Open The Gate
What if the Risen Lord is knocking right now in a way you've been too busy explaining away to actually receive?
Christ is risen!
American author and humorist Patsy Clairmont famously said, “Normal is just a setting on your dryer.”
She hoped to communicate that our idea of “normal” is often unreachable and a source of shame in our lives. This insight is largely correct. Because we don’t scrutinize our definition of “normal,” we often miss the opportunity to deal with reality.
But that doesn’t mean there is no true definition of “normal.”
“In her joy she did not open the gate.”
One aspect of Orthodox Christianity that drew me to the Faith so many years ago was the revelation that I had been spending most of my life avoiding reality. I was enslaved by the wrong perspective on what a normal life really was. The Church answers this question in a peculiar and challenging way.
Normal is a Person, not a set of expectations. Jesus is Normal. The Resurrection makes the impossible possible. And it resets everything we thought we knew about what an ordinary day could hold.
Today is Monday of the Fifth Week after Pascha. Today also marks the launch of our refined devotional format. Thank you for the feedback some of you have shared. The new format is designed to be easier to carry with you throughout your day. Today we celebrate Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the great Equal-to-the-Apostles missionaries who reset what “normal” looked like for the entire Slavic world.
Today’s Lesson: Acts 12:12-17
In those days, Peter went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran and told that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, “You are mad.” But she insisted that it was so. They said, “It is his angel!” But Peter continued knocking; and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell this to James and to the brethren.” Then he departed and went to another place.
This is one of my favorite scenes in the Book of Acts. The authorities had arrested St. Peter for spreading the News of the Resurrection, but an angel came in the night and released him from jail. The faithful had been in constant prayer for him. The Lord answered their prayers, and St. Peter went to Mary’s house, where they were all praying.
And then the most wonderful, human, slightly comical thing happens.
What Can We Take From This?
First, the Risen Lord answers prayer in ways that often expose how small our expectations have become.
Look at what happens when Peter arrives. Rhoda hears his voice at the gate. She recognizes him. And then, “in her joy she did not open the gate but ran and told that Peter was standing at the gate.”
She was so overwhelmed by the answered prayer that she forgot to actually let Peter in.
The other believers have an even more telling response. “You are mad,” they say. Then they decide it must be his angel. Anything but the simple, miraculous truth that their prayer had been answered.
This is humbling. They were praying for the very thing they already had at the gate. But their imagination of what God might do was smaller than what God actually did.
We do this constantly. We pray for the healing and then refuse to believe it when it comes. We ask for clarity and then dismiss the answer as a coincidence. We pray for our prodigal child and then explain away the small steps homeward as just luck. We ask for peace and then keep manufacturing the anxiety that crowds it out.
The Risen Lord wants to expand our definition of normal. He answers prayer in ways that often shock us, and He invites us to receive His answers without explaining them away.
Next, real faith opens the gate even when joy, doubt, or easy explanations want to keep it closed.
Peter kept knocking. He didn’t go away because the believers were slow to believe Rhoda. He kept knocking until they finally opened the gate.
This is the Risen Lord’s persistence with us. He keeps knocking. He doesn’t get discouraged when our joy makes us forget to actually receive Him. He doesn’t walk away when our doubt insists “He couldn’t possibly be doing what He’s doing.” He keeps knocking until we finally open.
But the gate has to be opened. The Lord doesn’t force His way in.
When the conviction comes to reach out to the estranged family member, and you feel resistance rising. When the call to deeper service in the parish lands on your heart, and you start listing reasons why now isn’t the time. When the still small voice asks you to trust Him with something you’ve been protecting, or actually letting go of something that has worried you.
In each of these moments, the Lord is knocking. The question is whether we will stop running back and forth like Rhoda, telling everyone about the knock without actually opening the gate.
Open the gate. Let Him in. And be amazed at what enters with Him. Confront the New Normal of the Resurrection Life!
Finally, the new normal of the Resurrection requires sober joy and quiet trust.
Look at what Peter does once they finally let him in. He motions for them to be silent. He tells them what God has done. Then he simply leaves and goes “to another place.”
There is no celebration party. There is no extended testimony. There is no public spectacle. There is the quiet recognition of God’s grace, the simple instruction to tell James and the brethren, and the willingness to move on with what God is doing next.
This is the true shape of Normal Orthodoxy. Real and active presence of God in our lives, received with sober joy. Not intoxicated by miracles. Not made spiritually proud by answered prayer. Just strengthened, made more peaceful, and made bolder in following the Risen Lord wherever He sends us next.
The world tends to define “normal” as the absence of God. The Orthodox Faith defines “normal” as the active presence of God. Both definitions cannot be true. The Resurrection settles the question. The empty tomb is the new normal, and we are invited to live every day in light of it.
Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles, Illuminators of the Slavs
Today, we celebrate two of the most consequential missionary saints in the history of the Church. Sts. Cyril and Methodius were brothers from Thessaloniki in the ninth century. Both were highly educated. Both spoke the Slavic languages they had grown up hearing in their region. When the Moravian prince Rastislav requested missionaries who could teach his people in their own tongue, the Patriarch of Constantinople sent these two brothers.
What they accomplished is staggering. They created the Cyrillic alphabet still used by Slavic peoples today. They translated the Holy Scriptures and the Divine Liturgy into Slavic. They trained priests in the local language. They opened the door to the Christianization of the entire Slavic world. The fruit of their ministry is incalculable. Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia, and many other nations trace their Christian heritage back through these brothers.
Sts. Cyril and Methodius teach us exactly what today’s reading teaches us. They reset what “normal” meant for the Slavic peoples. Before their ministry, the Faith seemed inaccessible, foreign, locked away in languages the people could not understand. After their ministry, the Faith was on the lips of mothers singing to their children and on the tongues of farmers praying in their fields. They opened the gate. And the Risen Lord poured through that opening into the lives of millions.
Your Response Today
Here is one practice for today. Sometime in the day, ask yourself this question: “Where is the Risen Lord knocking that I have not yet opened the gate?”
Don’t rush past the question. Sit with it. Consider the prompts you’ve been ignoring. The answered prayers you’ve been explaining away. The invitations to deeper trust you’ve been postponing.
Then pray simply:
“Lord Jesus Christ, I open the gate. Come in. Reset my definition of normal.”
The Risen Lord is patient. He will keep knocking. But the joy of His arrival is meant to be received, not just reported to others. Open the gate today.
Being Orthodox on Purpose means letting the Risen Lord reset your definition of normal until His active presence becomes the most ordinary, expected, and treasured reality of your daily life!
A note from Fr. Barnabas: Today marks the launch of our refined devotional format. Thank you for journeying with me through this transition. If you find these changes helpful, or if you have suggestions, please let me know. Your feedback shapes this ministry.
May the Risen Lord knock gently on every closed gate of your heart today, and give you the courage to open and welcome Him in.
P.S. Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius, Illuminators of the Slavs, you opened the gate of the Faith to the entire Slavic world by translating the Scriptures and the Divine Liturgy into the language of the people. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Our New Video Project still needs your help.
“The Journey Continues…” Project: creating a teaching series on how to practice your Faith after you convert to Orthodoxy. Topics will include going to confession, wise fasting practices, setting up your prayer corner at home, and more!
Would you consider a Special Gift to Faith Encouraged for this Project?
Every gift is doubled up to $25,000
Your Tax-deductible gift can be made here - https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/QFKQ4GL6MQBBQ
Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack. Watch the Faith Encouraged YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@FaithEncouragedTV
Father Barnabas- I love love love these daily devotionals! They support the Church calendar and scripture readings which helps in my daily devotions and prayers. Also the Response section is so applicable as it helps in my personal walk with the Lord especially in areas that I need to be more aware of and need further prayer. The elaboration you share on the life of the Saints is invaluable and helps to put our current lives into perspective. God bless you mightily!