The Climb of Worship

Originally published on 2024-07-04

        Not all places of worship are wheelchair accessible. Not all churches are for mere sundays between 9 and 10. In fact, I think the many of the LORD's finest cathedral's are those hardest to come by. 

        The Cathedral's I love are those which whose staircase's must be started at well before the sun rises. Their service's are those which take all you have but give you more. They look down upon the miles of snow and green valley from which one comes, putting one's past to perspective.  

               They are the sort which have no fixed congregation of man. They have a persistent choir of birds in song. They have a full time organist of wind, bellowing over and through jagged rock. Behind these, they too have a full time orchestra of bees a buzzing with joy and love unquestionable beautifying their own congregation.  The diverse and faithful congregation of these mountain churches are a multitude of wildflowers packed into every cranny they can find and making a line out the door and to the bottom of the steps. This congregation uplifts and welcomes all those who labor to worship with them up there on high. 

        The moss and grasses are like stained glass windows telling the story each year of death and resurrection. The towering cliffs are like pillars strong and beautiful holding up the very domed roof of the cathedral that is the sky. And the sky above all this is greater than any ceiling of Michelangelo, a painting of God so vast and profound we know not what to make of it other than that he is infinitely beyond us and that he is good. These great church's are where God comes down to Earth himself. 

        It was on Mt. Sinai that God descended to give us the law. It was on Mt. Carmel that God devastated the prophets of Baal.  It was on Mt. Sinai that God sent fire then wind then earthquake but spoke to Elijah in a whisper. Finally it was on a mountain that Jesus was transfigured as pure light and convened through time itself with both Moses and Elijah atop the same mountain centuries before.  

        I may not see the light nor feel the earthquake and I pray God does not send me fire from above, but when I am up in those great cathedrals if I listen close enough I can sometimes hear the whisper. My climb is my worship, from this labor comes the lesson. 

Exodus 19 + 1 Kings 19 + Matthew 17

"I would rather be in the mountains thinking of God than in church thinking of mountains"

-John Muir