My Dad was not someone who liked to
hike.
However, once a year we would go up
Foss Mountain.
It is near Camp Calumet off of
Crystal Lake.
Anyway, if you have ever been up Foss
Mountain you will know that it is not much of hike.
You drive up it, and then you get out
of your car and maybe walk 100 yards and you are at the top.
My dad would get to the top after the
grueling 100 yard walk up a gradual incline look around and say, “Well this is
my one hike this year.”
However, one of my favorite pictures
of my father is of him on the top of Foss Mountain.
It is a black and white photo.
He is sitting with one leg up and the
other folded underneath it.
He is resting his hands on his legs
and staring off into the beautiful scene of mountains and lakes before him.
I like the photo because it shows him
at peace, in reflection.
I have no idea what he might be
thinking at that moment, but my guess is something like, “Wow this is
unbelievable”.
I can guess that is what he saying
because it is one of his favorite sayings.
In many ways that picture is a
contradiction a man who didn’t like to hike on a mountain top, appreciating the
glory and wonder of God’s creation.
I was reflecting on this week’s
Gospel about Jesus going up a mountain to say good bye to his disciples.
About Jesus giving them some final
instructions before all things are handed over to him.
I was thinking about this moment, and
about my Dad sitting on that mountain with that look of wonderment and peace,
and I was thinking about holy space.
I was thinking about holy spaces.
Jesus gives those last instructions
about going into the world on a mountain.
And in Matthew’s Gospel all the
really important things happen on Mountains; the sermon on the mountain, the
revelation of Jesus divine status, praying, curing of the sick and the lame.
It is on Mountains that the divine is
present.
Mountains matter in Matthew, and I
think they matter to us too.
Even if we don’t like to hike we all
have mountain top experiences in our lives.
We have important moments that feel
significant and big.
Many of us during this time of year
celebrate those moments.
We have graduations, first
communions, confirmations, weddings, and all sorts of major life passages.
We experience something in these
moments a clarity of purpose.
If your child graduates this spring
you as a parent feel that something is different with them.
They have passed a milestone; you
have gotten them through school into something new.
Lots of graduation speeches are about
the future, about shaping that future and making it better.
It is a mountaintop experience.
I don’t know about you but I would
like to stay there sometimes.
I look at that picture of my Dad and
wish that he where still there/here.
That this summer we could go up the
Foss Mountain together, and he would turn to me and say, “Well that is my one
hike a year.”
But you know Jesus won’t let us.
We are sent down from the mountain
out into the world.
We might visit those mountain tops
but we can’t last there.
This season people in our congregation
are also struggling with death, with loss, with heart ache, and into that world
is where Jesus sends us.
We can’t be young forever.
We can’t always have some great life
event.
Sometimes we simply have to get
through.
It is on another mountain at a different
time and place.
Many years before Jesus would stand
on that mountain with his instructions.
Moses stood on a mountain.
He was told that it was holy ground.
He experienced the Almighty One there
on that mountain.
Once again it would be nice to stay
there and bask in the glow.
But God had other ideas other orders.
Go and tell Pharaoh that the God of
the universe wants God’s people to be free.
Moses protests, “send someone else, I
don’t really want to go, I am no good for this thing”.
We protest too.
It is nice on the mountain.
It is nice there in the presence of
the Holy One.
We can take our shoes off and not
worry about anything.
It is peaceful there and we can stair
off into the distance in wonder and amazement at God’s creation.
But there are other things God has in
store for us.
Other things God wants us to do.
You recognize a pattern here.
We go to the mountain only to be sent
back down.
But something in both stories is
important to point out.
Neither Moses nor Jesus disciples
goes alone.
Jesus promises “I will be with you to
the end of the age.”
Moses is promised that God will be
there too.
You see the Holy doesn’t just have to
be on the mountain.
It can be in the doing too.
It can be in the living and dying.
It can exist with a father changing a
dirty diaper.
It can exist with a mother driving
her teenage children to the movies.
It can exist when someone waits by a
loved one who is dying.
It can exist at the Friendly Kitchen
as we pass food to a hungry person.
It can exist as we walk together so that
we might abolish the death penalty.
It can exist between friends as we
listen to someone else’s pain.
It can exist as we live our faith in
the world.
It can exist as we teach others about
Jesus.
You see I like that picture of my
father, but the real things I remember about him was the way he was with me
down from the mountain.
I remember the way he taught me to
catch a baseball, hit a golf ball, drive a car.
The way he got mad when I didn’t do
my best, and the way he forgave me when I disappointed him.
Fatherhood/motherhood is often not
about mountaintop experience.
Sure you have those moments when all
seems right, but that is just a culmination of a million little moments when
you had to correct something, or suffer through natural growing pains.
I can remember when my kids where
young and they were not yet sleeping through the night, and I came home from
work, my wife looked tired she had some form of kid spit up on her.
And she would look at me and say,
“Motherhood is really glamorous.”
Think of what Jesus had to go through
to stand on that mountain and ascend into heaven.
He had to go through Good Friday.
Being the messiah is not glamorous.
Being a disciple is not either.
Being a disciple means getting our
hands dirty in the world as we attempt to live out the great commission.
If you have had a mountaintop
experience recently I am happy for you.
If you have been to the Mountain top
and had some time to look out over the horizon and have some peace, I am glad.
I hope this summer you get to have
some time to take a hike, enjoy God’s creation, think about what your life and
be at peace.
I also hope you have some time to get
dirty to love others, to help others, to not be glamorous, to be sent into the
world to teach of Jesus and his love.
Amen
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