Exodus 24.12-18; Matthew 17.1-9
Important things happen on high mountains … we call them “peak experiences” …
There are plenty of such moments in the biblical story …
Mt. Ararat, on which Noah’s ark grounded when the flood waters receded, and a new world emerged …
Mt. Sinai, on which God and Moses had several serious chats, in dark clouds, with lightening and thunder … down from the mountain came Moses with tablets of stone, upon which the hand of God had inscribed The Ten Commandments …
Mt. Nebo, where God took Moses at the end of his life … to see in the distance the Promised Land … as in all things, Moses could only go so far, and then, no further.
Mt. Carmel, on which Elijah the Prophet confronted the priests of Baal, like a shootout at the O.K. Corral … winner take all … the Priests of Baal shouted and danced, whipped themselves, cut themselves, nothing happened … then Elijah prayed … fire came down from heaven to consume the offering, the wood, the stones, the dust, even the water with which Elijah had soaked everything, just to make a point, God’s fiery love is greater than all the sin and sorrow of the world.
The Mt. of Olives, down from which our LORD road into Jerusalem amid the cheers and hopes of a troubled people … palm branches and cloaks laid down on the road, with people singing their hearts out …
Mt. Zion, on which the city of Jerusalem was founded, and Solomon built the temple … the fabled temple, destroyed and rebuilt … built even greater by King Herod … the very temple in which Jesus preached the Kingdom of God, and overturned the tables of merchandise and coinage.
Mt. Tabor, the mount of transfiguration … our LORD meets Elijah and Moses, the law and the prophets … forging forever the bond between the covenants, old and new … the law and its wisdom; the prophets and their power … and Christ … the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
Who doesn’t like a mountain view of things … an easy hairpin drive up to Mt. Wilson gives us a panoramic view of Pasadena … air is bright, breezes cool … there, beneath our feet, the world in which we live.
I’ve never been to Everest, but I’ve read about it … those first climbers, losing their lives, and then the moment when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, in 1953, made the first documented climb to the summit.
I’ve been on Lookout Mountain in Georgia … Pikes Peak in Colorado … California’s High Sierras … the Rock of Gibraltar, to look across the Mediterranean to the coast of North Africa.
It was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who said to the world, on the evening of April 3, 1968:
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
And so I'm happy, tonight.
I'm not worried about anything.
I'm not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!
The next day, the assassin’s bullet found its mark, and killed Dr. King …
At the center of our faith stands Jesus the Christ … the child of Bethlehem, the boy growing up with wisdom and strength … the young man baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River … driven by the Spirit into the wilderness, there to be tempted, challenged, badgered, by the Evil One … a moment to decide, to make sure, to choose the right from the wrong.
For three years, Jesus wandered the highways and byways of Galilee and Judea … he crossed the sea of Galilee and healed a broken man … he crossed the border into Samaria to give life to a lonely woman … he set his face for Jerusalem, the deep center, where Rome and its military might, and the Temple with its religious power, walked hand-in-hand to work out a deal for the day …
A deal that was cruel and oppressive …
The deal that sealed the deal when Jesus entered the Temple and overturned the tables …
The powers that be decided that no more of this troubling man would be what the doctor ordered …
They arrest him, beat him, parade him through the noisy streets of a bustling city, to let people know who’s in charge, who’s boss, who calls the shots, and sets the pace … he’s taken to a small outcropping of rock, the Place of the Skull, Golgatha, and there, with two others, he’s crucified, dead, and buried … as the Creed puts it, he descended into hell.
Jesus said to the disciples: If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up the cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
The stakes are set as high as they can get …
Jesus demands of his disciples everything … all they are, all they hope to be … everything …
Six days later, Jesus takes with him three disciples, Peter, James, John … each different, each in their own way, a representative of the other disciples … a representative of all of us … they went up the mountain, a high mountain, says Matthew … because important things happen on high mountains …
A voice on the mountain, This is my son, the Beloved … with him, I am well pleased … listen to him …
There are high mountains all around us … literally … anyone of them might be enough to inspire our lives and call us to greatness …
A high mountain might well be a very good book that sends us into the twilight zone, the wilderness, the arms of God.
Maybe it’s music … or art … visit the Huntingdon or Norton Simon - you may well be caught up on a high mountain.
Our trek to church, here in person, or home by the TV … a mountain to climb, a mountain of faith, hope, and love, who knows? … something said, some random thought … a song, a prayer … suddenly we’re there, with Jesus, Elijah, Moses, the disciples.
Within each of us is a mountain, a high mountain … a place within the soul, a pathway within the mind, where the gap between heaven and earth grows thin … God comes down to meet us in the upward reach of our soul …
A moment in time … just a moment is all it is … comes quickly, closes quickly … and what’s left? who’s left? but Jesus … the Lamb of God.
Come now, says Jesus, there is work to be done.
Amen and Amen!
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