Gospel in Art: Ask... Seek... Knock...

Liberty Bell 1898 Invented and made by Charles Fey & Co, San Francisco © Courtesy Joe Welch American Antique Museum, San Bruno, California

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 8 October 2026
Luke 11:5-13

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples, 'Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, "Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him"; and he will answer from within, "Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything"? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!'

Reflection on the antique slot machine

There are many different ways of praying. We pray to praise God, we pray to thank him, we pray to ask forgiveness, we pray to surrender ourselves into his hands, we pray for good weather, we pray for good exam results, we pray for a job, we pray for the people in Gaza... Yet perhaps the form of prayer that comes most instinctively to us is the prayer of petition. We like asking God for things! We just instinctively find ourselves often saying, 'Lord, please help, I need this.' There is something deeply human about such a prayer of petition. Petition begins with the recognition that we cannot do everything ourselves. That is very good in itself.

We find this kind of prayer of petition throughout Scripture. The Old Testament is filled with the people of Israel asking God for things they'd like to receive. Jesus in our Gospel reading today encourages us to use prayers of petition: that same openness in today's Gospel: 'Ask!… search!… knock!.' Keep asking... the repetition is important. We are invited not simply to ask once and give up, but to keep bringing our needs before God. Prayer of petition is therefore also a deep expression of trust: we continue knocking because we believe that there is Someone on the other side of the door who can genuinely help.

Yet petition is also one of the forms of prayer that can test our faith most deeply. We have all asked God for something that did not happen. We pray for someone to recover, and they continue to deteriorate. We pray for a relationship to be restored, and it remains broken. We pray for a particular door to open, and it stays firmly shut. At such moments Jesus' promise that our asking will be answered can seem difficult to reconcile with our experience.

Perhaps the key lies in recognising that an answered prayer is not always the same as receiving precisely what we requested! Jesus does not promise that God will grant every outcome we ask for. But he does assure us that the Father hears us and will give what is ultimately good. We may not get what we ask for, but get something more valuable in its place: we may ask for the suffering to disappear and instead receive the strength to carry it. We may ask for a problem to be removed and discover someone walking beside us through it. We may knock upon one particular door only to discover, much later, that God was quietly opening another. Almost imperceptibly, prayer always changes us.

I spoke of the danger of treating prayer like a slot machine: putting our prayer in, pulling the lever, and expecting God to deliver the result we want. Our artwork today gives us maybe a somewhat amusing image for that temptation. This is Charles Fey's famous Liberty Bell, made in San Francisco in 1898 and generally regarded as the machine that established the model for the modern slot machine. Fey, a German-born mechanic and inventor, had already been experimenting with coin-operated gambling machines for nearly a decade when he devised this remarkably successful three-reel machine. A player dropped in a coin, pulled the handle and watched the reels spin through horseshoes, stars, playing-card symbols and, most memorably, the Liberty Bell itself. Three bells brought the highest payout. Only about a hundred of Fey's original Liberty Bells were made, and just seven are known to survive today.

The slot machine is entirely transactional: I put something in because I hope to get something back, preferably more than I gave. Prayer of petition can easily slip into the same mentality. We put in our Our Fathers and Hail Marys, pull the spiritual lever and wait hopefully for the three bells to line up: the illness cured, the problem solved, the door opened. When they do not, we can wonder whether prayer has somehow failed. But God is not a divine slot machine, and prayer is not a game of chance. The extraordinary thing about prayer is not that we always receive exactly what we ask for, but that prayer always does something within us. Every time we turn to God, we are being changed!

LINKS

Christian Art: www.christian.art
Today's Reading: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/luke-11-5-13-2026/