The Reverend Kirk T. Berlenbach

Proper 12, Year C

July 25, 2010

When I was growing up I attended a variety of youth groups. Some were at summer camp, others at church and some, like Young Life, were independent. Some were big, some were small, some had great leaders, others not so much. But whatever their differences they all had one thing in common. At every one of them we would sing and invariably one of the most popular songs was, “Seek Ye First.” I would guess that some of you remember it from you time in youth groups or Happening. The second verse of that song quotes the words of today’s Gospel. “Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you, Alleluia.”

Those are some powerful words, and when they are paired with a camp fire and the acoustic guitar and the circle of other young people all singing their hearts out those words become the heart of a powerful spiritual experience. They had meaning. We believed them. But just because we still know these words by heart, doesn’t mean that we still believe them. When we strip away the idealized glow created by our memories and instead take them at face value, these promises, “Ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened.” seem the kind of carte blanche offer that is destined only for disappointment. How can it be that G-D will give us everything we ask for? Do we really think that every time we knock, G-D will answer or that every time we look we will find what we seek? In retrospect it seems more likely that our belief in those words was more the result of youthful naiveté than of any actual faith.

As unpleasant as it may be to admit we know things simply don’t work like that. Indeed, if we allow ourselves to think of G-D this way, as some sort of a divine goody machine who gives us candy whenever we ask for it, all that we end up with is frustration and disappointment. So what then are we to do with this famous verse that holds such emotional significance for so many of us? Do we take the easy way out and discard it as unobtainable fantasy like we do with so many other of our adolescent ideals? Or do we choose the harder path and try to discover what Jesus actually is saying?

I hope you chose the latter but as always, it means that we have to work. It is all too easy to take a verse at face value alone without consideration of its context. And when we do what we wind up with trouble. As it turns out Jesus is indeed making an incredibly generous offer to us, but if we are going to properly and fully understand it what Jesus is actually promising we must ask two questions- first, what is G-D really promising to give us and second, just what does it mean to ask, seek and knock?

The first question is rather easy to answer. After the “ask, seek, knock” Jesus shifts to a new analogy. He says, “Is there anyone among you who, if their child asks for a fish, will give s snake instead of a fish? Or if their 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?”

We live in material world and as such we think in material terms. It is not surprising then that we would tend to assume that “ask, seek, knock” has to do with issues like food, money, jobs, etc. But what Jesus is offering is not a promise to fulfill our material desires or even our material needs. Instead what He offers is something that no amount of wealth or power can ever obtain, the gift of the Holy Spirit. G-D offers to share our life and transform and sanctify the whole of our existence. And if that is what we are looking for, if that is what we seek and ask for, then it seems that G-D is more than willing to answer our request and give us the gift of his Spirit.

But that brings us to the second and more difficult part of the question. There are times when we are in fact looking for spiritual gifts and nourishment. Yet how many times have we prayed to G-D for guidance, serenity, clarity or any other aspect of the Spirit and still felt that our prayer went unanswered? If it were really that simple… if all we had to do was simply to ask or seek then why aren’t we all constantly filled with the inspiration and strength that comes with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? As so often happens the problem lies not with G-D but with our limited understanding.

The key to solving this problem lies in the story that Jesus tells immediately before the promises of ask, seek, knock. In the middle of the night a man is greeted by unexpected house guests. Unfortunately, he has no food to offer them. So, in the middle of the night, he goes to his friend’s house to borrow some. At first his friend is reluctant. In fact, he probably doesn’t even answer. But the man keeps pounding on the door and calling to him. Then the friend tells him to go away, but the man refuses and so finally the friend relents and gives the man the bread not because of their friendship, but because the man simply won’t go away until he does. The key to this little tale is persistence.

So is Jesus telling us that what we really need to do is pester G-D? Do we need to keep shouting at Him until he wakes up? Do we need to cajole and badger G-D into agreeing to our demands? Of course not. Jesus uses this image of the man pestering his friend to get what needs in order to create a contrast between how humans behave and how G-D behaves. What Jesus is saying is that if we can get what we need in the material world through persistence, then how much more readily will G-D give us what we need simply for the asking?

But doesn’t this just bring us back to where we started? We still don’t know why we can’t get the Spirit when we want to. As I said a moment ago, the issue is not with G-D but with us. G-D is most certainly willing to grant us the gift of the Spirit in but the problem is that we do not always know how to look for it. Our challenge then is not to figure out how to overcome G-D’s resistance but how to overcome our own. We must learn to change our values and our perspective in order to see the world, not from our limited and material point of view, but from a spiritual one. In other words, if the man in Jesus’ story did not know what bread was, how could he ask for it? In the same way if he did not remember where his friend lived, how could he have asked? And if he did not believe that his friend would give him what he asked for, why would he even bother to go?

If we are going to be able to receive what G-D is offering us, we must learn what it is that G-D offers us and how to ask for it. Now what the Holy Spirit really is constitutes a much too complicated topic for the few minutes I have left in this sermon. So let’s just focus on some of our more straightforward problems. A gift beyond price simply for the asking? That is hard to accept. We may want to believe it but how can we? It is simply not the way the world works. You don’t get something for nothing. Or perhaps the reason why you hold back from accepting the Spirit is because you feel unworthy of having G-D share your life? Whatever the reason, once we understand what it really means Jesus’ offer is such a radical proposition that it is hard, if not impossible to accept.

If we are to take advantage of Jesus’ generous invitation we must learn to adjust our perspective. This is not simply a matter of just choosing to see things differently, it is a lifelong process. It takes a lot of practice and above all, persistence. If we are to really be able to receive the Spirit we must be like the man who wakens his friend in the middle of the night… we must refuse to take “no” for an answer. We must keep at it, working to overcome our mental blocks and preconceptions and concentrating our efforts on discerning the ways in which G-D is indeed trying to sanctify and share our lives. We cannot allow our failures or setbacks, and believe me we will all have failures and setbacks, to cause us to give up.

In the end perhaps the only way we can truly accept these promises is to remember what it felt like when we sang it as teenagers all those years ago. The unbridled hope and optimism that we once felt can show us the way if we dare to risk it. But we have to be willing to set aside our skepticism and instead open ourselves up to the risk of being idealists- to be willing to believe in the impossible truth that G-D Almighty, the creator of the universe, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords wishes to share your life with you and all you need to do is ask, seek and knock.