Quite some time ago, I was a part of a canned food drive. It was very successful and a lot of cans were given. The problem was that all those cans had to be separated and the dates checked for safety. That was the job that fell to me. I was in a dark basement with cans in many, many, many plastic bags. I was young and not yet very informed on what made canned food safe or unsafe. Before I started…It’s in a can. How can canned stuff be bad if it doesn’t have a hole in it? It has a date on it? Why? So dents are OK. Bulging can? And it’s very dangerous? How have I not heard of this? So I then knew what to look for. They told me that a bulging can meant Botulism. So I looked it up. No real internet yet so it was a bit more of a challenge, but I found it and it terrified me. Botulinum is one of the most toxic things on the planet. Now I have the internet and I wanted to check out what I had heard. The CDC tells us that Clostridium botulinum is a bacterium that is widely found in nature – in soil, water, plant material, and many fish and mammals. However, it only grows when no oxygen is present. It also forms heat resistant spores which allow it to survive regular cooking temperatures or in foods which have been improperly processed. If these spores germinate and grow, they can produce botulinum toxin – one of the most powerful poisons known. Botulinum toxin is so powerful that one teaspoon could kill 100,000 people. So it’s more than serious and one of the reasons that proper food handling practices are important. So what brings this up? Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? We’ve been talking about hospitality for the past two weeks and here, this week Jesus gives another example. This is the first time that this particular gospel reading has really, really intrigued me because I remembered the bulging cans and the amount of very seriously out of date, yellowing labeled food that I had to discard. I kind of like sorting cans and checking labels so I’ve done other drives and found that they provide a great opportunity to clean out cupboards and pantries. Jesus asks what we always perceive as a rhetorical question. Jesus is pretty sneaky with his lesson plans, so we should probably stop and ask, “Is it really a rhetorical question?” or hear that voice that yells, “Don’t answer him, it’s a trap!” Jesus gives the command in the sermon on the mount to, “ in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you” which parallels the mosaic law, “Whatever is hurtful to you, do not do to any other person.” Jesus engages in some hyperbole or extreme exaggeration here but it isn’t a rhetorical question. As a part of our human nature and sinfulness we find it way easier than we ever thought on the wrong side of these commandments and passing out scorpions and snakes so to speak. God’s law talks about giving first fruits, leaving good crops standing for those in need and forgiving debts, not the unpalatable, discarded, out of date or the leftovers. Jesus’ vision for the kingdom of God is in his example that precedes his questions. I guess I’ve just never noticed some of the aspects of this reading and if we put ourselves in the picture it’s pretty heavy. I’ve always thought about a guy going to someone’s door in the middle of the night and being persistent. I was missing the mark, because that’s pretty weak. The person in the example goes to the neighbor’s door alright but because someone has shown up at his door and needs food and he has none to give so he goes on that person’s or that family’s behalf and relentlessly pounds on the door refusing to deny hospitality to the one on his doorstep. That’s a pretty extreme measure and going above and beyond. I lived out in the country in North Carolina at the end of a dirt road with only one other house. It was dark, really dark because we had the electric company disable our yard’s street light so we could see the stars better. We had a front and back door and no one that even remotely knew us would ever come to the front door. The house was dark and it was after 11pm and a loud knock came at the front door. People were very nice where we lived but knocking on the “stranger” door after 11pm at a dark house on a dirt road was not the wisest thing. Truthfully I was more alarmed than when the tornado went over our house. I stayed back behind another closeby doorway and yelled, “Who is it?” This poor guy. The sad thing was that he knew where he was and what he was doing. In one breath I heard an apology, his name, who his family was, where he lived, that they were hunting on adjacent land, for which they had permission and the owner’s name and that their dogs had come on to our land and he was asking permission to retrieve them. We then realized there was a truck out on the road with those spotlights on it. This guy had drawn the shortest of the short straws in his hunting club. Now I think of that guy. He had to knock once and that was more than enough and I said yes. Have you ever knocked on a door or listened to how others knock on your door? Differences in shy pizza,food, amazon or UPS deliveries? Neighbor kids, solicitors, your spouse, your kids? You when you locked yourself out? When I was with Emergency Medical Services there was a firm first knock and then things got serious and it ratcheted up to sharp pounding. How bad do you need or want someone to open the door? That’s how you knock. People are in need. How hard do we knock? Who would we bloody our knuckles for? I think of the guy at my door and I think of Abraham in today’s reading. He goes to God’s door on behalf of some, evidently, pretty bad people. He’s bold! He keeps knocking and lowering the number trying to help. Going on the behalf of others. We see in the story of Jonah that that is what God wants. Jonah finally gets around to Nineveh and finally knocks and this whole massive city answers the door and repents. This ticks Jonah off so he goes and picks a good vantage point to watch the city get obliterated. He didn’t want them to hear the knock or come to the door. It’s like some of the delivery knocks on our door, they’re obligatory and unintended to be heard or heeded. He waits and his shade tree dies and he is so mad and sorrowful for the tree that he wishes he was dead. I love this story and its ending. God reacts essentially saying, “There’s an enormous amount of my children that can’t tell their right from their left down there that you want to see die because they were your enemies and you’re up here whining about a tree that got eaten by a worm. Are you kidding me?” The End. Knocking for our neighbor. Incessant, unrelenting pounding. Doing what it takes to help, feed, clothe, or bring justice. Jonah and the Samaritan story have a lot in common because we find that the neighbor we go to the door and knock on behalf of could be one that we consider to be our enemy. Will we knock like Abraham and the Good Samaritan or like Jonah? And just for the record, Jonah is not a hero in that story, not at any moment. God’s mercy and grace is. How hard will we knock and for how long? I’ve thought about and seen the picture in Bibles and in stained glass windows, you know the one with Jesus at the door knocking. There are multiple interpretations of the picture, but here’s something a little different. We are not inside. We are on the outside, in need, but Jesus is there with us, knocking for us, on our behalf, like Abraham. Knocking for friends and enemies like the Samaritan. Refusing to give up. How hard did Jesus knock? Until nails pierced his hands and until it cost him his life. That’s love and grace. The door stands as a wall or barrier of sin that kept us from God’s presence, that kept us from the bread of life and when knocking didn’t work, the door was broken down, the gates of death flung wide, and the stone was rolled away. Jesus knocked and we are fed the bread of life, the forgiveness of sins and given the key to eternal life. We no longer need to stand on the porch and fear what awaits behind the door for death has been conquered. So let us take up or cross, heed the cries of our neighbor and give of our first fruits and when the barriers and doors arise, Knock boldly, knock loudly and knock Until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Amen…..
The lord be with you. Let us pray. Almighty and ever-living God, you are always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and you gladly give more than we either desire or deserve. Pour upon us your abundant mercy. Forgive us those things that weigh on our conscience, and give us those good things that come only through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen…..
In teaching his disciples this prayer, Jesus also reminds them to focus on God’s coming reign, God’s mercy, and the strengthening of the community. Jesus encourages his disciples to childlike trust and persistence in prayer. Luke 11
[Jesus] was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.” And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. “So I say to you, 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. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
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