Knock, knock

Knock, knock.

I'm guessing most of you just thought, "Who's there?"

Some of you probably even said it aloud.  I know I did as I typed it.

Also, I think this sometimes can be what our relationship with God is like, “Knock, knock…”

But is anyone even there to respond?  Do we even hear the knocking?

While I do think God has a fantastic sense of humor (if you don’t believe me just look at the platypus.  I mean…come on)

However, in this case, I don’t think it is really a joke.

This past Sunday I became upset as I was sitting in church.  I found myself becoming fidgety.  I was going through checklists in my head of what I had to do following the service.  Making plans for later that day.  Thinking of what I had to do that week.  Taking notes on my service leaflet.

I was there.  But my mind was a million other places.  I was simply going through the motions.  When I realized this, I hurt.

How often does this happen to you? 

How often are we fully present?

In our Sunday School classes, we often times use a video series by Rob Bell called NOOMA.  In one of the videos, Bell is talking about our actions and why we do things.

Why do we go to church?  Why do we do all this stuff?  Who are we doing this for?  What is the point!?

Is it to simply make our parents happy?

Is it so you don’t feel guilty because you didn’t go to church?

How many times do we sit in those pews on Sunday and simply recite from memory these sayings that come so naturally we can knock it out without even using our brain.

We simply regurgitate these prayers…

One that was written by over 300 Bishops and priests at the First Council of Nicaea that outlines our faith!

Another prayer that’s beginning comes directly from Jesus breaking bread with his disciples before being given up for crucifixion.

Another one taught to us by Jesus himself over 2,000 years ago…

Yet, just about every Sunday we can just recite it from memory as if it were the Alphabet Song or Mary had a Little Lamb.

That is not what it is all about!  There has to be more to into than that!

Matthew 15:8 says, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

I did not like this feeling.  I needed to make a change. 

We always seem to be moving through life way to fast, never truly being in the moment.  We do things and say things, but how much of that do we actually mean.  How much of ourselves are actually behind these things we say. 

N.T. Wright has a book called The Lord and his Prayer.  In it he says there are theologians that say that the reason we start the Lord’s Prayer with “we are bold to say” is because the prayer is so perfect that if we say it and truly mean it with our whole heart, then we are completely converted and completed Christian.  Meaning that the Holy Spirit has finished the work that God began.

Of course, this is not true, therefore we are bold to say it.  To come together in the celebration of the grace of God and say this prayer!

But should we so bold to say it emotionless…heartless…

God does not want the empty ritual, God wants our hearts.

Knock, knock…