we are his children. We are his children whom he loves and cares deeply for.

And with the words: “Give us each day our daily bread,” we realize that these words mirror the way Jesus lived his life. Jesus occupied much of his time with the everyday realities of humankind—he provided rest for the weary and food for the hungry. Yet Jesus also provided wine for the partygoers. Thus, Jesus gives importance to not only the very significant, but also to the very ordinary parts of life. If we were only permitted to pray for the heavy and great issues of our time, we’d be lost in the world feeling isolated and alone.

Instead, Jesus welcomes the 1700 smaltites that make up the bulk of our days. Do we need a new raincoat because of all the rain? We pray for it. Do we want to swim in the afternoon because it is so hot outside? We pray for it. Are we struggling with relationships at home or at work? We pray for it. Our doubts, hopes, longings, shortcomings, praise, thanksgivings, anxieties, questions, need of guidance…We pray for it. This is how we pray for our daily bread. And, when we have no words for prayer, when we do not know how to pray for our daily bread or for each other, we can be reminded of the words in the Gospel of Matthew: “for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

And as author Richard Foster writes: “in truth, we come to prayer in a tangled mess of motives. Altruistic and selfish, merciful and hateful, loving and bitter. Yet God is big enough to receive us with all our mixture. We do not have to be bright, pure or full of faith—that’s what grace means, and not only are we saved by grace, we live by it as well and we pray by it. God is simply glad that we come and delights in our asking.”

I have two very timid cats whom I love very deeply. Recently Cardoon has become very bold and spends time on my screened in porch. It’s not long, however, until a slight breeze or unfamiliar noise sends her back to the door desperately meowing to come inside. It occurred to me one night, listening for her meow, that the only reason she feels comfortable on the porch is because she trusts that when she meows, I will listen, and I will open the door, drawing her home to safety. Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given 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.” Like persistent, meowing, Cardoon, we trust that when we ask, that when we knock, Jesus is listening and the door will be opened to draw us home, nearer to Him.

However, unlike Cardoon where when she asks, I literally immediately open the door, God’s opening of the door might look a little different. Maybe we are praying often, knocking all the time and the door is not budging. No entryway seems possible. Yet, we must remember that God knit us together in our mother’s womb and that God knows us better then we know ourselves. God knows our needs before we ask.

We can therefore trust that He is at work in ways we don’t know and that maybe, the door is opening slowly but we just can’t see it yet. Or maybe the door has opened but it’s a different opening than we intended. It’s not the raincoat we thought we needed but an outing with a friend to lift our rain dampened spirits. We can trust in God’s wisdom, we can trust in God’s deep abiding attentiveness and love for us because we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

Jesus Christ has opened the door to God’s deep love and relationship with us. God, knowing our hard-heartedness and inability to turn our hearts towards Him, sent Jesus to provide a means of entrance. Jesus lived a perfect life, dying on the cross and then raising victoriously so that we might live through him. No longer do we have to stand on the outside, barred from conversation and relationship with God, but rather we have already entered through the door of God’s forgiveness, grace and mercy in Jesus Christ. For everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

I will end with a brief story to illustrate this point. A father was at the grocery store with his two-year-old son. His son would not stop crying and everything the father did to quiet his son was to no avail. Out of desperation, the father held his son close and began singing an impromptu love song. None of the words rhymed, and the song was completely off key. The father continued singing off key and continued making the words up as he went. Finally, his son stopped crying and a big smile came across his face. “Sing it to me again, Daddy! Sing it to me again!”

Prayer is a bit like this. With simple hearts we allow ourselves to be held in the arms of the Father, letting Him sing his love song over us.

So, as we face a time where we are drowning in information but yearning for wisdom and where the longest journey we might ever take is indeed from our head to our heart, let us remember prayer. Prayer provides a tether upon the sea of information and a catalyst for coming home, with the door wide open, to a place of deep relationship, conversation and listening. Conversing with Jesus in the everyday ordinaries of life, we can trust that He is deeply attentive, providing wisdom to navigate the noise, hurry, overwhelm, frustration, anger, grief and sadness in our overstimulated and overly burdened lives. And providing the wisdom and inspiration to call my friend and to learn all about her experience with chamomile.

Amen.