Exodus 24:12-18; Psalm 2; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9
Growing up in West Virginia, I have learned something about our roads. West Virginia roads are different from the roads in other states, you know. We’ve lived in Tennessee, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Ohio, and West Virginia. And in those places, the roads are different because the land is different.
When we lived in upstate New York, half-way between Rochester and Buffalo, we learned that in that area of the country, roads go north, south, east or west. Only the occasional road goes northeast or southeast, and roads do not bend. Ever. They go straight as a ruler on the map. What about going around a hill? There are no hills except the Niagara Escarpment, which is a drop off of about a hundred feet when you go north far enough. One hill in the whole region. So the roads are just straight.
In Tennessee, the roads either go up the valley or down the valley and the valleys are mostly straight. Only once in a while do you come to a road that goes over the mountain between the valleys, but in general, they were wise enough – and cheap enough – to find a gap or low point between the mountains to cross from one valley to another. In New Jersey, they do much the same, with the roads running down the valleys and only an occasional road going over the mountains - which causes all sorts of traffic problems when you live in west Jersey and commute to the east along I-78.
South of Atlanta in Georgia, the roads are just like upstate New York – straight and boring, except they have 6 or 10 lanes packed with cars and everyone drives 85 miles per hour.
But in West Virginia, we’re the only people crazy enough to take major roads and try to run them straight east and west across a state with mountains that go north and south. So we build big bridges. So our roads are in the valley for a mile, then up the side of the mountain, then we break out on the mountain top and then back down the other side to the next valley. And combine that with the fog that settles in the valleys – or half-way up the side of the mountain, and you have a wild ride – darkness separated by wonderful sunny views from the mountain tops and then back into darkness. It’s a great way to learn about life, for life's journey is like that.
Mountaintops are wonderful places. When the air is clear, you can see for miles and miles. You have vision. But mountaintops also have fog and that can make it difficult to see a path to walk upon. The wind blows strong on the mountaintops, always threatening to throw you back into the valley, dashing you to pieces on the rocks below. The hawks circle below you and above you. And the day is actually a few minutes longer on a mountaintop, letting you live in light for a few minutes longer than in the dark valleys below.
In our readings this week, we have three mountains in four readings.
The first mountain talked about is Mount Sinai. God invited Moses up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone that contained the Law. This much we already know. But what we don’t usually talk about is the part of Exodus 24 just before our reading.
“Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.
Part way up the mountain, God allowed the seventy elders of Israel to see Him. It was after this that Moses was ordered to come up to the top of the mountain to receive the tablets of the Law. And while Moses was there for forty days and nights, the Lord not only gave Him the Ten Commandments, but God also gave Moses detailed instructions for the design of the Ark, the Tabernacle where God would reside, the decorations, the Altar, the garments of the Priests, how they were to be consecrated, and the Sabbath. Indeed, Moses received far more than Ten Commandments – He received a huge description of how God would relate to the nation of Israel. And when he came down, he discovered that the people had made a golden calf and were worshipping it. After breaking the tablets and putting down the rebellion, Moses returned to the mountain and God made a new set of tablets. God showed himself to Moses on this visit up close. But this time, when Moses went down, his face glowed. His face glowed so brightly that he had to put a veil over his face because people were frightened of him. Can you imagine being so close to God that your face glows for decades afterwards?
Did you know this story? If not, this is why it’s important for us to read our Bibles. Don’t just read the readings that I publish each week on Facebook, but read before and after those readings.
Do you know that there are 1189 chapters in the Bible? Almost 1200 chapters. And each week, our Sunday morning readings total about 1-2 chapters. That means that if we covered every chapter in our Sunday readings, it would take between 12 and 24 years to cover all of the chapters in the Bible. And yet we don’t even try to cover all the chapters. We cover the four Gospels and the Psalms much better than the rest, but we don’t even cover all of them. That’s why you need to read on your own or at least join us in a regular Bible study that covers those odd places like we are doing now, covering Ezra and soon to be Nehimiah in our Wednesday 10 am class, and I Peter in our Wednesday evening class. (Or Romans at the Monroe Chapel Wednesday evening class).
And did you notice that when God appeared to Moses, God has feet? “Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky.” Do you see his bare feet standing there on that glistening blue crystal floor?
This is considered to be another appearance of Jesus Christ before He was born on earth. For we know that God the Father is a spirit being, but Jesus Christ is also God, a man, and so most scholars take this to be an appearance of Jesus Christ some 1300 years before his birth to Mary. And I bet you missed hearing about this before, because it isn’t part of the Lectionary readings that we cover on Sunday Mornings.
Yes, it is amazing what you will see when you go up to a mountaintop to speak with God. It is amazing what God will tell you, as God told Moses. And it can be as simple as opening your Bible at home and sitting down for a while to read quietly and talk with your God away from the world, up on a mountaintop all alone with Him – or in your chair, seeing Him on that mountain.
Reading can take you right there. I remember when our children were on a swim team, I would take along one of Patrick O'Brien's Master and Commander books, set up my folding chair at the corner of the pool, open the book and I'd be sailing on the ocean, watching the action in my mind's eye and suddenly I'd get drenched as a wave broke over me (as a swimmer made a flip turn!). A book can take you up the mountain.
Our Psalmist talks of another mountain, a very important mountain.
God says in the Psalm:“I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.”
Zion, the mountain on which Jerusalem is built, is a very special mountain to God. Jerusalem. The name means “City of Peace” because shalom or salem means peace. It is here that Genesis 14 tells us that Melchizedek lived, the King of Salem, the first priest of God mentioned. It is where he first met Abraham, the grandfather of Israel and offered him bread and wine. Abraham had just recovered loot from a group of bandit kings and gave a tenth of it to Melchizedek – this is the first tithe mentioned in the Bible and the first sharing of bread and of wine. Who is this king of Salem, the city that would be known as Jerusalem on Mount Zion? The Book of Hebrews, chapters 6 and 7 says that Christ is our high priest, not a levitical priest, not a member of the tribe of Levi (the priests who served in the Temple on earth), but Christ “has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek…”
And the writer of Hebrews continues:
“First, the name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.
Just think how great he was”
Have you heard before of Melchizedek? Read Genesis and Hebrews, climb that particular mountain, and you will find this great man.
Clearly Melchizedek is another visitation of Jesus Christ upon the earth, 500 years before Moses. You never know what you will find on a mountaintop, who you will talk to, who will lead you to God.
The mountain of Zion later became the capital of the Jews as David moved his capital there and built the City of David, a fortified city within the city of Jerusalem. Here, the Temple of Solomon was built. Here you could find God and make sacrifices to Him. Here, the High Priest gave atonement for all the sins of the people of Israel and the strangers who had come in their midst.
And then there is the Mountain of Transfiguration, Mount Hermon, the tall mountain that is part of what is called the Golan Heights and lies between modern Lebanon and Syria.
Jesus takes Peter, James, and John with him up the mountain. They’ve been healing people in nearby Caesaria Phillipi and now Jesus wants to get away. So the three of them walk up to the top of the mountain, almost 6000 feet above the valley floor. On the way up, they would have seen many small shrines that remained from even more ancient times, because people have been putting worship temples and shrines – little lean-to’s and huts - on Mount Hermon for millennia. It was one of the “high places” mentioned in the Book of Kings.
When they get to the top, the three disciples are amazed because Jesus changes right in front of their eyes. His face glows and his robes turn a blazing white. It is like Moses’ face glowing, only much more so, for Jesus is showing His God nature to his three most trusted disciples. And then comes Moses and Elijah to talk with Jesus.
Poor Peter is so overcome that he volunteers to make temples for the three of them, one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. He thinks he is honoring them, but what he doesn’t realize is that he is insulting the Son of God and Daddy’s watching. For by his act of worship, Peter is putting Jesus on the same level as the men Moses and Elijah – and putting all three on the same level as all those false gods that people had built shrines to over the centuries, those shrines that lay in the snow on the side of the path up Mount Hermon like those little roadside shrines that people make today when someone they loved is killed in a car accident. God does not want His Son to be worshiped in a decaying roadside shrine. And so God gets Peter’s attention.
“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
I find it interesting that Peter repeated most of this when he wrote his second letter many years later.
Peter wrote:
"For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain."
Did you notice that Peter left out the “Listen to him!” part? I understand. It must have been very embarrassing to be told to “shut up” by God himself. More than embarrassing – downright frightening. And you will notice that the three disciples hit the dirt, face down and terrified.
But Jesus touched them and told them not to be afraid. We never need be afraid when Jesus is with us. And He was alone with them again. And Jesus told them not to speak of this until after His Resurrection. Mountaintop experiences, you see, can be transforming and they can be frightening. And sometimes they need to be kept quiet until the right moment.
I grew up on a mountaintop, the range of hills just east of the Ohio River. Many mornings, we’d be in bright sunshine while the valley just to the west was covered in fog, still in darkness. I think it makes a difference to your personality, whether you live with that open sky where anything is possible – or you live closed in, hemmed in by walls around you.
But even if you’ve been born in a valley – and there are people who seem to spend their lives in the valley – it is possible to walk to the mountaintops. How do we do that?
It seems to me that going to the top of every mountain worth climbing, there is a road, a path, or a climbing trail. In the pew in front of you is a guidebook to the mountains of life. It is called a Bible.
When you read the Bible, you will find the stories of the paths others have followed. Most of the people in the Bible encountered God and had their time on the mountaintop. It is well worth it to see what paths led them to the mountaintops – and what paths led them into valleys in their lives.
The Old Testament has several long stories. There is the Genesis story, telling of Adam and Eve, yes, but also telling the story of Abraham and his family, how they came from the valley of the Euphrates River to the hill country of Israel and how Lot almost died in the Jordan Valley when God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
There is the story of the Exodus, how the descendents of Israel escaped from the Nile Valley to camp at Mount Sinai, and how most wanted to stay in the valleys and low places, but a handful went up the mountain.
There is the story that begins with Joshua and proceeds through Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Nehimiah, the story of the people of Israel leaving that low place near Mount Sinai and entering the Promised Land, the hill country, finding Mount Zion once again and David and Solomen ruling the great Kingdom of Israel, which extended from deep in modern Syria to include much of Lebanon, most of Jordan, and clear to the borders of Egypt. And it also includes their fall, where they were taken off of Mount Zion and sent down to Babylon in the Euphrates Valley, far from the Temple of God, which had to be rebuilt one day when they walked home to Mount Zion once again, climbing that mountain once again.
And there is the story of Christ, whose life was filled with journeys between Mount Zion and the Jordan Valley, whose life led him to the lowest people on earth and to the right hand of God the Father, seated in Heaven. And there is the story of those who followed Him…including ourselves whom we can see in this great travel guide to the mountains and valleys of life.
I try to live on the mountaintops. And the way I get to the mountaintops is the way any experienced climber does.
To begin with, I rest. For me, resting is on Mondays. Because it is so important, I try to truly rest, looking for God’s blessings wherever God will show me. It is like walking around at the base of a mountain, staring through binoculars or a telescope, eating and drinking, planning and thinking, looking up at the mountain, wondering how God will get me there as I look at the mountain through the lens of God’s Word, the Bible, and I think carefully about what I must do to reach the next peak.
On Tuesdays, I cover the lowlands. I make great progress on Tuesdays, walking along, wondering where this path is leading, always wondering, wondering, wondering what will be the easy path that will cover the most ground and planning ahead to cover those steep parts that are always there in our lives. I probably walk half the distance or more on Tuesdays because I’m rested from Mondays and I know where I’m headed.
Wednesdays get a bit tougher, since the flat ground is now gone. I turn back to God’s Word and try to fill in the blanks, get the ideas for where I’m headed. I read and reread certain stories that seem follow the same path as my life is already, and I turn around behind me to encourage any others that are following me, for I’ve found that there are always people following. There are people following you. If you can help a couple catch up with you today, they’ll be there with you when the going gets steeper.
Thursdays. Have you ever noticed that most mountains have a steep section that is followed by a longer section that isn’t as steep. I look forward to Thursdays on the mountain of life, because that’s a day when I can rest just a bit, scanning ahead to see what I’ll do when the really tough part comes.
On Fridays, the tough part is here. On my hands and knees now, I struggle to get up the worst section. It’s during these Friday climbs that I always have to ask for help, praying to God for help, for a rope, for friends to lift me up. I’m so tired, I’m worn out, what little rest I got on Thursday is long gone and I’m thirsty, because the sun and the wind seems to be strongest on Fridays and the wind is always blowing in your face. Time seems to stand still because Fridays are the longest, hardest days climbing the mountain of life. Have you ever had a year in your life that is all Fridays?
And then, just when I’m ready to give up, it is Saturday and I reach the top, climbing up over that last edge and walking carefully but joyfully up the spine of the mountain to the peak. I take all day Saturday getting there, taking out my mind’s camera and putting pictures of joy into my mental thumb drive. The wind stops, the sun shines, and a red-tailed hawk screes at me, as if to tell me that there’s even higher that you can go if you’ll keep at it, that the travel guide you’ve been using has still more climbs that will take you to higher peaks, and that Heaven itself is even more beautiful than this mountaintop. And I make camp and settle in for a beautiful night on top of the mountain, surrounded only by the birds, the beautiful, joyous views, and God who is standing there talking with me.
And then it’s Sunday and I get to tell you about what I’ve learned over the past week. I get to tell you about the mountain that I climbed, the views I’ve seen, the parts of the travel guide that is the Bible that got me there. And it never seems to quite match the beauty that I remember, the touch of the cold wind, the smell of the rocks, the pain in my muscles that turned to such wonder and joy up on that mountaintop. For, as the great coach Vince Lombardi said, “the man on the mountaintop didn’t fall there.”
I wish you could join me there, I wish you’d try to climb some of these mountains, I wish you’d leave the plains and begin teaching other people what it’s like to encounter God on the mountaintop on a crisp, windy, sunny day.
I wish you’d find a couple of friends to begin teaching as you were taught. For every one of you has seen a Moses, a man or woman who glowed with the love of God reflected in their face, bringing words from God back down the mountainside to tell you of God’s love. Every one of you has been to Mount Zion, a place of peace, the City of Peace where you have experienced the peace that Melchizedek, the King of Righteousness has brought to you, the bread and wine that has reminded you of the sacrifice of Christ, the wonder of seeing God working in your life. Every one of you has seen Christ transfigured, changed from a mere man in a storybook to the One who saved your soul.
The greatest thing about this job is that every week I get to watch while God changes people. You hear an occasional story. I hear most of the stories because you tell me them. You spend an hour looking through the guidebook on Sunday mornings – I get to travel the world of the guidebook.
And here’s the thing that most people don’t realize. You can travel that world too. You just need to step out and begin to lead another up the mountainside. The first and most important mountain is called the Mountain of Belief. You’ve almost all conquered that mountain and experienced the joy that came at the top of the mountain when you first believed. You climbed the mountain of Baptism and experienced that joy again. Now lead another up those mountains and experience the mountaintops once again. For the only thing that beats your first time on top of those mountains is helping others experience that very same mountaintop.
Look for the mountaintops in your life. Open your guidebook, your Bible, and pick out a new mountain to climb. Live on the mountaintops – spend as little time as possible in the valleys. Climb new ones, every day, every week, every year. Lead others up the mountainside. And you will see God!
Our Psalmist talks of another mountain, a very important mountain.
God says in the Psalm:“I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.”
Zion, the mountain on which Jerusalem is built, is a very special mountain to God. Jerusalem. The name means “City of Peace” because shalom or salem means peace. It is here that Genesis 14 tells us that Melchizedek lived, the King of Salem, the first priest of God mentioned. It is where he first met Abraham, the grandfather of Israel and offered him bread and wine. Abraham had just recovered loot from a group of bandit kings and gave a tenth of it to Melchizedek – this is the first tithe mentioned in the Bible and the first sharing of bread and of wine. Who is this king of Salem, the city that would be known as Jerusalem on Mount Zion? The Book of Hebrews, chapters 6 and 7 says that Christ is our high priest, not a levitical priest, not a member of the tribe of Levi (the priests who served in the Temple on earth), but Christ “has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek…”
And the writer of Hebrews continues:
“First, the name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.
Just think how great he was”
Have you heard before of Melchizedek? Read Genesis and Hebrews, climb that particular mountain, and you will find this great man.
Clearly Melchizedek is another visitation of Jesus Christ upon the earth, 500 years before Moses. You never know what you will find on a mountaintop, who you will talk to, who will lead you to God.
The mountain of Zion later became the capital of the Jews as David moved his capital there and built the City of David, a fortified city within the city of Jerusalem. Here, the Temple of Solomon was built. Here you could find God and make sacrifices to Him. Here, the High Priest gave atonement for all the sins of the people of Israel and the strangers who had come in their midst.
And then there is the Mountain of Transfiguration, Mount Hermon, the tall mountain that is part of what is called the Golan Heights and lies between modern Lebanon and Syria.
Jesus takes Peter, James, and John with him up the mountain. They’ve been healing people in nearby Caesaria Phillipi and now Jesus wants to get away. So the three of them walk up to the top of the mountain, almost 6000 feet above the valley floor. On the way up, they would have seen many small shrines that remained from even more ancient times, because people have been putting worship temples and shrines – little lean-to’s and huts - on Mount Hermon for millennia. It was one of the “high places” mentioned in the Book of Kings.
When they get to the top, the three disciples are amazed because Jesus changes right in front of their eyes. His face glows and his robes turn a blazing white. It is like Moses’ face glowing, only much more so, for Jesus is showing His God nature to his three most trusted disciples. And then comes Moses and Elijah to talk with Jesus.
Poor Peter is so overcome that he volunteers to make temples for the three of them, one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. He thinks he is honoring them, but what he doesn’t realize is that he is insulting the Son of God and Daddy’s watching. For by his act of worship, Peter is putting Jesus on the same level as the men Moses and Elijah – and putting all three on the same level as all those false gods that people had built shrines to over the centuries, those shrines that lay in the snow on the side of the path up Mount Hermon like those little roadside shrines that people make today when someone they loved is killed in a car accident. God does not want His Son to be worshiped in a decaying roadside shrine. And so God gets Peter’s attention.
“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
I find it interesting that Peter repeated most of this when he wrote his second letter many years later.
Peter wrote:
"For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain."
Did you notice that Peter left out the “Listen to him!” part? I understand. It must have been very embarrassing to be told to “shut up” by God himself. More than embarrassing – downright frightening. And you will notice that the three disciples hit the dirt, face down and terrified.
But Jesus touched them and told them not to be afraid. We never need be afraid when Jesus is with us. And He was alone with them again. And Jesus told them not to speak of this until after His Resurrection. Mountaintop experiences, you see, can be transforming and they can be frightening. And sometimes they need to be kept quiet until the right moment.
I grew up on a mountaintop, the range of hills just east of the Ohio River. Many mornings, we’d be in bright sunshine while the valley just to the west was covered in fog, still in darkness. I think it makes a difference to your personality, whether you live with that open sky where anything is possible – or you live closed in, hemmed in by walls around you.
But even if you’ve been born in a valley – and there are people who seem to spend their lives in the valley – it is possible to walk to the mountaintops. How do we do that?
It seems to me that going to the top of every mountain worth climbing, there is a road, a path, or a climbing trail. In the pew in front of you is a guidebook to the mountains of life. It is called a Bible.
When you read the Bible, you will find the stories of the paths others have followed. Most of the people in the Bible encountered God and had their time on the mountaintop. It is well worth it to see what paths led them to the mountaintops – and what paths led them into valleys in their lives.
The Old Testament has several long stories. There is the Genesis story, telling of Adam and Eve, yes, but also telling the story of Abraham and his family, how they came from the valley of the Euphrates River to the hill country of Israel and how Lot almost died in the Jordan Valley when God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
There is the story of the Exodus, how the descendents of Israel escaped from the Nile Valley to camp at Mount Sinai, and how most wanted to stay in the valleys and low places, but a handful went up the mountain.
There is the story that begins with Joshua and proceeds through Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Nehimiah, the story of the people of Israel leaving that low place near Mount Sinai and entering the Promised Land, the hill country, finding Mount Zion once again and David and Solomen ruling the great Kingdom of Israel, which extended from deep in modern Syria to include much of Lebanon, most of Jordan, and clear to the borders of Egypt. And it also includes their fall, where they were taken off of Mount Zion and sent down to Babylon in the Euphrates Valley, far from the Temple of God, which had to be rebuilt one day when they walked home to Mount Zion once again, climbing that mountain once again.
And there is the story of Christ, whose life was filled with journeys between Mount Zion and the Jordan Valley, whose life led him to the lowest people on earth and to the right hand of God the Father, seated in Heaven. And there is the story of those who followed Him…including ourselves whom we can see in this great travel guide to the mountains and valleys of life.
I try to live on the mountaintops. And the way I get to the mountaintops is the way any experienced climber does.
To begin with, I rest. For me, resting is on Mondays. Because it is so important, I try to truly rest, looking for God’s blessings wherever God will show me. It is like walking around at the base of a mountain, staring through binoculars or a telescope, eating and drinking, planning and thinking, looking up at the mountain, wondering how God will get me there as I look at the mountain through the lens of God’s Word, the Bible, and I think carefully about what I must do to reach the next peak.
On Tuesdays, I cover the lowlands. I make great progress on Tuesdays, walking along, wondering where this path is leading, always wondering, wondering, wondering what will be the easy path that will cover the most ground and planning ahead to cover those steep parts that are always there in our lives. I probably walk half the distance or more on Tuesdays because I’m rested from Mondays and I know where I’m headed.
Wednesdays get a bit tougher, since the flat ground is now gone. I turn back to God’s Word and try to fill in the blanks, get the ideas for where I’m headed. I read and reread certain stories that seem follow the same path as my life is already, and I turn around behind me to encourage any others that are following me, for I’ve found that there are always people following. There are people following you. If you can help a couple catch up with you today, they’ll be there with you when the going gets steeper.
Thursdays. Have you ever noticed that most mountains have a steep section that is followed by a longer section that isn’t as steep. I look forward to Thursdays on the mountain of life, because that’s a day when I can rest just a bit, scanning ahead to see what I’ll do when the really tough part comes.
On Fridays, the tough part is here. On my hands and knees now, I struggle to get up the worst section. It’s during these Friday climbs that I always have to ask for help, praying to God for help, for a rope, for friends to lift me up. I’m so tired, I’m worn out, what little rest I got on Thursday is long gone and I’m thirsty, because the sun and the wind seems to be strongest on Fridays and the wind is always blowing in your face. Time seems to stand still because Fridays are the longest, hardest days climbing the mountain of life. Have you ever had a year in your life that is all Fridays?
And then, just when I’m ready to give up, it is Saturday and I reach the top, climbing up over that last edge and walking carefully but joyfully up the spine of the mountain to the peak. I take all day Saturday getting there, taking out my mind’s camera and putting pictures of joy into my mental thumb drive. The wind stops, the sun shines, and a red-tailed hawk screes at me, as if to tell me that there’s even higher that you can go if you’ll keep at it, that the travel guide you’ve been using has still more climbs that will take you to higher peaks, and that Heaven itself is even more beautiful than this mountaintop. And I make camp and settle in for a beautiful night on top of the mountain, surrounded only by the birds, the beautiful, joyous views, and God who is standing there talking with me.
And then it’s Sunday and I get to tell you about what I’ve learned over the past week. I get to tell you about the mountain that I climbed, the views I’ve seen, the parts of the travel guide that is the Bible that got me there. And it never seems to quite match the beauty that I remember, the touch of the cold wind, the smell of the rocks, the pain in my muscles that turned to such wonder and joy up on that mountaintop. For, as the great coach Vince Lombardi said, “the man on the mountaintop didn’t fall there.”
I wish you could join me there, I wish you’d try to climb some of these mountains, I wish you’d leave the plains and begin teaching other people what it’s like to encounter God on the mountaintop on a crisp, windy, sunny day.
I wish you’d find a couple of friends to begin teaching as you were taught. For every one of you has seen a Moses, a man or woman who glowed with the love of God reflected in their face, bringing words from God back down the mountainside to tell you of God’s love. Every one of you has been to Mount Zion, a place of peace, the City of Peace where you have experienced the peace that Melchizedek, the King of Righteousness has brought to you, the bread and wine that has reminded you of the sacrifice of Christ, the wonder of seeing God working in your life. Every one of you has seen Christ transfigured, changed from a mere man in a storybook to the One who saved your soul.
The greatest thing about this job is that every week I get to watch while God changes people. You hear an occasional story. I hear most of the stories because you tell me them. You spend an hour looking through the guidebook on Sunday mornings – I get to travel the world of the guidebook.
And here’s the thing that most people don’t realize. You can travel that world too. You just need to step out and begin to lead another up the mountainside. The first and most important mountain is called the Mountain of Belief. You’ve almost all conquered that mountain and experienced the joy that came at the top of the mountain when you first believed. You climbed the mountain of Baptism and experienced that joy again. Now lead another up those mountains and experience the mountaintops once again. For the only thing that beats your first time on top of those mountains is helping others experience that very same mountaintop.
Look for the mountaintops in your life. Open your guidebook, your Bible, and pick out a new mountain to climb. Live on the mountaintops – spend as little time as possible in the valleys. Climb new ones, every day, every week, every year. Lead others up the mountainside. And you will see God!
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