Watsonville First United Methodist Church

Dear Friends,

“Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking;

if you hear my voice and open the door,

I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.”

– Revelations 3:20

I hear you knocking, but you can’t come in

– From the song, I Hear You Knocking, song by Dave Edmunds, 1972

“While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

– Luke 2:6-7

This famous painting is called “Christ at Heart’s Door” by the American artist, Warner Elias Sallman, who painted in 1942 based on Revelation 3:20, “if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.”  The image of Jesus standing outside of the door knocking is a spiritual metaphor. There is no doorknob from the outside. The doorknob is only in the inside that only you can open. Jesus will not bust the door open and force his way in like the SWAT Team going in for a gang drug bust. Instead, Jesus knocks at the door and says, “Can I please come in?” And he waits with ocean of patience for the door to be opened.

Something in the Universe wants to come into our lives.

Something,

we know not what,

is always and everywhere lovingly at work,

we know not how,

to make us more than we are now

to make the world more than it is yet.

This is the grace

that helps release the abundant love, wisdom, and healing

that are in us all and for which the world is waiting. 

– David Richo, The Power of Grace: Recognizing Unexpected Gifts on Our Path

Jesus stands at each of our doorsteps, knocking, and wanting to come in and commune with each of us. Hold that image with you in this season of Advent. Ask yourself, “What is or what are my resistances to opening the door?” “What am I afraid of?”

Thomas Merton wrote a poem “No Room at the Inn” in the early 60s in protest of the Viet Nam War. It’s still apropos for our time.

No Room at the Inn

By Thomas Merton

No Room at the Inn

Into this world, this demented inn
in which there is absolutely no room for him at all,
Christ comes uninvited.

But because he cannot be at home in it,
because he is out of place in it,
and yet he must be in it,
His place is with the others for whom
there is no room.

His place is with those who do not belong,
who are rejected by power, because
they are regarded as weak,
those who are discredited,
who are denied status of persons,
who are tortured, bombed and exterminated.

With those for whom there is no room,
Christ is present in this world.

Advent Prayer:

Our living God, in the weeks to come, our attention to this blessed and holy event, the birth of your Son, will be continually distracted with many things during this holiday. Help us to slow down to your unhurried rhythm of grace to savor the meaning and the joy of this Holy season. Help us to refocus our minds and hearts on your loving and most precious gift to us, the birthing of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

John

In this season of Thanksgiving, I want to share with you an African fable, The African King and His Close Friend.

An African King once had a close friend with whom he grew up, and the close friend had a habit of looking at every situation that occurred in his life, positive or negative, as good. He would constantly remark, “This is good.”

Well, one day the king and his friend went on a hunting expedition, and it was the friend’s job to load the rifles. The friend had apparently loaded one of the guns incorrectly because when the king pulled the trigger, it backfired and blew off his thumb. The king screamed out in pain. After examining the king’s thumb-less hand, the best friend remarked as usual, “This is good,” to which the king replied, “Nope, this is not good.” And violently shaking head sideways, he yelled, “It can’t be good, you idiot. And it will never ever be good till the day I die!” In a fit of rage, the king commanded, “Throw him into the darkest dungeon so he can think about what he’s been saying for the rest of his life!” So the king had his close friend thrown in jail.

About a year later, the king was out hunting in an area known to be inhabited by cannibals, and he ended up being captured and bound. And as the cannibals began preparing the king to eat, one of them noticed that he was missing his right thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone who is less than whole, so they set him free. As he returned home, the king realized that his dear friend was right after all. Getting his thumb accidentally blown off was indeed a good thing. It saved his life.

The king immediately freed his old friend from prison, apologizing profusely and telling him all that happened with the cannibals. “I’m so sorry for sending you to jail for all this time,” he said remorsefully. “It wasn’t right for me to do that, and I hope that someday you can forgive me.” “No, no, no, no,” his friend interrupted. “This is very good.” The king snapped, “This is not good. You have to stop saying that. This is not good. How could sending my best friend to jail possibly be good?” The best friend said, “No, it is good, because if I hadn’t been in jail, I would have been in the cannibal village with you.”

We live in the benevolent universe because our God is benevolent. God will take whatever circumstance you find yourself and use it as an opportunity to turn it into a good outcome. St. Paul instructs us to “Give thanks in all circumstances!” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

“Everything will be all right in the end.


If it’s not all right, it is not yet the end.”

– Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ

Happy Thanksgiving!