9/13/2015 Season of Creation: Mountain “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” Trinity, Kent Pr. Fidler
I don’t know if you’ve heard the apocryphal creation story where God was sending out his angels to do some of the work… planting the cedars in Lebanon, the sequoias in California, dropping of elephants in Africa and India, lions and giraffes and tigers and such in Africa, horses throughout Europe and America, beautiful tropical birds in the jungles, polar bears and seals in Canada, black squirrels in Kent (well, they were supposed to be here first, I think).
God and his angels were having a grand time distributing creation across the globe and filling it with wonder and beauty and balance. As God began creating some of the landscapes He had piles of rock and needed to be distributed and so He sent off the hefty, strong super angel Bruce to take a bag and spread it across
Europe, another bag across Asia, and likewise through the Far
East, North and South America and Africa. Well Bruce was gone for a long time and came back with all of the bags still filled with the rock. God questioned him as to why they weren’t distributed as He said. Well, said Bruce “everywhere I went there was beautiful scenery and the huge rocks would disturb what you’ve already created.” “So what do you want me to do with these rocks”. “Oh, just dump them over there” God said. So that is why the Middle East has piles upon piles of rock from Mt. Sinai to Mt.
Hermon, nothing but rock.
Mountains are mentioned frequently in the Bible because mountains dotted the landscape of biblical regions-- all those rocks piled up.
In other words, while mountains have a significant symbolic value in the Bible, they first and foremost are part of the physical reality of the Bible. Mountains and hills are mentioned over 500 times.
Mountains have a logical religious symbolism for biblical cultures since they are “closer to God” who was believed to dwell in the heavens or the sky – it’s the same word --you know – up there on the mountain heights. Throughout the Biblical story God is encountered on top of a mountain.
In the Old Testament, the mountains of Sinai and Zion are most significant. Mount Sinai, of course, is associated with Moses and is the place where he received the gift of the Law, the Ten
Commandments. Mount Sinai is a symbol of God’s Covenant with Israel. Zion, to the south, is the location of the Jerusalem
Temple. In the New Testament, Jesus appoints the Twelve on a mountain. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus delivers the Beatitudes in
His Sermon on the Mount, conjuring an image of Moses who received the Commandments on Mount Sinai. Matthew’s mostly-
Jewish audience would immediately pick up on the comparison between Moses and Jesus. Matthew, in particular, has 6 significant mountain “scenes” in his gospel: Jesus’ temptation; the
Sermon on the Mount; a number of healings; the Transfiguration;
Jesus’ final discourse; and the commissioning of the Apostles – our Gospel reading for today. Perhaps the most significant mountain scene in the Gospels, however, is the Transfiguration of
Jesus. There accompanied by Moses and Elijah, who themselves encountered God on the mountaintop in the Old Testament. Now, they encounter God through Jesus and Jesus, in turn, is seen as the fulfillment of the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah).
On the back of your bulletin I listed the Biblical mountains and a brief description of their importance. Mountains, piles of rock are everywhere; Mounts Calvary, Carmel, Ephraim, Gerizim, Gilead,
Hermon, Moriah, Olivet, Zion and many more.
Aside from their height reaching to the heavens mountains were also an immovable force. The people knew that even the mightiest tree could be felled. The landscape could be cleared and farmed, rivers dammed and channeled… but mountains where there and you had to live with them… there was no way around them.
Unlike today driving through the mountains of West Virginia you can see where the highway has cut a new, wider path through the mountains or in a few places tunneled underneath. In the Biblical world one couldn’t even think of doing that. So mountains came to represent the Almighty not just for the proximity to the heavens but for their steadfastness, their immovability, their might and strength and prominence. So even if you didn’t make it to the top of the mountain you could experience the Lord Almighty (El
Shaddai), God most high (El Elyon), the Everlasting God (El
Olam), the Lord of Hosts (Adonai Sabaoth) by encountering, seeing a mountain and knowing that the Lord is there (Adonai
Shammah).

Due to their durability, height, and make-up, they often became natural places for refuge and security, territorial boundaries, and strategic military locations and the Lord God is then defined in terms of mountain qualities. And frequently throughout Jesus’ ministry
He heads up the mountain alone to pray – receiving the mountain of strength He needed for the tasks ahead.
As the ancient prophet once sang from Mt. Mo-Town
Listen baby, ain’t no mountain high.
Ain’t no valley low, ain’t no river wide enough baby.
If you need me call me, no matter where you are,
No matter how far; don’t worry baby.
Just call my name; I’ll be there in a hurry.
You don’t have to worry,
Oh baby there ain’t no mountain high enough,
Ain’t no valley low enough,
Ain’t no river wide enough
To keep me from getting to you babe.
Well, we don’t live around mountains. Oh, we have the Cuyahoga valley with Boston Mills and Brandywine, but those are not really mountains. Deborah grew up, and I didn’t believe her until I experienced it myself but up in the Thumb of Michigan it is SO flat the high things are barns, silos and Church steeples. She read
Heidi as a child and simply could not imagine what the mountain was like, a great big barn hill, perhaps. But the book seemed so much more dramatic. There was nothing with which she could compare.
Church architecture of the 18 th
and 19 th
century dotting the American landscape has Churches that are like mountains – you have to climb them to get in and you can see them from miles away.
We may not be surrounded by mountains but they are part of the common idioms of our day. We may say we have a “mountain of work” piled high on the desk or a “mountain of debt” to overcome. We’ll need to “move mountains” to accomplish this task. We say we’ve had a mountain top experience. Some people make “mountains out of molehills.” Facing a difficult task one may say “I have a mountain to climb.” And one of the largest soft drinks is called… “Mountain Dew.”
“Ain’t no mountain high enough… “whatever obstacles we erect, view, experience in life it ain’t gonna keep me from you child – declares God. Then what can keep us from God? Hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword? Asks
Paul. What about death or life or angels , rulers, things present, things to come, powers, height, depth or anything at all in the creation? There “ain’t nothin’” declares the Lord our God.
Perhaps we’re making mountains out of molehills since there are no obstacles to God’s presence among us only the mountains of our own making. The love of God in Christ is at work in all of creation, everywhere from mountain tops to deep ravines.
We may encounter God on the mountain or in the valley or just along the way. God is with us wherever we are. When the way seems insurmountable – God is there. When the path is immovable—
God moves with us. When the goal appears too high – God lifts us up.
The image of the mountain described by Isaiah where peace reigns, harmony exists, perfection (if we can imagine that) is taking place is one of the hundreds of references in Scripture to the mountain of the Lord, God’s Holy Mountain or the place where God is. If you experience Him on the heights of the hills –reconciliation happens. In the depths of Sheol- as the psalmist discovers- God is there.
This harmony, this transformed creation, this redeemed humanity happens on God’s holy mountain, which is none other than the symbol of God at the center of our world from which renewal and hope originate. Ultimately this holy mountain is Mt. Calvary, the source of all our hope, the center of our very being – the mountain of our faith today.
What are the mountains that you face? What are the hills we have to climb as a congregation? Where have the stones been dumped in your life, those obstacles you don’t feel like you have the energy to climb around?
Well, the God who called the people of Israel thousands of years ago to the Holy Mountain is calling to us today and it is just as personal.

“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 Trinity Lutheran Kent as a joy and its people as a delight.
I will rejoice in Trinity, Kent and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress…for they shall be blessed by the Lord and their descendants as well.
Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.
”
Israel’s encounter with the Lord at the many mountain crossings was not a pining for better days like we had of old, but that God had something new in store for His people; an exodus, a way of life, a land, redemption. They may have encountered the divine on the mountain heights but they soon realized that God was already acting on their behalf in the valleys below.
We too, as we face the mountains before us can place ourselves in the hands of the one who leads us in His direction, knowing that He is the one who makes all things new, and we journey together into what is yet to be.
Ain’t no mountain high, ain’t no valley low… I don’t know about you but that sounds like paradise to me. God is present already and leading us in new and wonderful directions… in His most holy name. Amen.