God's holy mountain

Psalm 15
Journal entry dated March 7, 2005

"Lord, who has the right to make his home in your tent, to dwell on your holy mountain?"

What does it mean to dwell on God's holy mountain? The mountain is an image of ascent. Like the Kingdom of God, the mountain of God represents a movement towards a better world. On God's holy moutain, human relations are undistorted by falsehood and slander, the basis of abusive and exploitative relationships. On God's holy mountain, no human being mistreats another. On God's holy mountain, the poor and needy are not oppressed by those who exploit their insecure position for their own gain. God's holy mountain is a shining image of a better world rising up before us from the plain--Sodom and Gomorrah, the "cities of the plain."

The image of God's holy moutain asks us the question whether we have the courage to speak the difficult truth rather than the convenient lie; whether we have the will to cease slandering and sabotaging others, and instead support and uphold their dignity; whether we have the compassion to extricate ourselves from exploitative relationships, to raise up the fallen so that we may look one another in the face as equals.

God's holy mountain is that part of the world that is straining towards heaven.