It was a quiet April morning. The kind of morning where spring has not fully been realized yet, at least not in the mountains. It was simultaneously silent and noisy. I was travelling in a group of about five people, but none of us spoke that morning. It was as if we somehow knew we were on holy ground. We each seemed to have encountered something of the holy that morning. Our faces seemed to glow with the very presence of God. Our praise was silent and reverent. The praise of creation was not. The birds sang insistently, lest we miss the treasures around every bend. The water rushed alongside hurriedly nourishing creation and bubbling with tributes for each molecule. Creatures scurried here and there, unable to keep the beauty and completeness of the morning to themselves. We all knew that we had encountered God.
We were certainly not the first to meet God in the mountains. It was Moses who encountered God in mountains. As Moses tended the sheep, God appeared in the fiery brush on the mountain. It was on the mountain that Moses received the ten commandments, the laws for the people, and that Moses’ face glowed from encountering God. It was Elijah, who was seeking God. God asked Elijah to be in the cleft of the mountain in order to hear God. God was not in the big and fantastical, but rather was in the still, small voice.
And it has been often that we hear Jesus in the mountains with the disciples. For each time, we hear of healing and teaching. There is some time, away in the mountains. It was the place where the disciples connected with Jesus. It was the place where the disciples were challenged by Jesus. It was the place where Jesus was transfigured and also where a mob of his own town almost ran him off the edge. It was the place where the multitudes gathered and heard the sermon on the mount (as in mountain) and the beatitudes were spoken.
And this morning, we hear Jesus reprimanding his disciples on the mountain. We hear Jesus reminding them they have a job to do. They must go and share. They must move from the tenderness of the doubt and wondering, to the diligence of sharing and living. Jesus goes so far as to say you will notice that others know me too. You will see that is the signs of their lives. You will know that have encountered me closely when you see, “These are some of the signs that will accompany believers: They will throw out demons in my name, they will speak in new tongues, they will take snakes in their hands, they will drink poison and not be hurt, they will lay hands on the sick and make them well.” 1 They too, have encountered me, says Jesus.
It was in the mountains that the prophet Isaiah received this vision that needed to be proclaimed. A vision, not of what was currently, but of what God’s world looks like when God’s people have come to completely live out God’s way. God speaks to the prophet. It might have been in a dream or in audible sounds. It might been in heart impression too insistent to be disregarded. But this we know, God spoke to the prophet, Isaiah. God made it known to the prophet that God was not far removed and unengaged. In fact, God was so present that the very lives of humanity now were important. From the Message version, “All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain are things of the past, to be forgotten. Look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I’m creating.” 2 God is near to God’s people. God is imminent and intimate.
The prophet concluded that once you have experienced God, once you have been on God’s holy mountain, you are shaped by the experience. You cannot help but seek God, you cannot help but live seeking God, and you cannot help but live in such a way that harms no one and encourages all. Our Isaiah passage challenges us to consider how experiencing God calls us. We may not feel a great need to domesticate lions, but what would the world look like if children did not die from disease or gun violence, if adults had complete access to the best medical care, and if everyone earned a livable wage so that their work was not in vain. What if everyone could know joy and not be crippled by anxiety and pain? Isaiah tells us that this is the world that worship should invite us to imagine.3 This is the heaven on earth for which we pray.
When I was a little girl, I can remember learning and knowing God. However, my biggest confusion is that God was not able to be touched. Everything else in my life could be touched. My parents were able to hug me. My siblings were able to play with me. If God was as integral to my life as my family, why could I not know God with “skin on”? This became my child understanding of incarnation. Incarnation is God coming with skin on. Experiencing God in Jesus Christ. Experiencing God in the people around me. From Isaiah, “Before they call out, I’ll answer. Before they’ve finished speaking, I’ll have heard. 4 God who is as close to us as our skin, our very being.
Sometimes, what we have experienced has been so incredible that we cannot fully explain or understand it, so we have trouble believing it. Can you not imagine that this is where the disciples were? Would it not be absolutely unbelievable to watch Jesus die, mourn his death, witness his burial and now, he was risen and walking among them as he had before? Imagine the disciples are deep in their grief, unsure of what comes next when rumors of Jesus’ resurrection begun to float around. God has shown up, unexpected, with skin on and ready to change the paradigm of the disciples, AGAIN!
Pope Francis has rocked our worlds this week. He has travelled along the east coast inviting Catholics to follow Jesus as he seeks to. He preached before the United Nations. He spoke of the incredible power of creation and our responsibility to it. He confessed that right now we do not have a good relationship with creation. He reminded the world that we are called to care for creation, which God has made. Also from our Christian tradition, we hear the wisdom of Ilia Delio, Franciscan nun, preeminent scientist, and winner of the Templeton Award: “The term creation points to that which is always coming to be; it is being-held-in-love or being that longs for more being-in-love. This longing is a type of suffering in the sense that what exists is not yet filled; creation lacks what it still needs to be complete. Creation, therefore, is not so much a past event as a present becoming that is oriented toward new being up ahead.” 5
This is the place where we meet God. This is the place where we are following Jesus into path of discipleship. This is the place where the spirit stirs our hearts, and we are caught up in the paths of righteousness. God is actively in the business of showing up. God is regularly in the habit of drawing near to us. God grants us the gift of presence, more often than we are aware of. Where have you known God? Where has God drawn near to reveal God’s very self to you?
My heart has been warmed by the stories of those who lost loved ones. One story goes like this. Grandma loved cardinals. She loved to watch them at the feeder and follow them as they come and go. After Grandma died, the cardinal had not been at the feeder. Perhaps, because no one was as diligent at filling the feeder and perhaps, because patterns took the bird other places. It was a quiet morning with a full bird feeder when the cardinal was seen again, and it felt like the very presence of God. It felt like God’s presence was known through the cardinal. The loved one felt as though Grandma sent the cardinal to reassure that she was all right.
These moments are tender and vital; they are reassuring and peace-giving. Yet, they point beyond themselves. That April morning in Glacier National Park, I was in Montana to offer a funeral service for my uncle. I was comforted by the presence of God in that place and in the midst of grief. And God’s presence pointed me again and again to God’s care and creation. God’s presence pointed me again and again to God’s people. God’s presence provided encouragement and hope, bread for the journey in the subsequent moments when hope falters. God draws near to each of us. Have we noticed? God seeks each of us. Have we responded? May you have moments of mountaintops, so that we can live together in the valley with God’s people ushering in the kingdom of heaven here on earth.
This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
Mark 16: 17-18, Message.
Isaiah 65:18-20.
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1792 Corrine Carvalho
Isaiah 65:23, The Message.
Ilia Delio, The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love.
Old Testament Lesson: Isaiah 65:17-25
The Glorious New Creation
For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress.
No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days,
or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;
for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards
and eat their fruit.
They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity;
for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord— and their descendants as well.
Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
but the serpent—its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
Gospel Lesson: Mark 16:14-18
Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.
And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, September 27 ~ Saturday, October 3
Sunday: “Later Jesus appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.” Mark 16:14. Jesus had a habit of showing up as the disciples waited for him. Have you waited on Jesus today?
Monday: “And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.” Mark 16:15. Have you shared God’s love and good news with all of creation? Spend time in creation today proclaiming the good news.
Tuesday: “The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned.” Mark 16:15. Prayerfully consider how God is calling you.
Wednesday: “And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues;” Mark 16: 17. How is God showing you signs of God’s presence?
Thursday: “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” Isaiah 65:17. Where is God calling you to notice glimpses of the new heaven and the earth?
Friday: “I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress.” Isaiah 65:19. God’s mountain, where God is known intimately, has no need for weeping and crying. Spend time contemplating such a reality.
Saturday: “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.” Isaiah 65:25. Prayerfully ask God’s holy mountain, God’s kingdom to be known here on earth.