Everest and Easter

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Everest and Easter – a mountain top experience

Last weekend I had a mountain top experience.

But first some context. I was in Kathmandu for two week’s teaching and preaching. Saturday is church day and so I went to church and preached an Easter sermon.

So, my Sunday was different to normal. Instead of being in pew or pulpit, I was on a scenic flight (thank you Buddha Air). Bright and early we soared aloft from Kathmandu airport and headed for Mnt Everest. My host had suggested that I take the trip and I was resolved not to spend the rest of my life with the regret of missing the opportunity.

The Nepalese mountains are stunning and Everest is prince among them. For minute after minute, we passed the grandeur of snow-clad peaks, ridges and valleys around which light and shadow played. All too soon it was down to earth and the city of man.

Stunning though my Easter Everest was, it was not the real mountain top experience this Easter. That experience was on the Saturday. There we were – a group of people who differed in ethnicity, gender, age, education and all the rest. What united us was the risen, reigning and returning Christ. He was present in the praise singing, the preaching of his word, the Lord’s Supper and in the fellowship. As we participated in him by faith we were united to one another in faith, hope and love.

Everest is stunning. Better still is Mount Zion, the mountain of the house of God where God’s people gather week by week in the new temple that is Jesus.