Wednesday, February 24, 2021 – Second Week of Lent

“Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem… But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter. It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”  (John 4: 21 – 24, The Message Bible)

           “I am king of the castle and you’re a dirty rascal. Nyah! Nyah!”

No doubt, you probably  played this little children’s game when you were a kid. You would find a small hill of dirt or a large snow bank or a pile of boxes or climb some furniture and getting to the top first, you declared with smug superiority and derision that you were the king or queen of all that you survey and everyone else is below and beneath you. Fun, eh?

It may be a meaningless and somewhat pointless children’s game but when grown-ups play this game out in their areas of living, thinking, behaving, worshipping, belief systems, it is usually poisonous. When people take over mountain tops, it becomes all too easy to yell at everyone below, throw stones at those you deem beneath you, act smug and superior, and feel that you are in the superior position of power, authority and holy righteousness.

The problem is that there is always someone over on the next mountain who feels just the same way. And the next mountain to that one and so on. That’s an awful lot of sanctimony, name-calling, hollering and stone-throwing coming from those various mountains.

Don’t get me wrong. Mountains can be used for… well, mountain-top experiences. Where would Moses be without Mt. Sinai? What about Jesus and the mount where he experienced his shining moment? But maybe, that makes the point that mountains like these belong first and foremost to God. They are God’s territory, symbols of his realm and rule. “The Lord is great and should be given much praise, in the city of our God, His holy mountain.” (Psalm 48:1, New Living Translation)

Sometimes, you and I are privileged to climb the mountain and experience something awesome. “Who may go up the mountain of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart” (Psalm 24:3-4, NLT).  We don’t own the mountain. It takes humility and meekness to dare ascend. This is God’s holy ground, not yours or mine.

                But sadly, people love to argue that their mountain is best. They insist that their mountain is the only true mountain. Politics and the Christian church are especially susceptible to the vanity of screaming from the top of mountains that their way is the right way, the only way, and anyone who doesn’t agree, they become the dirty rascals.

                Jesus gets caught between two mountains, the one the Samaritans said was the right mountain for their worship and the other was the one on Jerusalem which all good Jew knew was the right mountain. There was much bitter animosity and hostility between the two groups over this issue alone.

                Jesus’ words brings us back down to earth and knocks us off our peaks of superiority, smugness, self-righteousness and haughty pride, “where you go to worship will not matter. It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God.”  We don’t get to sit on top of our little personal mountains and get to judge others, criticize them for what they think or who they are. We don’t get to declare anyone a dirty rascal because they are different and have different opinions or have made different life choices. We don’t get to disqualify others from our perches of vanity and sneering judgement.

                Jesus wants us to get off our high horse, to mix our metaphors. Anyone can come before God at any time, in any way, without limits, without living up to any one else’s expectations, without fear of reprisals from those who think they are better, and without being disqualified because they don’t measure up in some way. “It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God.” The opinions of others are a lot of noise of clanging cymbals, annoying but still just noise. It’s God’s opinion that matters most.

                So, let’s all get off our mountains and stop hounding, badgering, insulting, judging and prohibiting others from making their own climb into the loving arms of God. “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Romans 12:3, New Revised Standard Version).

 Dale