Hebrews 12:18-25.  I have always wanted to retire near the ocean, but when I vacation I like to go to the mountains. I really sense both majesty and serenity when I am privileged to go out to the Rockies or even the Ozarks. I even enjoy pictures of mountains and even enjoy movies that feature mountain vistas. One fairly recent movie I enjoyed was “Vertical Limit.” The story line was pretty thin, but it was high drama (pardon the pun) and the scenery was spectacular. I won’t spoil it for you, but a group of climbers had to be rescued from their assault on K-2, the second-tallest mountain in the world. They could not reach the summit successfully due to the weather, they reached a “vertical limit,” a point where you simply cannot climb any higher.

I suppose that type of climbing is extremely dangerous, and I wonder what kind of personalities are attracted to such a challenge. I like the kind of mountain that you can walk to the top of if your in good physical shape. Even that is fraught with difficulties, however. I ran across the story of perhaps thousands of Trekkers, that is people who climb mountains by hiking to the top with no special or technical climbing skills, who have trekked up Mera Peak in Nepal. Mera Peak is the highest peak in the world at 6654 meters or about 20000 feet that Trekkers can assail. Anything higher requires technical climbing. The problem with this feat is listed in a news release last fall that reads as follows: Thousands of climbers have climbed “Mera Peak” in Nepal believing they have conquered the highest “Trekking Peak” of the Nepal Himalayas. Indisputable evidence shows they have missed their target by 8 km (5 miles) and climbed an easy nameless mountain almost 200 m too low. The real Mera Peak remains un-climbed as of the fall of last year. How would you like to go to all that trouble, travel half way around the world at great expense, to a country not particularly friendly, face all kinds of obstacles and hardships, and when all was said and done, FIND OUT YOU CLIMBED THE WRONG DAD-GUMMED MOUNTAIN! This reminded me of a man several years ago who purportedly climbed the highest mountain in every state. I think I could do Florida, or Louisiana, but probably not Alaska or Colorado. What I remember is that when he got to Arkansas he climbed Blue Mountain mistakenly and had to return to climb Mount Magazine, the official highest point in Arkansas by 10 or 15 feet. So, climbing the wrong mountain must be easier than it sounds.

Have you ever climbed the wrong mountain? I don’t mean literally, but in life. I think it is a wonderful metaphor. Kevin Hutson understood the metaphor when he said, “Life is like climbing a mountain during a blizzard. You climb and climb, and the wind blows harder and harder. Just when you think you’ve reached the top, you see another ledge. When you reach the top, the glory is yours, then you realize, You were climbing the wrong mountain.”

The writer of the Hebrews spins the tale of two mountains in our Lectionary sermon text this morning. The first mountain was Mount Sinai, where Moses encountered God and eventually received the 10 commandments. I will confess that the most I know about Sinai I learned from Cecil B. DeMille. But the writer to the Hebrews compares Mount Sinai with Mount Zion. Zion was a Jebusite stronghold in the Old Testament that later took on spiritual connotations, thus becoming a symbolic name for the heavenly city where God dwelt. The writer made it very plain that the old mountain was a place of fear and dread. If even your animals went near the mountain you had to stone them to death. Must have been tough being man’s best friend in those days. Even the ever curious and faithful Moses feared the mountain greatly. Conversely, the new mountain is said to be a place of holy joy. The old mountain was one of doom and gloom and stormy tempest. The new is a festive gathering of angels and of the saints. Mount Sinai was a tangible and terrible mountain charged with mystery and fraught with deadly danger. Mount Zion is the heavenly Jerusalem where human beings are made perfect. Mount Sinai was a mountain of shadows as the bulletin picture eerily displays. I mean could have God have picked a more foreboding place? Zion, on the other hand, was a place of fellowship and light. One mountain inspired dread the other confidence. One communicated the sensual, the obscure and the exclusive, the other communicated the spiritual, the clear, and the all-embracing. Mount Sinai shouted very loudly, “Forbidden, Stay Away!” while Mount Zion says “free approach to the holiest of all”.

So I ask you this morning, which mountain would you rather climb? Is your faith at Sinai or Zion? Well, I am convinced that many Christians are climbing the wrong mountain. For their faith is characterized by fear, by dread, by obligation, by shoulda-woulda-coulda, by inadequacy and by guilt. In effect, they are climbing the wrong mountain, they are still Trekking Sinai but really they think they are marching to Zion.
And its easier to climb the wrong mountain than you think. Ask a few 1000 people in Nepal. And remember, this is the faith chapter. And in faith there is always more than one way to climb a mountain. For example, When we use fear as a motivator, we are climbing the wrong mountain. I am ever amazed at how much religion today uses fear to motivate it members. I personally don’t respond very well to threats, but evidently people do. It might be anything from the ever- popular road sign that simply says “Warning! Prepare to meet God!”, to ghastly portraits some paint of fire and brimstone that scare us into the kingdom. We have a “God is out to get you” mentality in this country. If you do the wrong things, go to the wrong schools, posses a differing opinion on hard social issues or maybe even vote the wrong way in the elections, then there are those who threaten you with hell like it was their own secret weapon to manipulate. Jesus gave Peter the keys to the kingdom, but there are plenty around today that act like they have the keys to the locks of hell itself and they will sentence you there if you disagree with them. I believe that most of us who grew up in Baptist churches were probably motivated by fear, and I’m here to say that if you motivate by fear you are at Sinai no Zion.

But we are also climbing the wrong mountain when we are exclusive and obscure. There was nothing more exclusive than Mount Sinai. If you even looked at God wrong you were dead. If your dumb sheep wondered up the mountain, they were dead. What Moses saw was for his eyes only, and even he didn’t really want to look, because if he looked at God wrong, he was dead. Exclusivity. It abounds in religion today. It seems that we have forgotten Jesus’ invitation of “whosoever will may come,” and changed the admission requirements to fit our club. We have taken God’s invitation and rewritten the script to be our invitation. We exclude certain types of people. Sunday morning is still as Martin Luther King Jr. said 35 years ago the most segregated hour of the week. We exclude people based on their sexual orientation, because of their denomination or because of their gender or because of their “quote, orthodoxy.” We exclude people because of theological or philosophical differences, very often trivial differences. We fail to see that what unites us as a family of God is more important than what divides us, and unless we open our eyes we will find ourselves making countless pilgrimages to Sinai, and the sad part is, we don’t even know it.

When our religion is a thing to dreaded instead of a thing to be enjoyed, we are climbing the wrong mountain. Sinai was not only a place of fear, but of great dread. We dread religion, we dread church, but we go through the motions because we know we ought go through the motions. Attending some church services is more oxygen depleting than a space walk without the suit. It is a question of duty. I am the first to tell you that I have been there, and I have even been there since being a member of this church, and I don’t think that shocks anybody. None of us are immune. When we serve the God of Zion however, it is a different, liberating feeling. The first step is to realize that serving this church or any church or denomination or faith group is not synonymous with serving God. It is not the same thing, no matter how much I love this church. You can and hopefully will serve God through this church, because we can still do some things better corporately than individually, but if this is all you have you’ll soon dread it and will find yourself climbing the wrong mountain.

When we are legalistic, we are climbing the wrong mountain. For the law was given at Sinai, and we all know what a burden it evolved in to. In fact the children of Israel were never successful in abiding by the law, it was an awesome taskmaster over them. And yet legalism abounds in 21st century Christendom. Why are people sop attracted to it? I believe that I has a lot to do with fear and a lot to do with a lack of security or self-esteem, aforementioned qualities of Sinai religion. If it stands for anything else, Mt. Zion stands for the triumph of love and grace over the law through the death of Christ whom fulfilled the law and then nailed it to a cross. Legalism denies the love and power of God. Legalism is self-centered. Legalism emphasizes externals and becomes preoccupied with trivia. Legalism makes things other than God absolute. Legalism ignores human need and individuality. Legalism develops a religion of “Experts.” Legalism only leads to judgement, strife, and division. Legalism deny soul competency and the priesthood of the believer. The very word religion comes from a word meaning to “bind” or to “limit” The Christian word for salvation means “liberation” or “freedom.” Jesus came to liberate people from hopeless bondage to legalistic abusive judgmental religion. Gal. 5:1 says it best, “Since you are free in Christ, do not be bound together again by a religious yoke of slavery.” In other words, stay clear of Sinai. You know Sinai, it’s the mountain right around the corner that we are always tempted to make a pilgrimage to.

When we in effect drive people away from God, we are climbing the wrong mountain. Sinai drove people away from God, but the God of Zion always attracts people and the angels sing a glorious chorus when we enter into the presence of the holy. We drive people away from God in many ways. By our testimony and our walk we are told, but by our phoniness and hypocrisy for sure. Why can’t we really be who we really are instead of projecting a sanitized persona? Fear and inadequacy is my guess. Poor self-esteem and spiritual insecurity. Throw in an unrealistic image of God and those thing make a good recipe for pretense. We say, or at least I have, “It is their problem. If they turn their eyes on Jesus and not on me they will be OK.” This is certainly true. But we also who are enlightened have the greater responsibility in attracting people to God. This church has and will continue to attract people to God. You see, you don’t have to be big church with a big steeple to do it, you only have to have a faith that treks in the right direction.

So why is it so easy to get on the wrong track and climb the wrong mountain? Most of those people in Nepal were proud of their accomplishment, but never realized they missed the mark. IT IS EASY TO CLIMB THE WRONG MOUNTAIN BECAUSE WE LISTEN TO THE WRONG VOICE. We are still looking for a miraculous burning bush, We are still looking for a bolt of lightening, We are still looking for a blinding light on the road to Damascus, and We are still listening to the wrong voice. Verse 25 five says that if you listen to the voice of Sinai, which was very scary, how much more then should you listen to the voice of Zion, where a God resides who loves you and sent His only son to direct you to the right trail. The ironic thing is that the children of Israel never really listened to the voice at Sinai. But we seem to have no trouble doing so ourselves much of the time.

You climb the right mountain by reading the map and by listening to the trail guide. You climb the right mountain by not just being hearers only but by being doers of the word. You climb the right mountain by listening to God when God says loving your enemies is the most important thing you can do, and loving one another is the hallmark of discipleship. And if we are vindictive holier than thou exclusive Christians then we are not listening! You climb the right mountain when you extend grace and peace to others and you always are quick to forgive. You climb the right mountain when your life is laced with humility in all things sacred and you ever continue on the spiritual journey. You climb the right mountain when God comes first, even before your church, your pet doctrines and your most sacred religious cows. You climb the right mountain when you do to others what you would have them do to you. You climb the right mountain when you do these things because you have really listened to the voice of God, and not the voice of tradition or religion. You hear the voice not from a burning bush, but from a burning presence. A presence that does burn but does not consume but enhances, a presence that lights the way even in the dark corners of our souls.

If you are here today and you are climbing Sinai, you will never climb high enough to really encounter the living God. But should your path lead you to Zion, your life will be forever changed, the angels will rejoice, the saints will sing, your blind eyes will open to the will of God, and you and this church we call Providence will never again in the spiritual sense encounter. . . a “vertical limit.”