I’ve Been To The Mountaintop

“I’ve been to the mountaintop.”  I hope Dr. King would approve of me borrowing his famous line to share an update.  It’s a very appropriate statement for this season that has been simmering in my mind for a few weeks now.  I’d like to try and share why with you.

How do I stay focussed on the dream of planting and pastoring a multiethnic church among the disadvantaged when everything is slapped with a big To-Be-Determined sticker?  

The answer is becoming clear: because I’ve been to the mountaintop.  For the past number of years, the Lord has had me on a journey of discovery.  I’ve come to be in close contact with people who are dramatically different than me, and I’ve learned their stories.  My eyes have been opened to realities that have irrevocably altered my theological framework and my understanding of what it means to follow Jesus.  And I worship God for this journey.  

The situations many friends find themselves in is close to the situation an ant tossed into a toilet bowl experiences.  The way out is slippery, tedious, and sometimes efforts seem futile.  And yet I’ve met people of such resiliency and hope that I’ve been humbled over and over again, since I would have quit long before.  I’ve seen people making exhausting efforts to change their circumstances only to fall backwards repeatedly.  

This is part of my story that informs my vision of the worship scene of Revelation 7 where people of every tribe, nation, language, and tongue are surrounding the Lamb in worship of His salvation.  The mountaintop is Revelation 7.  I’ve seen it.  I’ve drank it in.  I’m moved to tears over it.  And because I’ve seen its existence, there’s no turning back from striving for it “on earth as it is in heaven.”  

How can those on the fringes arrive at Revelation 7?  

The “secret” is that none of these friends I’ve met over the years would have ever been in my life if I hadn’t moved towards them.  The spaces I occupied where not seen as welcoming or safe to them.  Regardless of whether that was true or not, perspective rules.  If the subjective sense of someone believes something, abnormal efforts must be made to alter that sense.  And by God’s grace, He allowed me to move close in order to showcase His impartial mercy and generosity.  Most guarded, suspicious people eventually respond to compassion.  And I saw it over and over again.  

I thank God that there are many people walking around with a better conception of who God is because I was able to be among them.  Many people heard of the good news that even the worst of sinners can find life through Jesus Christ.  Because I’ve been to the mountaintop.  I have tasted and seen what the grace of God can do when the Spirit awakens a sleeping sinner.  And that vision has compelled me to move towards those on the margins, to understand their concerns and fears, to grieve with them over excruciating difficulties.  

I don’t say any of this to invite people to esteem me as some hero.  But I also am sad when it seems exceptional to others.  The gospel explains both statements.  Jesus existed from eternity past with the Father and the Spirit.  He left perfect fellowship, became bound by space and time in a human body, dwelt among literal enemies of His Father in order to reconcile them through His own blood on the cross.  The essence of Jesus’ mission is God becoming proximate to creatures so that they could be united to Him forever.  I simply want to follow in Jesus’ footsteps of moving toward those far from God.  And if that seems exceptional, I think you have some heart work to do.  

I’ve seen the mountaintop of Revelation 7, and it is very good.  The global diversity represented is phenomenal, and I’m all in to give my life to see a sliver of it realized on earth as it is in heaven.  

One final clarification to conclude with.  I’ve been using terms of ethnic and socio-economic diversity almost interchangeably.  This is intentional.  I want to make a distinction between these two kinds of diversity while pointing out that in America there is much overlap.  Walls of hostility in America are drawn along BOTH ethnic and socio-economic lines.  Black/white AND Haves/have nots.  It’s often hard to determine which dividing wall is most significant.  And for that reason, I can’t imagine pastoring a multiethnic church in the US without intentionally being among the poor.  

If Jesus, the God-man, didn’t draw near in pursuit of fallen humanity, Revelation 7 would not exist.  Because He did, the mountaintop view is beyond words.