Worship on the Mountains ...

Monday July 23, 2012. We have been hiking on the mountains yesterday. It was a fantastic experience. And then, we ran into a worship service at one of the alpine huts - seemed like a present on a Sunday morning … let me tell you a little more about it.

Hiking and Worship …

Hiking in the mountains is fantastic. When you climb the mountain trail, step by step you get distance to what is down there. It is a little bit like leaving your ordinary life behind you and entering another realm, another world.

Then, on the mountain top, your view can see the fantastic shapes which nature provides to us. We see the rivers down in the valeys, the towns which are lined up like on a string along the water. We see the other mountain peaks, a long queue of signs of majesty. Fir trees line our path, until we reach the timberline. Now, only grass and flowers can survive, while the sky is our limit.

Hiking can bring us into a mode of adoration. When you are faced with something very beautiful, adoration will fill your heart. The beauty of the mountains, of the trees and flowers, of the valleys can pave the way for a change in our attitude. Our heart will listen, even if our mind is still occupied with many things …

Jesus on the mountain …

It is well known that Jesus took time off and went onto a mountain to be alone with his heavenly father. He went there, to a lonely place, to be able to find to himself. It seems that things dit not change that much from 2000 years ago until today. There is still our busy environment, with the many problems … and the opportunity to retract and go to a lonely place in nature. Here, mountains play a special role …

Having a service on a mountain also has biblical traditions. The “Sermon on the mount” is one of the most exciting parts of the New Testament (Matthew 5-7). Jesus used this special environment, to tell people about a life of faith, about God's world. And it is special … there are not only the words talking, but the environment is talking as well. It seems that God created the mountains to pull us out of the usual, to give us a higher perspective.

Being thrown into a mountain service, can be interpreted as the Lord talking to us: “Come to me, take my perspective, joint the community of faith - in a community which is beyond a single denomination. Come to me, I am the Lord!” We have the opportunity to follow and let him fill our heart today and tomorrow …! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts