Proclaiming on the Highest Mountain

Have you ever heard the phrase, "I'll proclaim it from the highest mountain top"? It's a phrase that is in common usage, or it used to be (I'm not sure sometimes, because I use archaic phrases too). I'm not sure where it came from. I think that it was from the Bible, and the closest thing I could find was Isaiah 40:9. And it's also sort of like the song "Go Tell it on the Mountain."

O Zion, messenger of good news, shout from the mountaintops! Shout it louder, O Jerusalem. Shout, and do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah, "Your God is coming!"

So I used this phrase in my head a few months ago, thinking of what I would do because I was desperate to be heard. I wanted help, and I wanted someone to respond. But what was I willing to do? I think I sent an email or two. I could have posted a status update. I would have proclaimed it from the highest mountain top.

It's one of the phrases that we throw out in a sort of exaggeration. But then I got to thinking about it.
These days, if we want to say something and be heard, we post it on Facebook. Or online somewhere. Because you know, infinite reaches of the world wide web and everything.

But honestly, how much effort does it take to post a status update? Next to none.

How much effort does it take to climb a mountain? So much. You're climbing up past comfortable human breathing points. Have you ever climbed a mountain? I haven't. I've climbed a foothill in that hike to the A that about every APU student does. That was hard for me. But a mountain is SO MUCH HIGHER than a foothill. Professional mountain climber people train for years to climb the highest mountains, and when they do, it's a life-changing experience. I think most of them say that it was one of the best, most memorable experiences of their lives.

So the question is, what would you climb a mountain for? What would be so important for people to hear that you would climb a freaking MOUNTAIN?

When the Israelites are told to shout from the mountain tops, the phrase doesn't just mean that they will shout the good news (the Old Testament had good news too!) so everyone will hear; they mean that they will do the work and put in the effort to climb all the way up to that highest mountain.

The news about God, the maker of the universe, loving us and providing for us is important enough for the kind of hike that marks a huge change in your life.

God Chooses Low-Status People for Awesome Things

So, Luke. The Bible's really weird, because I flipped through Matthew, Mark, and John, and the books are all so different. Luke is basically the only Gospel that talks about Jesus's life before his ministry. I mean, Matthew spends two chapters on it, but even then most of chapter one is a list of names, and lots of chapter two is stuff that focuses on Joseph.

Luke is the third Gospel in the Bible. They're all in a row. So what's the focus in Luke?

I only read until the sixth chapter, so I obviously don't have everything. But I can at least tell you what I got out of the first part.

The first couple of chapters focus on humble people being exalted and the fulfillment of God's promises (although, to be fair, the whole Bible is basically about how God fulfills his covenant with his people).

1) People that are righteous with God get the good news and the holy babies. Conditions?

• If you're Zechariah and you question the good news, you are still shown mercy and get the holy baby (in his case John the Baptist), but you get turned mute because you should know better. I mean, really, if you're so close to God as to be a priest and the father of John the Baptist, why would you question God?

• If you're Mary and you just ask how it will happen and then say, "let it be," well, you get to be Jesus's earth-mother.

2) The humble people (as in, good-hearted and poor) are exalted. This is a key theme in Luke (and the whole Bible, too).

Don't Break the Chain: Bible Style.

I started reading Luke yesterday because of something I started doing called "Don't Break the Chain." I learned it from YouTuber charlieissocoollike in his video, where he learned it from a video that learned it from Jerry Seinfeld. Charlie explains it in the video, but basically what I'm doing is reading the Bible/writing about it/praying or meditating about it for 30 minutes every day. I pick one of those three to do, and I get to make a chain on a calendar when I do it. ... Just watch the video. It'll make more sense.

At first, I was only going to read the Bible. But as I was reading it, I remembered what I'd learned from Dr. Baloian's class for Exo/Deut, and I realized that simply reading for half an hour wasn't going to do anything. The Bible isn't like an anthology where you get to pick a chapter and start reading. Well, you can do that. I do that. But if you do, you won't get the whole point of it. You need to think. Mediate, like Bruner's Lectio Divina that he likes talking about. So I realized that I needed to think about it and draw conclusions, and what better place to draw conclusions than in a blog that nobody reads?

I remember Baloian saying that when the books or chapters of the Bible repeat themselves, like Jesus's life four times over, it is like adding an exclamation point to the topic, but it also reframes it.