Journeying into God’s Merciful Love – The Mountain

Week of February 21, 2016

This week we are taken to a high place.  It is a place of conversion and revelation.  On this mountain Jesus is revealed.  On this mountain the disciples find strength and conviction in their belief in who Jesus is.  In this second week of Lent we are invited to go where Jesus leads us.  So often we want Jesus to come to where we are or where we want to lead Him.  Jesus takes His disciples Peter, James and John to the place where God has chosen for them to be overwhelmed by faith, the experience and the opportunity to know God more deeply.  So often in our prayers, we are the ones doing the asking.  So often we are asking God to come and make His dwelling with us.  At times it is Jesus who wants us to come and have us follow to where He longs to lead us — a place where He can reveal how great He is, a place where He can reveal how loving He is, a place where He can reveal forgiveness.  We all have come to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.  We all have come to know that He has died on the cross for our sins.  His mountain for us may be in the deep recesses of our stubbornness to allow His love in.  His mountain may be for us in the darkest place of our heart where we feel we can never be forgiven.  His mountain may be for us a place where the magnitude of God’s love overwhelms us.

I am not sure where those places are, but I do know that they exist for all of us.  As we journey into God’s mercy, we are invited to allow God to lead. As we journey, we are to invite Jesus to take us to those places where our sight can be clearer.  Mountaintops by their nature give us a different view.  More things can be seen from on top of a high peak.  Our surroundings give us a different perspective.  When we go to where Jesus leads, a new perspective will be given, especially when it is in the recesses of our hearts and a place where forgiveness needs to be experienced. His revelation takes on its greatest power when we feel his mercy and know we are forgiven.  That is an unburdening that this world cannot ever give.  Jesus has the power to give and so He does. The mountain may be in a place where past hurts need to be healed.  It may be a place where siblings find peace or words spoken in haste can be let go.  None of this can truly happen without Jesus.  None of this can happen without knowing the divine power of who Jesus is.  This takes place on the mountain.

As our journey continues may it find us being led to God’s merciful love.

Rev. John J. Ouper