Lift Up Your Heads

Several weeks ago I was in a  conversation with another minister who said to me, "You reach for scripture a lot."  I thought it was an odd thing to say especially  from one minister to another. I didn't have a good response for my colleague. What I wished I had been able to say is, "I don't reach for scripture. Scripture reaches for me."  That's not sarcasm. Christian discipleship at its best is to have the sort of intimacy with scripture that you think about your life in terms of scripture.

One of the scriptures that reaches for me is Psalm 24:7, "Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors! That the King of glory may come in."

When I'm feeling particularly low and feeling sorry for myself, this text reaches for me.  When it feels like the Christians around me are dismissing their own capacity, this text reaches for me. When a church dismisses its capacity to serve with significance, this text reaches for me.

This text was spoken to the threshold of the temple perhaps prayed during the rebuilding of the temple after the exile. I personalize it. We are the gates. We sometimes our heads fall and our confidence fails and we need to hear someone say, "Lift up your heads."  

We need the reminders that we are more powerful than we give ourselves credit for. We are indeed mightier than we thinke we are. "Lift up your heads you mighty gates."  

Most importantly this text reaches for me to remind me that we are the threshold through which Christ enters and is visible I the world today. As we used to say to one another a lot, "You are the only scripture some people may ever read."  We are the only Christ some people may ever see. "Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in."

Lift up your heads Christians you are the mighty threshold of The Lord.