Through the Gate; Psalm 118, Proverbs 18

May the mumbling commence!

Are we ready to travel through the Gate?  It is a question worth asking every day of our lives.  Jesus is the Gate.  Are we ready to travel in his Way – the only Way?  Are we prepared to do what we need to do to go through the Gate? 

To go through that Gate today it means to realize our own mortality and our own insignificance.  It means to bow down in praise and worship of God.  It means realizing our need for salvation.  It means that the Way of truth and light which we have often rejected must be accepted as the chief cornerstone of the Way of God in this world.  Read from Psalm one-hundred eighteen:

Open to me the gates of righteousness;

I will go through them,

And I will praise the Lord. 

This is the gate of the Lord,

Through which the righteous shall enter. 

I will praise You,

For You have answered me,

And have become my salvation. 

The stone which the builders rejected

Has become the chief cornerstone. 

This was the Lord's doing;

It is marvelous in our eyes. 

This is the day the Lord has made;

We will rejoice and be glad in it. (Verses 19-24)

Entering through the Gate is not about me or you or even us.  Entering through the Gate is about finding new ways to solve conflict and sustain relationship.  Entering through the Gate means acknowledging the preeminence of the Lord. 

Entering through the Gate means acknowledging the ways in which we reject the Way of God, the Way of Jesus.  Jesus is that Chief Cornerstone.  Let us shout from the mountaintops that the Way of Jesus is THE Way.  It is the Lord’s doing, and it dazzles our eyes and dominates our vision of what the present is, what the past was, and what the future will hold.

Our God is marvelous.  May we rejoice in the day which God has made.  And that day is today.  Rejoice!  And, from our rejoicing, wisdom will spring forth.  Read from Proverbs chapter eighteen:

The words of a man's mouth are deep waters;

The wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook. (Verses 4)

Let us move the stagnant waters of our ways, our words, our thoughts, and our attitudes.  Let us tap into the flowing brook of living water that Christ brings to us.  It is a brook that continually meets our needs and embraces in a new way each time we choose to wade into the water.

Wade in the water.  That is an important image to poetry and song in the Christian tradition.  Wade in the water of Christ.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out