Psalm 30; Exodus 24:15-18; Mark 9:2-9

Virtually every religion has regarded mountains as sacred places. Mircea Eliade, the great religious scholar, called mountains an axis mundi, a symbolic link between heaven and earth, between the divine and the human. For those of us from the flat lands of the midwest it may not be as obvious as it should be why this is so. There is something about a mountain that lifts one's mind beyond the mundane no matter how you look at it. A mountain on the horizon cannot help but move you to think of the majesty and power of nature, if not of God. It puts things into perspective and can be a symbol of strength and reassurance. From the bottom, or part way up, mountains are a sign of challenge and call for perseverance and the best effort we can muster. And then …