Wednesday, April 17, 2019
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you
hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal
together as friends.”
(Revelation 3:20, New Living Translation)
Opportunity knocks but once.
What this means is that if one does
not act expediently at the moment when the opportunity arises, then the opening
for something important or momentous or critical is lost. We can’t it get it
back.
A small example. When we lived in
Montreal it was our good fortune to know one of the Montreal Expos players, pitcher
Andy McGaffigan and his wife, Jill. I am an avid baseball fan so this was a very
special relationship in many ways other than baseball alone. At the end of one
of the seasons in early October Andy asked me to drive their packed car down to
Philadelphia for their last series, stay with him in the team’s hotel and watch
the last three games in Phillie and he’d pay for my flight back. It was a trip of a life-time in many ways.
But I had just got my church leaders finally to agree to a new type of church budget
planning and had planned a church retreat on that same week-end. Duty
over-ruled my heart and I turned down the week-end in Philadelphia. I have totally
regretted it ever since. I was an idiot!!!
Opportunity knocks but once.
But someone has to open the
door.
Last night, I heard a story on
PBS about a middle-aged woman who was shot in the face by two young gang
members as part of their initiation in the gang. By God’s grace she survived. Many
of us after such an experience might be angry, vengeful, bitter or unforgiving.
Who would blame us?
But instead, this woman saw it
as an opportunity. She changed her life style so that she would be able to work
with gangs. Her home became a drop-in centre and shelter for young gang
members. When she asked why such a large number of gang members were hanging
out with a 55-year old, one of them replied,
“We knocked at your door. You opened it.”
This sounds so simple. But a lot
of us prefer hiding behind closed doors. We peek out from behind the curtains
and never open our doors to anyone or anything. Every stranger seems a threat. Every change is
a danger. Every face is alien. Every request is a burden. Every one is an
outsider whom we don’t want to let into our private corners of the world. I could argue that we are becoming a suspicious,
fearful, mistrustful, self-absorbed, isolated, inaccessible people. Close the
doors, lock them tight, close the drapes and bunker down!
But this coming Sunday is
Easter, Resurrection Sunday. The powers of
Jesus’ day tried to lock Jesus up and seal him away forever. They found the biggest
boulder they could find and sealed his tomb shut with it. Nothing closes doors like death, especially
the cruel death of dying on a Roman cross. You might as well throw away the “key”.
God didn’t just unlock the “door”
– God kicked it in!
Jesus’ Life took on a new Reality.
God saw the opportunity and demonstrated that Life was a gracious, fulfilling gift
that not even death could lock away. Life was not over- it was just beginning
anew!
And all those who use politics, religion, power, money,
policies, dogma, fear to try to slam doors on the poor, the infirmed, the young,
the hungry, the homeless, the different, the alien, the refugee, the sick and
dying, the elderly, the broken, the mentally ill, the vulnerable, just might
want to take a step back unless the swinging door hits you smack in the face.
Because the Living Jesus is standing
at the closed doors of heart, mind,
spirit, soul and conscience and knocking
empathetically for us to open up and let him in and those whom he loves.
It is an opportunity which we shouldn’t
pass up lightly.
Roll that big stone in your life away and let the Light shine in the
corners and a fresh breeze of God’s Grace sweep away the cob-webs.
You know what they say – opportunity knocks but once!
Dale
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