Thin places on the mountain top

Today is the last Sunday before Lent and it’s a final cry out to think of how we can best use that Lenten period as a way of growing our relationship with God. Two of our readings today provide an insight into this as they describe experiences of travelling up a mountain.

I know some of you may have visited the Holy Land and, if you have, one of the places you may have visited was Mount Tabor – some have believed this to be the Mount of Transfiguration and whilst that theory is hotly debated it is a place where the events of the Transfiguration are commemorated.

It is a beautiful setting with views for miles around. I was fortunate enough to spend a night up there in the monastery building on one trip there – it is a place where it is very easy to sense the presence and peace of God.

Yet the journey up there is far from that ! Because there is only one road up you travel in occasionally taxis but more likely mini buses which take some of the corners with huge drops on the side at a rather reckless speed – it doesn’t help when your driver is quite often talking on the phone on some of these corners !

The journey up to the mountain top can be difficult, even frightening, but it’s worth it when you get to the top. And that is so true of our relationships with God.  We regularly journey along difficult paths in our life. We regularly get discouraged or hurt or frightened but apart from being clearly on the mountain top, God accompanies us on every journey to the top.

In the reading from Exodus (24:12-end) Moses was invited to meet God on the mountain – there he would be given the law and commandments. And faithfully he went, and he waited we’re told for 40 days and 40 nights. It was of course the time Jesus spent in the wilderness as he began his earthly ministry.

Then in the gospel reading (Matt.17:1-9) we have the account of the Transfiguration. Here again, Peter and James and John are invited to go up to the mountain topfor an experience that will bring them closer to God, an experience that will change them forever.

That account of the Transfiguration reminds us that as Moses and Elijah appear on that mountain top with Jesus, Peter, James and John, the work of the law and the prophets has been superseded. It was not that the law and the words of the prophets didn’t matter anymore – they certainly did, but Jesus had come to bring something more – out of the failure of humanity to live as God wants us to live Jesus comes offering peace through grace and mercy.

We are called to live mountain top lives recognizing the power and presence and peace of God. The journey is not always easy, like that journey up to Mount Tabor, but the journey of living with God is worth it.

Yesterday of course we celebrated St David’s Day. There are many things spoken and written about St David – some are facts, some may be not, but I think the most important lesson we learn from the life of St David is his consistent devotion to God. He built his monastery, he lived a life of prayer and he lived a life of kindness and compassion to others. And he did these things knowing the peace and power of God in his life.

In his life we sense a devotion to God that leads him to the mountain top – to live in closer relationship with God. Celtic Spirituality talks of ‘thin places’, places where the barriers between heaven and earth seem particularly thin, places where we feel we can most easily connect with God.

All of us may have different places where we feel most comfortable in prayer and reflection, where we feel closest to God. It may be in a church building, it may be on a mountain top, or by the sea, or a special chair in the house. We need these places to take time out and think about where we are in our relationship with God.

It’s very easy to continue a Christian life of church going and even church working and lose sight of God and his presence with us. It’s very easy to be distracted by busy-ness. But we are called to that mountain top, to know that God is with us always, to know that he sees our pain and hurt, that he feels our disappointments, but that he shares also our joys, and of course he shares his love unconditionally.

Our post communion prayer today which we will say later is a challenge as well as a prayer. We will profess that we have seen the God’s glory in the face of Jesus. In other words we know of his immense power and his unchanging love… and then we will pray that our lives will reflect his in word and deed – that we will go out seeking to be as Jesus to everyone we meet… and we pray that all the world will know his power to change and save…

It’s a personal message as we enter Lent and reflect on how we do see God and in what areas of our lives we need to know him better, but as our lives continue to be changed into his likeness so will the lives of others as they look at us.

May all we do and all we say seek to glorify him and draw people into a closer relationship with God who invites us to live on the mountain top with him – not separated from the rest of the world but always drawing people into that relationship with him, creating ever thinner places where the barriers between heaven and earth are broken down forever. AMEN