This Sunday's Sermon is given by The Rev. Don Dunavant. Father Don is an Oblate Priest in the Benedictine Order of St. Michael the Archangel and is the Director of Padre Pio House in San Angelo, Texas. Father Don is also the National Librarian for the Order and the Director of Ecumenical Relations for the Diocese of Texas in the AOCC.
The mountains from where my help comes. I grew up on the Plains of Texas. The land there is very flat. Some people refer to people who live there as "flatlanders." You can see for miles and miles in all directions. There is nothing to block your view. There are no hills, mountains or trees to block the view. People that live there do not feel closed in.
Mountains did not become significant until I made a couple of trips to Colorado. There I was introduced to mountains. What a wonderful sight to behold.I had read about mountains in school. But until you see one and climb one. Then you can appreciate a mountain.
There was the trip up Pike's Peak. I have made up in a car. That was fun to drive up that little road that reached the top. It was sunny at the bottom of the mountain, When we reached the top of the mountain it was covered in snow. There was a beautiful view of the land below. You could see the towering trees blowing in the breeze. You could see the different colors of the grasslands ,lakes, and streams.
I got a chance to go back a few years later. This time i got to ride a cable car slowly to the top. Being the impatient person at that time I wanted to be at the top as quick as we could. Plus being afraid of heights did not help the situation any. slowly we moved very slowly to the top of the mountain. We were close to the trees and we could see the ground slowly pass underneath the cable car. This time when we reached the top of Pikes Peak the sun was shinning. You could see clearly in all directions. It was amazing, breath taking and nothing like I had ever seen. God was there in all his beauty and glory.
When I graduated from high school we were lucky enough to get to go Colorado for our school trip. We went to the Air Force Academy for a tour. We drove up in a chartered bus in front of the chapel.There was this most unusual building I had ever seen. There was this steel and stain glass windows that looked like the praying hands. We went up the steps to the Protestant Chapel to tour the facility. It was a huge space that would easily hold 1,000 worshipers for a service. There was a young man in the choir loft practicing for an organ recital. The music was out of this world. I had never heard music like that. We walk to up to the chancel rail and a strange thing happened. The hair on my arms and my neck stood up, a cold chill traveled through my body and I began to cry. I really do not know what caused this, but i feel that it was the brush of the hand of God on me.
People have all kinds of mountain top experiences. For a skier it is the thrill of going down hill at high speed. For the not so adventurous there is the quiet cup of coffee, tea or chocolate sipped from the deck of the lodge. These experiences have been called religious. What kind of experiences have you had at the top of the mountain?
I have thought about my experience at the top of the mountain. But my experiences are pale compared to the experiences of Jesus and his mountain top experiences. There was those times he went up on the mountain to be alone with God. There was his teaching on the mountain for the crowds who heard the Beatitudes for the first time. What about the Feeding of the 5.000?
But there is the trip he took up that mountain that changed the World. There was that lonely struggle up the mountain call Golgotha. There was a crowd that mocked him. But in side He knew what lay ahead of him. He made it to the top of that mountain. He was beaten, blooded and barely alive. But he kept on going up the hill. He knew He was not coming down the mountain like He went up. He went up as the Son of God. He came down as the instrument by which the grace of God came into the world. It is free and a gift of God. But it cost Him his only begotten son.
I do not know what you think of on the your mountain top. But There was a mountain called Golgotha a cross, a sacrifice, a love, and a grace. But that experience was blessed by not being the end. It was the beginning of a new life, called eternal.
As we climb that mountain again to the cross. Remember that we are Easter people and Resurrection people.
The mountains from where my help comes. I grew up on the Plains of Texas. The land there is very flat. Some people refer to people who live there as "flatlanders." You can see for miles and miles in all directions. There is nothing to block your view. There are no hills, mountains or trees to block the view. People that live there do not feel closed in.
Mountains did not become significant until I made a couple of trips to Colorado. There I was introduced to mountains. What a wonderful sight to behold.I had read about mountains in school. But until you see one and climb one. Then you can appreciate a mountain.
There was the trip up Pike's Peak. I have made up in a car. That was fun to drive up that little road that reached the top. It was sunny at the bottom of the mountain, When we reached the top of the mountain it was covered in snow. There was a beautiful view of the land below. You could see the towering trees blowing in the breeze. You could see the different colors of the grasslands ,lakes, and streams.
I got a chance to go back a few years later. This time i got to ride a cable car slowly to the top. Being the impatient person at that time I wanted to be at the top as quick as we could. Plus being afraid of heights did not help the situation any. slowly we moved very slowly to the top of the mountain. We were close to the trees and we could see the ground slowly pass underneath the cable car. This time when we reached the top of Pikes Peak the sun was shinning. You could see clearly in all directions. It was amazing, breath taking and nothing like I had ever seen. God was there in all his beauty and glory.
When I graduated from high school we were lucky enough to get to go Colorado for our school trip. We went to the Air Force Academy for a tour. We drove up in a chartered bus in front of the chapel.There was this most unusual building I had ever seen. There was this steel and stain glass windows that looked like the praying hands. We went up the steps to the Protestant Chapel to tour the facility. It was a huge space that would easily hold 1,000 worshipers for a service. There was a young man in the choir loft practicing for an organ recital. The music was out of this world. I had never heard music like that. We walk to up to the chancel rail and a strange thing happened. The hair on my arms and my neck stood up, a cold chill traveled through my body and I began to cry. I really do not know what caused this, but i feel that it was the brush of the hand of God on me.
People have all kinds of mountain top experiences. For a skier it is the thrill of going down hill at high speed. For the not so adventurous there is the quiet cup of coffee, tea or chocolate sipped from the deck of the lodge. These experiences have been called religious. What kind of experiences have you had at the top of the mountain?
I have thought about my experience at the top of the mountain. But my experiences are pale compared to the experiences of Jesus and his mountain top experiences. There was those times he went up on the mountain to be alone with God. There was his teaching on the mountain for the crowds who heard the Beatitudes for the first time. What about the Feeding of the 5.000?
But there is the trip he took up that mountain that changed the World. There was that lonely struggle up the mountain call Golgotha. There was a crowd that mocked him. But in side He knew what lay ahead of him. He made it to the top of that mountain. He was beaten, blooded and barely alive. But he kept on going up the hill. He knew He was not coming down the mountain like He went up. He went up as the Son of God. He came down as the instrument by which the grace of God came into the world. It is free and a gift of God. But it cost Him his only begotten son.
I do not know what you think of on the your mountain top. But There was a mountain called Golgotha a cross, a sacrifice, a love, and a grace. But that experience was blessed by not being the end. It was the beginning of a new life, called eternal.
As we climb that mountain again to the cross. Remember that we are Easter people and Resurrection people.
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