Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - "The Holy Door" Tuesday, 16 December 2014 - Scripture: Micah 2

Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - "The Holy Door" Tuesday, 16 December 2014 - Scripture: Micah 2: God Has Had Enough
1-5 Doom to those who plot evil,
    who go to bed dreaming up crimes!
As soon as it’s morning,
    they’re off, full of energy, doing what they’ve planned.
They covet fields and grab them,
    find homes and take them.
They bully the neighbor and his family,
    see people only for what they can get out of them.
God has had enough. He says,
    “I have some plans of my own:
Disaster because of this interbreeding evil!
    Your necks are on the line.
You’re not walking away from this.
    It’s doomsday for you.
Mocking ballads will be sung of you,
    and you yourselves will sing the blues:
‘Our lives are ruined,
    our homes and lands auctioned off.
They take everything, leave us nothing!
    All is sold to the highest bidder.’”
And there’ll be no one to stand up for you,
    no one to speak for you before God and his jury.
6-7 “Don’t preach,” say the preachers.
    “Don’t preach such stuff.
Nothing bad will happen to us.
    Talk like this to the family of Jacob?
Does God lose his temper?
    Is this the way he acts?
Isn’t he on the side of good people?
    Doesn’t he help those who help themselves?”
8-11 “What do you mean, ‘good people’!
    You’re the enemy of my people!
You rob unsuspecting people
    out for an evening stroll.
You take their coats off their backs
    like soldiers who plunder the defenseless.
You drive the women of my people
    out of their ample homes.
You make victims of the children
    and leave them vulnerable to violence and vice.
Get out of here, the lot of you.
    You can’t take it easy here!
You’ve polluted this place,
    and now you’re polluted—ruined!
If someone showed up with a good smile and glib tongue
    and told lies from morning to night—
‘I’ll preach sermons that will tell you
    how you can get anything you want from God:
More money, the best wines . . . you name it’—
    you’d hire him on the spot as your preacher!
12-13 “I’m calling a meeting, Jacob.
    I want everyone back—all the survivors of Israel.
I’ll get them together in one place—
    like sheep in a fold, like cattle in a corral—
    a milling throng of homebound people!
Then I, God, will burst all confinements
    and lead them out into the open.
They’ll follow their King.
    I will be out in front leading them.”
"The Holy Door" by Bob Broadbooks
While visiting in Rome, I had the privilege of seeing the Vatican. There you will find the Holy Doors. These massive doors are locked and only opened periodically. The last time was in the year 2000. For over 500 years, about every 25 years the faithful gather for a huge ceremony as the Pope breaks open the doors and leads the faithful through into St. Peter’s Basilica.
While I do not understand all of the Catholic symbolism of this event, I do know this: I am grateful for Jesus. He is the King who breaks open the way and goes before us. This is the gospel message. Jesus has broken through our sin and waywardness. He has conquered Satan, evil principalities, the world, death and the grave. He “breaks the power of cancelled sin.” He is leading us through to victory.
It is no wonder we read where Jesus said, “I am the door of the sheep” (John 10:7). The good news is you don’t have to wait 25 years to go through the gate.
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