My shoulders clipped a lot of door-frames and wall corners. I eventually figured out that I could swing a bit wider than my eyes told me to when coming near these turns and portals. Result? Just about eliminated those shoulder injuries.
I was clumsy in other ways, too; always knocking over some cup of liquid, dropping my fork to the floor, or “tripping over the flowers in the rug.” After a while, I learned how to pick up the front of my shoes when I walked, thus avoiding (mostly) the embarrassment of sprawling before my peers. To overcome the exasperating problem of knocking over fill-in-the-blank liquids, I developed the ability to quickly grab said cup as it was still tilting over (You can ask my wife: I’m really good at this. These days, my almost-spills rarely turn into actual spills.). Sadly, I still manage to send my fork (or other utensil) straight to the floor without warning. Still not sure why, exactly; but I’m starting to think it has to do with sleeves ... still working on this one; check back in a few years).
My point in these ramblings? I am what someone —a kind person, anyway— might call an “experiential learner” ... I make a lot of mistakes.
But I learn from those mistakes. My errors are my tutors.
And that brings me to this week’s James passage. A key point James makes: We don’t ask [God], so we don’t have. And even when we do ask God, we don’t receive because we ask for selfish reasons. Connect this to the exhortation (or is it a promise?) made by Jesus: Ask=get. Seek=find. Knock=access (Matthew 7:7-8).
I can't help but wonder: Is there a wrong way to ask, seek, and a knock? Are we getting this wrong? Are we supposed to rap out a special tattoo to gain entry? Or ... could we be knocking on the wrong portals? Are we supposed to apply orientation and mapping skills when we seek? Or ... are we just looking for stuff in all the wrong places?
James is talking about the problems that keep popping up when we want what belongs to others; bitter envy, selfish ambition, contentiousness, and even murder. He wants believers to understand we have gone about these things backwards. Instead of coveting and then battling to obtain what we desire (which seems to have become a standard behavior), we, instead, need to go to God with our requests. Plus, we need to realize that asking God to give us something that already belongs to someone else is never going to work.
We can apply the correct process (ask God), but still not receive it because we are only asking for selfish reasons. The ask-seek-knock passage culminates in the Golden Rule and is exactly the same context as the James passage.
Turns out: there is a right way and a wrong way to ask, seek, and knock. And we can learn how to do it.
We are to ask, seek, and knock while in the presence of God. That means we are to be praying and listening, being still before God. And, if we ask, seek, and knock while living the Golden Rule —i.e., seeking for others what we wish for ourselves ... just another way of saying, "Love your neighbor as yourself."— we will receive, find, and enter ... as promised.
Our errors can be our tutors.
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Parts of this reflection are borrowed from a reflection that appeared in September 2015 as “Ask, Seek, Knock: Are we Getting This Wrong?”
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 20 (25) (September 23, 2018)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=220
Proverbs 31:10-31
Psalm 1
Jeremiah 11:18-20
Psalm 54
James 3:13 - 4:3, 7-8a
Mark 9:30-37
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What are you doing Friday morning? Can you join us at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast? If you're in the area, make some time to join us at 8:00 at Waco’s “Egg and I” restaurant. We’re usually in the function room (down the outside, near the back). The gathering is an hour like no other. We come away refreshed and fortified.
If you're not in our area, consider starting a group to discuss the scriptures. It's not hard. Ask a few friends, contact a restaurant that will let you order À la carte, and then agree on a day and time. Everybody pays for their own food. We use the Lectionary. It's a convenient organizational structure that we can follow every week, but it is not the only one out there. Find an approach that works for you.
Enjoy the week!
Steve
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