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Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Dora Belle.
Dora Belle who?
Dora Belle is broken, that's why I'm knocking. I’ve got doors on my brain. This week our security system got a major update, and today (and tomorrow and Sunday and beyond) I’ve been orienting folks – myself included – to the new systems and giving access. Which, on the one hand, has my mind stuck on these: Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Jewel.
Jewel who?
Jewel be happy to know it’s Friday! It’s also reminded me of a passage that became special to me during my time working for the General Board of Church and Society one summer while in seminary. I lived with and offered leadership to an intentionally diverse group of college students from all over the world in DC to be in community, work for non-profits, and explore ministry. It was a good summer. Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Dewey.
Dewey who?
Dewey we have to keep telling knock-knock jokes? Do you like your sleep? So does his friend inside, who is already in bed. Which he tells him. In Luke 11.8, he explains he and his family are all tucked in and the door is locked. Basically the closest thing to your phone’s Do Not Disturb setting 2,000 years ago. And yet, he keeps knocking. And Jesus says this: I assure you, even if he wouldn’t get up and help because of his friendship, he will get up and give his friend whatever he needs because of his friend’s brashness. And I tell you: Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. To everyone who knocks, the door is opened (Luke 11.8-10).
Verse 8 really changes the feel of 9 and 10, doesn’t it? It’s not, “knock, because everyone and everything is just sitting on the other side of the door waiting to come alongside you and join in your quest and give you bread.” Instead, it becomes: knock, and keep knocking. Seek, because sometimes it will be hard to find. Ask, maybe more than once. Because sometimes it will be the brashness that wins out over friendship, over logic, over the way things should be. But knock, and keep knocking, if that is where you are called to be. Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Impatient cow.
Impatient cow wh-?
Mooooo! Rev. Ben Richards
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