“WHEN GOD CLOSES A DOOR, HE OPENS A WINDOW”
Romans 8:31-39; John 20:19-23
Third in the Series “Tired Words: Clichés Christians Use”
In the famous scene from the movie The Sound of Music when Maria and Captain Von Trapp
are in the pavilion at night, the Captain tells Maria he has called off his engagement to Baroness
Elsa Schraeder, and Maria responds, “Reverend Mother says when the Lord closes one door,
somewhere he opens a window.” And they gaze into each other’s eyes like dying cows in a
hailstorm and confess their love for one another, and all of us watching the screen are thinking
“Finally!” and we sail right past the theology we’ve just heard and concentrate instead on the kiss
between gorgeous Julie Andrews and dreamy Christopher Plummer. Now, the Reverend Mother’s
words didn’t originate with Rogers’ and Hammerstein’s musical. In fact, you can find versions of
it in the mid-19th century, and maybe as far back as 10th century England. “When God closes a
door, he opens a window.” I have quoted those words, and heard lots of others quote those words,
whenever someone has suffered some kind of loss ⎯ particularly the loss of an opportunity or a
dream. When you don’t get the job you applied for, when the outcome you’ve worked so hard for
doesn’t pan out, when you’ve prayed and prayed and the answer seems to be “no,” someone seems
to always be around to say, “Well, when God closes a door, he opens a window.”
Now, is this saying biblical? As usually phrased it’s certainly found nowhere in the scriptures,
but there are certain passages that would appear to support it. The book of Acts says the apostle
Paul took his missionary work to Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit had forbidden him
“to preach the word in Asia.” And over in the book of Revelation God is described as the one
“who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.” However, such evidence doth not
a theology make, and you’re on pretty shaky ground to claim such passages teach us “When God
closes a door, he opens a window.” There’s a sense in which I could say the same thing about these
tired words that I said about last Sunday’s tired words. This saying assumes that God is the
instigator, the prime mover, if you will, of everything that happens to us, even our sorrows and
tragedies. And, quite frankly, I don’t believe that, and I don’t think the New Testament supports it
either.
Does God close doors in our lives? I don’t know. I certainly don’t want to limit God, but I do
know the New Testament says God opens doors. Today’s reading from Romans 8 is one of my all
time favorites, and there are very few funerals where I don’t read these incredible words of hope:
“If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all
of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s
elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was
raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from
the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword? ...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am
convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from
the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
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Wow. That’s a God who opens doors, not closes them. It’s as if God was singing the old
Marvin Gaye song: “There ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough, ain’t no
river wide enough, to keep me from getting to you.” God is in the business of opening doors for
our lives, not closing them. I remember one time when God opened a door for me. I was flying
home from a conference in California, and I was really looking forward to four hours of
uninterrupted time on the plane to read and work. I had no sooner settled into my seat on the plane
when a guy took up residence next to me, tapped me on the arm and said, “I take this flight all the
time and always get this seat.” And I thought, Oh boy, here we go. Just what I wanted: a chatty
seat-mate. And I wasn’t wrong. He started in telling me how he’d just been surfing up in Big Sur,
and how his boss told him to get his rear-end to Chicago the next day, and then he would turn and
flirt with the flight attendants and tell me how they all just loved him, and he went on and on.
I tried to ignore him. I buried my face in a book but he just wouldn’t shut up. The plane was
full and I couldn’t change seats, so I thought I would just have to listen to this chatter all the way to
Chicago. When we were good and airborne I took out a laptop computer. And this guy chimed in
on that. “Yeah, I’m gonna have to break down and get me one of those. I can get this program that
does such-and-such and it will... What do you use yours for? Word processing? You a book
reviewer or something?” I said, “No, I’m a minister and I’m writing Sunday’s sermon.” Well, he
looked at me like a toad blinking in the rain, mouth hanging open, and then he said, “Well, I’d
better let you get back to it then.” I’ll bet he didn’t say three words to me the rest of the flight.
Don’t tell me there’s no God. God opens doors, flings them wide open and keeps them open. I
heard about an elderly lady who went to a Bible study at her church where they discussed Acts 2:38
which says, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be
forgiven.” When she got home she found a burglar in her house scouring the place for valuables.
So she shouted, “Stop! Acts 2:38!” To her surprise the thief stopped in his tracks long enough for
her to call the police. When the officer arrived he put the criminal in handcuffs, and as he was
leading him to the squad car he asked, “Why did you stop dead still for her? All she did was yell a
scripture at you.” The burglar said, “Scripture? I thought she said she had an ax and two 38’s!”
God opens doors instead of closing them. I’m being playful, of course, but you get the point.
God says that nothing in this world or the next will separate us from the love of God in Christ
Jesus. Methodist pastor A. J. Thomas says, “God is unwavering in God’s pursuit of us. God is
constantly seeking after us. God is interested in moving toward us even when we aren’t
particularly interested in moving toward God. God uses every available opportunity to become
accessible to us.” When God closes a door, he opens a window? No. God does not construct
barriers. God destroys barriers. God doesn’t build obstacles. God overcomes obstacles. The God
we see in Jesus Christ does not go around shutting, locking, and slamming doors in the face of
God’s children. Oh, of course, we encounter plenty of locked doors throughout life. We shut
doors. Other people shut doors. The principalities and powers of this world shut doors. Hardship
and distress shut doors. But God doesn’t shut doors.
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So what about the second part of the tired phrase: “God opens a window.” In the context of this
phrase what could that mean? Why would God open a window? Well, maybe for escape. If your
house is burning down, and the door is blocked, you have to get out somehow. Maybe a window is
the only option. But a window might also be an opportunity to sneak in or out, say, if you want to
get away from your spouse, or you forgot your key, or you don’t want to wake your family, or you
don’t want your parents to know you’re leaving the house when you’re not supposed to, or you’re
slinking in after curfew ⎯ which I never did, of course. Those are the only reasons I can think of
for needing an open window if the door is locked.
Here’s my question ⎯ is that the best I can expect from God? In those moments when life is
blocking my path, can God do no better than offer a chance for me to run away like a scared rabbit?
When the door I wanted to go through is locked up, can God do no better than offer a chance to slip
in another way and skulk down the hall with shoes in hand, hoping nobody notices I’m there? Is
that the best God can do? Is God’s creativity no better than the late Englishman Arthur Pedrick?
In case you don’t know, Arthur Pedrick was a prolific inventor who filed for 162 patents, which
sounds impressive until you discover that all of his inventions have almost no practical value
whatsoever. He patented a cat flap that would not only let his cat go in and out of the house, but
would also detect its color so that other cats couldn’t come in and eat his cat’s food. Among his
other inventions were an amphibious bicycle, a contraption so you could drive your car from the
back seat, and a golf ball that could be steered in flight. (Maybe some of you golfers think that’s a
great idea.) But his grandest scheme was a plan to irrigate the deserts of the world by sending a
constant supply of snowballs from the polar regions through a massive network of giant
peashooters.
If Thomas Edison couldn’t do better than Arthur Pedrick we would still be illuminating our
homes with kerosene lamps. And if God couldn’t do any better than just throwing open a window
we would still be praying over saints’ bones and magic potions. God is much more creative than
that. What appear to be obstacles to you and me are not obstacles to God. John Claypool used to
call God the “amazing alchemist” because of God’s ability to turn darkness into light, death into
life, despair into hope, and crucifixions into resurrections. The 20th chapter of John’s Gospel tells
us the resurrection story, and then recounts what happened that evening. All of Jesus’ remaining
disciples were holed up in a house, quivering like frightened children, the doors of the house locked
and bolted, and suddenly Jesus was there and said, “Peace be with you.” John doesn’t tell us how
he got in. He just got in. The house was locked up tighter than a Baptist preacher’s wife’s girdle at
an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast, but Jesus got in anyway. Somehow the grace of God always
finds a way.
I heard about a Sunday School teacher who asked the class, “Boys and girls, what do we know
about God?” A hand shot up in the air. “He is an artist!” said the kindergarten boy. “An artist?
Really? How do you know God is an artist?” the teacher asked. And the boy said, “We say so
every Sunday. You know ⎯ Our Father, who does art in Heaven...” You know, his words were
wrong, but his theology was right. Our God is an artist. God in Christ can take the locked doors
and windows of our hearts and somehow be in our midst anyway. God in Christ can take the
locked doors and windows of our lives and somehow give us comfort and challenge for our
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discipleship journey. God in Christ can take the locked doors and windows of anguish and despair
and somehow produce hope. God in Christ can take the locked doors and windows of this world
and somehow it becomes the kingdom of our Lord.
When God closes a door, he opens a window? No. That’s puny. That’s pedestrian. Our
artistic, imaginative, creative God can do better than that. When you encounter one of life’s closed
doors, don’t wonder why God did it, because God probably didn’t do it. Instead, stand back, hold
on to your hat, and open your eyes. God will open the door. Maybe even kick down the door.
Maybe even make a brand new door. If Jesus can startle his disciples by coming to them when
nobody else could, then get ready. If you have eyes to see, and ears to hear, you just might be
startled too. Somehow grace always finds a way.
A teacher in a small one-room schoolhouse in upstate New York decided to put on a Christmas
pageant with her students. As she was assigning parts for the play little Jake raised his hand to
volunteer for a speaking part. The teacher wanted to be nice to Jake, but he was one of those
children that nowadays we call a “special needs child.” The teacher knew Jake couldn’t remember
lines very well, but, after some thought, she came up with what seemed like a viable solution. She
told him he could play the part of the innkeeper. When the children playing Mary and Joseph
knocked at the door of the inn Jake, as the innkeeper, was to open the door and say, “No room!”
Then Mary would say a few lines and when she was finished Jake was to say again, “No room!”
The teacher figured he could handle that assignment, but just to make sure she appointed one of the
other actors on stage to poke him at the right time and whisper his line into his ear.
The night of the Christmas pageant came and the parents and grandparents gathered in the
school to watch the production, and everything was going well. Mary and Joseph came to the door
of the inn and knocked. Jake the innkeeper dutifully opened the door and, right on cue, said, “No
room!” Mary responded, “But, sir, it’s cold. Have you no place at all where we can stay? It’s
freezing and I’m going to have a baby, and unless you help us, my baby will be born in the cold,
cold night.” Jake froze at his post. A few people in the audience coughed nervously. Jake
continued to stand in the door without saying a word. Finally, the prompter nudged him and
whispered, “No room! Say ‘No room!’” And Jake turned to the prompter and blurted, “I know
what I’m supposed to say! But she can have my room!”
Who knows? Maybe that’s what really happened that night 2000 years ago. Our artistic,
imaginative, creative God can even make room where there is no room. Somehow grace always
finds a way.
Copyright © 6/28/2015 by Paris Donehoo
Elgin First Congregational Church