Two days of driving took us from Midland, Texas to Keystone, Colorado. We were excited about spending a week at a genuine resort, a new experience for our family. We had heard many good things about Keystone; spacious and luxurious condos for each family in our group, free transportation throughout the resort, excellent eateries, lots of fun activities for both adults and kids, and, to top it all off, some of the most beautiful vistas in the USA.
There was just one little thing no one had mentioned. Nowhere in the literature I received from my employer did it explain about the elevation. We had been living at 2,800 feet above sea level. The conference was going to held at various elevations ranging from 9,200 feet to 12,400 feet.
I don't know if you recall feet-per-mile from your grade school math conversions. I still sometimes have that math-phobic's nightmare ("Two trains are leaving Chicago at the same time. The west bound train is going 60 miles per hour and the east bound train is going 50 miles per hour. When and where will they meet? Show your work."), so I had to look it up. A mile is 5,280 feet.
That means our conference/family vacation was taking place, at the lowest, over a mile higher than our normal. Do you see where this is going? We spent the better part of a week alternating between "can't quite catch my breath" and "can't sleep for the headache."
All of this week's Lectionary scriptures are about God and the mountaintop. In Exodus, Moses goes up the mountain to receive God's commandments for His people. In Matthew, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up the mountain to witness His transfiguration and hear God's confirmation of His sonship. The Psalmist knows of Moses' experience on the mountain, that the mountain is the locus for God, the place where He may be encountered. In his second epistle, Peter references his mountaintop experience as proof of the Gospel. The mountaintop is all through scripture. Whether it's "holy Hill," or "Mount Sinai," or "holy mountain," or any other name, it's not the names used for it in scripture that are important.
What's important is what occurs there.
In scripture, when it's not actually being the location for an encounter with God, it serves as a way of declaring that God is present or nearby; so close that those with evil plans should take note and change their plans. It is also a way to think about encountering God.
Today, we talk of "mountaintop experiences," but we don't usually mean an actual encounter with God on a mountaintop. We tend to use that term to reference a sort of transformational religious experience, a time period wherein we feel so close to God that, as a result, we feel our lives have changed, have turned in a different, positive, more spiritual direction.
Peter, James, and John were terrified on the mountaintop; so afraid, they threw themselves to the ground and hid their faces. Moses stayed up there 40 days and came down with a face glowing so brightly it frightened people. All of this to say: Your mountaintop experience may not be quite the way you envisioned it. Encountering God, wherever it takes place, may be ---could well be--- a shocking experience; if not for you, then possibly for those you encounter afterward.
So, if you have a mountaintop experience, take it for what it is: revelation, confirmation, transformation. And then remember that, in scripture, the vast majority of people never met God on the mountaintop: please, go gently among those who haven't been there, yet.
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Transfiguration Sunday (February 26, 2017)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/
Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 2 or Psalm 99
2 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9
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Will you be with us Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast? Join us while we discuss the transfiguration of Jesus and its repercussions. We start at 8:00 and wrap it up about 9:00. Food, scripture, prayer, discussion, and, as always, laughter. Waco's "Egg and I" restaurant. We're in the back.
Blessings,
Steve
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