Come, let us go up to the Mountain of God
I grew up with a story told by my parents from when I was 4 years old. It was told so often, I almost remember it myself. We were hiking in the mountains in Jasper National Park after taking the gondola up. As is sometimes the case, it was all cloudy and foggy as we got closer to the top and out of the trees. You couldn’t see anything around you. Then, when we got to the very top, the clouds around us suddenly cleared, and you could see the gorgeous view all around us. My wide-eyed 4 year old self blurted out – ‘Where’s God?’ I had assumed that in ascending so high into a mountain, that I would see and meet God. My parents told this story as an example of the inner awareness of children of the divine presence, that early spirituality, that openness to God and God’s Spirit. On that mountain, I assumed that God would be there and I wanted to meet God.
I have always loved mountains. Their grandeur, their ruggedness, their mystery, their beauty. I grew up in Edmonton, and we were about 4 hours from Jasper, and that wonderful small highway running between Jasper and Banff, where you are simply surrounded by majestic mountains on every side. My Grandma Harder lived in Abbotsford, BC, so at least once a year we would drive from Edmonton to BC – and the only way to get there is through the Rocky Mountains… and there were more mountains to discover in BC. You could see the perfectly peaked Mount Baker over in Washington State from my uncle and aunt’s Abbotsford home high in the hills, and we crossed the border once to hike it when I was a child. Sometimes our family would camp in the Alberta Mountains, and swim in the icy bracing streams. As a youth, I had a few opportunities with youth group and some friends to downhill ski in Jasper – Marmot, and Banff – Lake Louise and Sunshine – amazing experiences. So I grew up with lots of times in the mountains. I have occasionally been back to the Rockies since we moved, to hike and camp – usually with some Neufeld cousins before or after a Mennonite conference if we are anywhere close by. Saskatchewan counts as close by! The only mountains that have compared for me to the Rockies were the ones Rachel and I got to see in Switzerland back in 2018.
Since moving East, I learned that mountains can take many different forms, and they do not have to have huge snow covered pointed peaks and jagged rock everywhere. The Rockies are young mountains. In the East, the mountains are much older. They have slowly eroded over millions of years. They are not as high and have gentle, rounded slopes. I have learned to appreciate these mountains too, and have spent much time visiting them and hiking them in all sorts of places. In some ways, they are more accessible. Mount McKay in Thunder Bay, Silver Peak and The Crack in the La Cloche Mountains of Killarney Provincial Park, Mount Carleton in New Brunswick, the highest point in the Maritimes, and Mount Albert, in Parc de la Gaspesie, one of the highest points in Quebec – all part of the Appalachians, stretching too into the States, and various hikes in New York State and beyond. I took my kids on many of these hikes, or what Rachel referred to them as ‘forced marches.’ The kids soon had a family rule, that they would only do one Dad hike per camping spot… I would do the second day hike on my own, and I made sure we moved campgrounds enough to get in more Dad hikes! I had fun this week searching my photos for all sorts of these mountain hikes and views that are circulating on the screen through this sermon.
For me, mountains and mountain hikes have become a place of centering and grounding myself, and of finding God. Even as my body works so hard, I find my spirit relaxing and becoming more and more at home and at peace. It is a spiritual experience. It is a continuation of that 4 year old wonder of being in the Mountains and asking ‘Where’s God?’ and assuming the divine is present. I suspect many of you have similar experiences of the mountains you have experienced.
This Sunday we start our summer theme of ‘Climbing the Mountain of God’, with a little preview already last Sunday at the church picnic with our friends from Grace Lao. There are references to mountains throughout the Scriptures, with the word mountain appearing over 350 times. We got a sense of this in the Reader’s Theatre that Chip put together with all these Biblical mountain verses and images. So much happens on mountains. This is what I wrote to all our worship planners in the worship guide for this series, about the meaning of mountains in the Bible:
For our worship this summer we are taking our inspiration from the many images of mountains in the Biblical text. Mountains are often places of meeting with God. Mountains appeal to our sense of wonder and awe, and remind us of the infinite. They are strong and vast and mysterious, representing stability and unchanging permanence. Significant events happen on the top of mountains, or in the climbing of them. Mountains can be a place of refuge and protection and comfort, but they can also be a place of danger and challenge. On climbing a mountain, you become closer to the divine and the holy, and that will inevitably change you. It can be scary to encounter a mountain, and even lonely. There’s no hiding on the mountain. You are vulnerable and exposed and become aware of what is most important in life. Climbing a mountain is a spiritual experience. We sometimes talk about ‘Mountain Top Experiences.’ And yet, we can never stay long on the mountain, and need to come back to the valleys of our life, bringing back the gifts we have received.
There are both general images of mountains scattered throughout the Bible, and then events that happen at very specific mountains. The summer will begin with a more general look at the image of mountains on June 23 (that’s today), and then for the July and August Sundays we will focus each week on one of 7 significant mountains. We will learn about each of these mountains and reflect on the Biblical stories that happen on those particular mountains. What do we learn from these stories and these mountains, and how do they relate to our own lives. What are the mountains of life we are each climbing right now? (end of quote)
I very much look forward to this exploration of mountains, and hopefully to some of you, like Mathieu this morning, sharing your Mountain Top experience. Talk to Melinda or myself if you would be open to sharing.
Outside of the Reader’s Theatre, we heard 2 Mountain Scriptures this morning, and I want to reflect briefly on each of them to get our Biblical imagination going on this Mountain theme. The first is Psalm 121, which may be familiar to many of you as such a wonderful Psalm: ‘I lift up my eyes to the hills, to the mountains, from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.’ This Psalm positions the mountains as this place of refuge and divine help, with a God who neither slumbers or sleeps, but keeps your going out and coming in. I spent time with this Psalm earlier this month because it was the text Henry Janzen chose to use for his own funeral, chosen very intentionally half a year earlier when he knew he was dying. For my sermon I reflected on 3 images found in the geography and experience of Henry’s life but found too in this Psalm – Mountains, Prairies and Valleys. Henry grew up in Springridge Alberta, in the foothills, with the Rockies in his view in one direction, and the vast Prairies beginning in the other direction. This Psalm looks up to the mountains, that draw out adventure and exploration, the next ridge always just beyond. This Psalm reflects too the steadiness and reliability of the Prairies, the God who will not let your foot be moved and is the steady keeper, and shade at your right hand. But you can’t really talk about mountains unless you talk about valleys. When you have mountains, and when you have Prairies, it is inevitable that you will also get valleys in-between. You can’t always stay on the top of a mountain – you have to come down to the valley below. Even the vast Prairies run their course, and you find yourself sinking into a ravine. It can be hard to enter the valleys of life. A valley can be dark and even scary. A valley can bring you into unexpected places and experiences – into sadness and grief and loss, confusion and uncertainty. It can be windy and blow you off your feet. Any yet, somehow, the valley is also a place of life and nourishment. You find water in the valley. Valleys and Mountains sit side by side in our lives and in our world.
Psalm 121 assumes there will be dips and valleys in life. That is why we call out to God wondering where help will come from. We will stumble. Our foot will be moved. It will feel like the sun striking us by day and the moon by night. We will question if God is asleep, distant, uncaring. We will wonder if we will be kept from all evil. We hear that image in the parallel Psalm 23 – Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, or walk through the darkest valley, do not fear, you will be with me, your rod and staff, will comfort me. As we explore mountains this summer, let us keep in mind too the valleys that are also a part of our lives.
We also heard the wonderful Mountain scripture from Micah 4. There is a similar passage in Isaiah 2. It is an amazing vision of God’s purposes for our world. In some ways, this should be the passage that ends this whole worship series, even as we start with it. ‘In the end is our beginning, in our time, infinity… From the past will come our future, what it holds a mystery, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see’ (Reference to Voices Together 67- In the Bulb there is a Flower). It is the quintessential mountain! In this vision, God establishes Zion as the highest of all mountains and people from all over, many nations, stream to the mountain – Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord. It is a mountain where you are taught the ways of the Lord, so that you walk in God’s paths. And what are these ways? This path? It is a grand, inclusive, all-encompassing and peaceful vision of how the world can be. This is not a people of God vision only, but one encompassing all peoples and nations. There is arbitration between nations. There is the beating of violent swords and spears into peaceful plowshares and pruning hooks, nation not lifting sword again nation or learning war anymore. It is a vision with each person, in that whole diversity of who we are, sitting peacefully under their own vine and fig tree – no one afraid. It is a vision of a just world, a world of every valley lifted up and every mountain made low, as we hear in Isaiah 40. This is what is possible when we experience the peace and tranquility and grandeur and enlightenment and power and mystery of the mountains. This vision is what we are ultimately called into. A vision established by God. A vision to guide our summer.
A 4 year old asks ‘Where’s God?’ God is in that mountain? God is in the heights of our spirits when we feel closest to the divine. God is in the valleys of life beneath the mountains. God is in that inclusive and expansive vision, where all are included and the world is about to turn. Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. Let it be so. Amen.