For a good while now we’ve been exploring not only the implications of our congregational name – Mt. Horeb – but its ability to shape and inform our identity and purpose as God’s people in this place. In fact, for the last several weeks Pr. Ron’s sermon titles have been intentional invitations to “come to the mount.” Using a handy, on-line interactive site, I just learned that when I travel from my home in Columbia to the church, I have to climb 244 feet, (although if I continue on to Little Mountain, I’d add another 146 feet to my ascent). For many of us, Mt. Horeb is indeed “…high and lifted up.” Nevertheless, the potential of the parish name, the type of welcome we and strangers alike give and receive, the desire to center on God’s presence and not our own distractions, the holy offer of honesty and forgiveness before God and one another, God’s Word read and pondered, the preaching, prayers, singing, the meal Christ Jesus himself offers, and our being sent forth (uphill or down) to do the holy work we’ve been equipped to fulfill is hopefully why we’ve come in the first place.

Mother Google’s quick search of “Mt. Horeb in the Bible…” offers in the twinkling of a nanosecond the following information: Mount Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai, the mountain where the Hebrew people entered into a covenant with God after escaping Egypt. It is also the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments and other instructions from God before the people continued their journey through the desert to the Promised Land. The Bible mentions Mount Horeb in the Books of Exodus, Deuteronomy, Kings, and Malachi. In Exodus 3:12, God tells Moses that he will encounter Yahweh at Horeb and that they will return to the mountain with the people after bringing them out of Egypt. In Exodus 33:6, Moses receives the Ten Command-ments and other instructions from God at Horeb. In Deuteronomy 5:2, the Hebrew people enter into a covenant with God at Mount Horeb. The mountain is also referred to as “the mountain of God” in Exodus 3:1, 4:27, and 18:5, and “the Mountain of YHWH” in the Book of Deuteronomy…

Obviously, such a place holds great importance in the Bible, one of the “thin places” Celtic spirituality identifies as places where God’s holy presence and dwelling come very close to us mortals. God’s proximity itself hallows and sanctifies such places. Moses is told in no uncertain terms by God who speaks from a burning bush on Mount Horeb: When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then [God] said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground [Exodus 3:4-5]. This is why God’s people over the millennia have gathered at such “high and lifted up” places.

Common to almost all of the scriptural passages regarding a mountain is the content of a passage we hear during Advent, Isaiah 40:1-11: Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”.. It is a place chosen intentionally, a place “high and lifted up,” ideal for studying the landscape, looking for whatever or whomever is sought. It is also a place where people including the prophets Moses and Elijah receive God’s counsel to announce God’s favor, grace, protection, and salvation to any who have sat in darkness, been burdened by the weight of sin, exiled and disenfranchised, hated and despised.

The vertically challenged Zacchaeus, a tax collector also short on honest work habits whom the Evangelist Luke introduces to his hearers in chapter 19:1-10, was a prime candidate to take to heart the glad tidings announced on Mount Horeb. He was the perfect poster child for all those “who have sat in darkness, burdened by the weight of their sins, shunned and disenfranchised, hated and despised.” Having heard of this Rabbi who himself announced even more blessed tidings, Zacchaeus struggles to get at least a glimpse of Jesus passing close by him. Climbing what really was a sycamore-fig [Latin: ficus sycomorus, not the plantanus occidentalis, the leaf-shedding, blotch-barked sycamore common to North America], Zacchaeus is blindsided by Jesus’ unexpected announcement. Jesus simply breaks through all religious and political suspicions regarding tax collectors, especially a “chief tax collector” like Zacchaeus, announcing to him his desire to stop by his house for a visit. The crowd around Zacchaeus chose to grumble because Jesus has the affrontery to be hosted by “…a sinner,” proving yet again how easy it is for anyone to blend in with a nameless crowd and complain, grumble, and demean “…those people.” By contrast, Jesus cuts to the chase, calls Zacchaeus by name [and thus acknowledges his integrity as a person], visits him, asks about his life, and we conclude is even nice and hospitable, too. Jesus concludes his visit with a parting shot: Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost [Luke 19:9-10]. Although Jesus apparently spoke this to the transformed Zacchaeus, it is a word to all of us just exactly what Jesus expects of us, too.

Scaling high mountains and a tree-climbing demonstration by Zacchaeus both are clear and bracing reminders for God’s people to pattern their lives by intentional action on behalf of anyone in need, an important fruit of faith we may all to often be lax in exercising. Jesus doesn’t ask or expect us to behave any differently than he does when encountering people. After all, we have put on Christ and have been transformed by his life in us. It is not for us to hide that reality, the light of Christ, under a basket [Matthew 5:14-16], to fail in speaking a healing word or offering a cup of cool water to the physically or spiritually parched [Matthew 25:37-40]. Having the gumption to be intentionally living as God’s people is to be a much practiced “habit of being” as one Lutheran spiritual writer put it years ago. It is similar to learning to say please and thank you. Neither are we to shed that long-practiced habit once we attain adulthood.

Nevertheless, intentionality is not just for the really big stuff, like personally establishing world peace, single-handedly curing Covid-19, or ending warfare and violence as a project for the month of September – the stuff altruistic pipedreams of naïve pageant contestants are made of. To become intentional is to live a life of attentiveness. This coming Sunday we hear from the Letter of James: You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen__, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing [James 1:19-25].

Has it happened to you recently? Gradually we become aware that everyone else has stopped chattering and now attentive to the announcements and welcome at the appointed hour of worship each week. It surely does take Pastor Ron a long while to get our attention simply because we are often sidetracked by our distractions. Whether it is a quick word with another in the pew which turns into an extended conversation about Uncle Horace’s bunions or wondering who the person in the fourth pew might be rather than vowing to introduce yourself to that person at a good moment, we lose track of the time. We also lose track of our purpose as an assembly intentionally gathered for worship of the living God, preparing ourselves to be God’s stewards of the mysteries [I Corinthians 4] and ambassadors [II Corinthians 5:20] throughout the week. As scripture reminds us, …there is a time and place for everything under the sun… [Ecclesiastes 3:1-22—ALL of it!].

We need to challenge ourselves both individually and as a community as early as next week to be intentional. As the minute hand clicks up toward 10:00 AM EST, may we quiet down, ask for the Spirit’s presence [Spirit of God, descend upon my heart…], and with Zacchaeus and the whole company of Mt. Horeb, attentive to Jesus present through, in, with, and under our parish ministries, folks, and liturgical acts. Let us be expectantly attentive when Pr. Ron appears at the head of the chancel [he’s been doing it regularly since his arrival, following in the weary steps of pastors before him!]. When the Entrance Hymn begins, intentionally turn yourself around to acknowledge the cross, even bowing your head as it passes by coming in and going out. It is not play-acting nor chancel prancing. Rather, it is God’s will that we embody the faith we claim [Philippians 2:9-11 and James 2:14-26]. Or, as St. Paul remarks in II Corinthians 2:14-17: But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not peddlers of God’s word like so many; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in his presence.