Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Part II: Mountain

If the desert is the place of loneliness, isolation, temptation, and a thirsting after God, the mountaintop is the place of insight, revelation, and illumination. This spiritual concept has even made it into our common, cultural language, as when someone exclaims that they have had a “mountaintop experience!”

In the midst of the pain and sense of being lost that we often feel in the desert, we may, like the Psalmist, look up to the hills, from whence our help is to come, from the maker of heaven and earth. [Psalm 121] “Give us your grace, O God!” we cry. “Hold us! Heal us! Make us whole.”

We long for knowledge, insight, and inspiration. We want to see the world, and our lives, from the perspective of God. Like Moses on Mount Sinai, we long for revelation. “Show us your truth, O God.”

This understanding of mountaintop revelation is carried on metaphorically by the prophets, often tied to the holy city of Jerusalem. In the words of Isaiah 2:3:

“Many peoples shall come and say,

‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

   to the house of the God of Jacob;

that he may teach us his ways,

   and that we may walk in his paths.  For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,  and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.'"

For Jesus the mountain is a place of prayer. "After he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray.” [Matthew 14:23]  The mountain is also where he is transfigured before his disciples, and they hear God pronounce that Jesus is his “beloved Son,” to whom they are to listen. [Mark 9:7]

What do we mean when we state that we have had a mountaintop experience? It could be an emotional experience that we find exhilarating, as when we feel a loving, closeness to another person. It could be a moment of revelation, when we suddenly see God or other people in a new way. It could be a time when we finally figure out our sense of call in terms of what we want to do with our lives. It might be an especially strong sense of community, as when we work on an important project with others, or join together in worship and praise of God.

Part of the struggle of life is that we not only do not have as many mountaintop experiences as we would like to have, but so often they are very slow in coming.

This second stage is the most like ordinary time, which is often monotonous and dull. It is often a time of waiting. It takes a long time to climb a mountain. And it may take a long time to receive revelation. Moses waited forty days on Mount Sinai to receive all God had to teach him. [See Lane, p. 91] Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness, waiting for three revelations to come to him, one by one.

There are other times when revelation comes very quickly. Well, maybe not so quickly—it could just be that we had not been looking for anything different. Sometimes God whispers in our ear: “Have you ever stopped to think that there might be another way, a better way?” God nudges us toward a different understanding, a different behavior, and we have one of those “ah hah” experiences.

The most difficult thing for us to trust is that our desert experiences will not last. It is always tempting to give up hope and become cynical, or to give in to addiction or narcissism. We may even despair to the point of suicide. Like Job, we may tire of waiting for an answer. Like Job, we may find it difficult to remain open to God long enough that we finally experience what Job experienced: our loving God and friend, explaining to us the magnitude of creation in a way that we shall never be able to comprehend or understand, so that we, like Job, may finally state: “Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.” [Job 42:3b-5]

Finally, the mountaintop may come to symbolize a sense of fulfillment in our lives, not necessarily meaning we want to move on beyond this life, but that we no longer fear doing so.

This was the experience of Moses on Mount Nebo as he looked into the Promised Land, knowing he himself would not be able to enter it. [Deuteronomy 34:1]

This was the experience of St. John as he describes his vision of the Kingdom of God. “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]

This was the experience of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the last speech he ever gave, in Memphis, the night before he was assassinated:  “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land! And so I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!”

1950-1982

This was the experience of my first wife, Pauline, as she was awaiting a heart-lung transplant, knowing that death was a very real possibility. As she wrote in her journal: “When I become seriously ill, will I continually be depressed because my little mental game can no longer bolster me? After a bit of trepidation, I can answer a hopeful no. I do not think my positive attitude will desert me—off and on, perhaps, but never completely. For I have my belief and faith in God. She/He gives me courage and, more importantly, love. I have Bear. Our love is everlasting. I have the love of my family. The love of my friends. I am truly blessed. I have been to the mountaintop. Life is beautiful: it hurts, but I can leave it.”