Ask, Seek, Knock

June 5, 2025

Women’s Retreat, Luther Park

Rev. Mary Erickson

Matthew 7:7-8

Ask, Seek, Knock

Knock, knock, (who’s there?)

Dozen (Dozen who?)

Dozen anyone want to let me in?

Oh, groan! That’s the proper response to a knock-knock joke. They’re all about the pun. And as Oscar Wilde noted, a pun is the lowest form of humor. But thanks for humoring me as I begin my meditation with a bad joke!

Ask, seek, knock. This has been the theme of your retreat. Jesus speaks this invitation in his Sermon on the Mount. He’s encouraging us, he’s gently coaxing us to trust him.

He goes on to make a promise: hey, everyone who asks will receive! And everyone who seeks will find! And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened!

We need such gentle encouragement because the school of hard knocks has taught us not to ask or seek. We’re kind of like Charlie Brown when Lucy says she’ll hold the football for him to kick. We know her game and we know better!

We’ve learned to be wary, we’ve come to realize that the only person we can truly rely on is ourself. And therefore the answers we seek need to come from within ourselves. If it’s going to happen, we need to make it happen.

And it’s so hard, isn’t it, when your internal feeling is that you’ve got to come up with all the answers, get everything done. If there’s a problem in need of a solution, you’ve got to solve it. If there’s a shortfall, you’re the one who has to make all the pieces fit. If there’s a disturbance in the force, then it’s up to you to bring wholeness.

And don’t think that just because we’re good church people we’re any different! In fact, that can just add to the pressure. It’s like we should be somehow better, more together than other people. We should have it all sorted out!

What’s left to ask? Don’t we church people have all the answers? And what’s left to seek? Haven’t we already arrived? Don’t we already know? And why knock at the door? Aren’t we already the good people on the inside?

In very real ways, being good church people just acts like a pressure cooker. It adds to the pressure, it doesn’t take away from it. It puts all the onus on us to come up with the answers and solutions.

Well, Jesus coaxes us to think anew. Listen to me, he says. Go ahead, ask away! Please, look to me! And if you just knock, I’ll open the door, I promise!

It’s an encouragement we always need. No matter how long we’re at this thing called faith, we need to listen to the voice of Jesus inviting us to ask, seek and knock.

Raise your hand if you’ve been to the Split Rock Lighthouse. Dale and I toured it a number of years ago. The docent who gave the tour told us that on foggy days, the lighthouse would sound a fog horn. He demonstrated it. It was really loud!

But in the fog, there was no way for ships to see the light. They needed the sounding. And that’s what Jesus’ words are to us. As we make our way through the unseen course ahead of us, he calls out: Ask! Seek! Knock!

We hear his call, we know his voice, and we trust in him.

Knock, knock (who’s there?)

Stopwatch (Stopwatch who?)

Stopwatcha doin’ and open the door!