“Knocking on Heaven’s Door”
A sermon by Sid Burgess
for Edgewood Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, AL
First Sunday of Advent, November 30, 2008
Texts: Isaiah 64:1-9, Psalm 80, Mark 13:24-37
I don’t know anything about popular music. Nothing. Not a thing. Back when I was supposed to be paying attention to such matters, my teenage make-up was woefully deficit, defective. Back in the 60’s--in the days of classic ‘rock,’ I missed virtually the whole scene--the Beatles, the Birds, the Beach boys--and I have never been able to catch up.
But I do have my sources.1 And this week one of my sources, commenting on our scripture lessons, suggested lyrics from a song by Bob Dylan.
Feel I'm knocking on heaven's door...
Knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door.
I even found Bob Dylan’s brief commentary on this song:
The tune was originally from a movie--he doesn’t say which one-- and is sung while the sheriff lay dying. So picture the good guy with his white hat on the dusty ground in his final moments of life... reflecting on the life he knew.
Knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door.
Which begs the question, Will anyone answer? Is there anyone at home? Where is God when you need God? Hopefully not in the dire straights of the story that inspired Bob Dylan’s song, but even in the mundane, day-to-day challenges of life . . . In the stress of too much to do and too little time to do it . . . . In the tension that plagues our relationships . . . . In the anxiety of mounting bills . . . . In the fear that surfaces with each new medical malady . . . . Feel I'm knocking on heaven's door... Will anyone answer? Is anyone there?
This seems to be the question on the mind of both the prophet
Isaiah and the poet who has given us Psalm 80. Speaking on behalf of
ancient Israel, both prophet and poet are asking, ‘Where are you,
God?’ Isaiah charges: for you have hidden your face from us, and
have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity” (7b).
And the psalmist adds: “O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be
angry with your people’s prayers”(4)? Old Isaiah even goes to the
extreme of blaming God for the sins, the disobedience of God’s
people. Verse five: “Because you hid yourself we transgressed.” In
other words, because you were not paying attention God, we blew it;
we screwed up.
Didn’t used to be like this. Time was, Isaiah recalls, when God was more attentive;
3 When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
But it’s been awfully quiet lately, God. Awfully quiet. And the people, God’s people want to know: “How long . . . ?” How long?
These questions from our sacred scriptures suggest to me that we have more in common with our ancestors in faith than one might think. Oh, they are a primitive people, to be sure. They don’t know science and medicine. They don’t know the law of gravity or that the earth is round. But they do know disappointment, defeat, and death. They know what the psalmist describes as the “bread of tears,” “the scorn of neighbors,” and the ridicule of enemies. Back to Isaiah: “We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away”(6b).
And you thought you were having a bad day! To be sure, the national economy is having a bad year. Life is difficult, and it has gotten much more difficult in recent months. What’s more, the experts are warning it’s going to get worse-- maybe a lot worse--before it gets better.
So, what’s a person to do? What is a person of faith to do in these perilous times? Their doubts, their uncertainties notwithstanding, our ancestors urge us to call upon Holy God. And they have left us with the words . . ., these words from Isaiah with which they themselves summon divine help: “O that you, (O Lord), would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence”(Isa. 64.1).
Now, if you’re too timid for that--afraid you might get struck by lightning-- especially after having pinned at least some of the blame on God--try this more polite request from Psalm 80: “Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved”(3). In other words, ‘When you get a chance, no rush, would you just please get down here and rescue us? Please!’
Welcome to the sacred season of Advent!
Come, Thou long-expected Jesus,
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us;
Let us find our rest in Thee. 2
Now, right now, just when we most assuredly need the help and the hope:
Bid envy, strife, and discord cease;
Fill the whole world with heaven's peace.3
With Matthew, let us see . . . “‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory”(26). Let us see the sun and moon darkened, and the stars falling from the sky. In other words, let there be no doubt, no doubt whatsoever that God is in God’s heaven. “Knock, knock, knocking on heaven’s door,” and may God answer with powerful signs and wonders.
But truth be told, this is not God’s way. Despite religion’s most celebrated romantic notions, “The Lord did not come to make a display.” That’s what the retailers do. That’s what the advertisers and the marketers do. They make grand displays offering all sorts of extraordinary solutions to our problems--both real and imagined.
By contrast, the 20th century Christian apologist G.K. Chesterton offers this observation:
God came down and slipped in the back door . . .to surprise us from behind, from the hidden and personal parts of our being. . . as if we found something at the back of our own hearts that betrayed us into good.4
Contemporary theologian James Brenneman writes: “God sometimes chooses to enter our world in a barn at the edge of town.”5 Or, I might add, through the back doors of our humble homes, sometimes even the back doors of the church itself.
O that God would tear open the heaven, make the mountains quake! Doesn’t hurt to ask! But it does help, says Jesus, to “Be aware, keep alert, keep awake.” After all, when first the “Herald Angels” sang, most everyone in the world missed. All of the great powers, the centers of commerce, and the great temples of religion missed it. We dare not miss it again.
Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.6
Now to the One
who by the power at work within us
is able to do far more abundantly
than all we ask or imagine,
to God be the glory in the church
and in Christ Jesus
to all generations, forever and ever. Ephesians 3:20, 21
1Brenneman, James E. “Reflections on the Lectionary,”
CHRISTIAN CENTURY, Nov. 18, 2008.
2“Come Thou Long Expected Jesus,” PRESYBTERIAN HYMNAL,
hymn #1, verse 1.
3“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” ibid, hymn # 9, verse 3.
4Brenneman.
5Ibid.
6“Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” Presbyterian Hymnal
#5.