The Wonder of Mountains

A sermon by Kennneth P. Langer
Copyright 2023, K. Langer

When I was a teenager I once came home after my curfew time and I knew I was in trouble with my father. Instead of yelling at me or grounding me for three months, he stood at the door and simply told me to get in the car. We drove in the middle of the night without speaking a word. Eventually, we drove into the woods until we reached a mountain trail where we parked and he told me to get out. We walked in the cold and the dark up a steep trail. I was frightened and worried but he didn’t say anything; he just told me to sit down at the top of the trail until the sun rose over the horizon. Suddenly the world opened up and I saw beauty revealed all around me. I knew then what my father was trying to pass on to me. Instead of yelling at me, he let the mountain speak.

Part of the inspiration for this sermon came from a book entitled Spiritual Literacy by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. The idea of the book is that parts of nature can be read and interpreted as you would any scripture from a sacred text. In other words, the entire world can be our Bible. As Unitarian Universalists we believe that a “free and responsible search for truth and meaning,” our fourth principle, can be found through different means including, as the first source in our list of sources reads, “Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures.” So, today I would like to read a chapter from the gospel of nature about mountains.

What do mountains represent? For human beings, mountains are sacred places. For some, they are the Axis Mundi or the center of the world like the mythical Mount Meru which is sacred to Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists or the famous Kunlun Mountains of China or Uluru in Australia.

Mountains are the homes of the gods. In ancient Greece and Rome, each god and goddess lived on their own sacred mountain. In Tibet, Mt. Kailash is home to the Hindu god Shiva but is also a hallowed peak to Buddhists, Jains, and the indigenous Bon religion. The famous Mt. Fuji in Japan is named after the Buddhist goddess Fuchi but is also the residence of the Shinto goddess Sengen Sama. Mount Macy, in the Adirondacks, is one of the abodes of the Great Spirit of the Iroquois.

Mountains are where the gods and the goddesses descend from above and deliver important messages to their people. Moses received the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai and at Mount Noor, Muhammed received his first revelation from Allah. Jesus’ most famous teaching was his Sermon on the Mount spoken in a place now called the Mount of the Beatitudes. And there are many more examples.

These are things humans have seen in mountains for thousands of years but I believe there are also important messages that we can get from mountains today.

For one thing, Mountains appear to be permanent, unmoving, unchanging but the reality of that vision is different. All mountains are the result of great violence and are constantly being transformed. In human terms we might say they were forged from trauma but show great resilience.

Mountains are formed in one of three ways. They can be the result of a volcano that spews hot magma from the depth of the earth out onto the land. Very hot lava rises up and out from the ground and then cools until a mountain and new land is created. This is how we got the volcanoes and islands of Hawaii.

The second way that mountains develop is through the subduction of tectonic plates. The surface of our planet is divided into separate tectonic plates that float on that same hot magma that supplies volcanoes. Those plates bump into each other which is how we get earthquakes but when one plate slips under another, the rising plate can force itself over the other plate and become a range of mountains like the Rocky Mountains.

A third way for mountains to appear is when one land mass forcefully slams itself into another land mass. The highest mountains in the world, the Himalayas, were forced up when the subcontinent of India–which was once a part of what we now call South America–traveled across the ocean and rammed into the southern coast of Asia forcing the land to rise toward the sky. All three of these methods caused massive disruptions to the earth but after all the turmoil, what remained were strong, tall, and proud mountains.

But, those mountains are not as permanent as they appear. Like everything else, they evolve; it’s just that they take millions of years to change. The land they occupy is constantly moving and the forces of wind, rain, ice, and snow are always reshaping them. Perhaps the spiritual message here is that trauma or difficult challenges can shape us into something even stronger than before but not to be so firm that you cannot face the winds of change that may come your way.

Mountains can also signify the presence of difficult obstacles on the path. Mountains are unaccommodating to the weary traveler. They are easier to go around than to go over. There’s a story about a farmer in a remote Asian village whose wife became very ill. He could not get to the village doctor because the doctor lived on the other side of a mountain. The farmer’s wife died and he spent the next 25 years of his life with a pick and shovel cutting a hole in that mountain so that others could get to the doctor he was not able to see. Mountains can, indeed, be formidable obstacles.

Consider for a moment the tallest mountain in the world–Mount Everest. It sits on the border between Nepal and Tibet in the Himalayas. One cannot simply pack a quick lunch, put on some hiking boots, and then take a day hike over it. In fact, you cannot go up the mountain in a single trek. There is one base camp and then three smaller camps situated along the way to its summit. To get to the top you have to hike to the first camp and then hike back down to the base camp because the pressures of the cold and low oxygen require your body to slowly adapt. Only after you are able to feel comfortable at the second camp can you go on to the third, and so on. Furthermore, It’s possible that you could go through that entire process, reach the final camp, and then have your entire trip canceled because the weather has turned rough and made it impossible to climb. The greater the mountain, the more patience is required to overcome it. Sometimes we may have to weigh the inspiring perspective a view from the top can give us with the amount of effort and sacrifice we will have to make to get there.

Sometimes mountains represent adventure: the thrill of the climb, scenes of remarkable beauty all along its valleys and slopes, and a chance to bask in the peace and beauty of all the plants and animals nestled in its bounty. Mountains can be the goal of a sacred pilgrimage or the end of a long journey. Perhaps another lesson of mountains is to enjoy the vision of its majesty and appreciate the chance to be touched and inspired by its splendor.

That was one of the lessons I learned that morning sitting on the top of a mountain at dawn with my father. We sat at the throne of the gods and watched the sun splash colors across the landscape with its golden light. I learned humility as I sat there. I saw that I was but a tiny human in the vast grandeur of nature. At first the mountain to me was an obstacle, something to be feared, then it became a teacher whose message needed no words. The experience shook me, it destroyed my own landscape, but I rose from it and became transformed. It was a sacred gift given to me and I have carried it with me all these years.

I invite you to join me in considering what mountains might teach us. For example, what things have formed you and shaped you into who you are today? Can you stand proud and firm even though the winds and the earth are constantly changing? Mountains need no reason, require no approval, or need not fill out any paperwork to be the magnificent towers of dignity that they already are. And the same is true for you.

As you look out on the landscape of your life, what obstacles do you see? Which ones need to be overcome? Which ones can you go around? Which ones are calling out for you to be patient and steadfast as you walk along your trail? Which ones do you need to simply stop and enjoy?

These are some of the questions we can ask as we read the Book of Mountain in the Bible of Nature. May it inspire you, teach you, and fill you with wonder.

In the name of that which you hold in your heart to be most sacred, may it be so.