Reflection - Mountain

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110117.cfm
Revelation 7:2-4, 9:14
1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12

I have little doubt that there is such a thing as a genetically inherited disposition. Exactly how far that extends is another matter. So, in spite of the fact that I was born in the flatlands of Kansas, I am convinced that a search of my ancestors would reveal centuries of mountain living. Neither plains, nor rivers, nor steppes, nor oceans seize my inmost spirit the way that mountains do. Although I first came to the mountains when I was about eleven years old, the words of John Denver’s song resonate deeply in my heart. “He was born in the summer of his twenty-seventh year, coming home to a place he’d never been before.” Even at eleven I felt that coming to the mountains was coming home.

This morning’s readings would suggest that I am in good company, for the mountain holds a place of significance and honor in the Scriptures which no other geographic feature can remotely match. The notoriety of the mountain in God’s word began even prior to the time of Abraham, and it was not initially an honorable place. A text from the prophet Ezekiel is one of many that clarifies the problem.

Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, and say: “You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.” (Ezekiel 6:2-3)

The ‘high places’ to which the Lord was objecting were places of pagan worship; and his condemnation was toward those who participated in those pagan feasts. The practices had been common for centuries; and the ‘high places,’ that is, the hilltops and mountain tops, had been viewed as appropriate locations for these pagan celebrations. All that began to change with the Lord’s call to Moses. Even before God sent him to speak to Pharaoh, he made Moses this promise:

But I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain. (Exodus 3:12)

Moses, in turn, would remember the Lord’s promise. In a hymn composed subsequent to the destruction of Pharaoh and his army in the waters of the Red Sea he says

You will bring them in, and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O LORD, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O LORD, which your hands have established. (Exodus 15:17)But the story of the mountain in Scripture does not end there. As God’s Revelation continues, the mountain achieves even greater importance and deeper symbolic significance. In the years immediately following the departure from slavery in Egypt

The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tables of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction." (Exodus 24:12)

With these precedents firmly established, the imagery of the mountain and its status among God’s people rose to greater heights and new significance. By the time of the Psalmist the sacredness of the mountain had been firmly established. So it is not atypical to hear the Psalmist sing.

I have set my kingom Zion, my holy mountain. (Psalm 2:6)Nor is it an original thought on the part of the Prophet Isaiah when he proclaims:

It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it. (Isaiah 2:2)In fact, the mountain, the Lord’s mountain, becomes, in Prophetic teaching, an ensign for the kingdom which the Messiah will bring.

They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:9)The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust (the dust which fulfills God’s judgement after the fall of Adam and Eve) dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, says the LORD." (Isaiah 65:25)

You shall know that I am the LORD your God, who dwell in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy. And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the stream beds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD and water the valley. (Joel 3:16-17)Behold, on the mountains, the feet of him who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah, fulfill your vows, for never again shall the wicked come against you. (Nahum 1:15)

Yet, even with the end of the Old Testament period, the eminence of God’s holy mountain has not reached its full status in the words of Scripture. Jesus went up the mountain to deliver the new law, the charter of the Kingdom. We heard about that today as we listened again to his teaching of the beatitudes. Mark tells us that Jesus went up on the mountain to pray. (Mark 6:46) The evangelist further records that he went up on the mountain, and called to him those whom he desired (I.e., the twelve); and they came to him. (Mark 3:13) And Matthew tells us that, after the Resurrection, the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. (Matthew 28:16) From there he ascended into heaven.

And still God’s Word has not completed what is to be said of the mountain. In the very final book of the New Testament, in the last chapter save one, we hear of the mountain at the end of the present age when the Lord creates a new heaven and a new earth.

And in the Spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. (Revelation 21:10)

I am blessed to live on the side of a mountain. As I see it anew each day I imagine I am privileged to see a facsimile of the face of God. Sometimes the face is hidden, yet I know it’s still there. Sometimes it is wreathed in the smoke of low flying clouds and I am suffused with his mystery. At sunset it can gleam with gold. In the morning it can sparkle against glacier blue air. It rises in majesty and both subdues and pacifies all that gathers at its feet. It reminds me of all those who have, by their lives answered the question we heard today from the Psalmist.

Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?or who may stand in his holy place?

We celebrate them today for the glory they have given to Our Father. We celebrate them today because they remained true to the command to serve God upon this mountain. We celebrate them today for they remind us of the sons we are through Our Lord, Jesus.

Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?

or who may stand in his holy place?

I can! for I have been called and God himself empowers me to do so.