If we had a quiet few hours together, some retreat time, I would ask you to take a few moments to think back over the events of your life, recall them as doors you have to come upon, the wide open doors which were easy to pass through, the closed doors which, just the same, opened easily enough, the doors that were stuck, the ones you had to wiggle open or with your shoulder, and the doors that jammed, locked shut, never to open.

What I'd be asking you to do is to remember significant experiences in your life – the ups, the downs, and the people associated with them. The memorable occasions and those you would rather forget, the events that gave your life meaning and those which threatened to destroy it.

And then, at the close of that experience I'd ask: “Now, if in those few short moments you have been able to recall even only one door event, do you know what that proves? It proves you are a religious person.

What, then, is Religion:

–- specific beliefs in particular doctrines?

–- The institutions which arise?

–- The traditions which support?

No! Religion is not these things or any thing. Religion is not a noun.

Religion is a verb – an active dynamic in our lives. To be religious is to be searching.

Religion is the seeking human spirit. Religion is our life quest, our journey in search of fulfilment of our deepest needs. This life journey has us set out looking for our root and our goal, our beginning and our end. We are people in search of ourselves and our Divine Source.

To be religious, then, is to be looking for meaning and love.

In each of our lives, on each o our journeys, we find, opened to us, doors which, when we pass through bring us one step closer to that land of promise. And, if we carefully consider our lives, the most important door is not the one you knock on but that occasion when someone is calling on you to open up.

This is clearly revealed in the life of Abraham. Abram. 75 years old, fairly content in Haran with his wife and possessions, what little he had.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

“Go to the land I will show you and I will make you a great nation. I will bless you, and through you my blessing will be given to others”

Abraham must have found these promises very hard to believe. Nomadic tribespeople have have no land – how could he be made into a great nation. No one in the world cared for these motherless wanderers. How could Abram mediate the Lord's blessing to others? Why, get too close to them and they'd consider it a curse!

Yet, what does Abraham do? He opens up when he is called and steps through a most important door in his life's journey. Abraham listens to Lord's call and he responds. Abraham's religious journey has him passing through the door of faith.

What is Faith?

Faith is hearing and responding to God.

It is that basic; it is the dynamic, the movement, the journey of our life in Christ.

Faith is hearing and responding

And the crucial reality which unstops our ears so that we do hear, and releases our hearts from the fear of responding is TRUST. To be faithful, is to be trusting.

“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, 'Fear not Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.' But Abram said, 'O lord God, what wilt thou give me, for I continue childless..' And behold the word of the Lord came to him, 'Your own son shall be your heir' And God brought Abram outside and said: 'Number the stars if you are able to number them.' Then he said to him: 'So shall your descendants be' An Abram believed The Lord; and he reckoned to him as RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Than is, Abram put his trust in The Lord, figuring that God was being right with him. Abram trusted that God was a Promise-Keeper. And God asked Abram to be aPromise-Keeper too. So God and Abram took vows. They entered into a covenant, a relationship.

Faith is a Relationship.

God and Abram promised to be bound to each other. It was freely entering this intimate relationship – Abraham's promising to trust The Lord, to hear and respond to God, it was this relationship that unlocked doors: Because God promised to be Abraham's source of meaning and love.

Faith is a love relationship with God; Faith is life. In a very real way, the fruit of Abraham and God's love is Isaac. Isaac, Jacob, Israel would not have been were it not for the living faith, the love kept between God and Abraham. This love guided Abraham on his journey to the Promised Land. But more, this love is the Promised Land. Faith is living in the Land with God. Yes, then a narrow door opens out onto God's broad, fertile Promise.

Again, think back, all the way back to childhood. We were all very young when we first grasped the sacred nature of promise; as did Abraham and The Lord, maybe we too, cut a covenant, becoming “Blood Brothers” or “Secret Sisters”.

We probably were also young when we were first hit by the desolation of the broken promise – with the hurt and pain which we learned to hide as we got older. Wising up to the ways of the world, we too broke promises, still harboring hurt nobody knows about, but doing the adult thing of disguising our disillusion when we come to doors that won't open.

Christ doesn't!

Maybe we are not going to cry, or break over the stress, but Jesus is lamenting over us: