Coming Down the Mountain
Scriptures: Exodus 24:12-18, Matthew 17:1-9
When I was in seminary in Massachusetts, a couple friends of mine from New Hampshire invited me to go on an overnight hike with them in the White Mountains. I had done some hiking in the past, in the sense of going for a fairly long walk in the woods, but it would be my first time wearing a pack on my back, and my first time staying overnight in the woods in the during a hike.
So, the day of the hike we were dropped off about halfway up the mountain, and we started climbing. That day we hiked to the top of Mt. Jefferson, which is the second-tallest mountain on the entire East Coast. It was a fun day, with lots of great views and some challenging ascents up rocky parts of the path. Still, I was ready to stop hiking about 2 hours before we actually did stop.
The cabin we stayed at that night was super fun. There was no running water, and there was a man who lived there, tending the cabin in the summer, who had a beard and played guitar. What was really hard about the hike, though, was the climb down the next day. As it happened, it was pouring rain the next morning, and we had to get to the bottom by one in the afternoon. Climbing down, in fact, was a lot harder than climbing up, because you have to have a lot more strength in your legs, and lots of balance, and the big backpack (only 25 pounds) kept throwing me off. I was very sore afterwards, and couldn’t walk down stairs easily for at least a week.
In retrospect, as I painfully made my way down yet another flight of stairs, I thought the hike might have been a little too much for me, a soft and weak beginner. When I asked my friends why they had chosen to lead me to the top of the second-tallest mountain on the East Coast, they said that because I was starting out they wanted to pick a rewarding hike for me. As it turns out, rewarding and easy are not the same thing.
In our story from Scripture today, the disciples have been on a hike of their own. They come with Jesus to the top of a famous, sacred mountain. This is the one where Moses received the commandments of the law from God for the people of Israel, as we heard about in our lesson from the First Testament this morning. And this time, just as with Moses, the mountaintop is the site of a revelation from God. Suddenly, the three disciples with Jesus see him, not as he normally appears, but as he truly is – holy, in the company of the great prophets, beloved of God, God’s own Son. Jesus has been preaching the kingdom of God, and here on this mountaintop, the disciples see a sudden beautiful glimpse of that kingdom – the world as it truly is, and as it is meant to be. The already and the not yet.
Volunteers in Lutheran Volunteer Corps spend a year working for a more just society while living in intentional community with other volunteers and exploring a more simple and sustainable lifestyle. Not all of our volunteers are Lutheran, and not all of our volunteers are Christian, but I do think that all of our volunteers, like the disciples in this story, and like all of us disciples today here in this room, are somewhere on the mountain.
Some of us are working our way up the mountain. We are hoping to have that moment of clarity, that sudden contact with the divine, that will confirm our hunches and fill us with awe and wonder. Some of us are working our way back down the mountain. There has been a moment for us, or an experience, that is deeper than words. Like Peter, we may want to set up camp and stay with Jesus in the beauty of the kingdom. But we know that there is work to be done in the valley, and we are on our way back down, drawing on our patience, our sense of balance, our strength and commitment. We know now that rewarding is not the same thing as easy, but we climb down, down, and down. Back to the valley, but with our hearts in a new place because we have seen the world as it truly is and as it is meant to be.
What I appreciate about Lutheran Volunteer Corps and other organizations like it is that it is an introduction to a way of life. A way of mountain-climbing, if you will. Building community, working for justice, and living simply and sustainably are our spiritual practices. They are not the only way to encounter the kingdom of God, they are not the only way to bring God’s reign nearer, and they are not a guaranteed path to the top of the mountain. But it’s a good start.
So here’s your good news for today: the world that those three disciples saw on that mountaintop, and the one you may have encountered in your own way, in your own time, that world is real, and it is breaking into our own regular, secular, everyday, world, slowly, gently, and even secretly. There are people climbing up the mountain to see the face of God, and people climbing down the mountain transformed, renewed, and equipped to bring the world that is meant to be. There are signs of the kingdom around us, if we can find a way to pay attention and see them. And through it all, as we climb, we are not alone – Jesus our guide, our brother, and our friend is climbing with us. Thanks be to God, Amen.
When I was in seminary in Massachusetts, a couple friends of mine from New Hampshire invited me to go on an overnight hike with them in the White Mountains. I had done some hiking in the past, in the sense of going for a fairly long walk in the woods, but it would be my first time wearing a pack on my back, and my first time staying overnight in the woods in the during a hike.
So, the day of the hike we were dropped off about halfway up the mountain, and we started climbing. That day we hiked to the top of Mt. Jefferson, which is the second-tallest mountain on the entire East Coast. It was a fun day, with lots of great views and some challenging ascents up rocky parts of the path. Still, I was ready to stop hiking about 2 hours before we actually did stop.
The cabin we stayed at that night was super fun. There was no running water, and there was a man who lived there, tending the cabin in the summer, who had a beard and played guitar. What was really hard about the hike, though, was the climb down the next day. As it happened, it was pouring rain the next morning, and we had to get to the bottom by one in the afternoon. Climbing down, in fact, was a lot harder than climbing up, because you have to have a lot more strength in your legs, and lots of balance, and the big backpack (only 25 pounds) kept throwing me off. I was very sore afterwards, and couldn’t walk down stairs easily for at least a week.
In retrospect, as I painfully made my way down yet another flight of stairs, I thought the hike might have been a little too much for me, a soft and weak beginner. When I asked my friends why they had chosen to lead me to the top of the second-tallest mountain on the East Coast, they said that because I was starting out they wanted to pick a rewarding hike for me. As it turns out, rewarding and easy are not the same thing.
In our story from Scripture today, the disciples have been on a hike of their own. They come with Jesus to the top of a famous, sacred mountain. This is the one where Moses received the commandments of the law from God for the people of Israel, as we heard about in our lesson from the First Testament this morning. And this time, just as with Moses, the mountaintop is the site of a revelation from God. Suddenly, the three disciples with Jesus see him, not as he normally appears, but as he truly is – holy, in the company of the great prophets, beloved of God, God’s own Son. Jesus has been preaching the kingdom of God, and here on this mountaintop, the disciples see a sudden beautiful glimpse of that kingdom – the world as it truly is, and as it is meant to be. The already and the not yet.
Volunteers in Lutheran Volunteer Corps spend a year working for a more just society while living in intentional community with other volunteers and exploring a more simple and sustainable lifestyle. Not all of our volunteers are Lutheran, and not all of our volunteers are Christian, but I do think that all of our volunteers, like the disciples in this story, and like all of us disciples today here in this room, are somewhere on the mountain.
Some of us are working our way up the mountain. We are hoping to have that moment of clarity, that sudden contact with the divine, that will confirm our hunches and fill us with awe and wonder. Some of us are working our way back down the mountain. There has been a moment for us, or an experience, that is deeper than words. Like Peter, we may want to set up camp and stay with Jesus in the beauty of the kingdom. But we know that there is work to be done in the valley, and we are on our way back down, drawing on our patience, our sense of balance, our strength and commitment. We know now that rewarding is not the same thing as easy, but we climb down, down, and down. Back to the valley, but with our hearts in a new place because we have seen the world as it truly is and as it is meant to be.
What I appreciate about Lutheran Volunteer Corps and other organizations like it is that it is an introduction to a way of life. A way of mountain-climbing, if you will. Building community, working for justice, and living simply and sustainably are our spiritual practices. They are not the only way to encounter the kingdom of God, they are not the only way to bring God’s reign nearer, and they are not a guaranteed path to the top of the mountain. But it’s a good start.
So here’s your good news for today: the world that those three disciples saw on that mountaintop, and the one you may have encountered in your own way, in your own time, that world is real, and it is breaking into our own regular, secular, everyday, world, slowly, gently, and even secretly. There are people climbing up the mountain to see the face of God, and people climbing down the mountain transformed, renewed, and equipped to bring the world that is meant to be. There are signs of the kingdom around us, if we can find a way to pay attention and see them. And through it all, as we climb, we are not alone – Jesus our guide, our brother, and our friend is climbing with us. Thanks be to God, Amen.
posted by Amy Sens at 7:57 PM
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