Two weeks ago a group of us went to Salida, Colorado to go to Wilderness Trek Christian Camp for a backpacking trip on Mt. Elbert. Yes, it was awesome! Yes, it was challenging physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Yes, it was rewarding! Yes, repelling from a cliff 180 feet in the air was fun! Yes, our long hike day was hard, the weather was crazy (sleet, rain, snow, sun, etc...), and we went to the bathroom in the woods.
It was an amazingly fun trip that brought us togther as we had to rely on each other to do everything. We helped carry meals, tents, backpacks and encouarged each other every step of the way. The theme was "ekklesia", which means "church" or "assembly." And I believe that we all found a new way to be ekklesia or at least, were reminded of what it meant.
You just can't go to the wilderness w/ a group of people, be challenged like we were and rely on each other like we did and not be ekklesia.
Each night we would have devotionals. We would sing, read God's word, and process/apply the day and how it relates to our lives. But the one thought that I can't get out of mind didn't come during one of these devotionals. It came when we attempted to make summit. No, we didn't get to the top b/c of the weather, but we did get just under 14k ft.
But when we got as high as we could, we all gathered around making a circle like shape. Then one of our guides, Isaac, told us to look around.
So we did...
Then he began to point out the fact that it was rocky and dry w/ very little vegetation. He was showing us the that b/c we were so high in elevation, it was dry and rocky that it would be impossible to live on top of the mountain. And then he went on to say that we aren't suppose to live on the top of the mountain.
And that's what I can't get out of my mind: we are not suppose to live on top of the mountain.
So then the question becomes, where do we live? The answer....in the valley.
If it is impossible to live on top of the mountain, then that means there are no people there. And if there are no people there, then there is no point in living there. We were made to live in the valley where the people are, in community....in ekklesia.
Jesus prayed in John 17:15ff, "My prayer in not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world."
Its not the prayer of Jesus that we live on the mountain. It's his prayer that we are protected from the evil one as we live in the vallies. In fact, when we read of the "mountain top experiences" in the Bible, at no time is there ever a plan to stay on the mountain.
Exodus 19- the first of mountain top experiences. Moses goes to the top of Sinai, where God gives him the 10 commandments. But God never invites Moses to stay up on the mountain. He simply gives Moses the rules to live by and then told him to go down and share it w/ the Israelites so that they would no how to live in a community.
Matt 5- the most famous of mountaintop experiences. Jesus gives the greatest sermon of all time as he tells us how we aught to live w/ one another in community. But here again, when Jesus is preaching to the "crowds" he isn't telling them, "Ok, now I am going to offer you the invitation to stay on this mountain and live this stuff out. No, now you need to go down into your towns, cities, homes....everywhere you are, and live and apply what I've just taught you."
Further, Jesus himself, even though he taught many things and performed miracles from a mountain, didn't stay on the mountain. So why do we think we can?
Matt 17- the transfiguration. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up on a mountain and changes his appearence to one that is exalted and glorified. And up on this mountain Peter, James, and John also see "Moses and Elijah talking w/ Jesus" (v.4).
Now Peter gets this great idea that they are going to stay up there and he even offers to build three shelters- one for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. But this isn't what Jesus has in mind. In fact, on the way down from the mountain, Jesus tells them not to tell anyone until he has risen from the dead (v. 9).
Why couldn't they stay? They weren't supposed to. But why? B/c Jesus had other plans for Peter, James, and John that included telling about this event. Who were they going to tell it to? To the people in "Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
3 mountain top experiences (btw-there are a lot more throughout the Bible) that deal w/ people being on top of the mountain.....on top of the world. But not one of them, Moses, Jesus, the crowds, Peter, James, and John were invited or commanded to stay.
You've been there. We all have. We have just experienced something great. Its been a youth rally, small group, TREK, summer camp, Sunday morning worship, etc and you just wish it could last forever. Why? B/c there is nothing like being on top of the mountain. And just like on TREK, the higher you go, the more beautiful it is.
But we are not meant to live there. We can go there.....no......we have to go there, but we can't live there. We are simply not invited to or commanded to. From the very beginning we were meant to live in a community. Community is people. People are ekklesia.
We were made to be church. And church isn't something that is supposed to be on top of a mountain that people can't get to. Church is supposed to be down in the vallies, in the cities, in the towns, in the grocery stores, in the streets, in homes at dinning tables, in the community w/ people.
May we be a church that has a mountain top experience everytime we meet together. But may we also remember to come off our mountain and go to the vallies to be w/ the people. People are living in the vallies. As people who follow Jesus, we are called to live there too.
BW
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