A couple of weeks ago, my friend, Pastor Earl, invited me to come speak at the church dinner. I asked him what he wanted me to talk about...I didn’t really think I had anything to offer that would be all that interesting to a Methodist congregation. He said, “oh, you know, whatever...you could talk about your PhD work”. “Really? You want me to talk about pre-neolitic goddess and how they were the first in a long line of images of the divine feminine, which evolved into the Virgin Mary in the Christian tradition?” Earl’s response to me was “what else you got”.
So on Wednesday night, I packed up my laptop and headed over to White Salmon United Methodist church for dinner and discussion. To be honest, I still didn’t really know what I would be talking about, but the phrase “God was present” kept coming up for me.
What I ended up sharing with Pastor Earl and those who attended were the times when in the midst of chaos and confusion, in the midst of unlikely success, in the midst of grief, in the midst of the messy, crazy and wonderful life that I’ve had so far, God was present.
I told stories about my work in Sacramento at St. Matthew’s where those who had formerly been clients of the clothes closet now served as volunteers. I told stories about handing out sack lunches to day laborers in San Juan Capistrano. I told stories of making egg salad for the Warming Shelter and praying for the guests and volunteers. I told stories of being in the hospital with moms who had gone into delivery too soon and their children had not survived. In all these moments, and so many more, God was present. God was there in the faces of the most unlikely people. God was there to hear prayers and offer comfort. God was there to celebrate the joy of healing and restoration.
In the readings from today, we hear about how God is present in the lives of Moses and the disciples. In Exodus, God is up on the mountain, and calls to Moses to come up and spend time on Holy Ground. In Matthew, God is also up on the mountain, and the disciples and Jesus go to pray, to be restored, to experience the holy. In the biblical text, the mountain is a holy place and you know that there you can commune with God.
Perhaps this is why I am so drawn to living near mountains. Perhaps I’ve been waiting for God to call me up to Holy Ground.
But here’s the part that we can’t forget...and truly, it’s probably the most important part of both these stories from the Bible. You can’t stay up on the mountain forever! I’m not really sure that God wants us to overstay our welcome! In both stories, we know that eventually Moses, Jesus and the disciples come back down the mountain...they have work to do, people to see and places to go. And part of that work is to help others realize that in the midst of their every day living, God is present.
When Peter, James and John went up that mountain, they had been told about the upcoming journey to Jerusalem and the imminent death of their friend Jesus. I can only imagine that they were filled with fear, anxiety, confusion and grief. In their sadness, they would rather stay up on the mountain and experience the glory of God. But they are compelled to go back down the mountain, experience heartache, and wait...knowing that somehow in all this mess, God is present. (Maryetta Madeleine Anschutz)
Today we will say the last of the Alleluia’s for a while. On Wednesday, we will be reminded that we are dust and to dust we shall return. And next Sunday we will enter into a new liturgical season...preparing for the imminent death of our friend, Jesus. It would be really easy to retreat, to want to stay in that happy place of God’s glory on the mountain. But we have work to do as disciples...we have to help people experience the abiding presence of God in their lives. And God will be there.