Hebrew 12: 18-29 as told by a story teller

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there was a mix-matched group of people.  The people were from all over the known world and they found themselves living in a foreign land, welcomed by the rulers of the land, to live and to prosper; to share in the bounty of the land.  At first the relationship was good, with the people owning farms, selling produce, setting up communities, and working even in the ruler’s courts as high officials. One day everything changed. 

The ruling family died out, and the next family was not so generous.  Resources were tight and the foreigners had amassed into great numbers.  They were sent to work on big building projects, to make the ruler’s look great and mighty to the whole world.  The people entered servitude and as the years went on, had fewer and fewer privileges, and finally were all considered slaves.

The people, a million or so, finally had enough... so under the leadership of a gutsy 40-something they left; marched right out of their towns, across the river, and into the desert.

Now the desert was the place of demons and gods.  To the people facing demons or gods sounded better than the task-masters they were barely able to live under.  The people after days of journey arrive at a mountain, and everyone knew that gods lived on the mountains.

And this mountain had a god; for the mountain shook; it was covered in smoke, cloud, and wind.  There was fire and lightening.  There were trumpet blasts from the darkness –not from the people but somewhere from the courts of the god.  Then there was a voice.   ...

Until this point the people were brave, daring to encounter God..... but the voice, the power, God; was more than they bargained for.  So they decided to turn away, run away...just like they had from their task-masters; but the only place to run was the desert.  Everyone knows the desert is full of demons.

The mountain became a scary place, in fact it became forbidden ground where even animals who may wandered in that direction would be killed.  The people were terrified. They were willing to take their chances in the desert, where demons dwell.

Once upon a time, in land far far away, in a time closer to our own, there was a mix-matched group of people. The people were from all over the known world and they found themselves living in a land of their own, but ruled by foreigners.  For a time the rulers and the people more or less got along; everyone went about their everyday activities: growing and tending, buying and selling, living and dying.

One day everything changed.

The head of the foreign rulers changed and so did the heart of the ruling court.  The people of the land were showing too much hope.

You see they had come to the big holy city on the mountain, that is in the middle of the desert; a different mountain than their ancestors, but a mountain, the home of God.  For centuries this was the place of the Temple – the seat of God.  The people had decided to allow for a place, setting God in a shrine so the mountain became safe to dwell on.  God was put in a box; but God was present.  The people talked to God and worshiped via priests who would go in and out before God when it was their turn.  This suited everyone’s sensibilities; for a time.

But there was a longing amongst the people; particularly those who were slaves, or poor; the widows and orphans; the sick and lame; women and children forgotten by society. The poor began to seek and follow teachers.  Into the desert they would wander, to face demons and fight them off, to encounter God for themselves. The poor found God waiting; left by past generations out of fear –now the poor were ready to embrace God and God’s power.

The poor were filled with hope.  They encountered God.  They were being encouraged with miracles: healings, being fed, welcomed, and taught.  

For decades, the people were hope-filled, speaking of God as if God had been encountered and lived among them...the people were excitable and began standing up demanding rights; and expressing notions of self-governance.  The rulers wanted to put an end to such crazy notions –since such notions could lead to revolt and civil war.    So the Temple, on the holy mountain, came down. God’s seat of safety disappeared...

But low and behold, God was no longer in the box.

God had moved, as the poor encountered the man who came out of the desert, a fire burned inside them, as they were touched, healed, fed, and welcomed the fire burned brighter. When the man from the desert, came to the big holy city on the mountain, he came to die for the people...and when he did God’s fire burned brighter.  A few days after the death on the mountain, the man rose from the dead, and God’s fire burned brighter still. The flame was fueled and spread through the desert, to neighbouring communities...Good News, that death had been conquered, that the people were saved, that hope and abundance was for everyone, that there was a new way to live, that encountering God was for everyone, anywhere, anytime –if hearts and minds and communities set fear aside and dared to be open to power and mystery.

Once upon a time, in lands far far away, and in lands right here at home; in the past and in the present, there was and is a group of mixed-matched people.  The people were from all over the known world.  Some were foreigners; others were not; rulers came and rulers went.  The people lived on two different mountains –both surrounded by the desert where demons tend to dwell.

Well people only lived on one of the mountains; people ran in fear from the other.

The difference in people was how they had decided to approach God, or how they would let God approach them.  The uninhabited mountain was interpreted to be uninhabitable because God might show up and God was scary –far more scary than running away and living with the demons in the desert.  The inhabited mountain was filled with people who dared to be open to encountering God, despite any fears, and lived anticipating miracles and mystery.

The moral of the story of the mountains –the explanation for the reading from the book of Hebrews -  is that in the end, when humans decide not to run on their own into a desert  of demons –whether distractions, thoughts of grandeur, or filling oneself with the fascinations of the time; when humans decide to face their fears and dare to open themselves to a holy encounter, God will be present to set hearts and wills on fire.

When hearts and wills are set on fire; when miracles become real and expected –then the fire is fanned and flames of Good News spread to all people, everywhere, and deserts become places where fear is banished:  there is passion for justice, the orphan and widow are cared for, the hunger are fed, and a vineyard is planted.

And the hope is that the best is yet to come. ”Yet once more”, on another mountain, in another place, years down the road, in a place where death is no more, where tears are wiped away, where the sun cannot strike us by day nor the moon by night; when we have passed from here into the mystery that comes next, when we are fully embraced in encounter with God –whelmed by the holy – that holy mountain will not be shaken; we as a people will have come full circle, welcomed back into the arms of the energy of the universe, God, the holy, the beginning and the end, and the  beginning.

Thanks be to God.