“So I say to 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
Ask. Seek. Knock. Usually when I hear this passage I jump to all my questions about the times I’ve asked and not received, sought and not found, knocked and found the door not opened. Prayers unanswered.
And the usual responses come flying from within and without saying something about God knowing what’s best and God’s will not always being our will. That may very well be true about a number of things I’ve prayed for over the years. But it does not explain the continuation of hunger and violence. It does not explain the horror that unfolded two days ago in Pakistan, despite our prayers to end gun violence. It does not explain the people who remain homeless despite our pleading week after week. It does not explain the continuation of wars and disease.
Or our responses posit that God is somehow using these things for greater good. I don’t deny that God can and does transform our evil into opportunities for good, but I get very uncomfortable with the idea that God created the trouble in order to have a venue to do something good. The God who created the world out of nothing can surely do something good without the evil first.
None of those responses really give any real answer or any real comfort to the problem. I’m not sure there is an answer that will really ever satisfy me this side of death. But I wonder if sometimes we get too caught up in those questions when we hear these words of Jesus.
It’s safer to put the focus on what God hasn’t done than to put it on our failure to ask, seek, and knock. I’m not suggesting that greater fervor in our asking will achieve our ends. I’m just wondering if we’re often reluctant to claim the boldness that Jesus is inviting us to in this passage. An invitation to bother the God of all creation with our every need. An invitation to knock on the door for a visit anytime.
Sometimes instead we couch our prayers in churchy language, maybe because we think we’re supposed to or maybe deep down because we’re afraid to speak boldly about what we really mean. The difference between the prayer “Comfort me in my sickness” and what we really want to pray, “Make me not sick any more.”
Perhaps we’re afraid that really asking sounds childish or simple. Perhaps we’re convinced that miracles won’t happen. Or maybe we’re afraid they will. Or maybe we’re just worn out from the asking. But the invitation this Advent evening is to be bold in asking. To be bold in hoping. To be bold in yearning for the coming of Christ to us and to our world. To claim that prayer for our own and pray it with courage and power. To demand Christ’s coming. To insist that God fulfill God’s promises for us today.
-Pastor Steven Wilco
Stewarding the Word 