Scaling Unseen Mountains Outside the Church Doors

A reflection from Pastor Jim.

I was pacing the lobby at Church, where normally there would be lots of folks milling around. I was struggling with this “new normal” in the rhythm of the church, where the six of us meet on Sunday morning and live-stream the entire service on Zoom. Seeing a pixilated people, and hearing their sweet voices on a speaker, was better than nothing, but not something I wanted to get used to. I yearned for the visible gathering of the Saints, but for the moment I needed to be content with a virtual gathering. Paul’s normal heart setting of “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing”, calmed my mind.

 I had just finished putting the finishing touches on my “Pastoral prayer” for our congregation. I had been reading of how God used a personal epidemic in the life of the great King Nebuchadnezzar to humble him, and cause him to repent and put his faith in the God of the Israelites, Yahweh. (Dan 4)

 I knew that God was still in the business of mercifully knocking people off of their personally constructed thrones, since He had graciously done this for me years ago, and I longed to see Him do this redemptive work in the lives of others today.

As part of my opening comments that morning, I was going to talk about the COVID-19 virus and how we might leverage the government restrictions of quarantine, to reach out to neighbors whom we’d never meet otherwise. I was very aware of that reality, because we saw literally dozens of families, and individuals walking, riding, and running past our house, who never came by before.

I noticed a young man through the front window, and watched him for a moment. His attention was riveted to his device (shocking, I know) and either very intrigued with some website, or he was playing a game. I didn’t know which but I knew I had to find out, so I ventured out the front door, and being careful to keep my distance I walked over and asked how he was. He said he was fine, and then apologized for being on church grounds, and that he was playing Pokémon. I told him that was not a problem, and asked if he was attending church anywhere.

He said, “no, but my Mom goes to a church in Waco”. “But, not you?”, I queried. “No, I’m unaffiliated, I can worship anywhere” he said. I pressed in, asking, “Oh okay, well do you mind telling me, what does that look like exactly?”. He shot right back, “Oh, I believe you can find God anywhere, the rocks, the trees, the mountains, I think the mountains are my favorite!”.

I retorted, “we worship the God who made the mountains”, to which he replied, “And I believe God is in the mountains”.

Well, at this point I knew I was dealing with a syncretist. Now, we’re all syncretists at some level, like when we go to Free Birds and order a corn tortilla instead of flour, black beans instead of pinto, cilantro rice instead of Mexican, and “Oh, please extra onions”. What makes that a syncretist meal, is that I’m blending in my favorite components to the meal, and leaving out those that I’m not so friendly with.

But, a food syncretist at Free Birds is under no illusion that the ramifications from their order will last any longer than 3 hours. Thus, love of neighbor does not compel us to speak up if we are standing behind them in line, and our neighbor ruins his burrito with a scoop of re-fried beans. “Our neighbor will come to no eternal harm”, we think, after all, the aftermath of those distasteful beans will pass, given enough time.

Prominent atheist Penn Gillette once said, “I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward—and atheists who think people shouldn’t proselytize and who say just leave me along and keep your religion to yourself—how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?

“I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.”

I told my new friend who believed that God was in the mountains, that God had come down to the earth in Jesus Christ, and that Jesus claimed to be the only way to God, and that either he was or wasn’t. In the words of CS Lewis, Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or He was Lord, there was really no other option available to us.

I handed him a gospel coin, and told him that Jesus, who made the mountains which he so admired, had ascended a mountain for him, and then died for him on a cross so that he might be forgiven of his sins. We then took a minute to discuss the 10 commandments, and I gave examples of how we had both broken God’s holy law.

Jesus sat on a mountain in Israel one day, and taught His listeners that those who were meek would one day inherit the earth. I’m pretty sure that included the mountains that my friend worshiped as god. Pray for him that his heart would be made meek, that truth is what he would seek. The Gospel then would become sweet, He’ll be united to Jesus, his sins will be forgiven, and he’ll get the mountains thrown in as a treat.