Mountaintop Experiences

We've been told again and again that Lent is a journey - that our participation in Lent is in some way journeying with Jesus to the cross. We are on the road together, traveling toward resurrection. Today's psalm is part of our preparation for that journey, and in fact, in ancient Israel this psalm would have likely been used as a traveler's psalm, perhaps as part of a ritual for setting out on a journey. But for me, this psalm is about the mountains and mountaintop experiences.

Have you seen the movie The Sound of Music? Do you remember how it opens? There is this gorgeous panoramic view of the Austrian alps and then the view narrows in and focuses on a spinning Julie Andrews who sings "The hills are alive with the sound of music." It's a brilliant cinematic . moment no doubt, but it's later in the song where she sings, "I'll go to the hills when my heart is lonely; I know I will hear what I've heard before; My heart will be blessed with the sound of music; And I'll sing once more."

The psalmist says, "I lift up my eyes to the hills - from where will my help come?" You see, I believe that mountaintop experiences are those things that give us a place to look for reassurance and help. In the times of life when we're stuck on a plateau, or when we're in a valley, God allows us to remember what it was like on the mountaintop. Sometimes mountaintop experiences are beautiful, wonderful, deeply moving experiences. Sometimes while they are powerful, they are extremely painful. A mountaintop experience is one of those "defining moments," whether good or bad.

Some of you have probably had those defining moments...perhaps they were extreme highs: your wedding day, a camping experience as a child, a retreat, the birth of a child. Or perhaps there was a particular moment during a worship service - something touched you in a special way - the sermon, the music, the beauty of our sanctuary. But there are the other kind of mountaintop experiences too - the extreme lows: a divorce, the death of a parent, a spouse, or even worse - the death of a child. Those moments where you look back and realize that the only reason you made it through was because God was carrying you the whole way.

Mountaintop experiences are part of our faith journey and they were certainly part of Jesus' life. Jesus had been to the mountaintop. He had stood on the mountain with Moses and Elijah. He had gone up in the hills to pray and meditate. He delivered sermons, worshiped, and even escaped to the mountains when he needed his own alone time with God. And on that day for which we are preparing, he walked up to a mountaintop for the last time, carrying the cross on which he would die.

While our personal mountaintop experiences might not be nearly as earth-shaking as those Jesus experienced, we do have them. I'd like to share with you a story about a recent mountaintop experience for 12 people from this congregation. You see, we indeed went up to the mountains - or as close as you can get to mountains in Northern Wisconsin/U.P. And while we were on the mountains, we did have some wonderful exciting (and sometimes hilarious) experiences. We also had some less than wonderful moments...moments where the weather wasn't cooperating, moments where we were confronted with the rude reality of non-Christian behaviors. But, our mountaintop experience of the weekend didn't take place on the ski slopes! Our powerful moments happened during devotions each night. The most special moment was at our final devotion when we shared communion together. There was something powerful that happened that night, and it only grew deeper as we went outside and walked in the darkness and falling snow. We had a mountaintop experience.

But the psalmist assures us that even when we aren't on the high mountaintop, or even when our mountaintop experiences aren't the good kind, that God will be there to help and to guide and sustain us. We know that our help will come from God and that our defining moments and our ability to grow from them or live through them will sustain us when the journey grows boring or even treacherous.

So that brings us back to Lent. We are not at what I would call a mountaintop experience. In fact, we are very definitely BETWEEN mountaintop experiences. On the ski trip this weekend, one of the resorts we went to was Whitecap Mountain. One of the lifts at Whitecap doesn't go UP a mountain. Instead it is strung between the mountaintops - with a very tall pole kind of supporting the whole thing in the middle. This is a terrifying lift to find yourself on because as you ride across the chasm below you, you come to realize that you have put your life entirely in the hands of the lift operators, maintenance crew, and God. It is not at all comforting when the lift lurches or bounces a little bit and you are faced with just how "between the peaks" you really are. Well if you consider Christmas and Easter the peaks of the religious year (which we do), then we are definitely between the peaks...we are on a treacherous ride between two great experiences and our spiritual lives are strung somewhere between the two, being precariously held aloft by prayer, study, and of course, God.

And THAT is what this psalm is really about. Psalm 121 is our reminder that between the peaks of our life, we will be sustained and protected by a God who loves us and cares for us. That we will not be "between the peaks" forever, but that there are more mountaintop experiences, good or bad, to come. And we are assured that God will keep us...our going out, our coming in, for all the times whether we reach the peaks or not. As we journey, let us remember that while we are between the peaks, we are not away from God's love or mercy at any time. As we alk this road to Calvary and ultimately to resurrection, we must remember that God was with Jesus through the whole journey and will be there with us through ours. We are not alone, and if we need to be reminded of that, we only need to lift our eyes to the hills. God will give us the help we seek.