Life is full of mountain-top experiences, most often followed by deep valley experiences. Something glorious happens to get our attention, but before we know it, we are sliding down into the slough of dismay, if not depression, as our scriptures today point out.

In our lesson from the Hebrew scriptures, we see the coronation of David as king over all Israel, surely a mountain-top experience in his life, but before long, his son, Absalom, tries to usurp the kingdom (11 Sam.15), and David is in the deepest agony of grief when Absalom is killed. The psalmist extols the power and beauty of Jerusalem, of Mt. Zion, but we know what follows later is the destruction of Jerusalem in 66 A.D., from mountain high to valley low. In our epistle, Paul goes from his ecstatic experience in Paradise to a thorn in the flesh, to experiencing “weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities” in his valley times. Jesus, in our gospel lesson, finds a valley in his hometown following his mountain successes in calming the storm, teaching and healing throughout the countryside, and from this side of Easter, we know he has more mountain/valley experiences ahead. So we are in good company when we find ourselves experiencing mountain tops and valleys in our own lives.

Of course, we’d all like to stay on the mountain top, bathed in glory, Peter, being our prime example where, on the Mount of Transfiguration, he wants to build three dwellings—one each for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus (Mk9:5). The rarefied atmosphere of the mountaintop, however, doesn’t last—what goes up must come down, as they say [perhaps that is the spiritual lesson gravity has for us]. Our task is to take the grace of the mountaintop experience back into our daily lives, letting the gifts of God’s presence, the awareness of God’s love, continue to feed us in the situations and circumstances of our lives. Being thankful for the ways God works in our lives, expressing our gratitude for God’s presence in our valleys as well as on the mountain tops is a good way to accomplish that, trusting the Divine to provide just what we need to grow in God’s love, to recognize and accept our oneness with all creation.