Pastor John's Sabbatical: Aliyah- Experiencing God on a Mountain

Thursday night we experienced God's presence on High Mountain, North Haledon. High Mountain is 900 feet high, 600 feet above the town of North Haledon. We began at the trailhead of High Mountain Park behind William Paterson University. I began with a short teaching on

Aliyah, which in Hebrew means "ascent" or "going up". Jewish tradition views traveling to the land of Israel as an assent, both geographically and metaphysically. The annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem always involved "aliyah" because its 2,700 feet above sea level. From whatever direction you come you are "going up". The temple was built on the top of Mt. Moriah where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac.

My good friend Gary Link, who hikes here a lot, served as our guide for the evening. It was a wonderful night cooling down some from the heat and humidity. We paused to see the deer feeding, beautiful orange mushrooms on the side of the trail and enjoy the beauty of God's creation

At one point on the trail we found an array of rocks. We stopped to reflect on how most of the "high places" in the Bible were places of worship to the false gods of Baal, Asherah. People climbed high mountains to worship false gods. What are we willing to do to worship the true God. At any rate we wondering if this was some sort of North Haledon "high place". As we neared the summit the trail got steeper. We reflected on the Psalms of Assent, Psalm 120 - 134. These were the Psalms that the Israelites sang as they went up to worship in Jerusalem.

"I lift up my eyes to the hills,
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the maker of heaven and earth" Psalm 121

Our help is not from the god of the hills or to the other high places of the hills where many were looking. It is from the LORD - Yahweh! The creator of the heavens and the earth

As we got to the summit and looked out over Paterson and New York city we reflected on the difference in the Bible between Mt. Sinai & Mt. Tabor. On Mt. Sinai God met Moses in elusive majesty. He asks to see Gods face but only gets to see God's back. Divine accessibility is limited. When Elijah went there as well God met him in a cave in utter silence, beyond language and understanding. However when Jesus took Peter, James and John up Mt. Tabor near the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 17) it is a very different experience. Moses and Elijah are there but so is God in the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. The Father spoke the same words that he said at Jesus baptism. "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, listen to him". The early church community was included in this God encounter and as Jesus is transfigured the disciples know they have encountered the living God in human flesh. We see here the change in the coming of Christ of ways of describing God; from darkness to light, from silence to God speaking. On Tabor Jesus also will not let his disciples stay in God's glory but sends them back down to bring God's glory to the people as they carry out His mission. The way of glory is not just going up but God coming down to us and our path to the cross like Jesus.

"It seems to me that a mountain is an image of the soul as it lifts itself up in contemplation. For in the same manner as the mountain towers above the valleys and lowlands at its foot, so does the soul of the one who prays mount into the higher regions up to God. You are the Lord’s eagles, who wing your flights hight in the ethereal regions: " Theodore of Studios