Moses was having a bad day.
The first time Moses came down the Mountain, things didn’t go so well. There was the Golden calf, he lost his temper, and he smashed the Ten Commandments on the ground.
He was back up on the mountain again. He had the new set of the Ten Commandments, fresh off the press. God’s glory had rubbed off on him, turning his face radiant.
It was time to go down the mountain again.
What will happen this time?
What happens after we encounter God?
Prayer leads to action, action leads to consequences, and consequences are unpredictable, unknown.
We always step out into the unknown, always by faith, trusting God with our future.
It was one thing for Moses to climb the mountain, into the smoke and lightening and glory, it is another thing to leave it, and to face a world that isn’t ready.
What will happen this time?
Elijah was having a bad day.
He had barely escaped with his life.
He had made the wrong people angry and Jezebel was after him.
He came up the mountain to hide, but that didn’t work.
God spoke to him and told him to go back, God spoke in a whisper.
He was told to go back down the mountain and make the wrong people even angrier, to choose new Kings for Israel and Judah and to appoint his own successor.
Talk about throwing gas on the fire…
Elijah had run to God for protection and God sent him back to start a revolution, to preach regime change, and to find another subversive.
Faith always asks more, to take bigger and bigger steps into the unknown.
What will happen this time when Elijah comes down the mountain, to face a world that wants to kill him?
Jesus was having a bad day.
It was time to pray and he longed for company, so they went up the mountain to have time alone, but Peter, James and John kept falling asleep.
As usual he was surrounded by people and completely alone.
But then there was company, and glory, the Father was there, and Moses and Elijah, they spoke of coming down off the mountain, one step leading to the next, leading to the unknown, to where he would meet a world that was not ready, a world that would kill him.
Taking time and finding a place to pray is an act of faith.
But prayer leads to action, action leads to consequences, and consequences are unpredictable, unknown.
Prayer is an act of faith, and faith carries us into the unknown. Faith begets the need for even greater faith, and greater faith begets the need for even greater faith again, then again and again until what? What happens when all that is left is faith before utter darkness?
Naked faith before the gates of hell, that is where Jesus was headed.
Coming down the mountain was going to hurt, so he began his descent down into our pit. What will happen then?
Lent.
We begin this Wednesday.
We walk down the Mountain with Jesus and face the power of sin in our lives.
Facing the power of sin is an act of faith, stepping out into the unknown, trusting God with our future and our past.
Stepping into a new life free from sin is an even greater act of faith, stepping into that unknown, foreign land.
Faith begets the need for even greater faith.
The life of faith always strips away more and more of the slavery that withers our life, always drawing us forward to a new place that is more free, more alive, then again and again until all that is left is naked faith before the God who stands naked before our darkness, trusting his future and past to us.
God’s faith in us knows no limits. That well will never run dry.
It is time to come down the mountain and know the hope and delight that God finds in us, that God surrenders before us.
To lose ourselves in the God that has lost everything for us is an act of faith,