This Week’s Sermon

~ May 18, 2025 ~ (Contemporary) (Traditional)

“When in Doubt, Keep Climbing!”

Psalm 67, John 21:1-19 May 18, 2025

When we talk about our faith, we often talk about our “Mountaintop Experiences.”  You know what I mean by that.  It’s a common metaphor.  The “mountaintops” are the “high points” in our faith, the times that were great, and inspirational, and helped our faith to grow and mature.  I’ve often asked us to think about those “high points” in your faith.  That’s what helps us to remember what brought us to this place in our spiritual journey.

Well, today, I want you to think, not so much about the mountaintop experience.  I want you to think about “the climb.”  I want you to think about what it’s like moving forward, moving upward in your faith, and what it takes to get to a higher level.  And, as my sermon title says I want you to think, “When in doubt, keep climbing!”

Have any of you ever climbed a mountain?  I’ve climbed several in Colorado and New Mexico.  (And of course I’ve been to many mountaintops on ski lifts!)  Sometimes when we think of mountain climbing, we think about ropes, and rocks, and cliffs.  But sometimes climbing a mountain is simply a matter of walking up a steep hill.  However, if you’re above the tree line, it can be a steep hill covered with loose rock and gravel!  So, if you’re climbing a mountain that way, you can slip backwards sometimes.  But you’re still climbing!

Another thing about climbing a mountain is that sometimes you have to stop and rest!  If you haven’t been there before, imagine climbing a long staircase – only at say, 12,000 feet!  The first mountain I climbed was Baldy Mount, at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, when I was about 15.  And Baldy was just a few feet shy of 12,500 feet.  I was never up that high before, and I was surprised near the top – even as teenager –  how I could only take about 10 steps and then I had to rest and catch my breath!  We all did!

The other thing that can happen when you’re climbing a mountain is that you can reach a rise in the trail ahead of you that obscures your view of the summit.  So you think you’re near the top.  But then, when you get over the rise, and you can see ahead, you see that there’s still a long way to go!

I was just in the mountains of Idaho, and being there brought back all of those memories.  And it made me think of the journey of faith.  And as I think of all that, it’s no surprise to me that faith is often thought about in terms of “mountaintop experiences.”  That is a common metaphor.

The disciples had been on quite a journey!  They had been on quite a “climb,” if you will.  And they had been to a number of mountaintops with Jesus, in some cases, literally!  He took them to the mountains!  They had also been in some of the deepest of valleys – to continue that metaphor.

We don’t know why they went back to fishing in our reading for today.  Probably they thought the whole “Jesus thing” was over.  Either they had enough, or they didn’t think they needed to go further, or they just thought that was all there was.  They reached that rise on the mountain trail and they couldn’t see the top, and they didn’t think they needed to go any higher.

Sometimes we feel that way in our faith journey, don’t we?  We have times in our lives when we think we’ve gone high enough, or we don’t think there is anything higher.  Or maybe the climb has become more difficult, or the air is getting too thin, or we’ve slid backwards on the loose gravel.  And besides, isn’t it down in the valleys and the plains where life is really lived?  Isn’t that what we should focus on?

Then there was Peter.  He was the one who first said he was “going fishing” – going back to his previous life.  We might say it was his life “BC.”  It was life “Before Christ.”  But his decision to do that may have been based on more.  He had denied Jesus!  We can only imagine why.  It was probably fear, for the most part.  Fear with maybe some uncertainty thrown in.  But whatever it was, I believe that denial hung over his head and haunted him ever since!  (You know that when you have a bad experience like that with someone, it doesn’t go away until you resolve it.)

Maybe there are times we’ve felt that way in our faith journey.  We’ve failed.  We’ve been confronted by the voice of the world around us and we too have denied we know Jesus!  And maybe that’s just a matter that we’ve said nothing when our faith was challenged.  And you know that some people mistake silence for agreement!  So maybe we’ve slid backwards down that mountain, and maybe even gotten bruised up a bit in the process.  And we aren’t sure we can even get back to where we were before, let alone go any higher!  And maybe we’re not all that sure why we started climbing in the first place.

Everyone who has climbed mountains can tell you that no matter how hard the climb, it’s always worth the view at the top.  It’s the same with our faith.  But maybe there are times we’ve forgotten that.  The way to remember that is to stop and look out along the way!  There are great views on the way up, too!

The disciples learned that day that there was more!  There was more, that was beyond their complacency, their lack of vision, or their outright fear.  And don’t forget, they all deserted Jesus!  Peter denied him, but they all ran!  And it’s the same with us.  But there’s more!  There’s always more!  And there’s more that is beyond our complacency, our lack of vision, or our outright fear and uncertainty!

So what do we do?  Well, I want to tell you today, that we keep climbing!  Especially when in doubt.  We keep climbing!  When we think we’ve gone far enough and there is no more, we keep climbing!  When we’ve slipped back a little – or a lot – we keep climbing!

And remember that it’s always better, it’s always safer, when we climb together.  Sometimes we need that encouragement from each other!  Sometimes we need someone to say, “You can do it!”  Or we need someone to grab our hand and pull us up and keep us going.  Or we need to show someone else that it can be done!  On some of the more difficult climbs, climbers will rope themselves together – for safety!  For us, there’s comfort in knowing that we are connected our faith journey!

I saw a lot of Aspen trees in Idaho.  I’ve also seen them in Colorado when they turn whole sides of mountains golden in the fall.  But there’s a funny thing about aspen trees.  They produce seeds, but the seeds are mostly sterile.  They don’t grow.  Aspen trees grow from shoots that come up from their roots.  That makes me think of Isaiah 11.  “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.”

Because of that, an entire grove of aspen trees is often one single plant!  That makes aspen groves some of the biggest living things on the planet!  So when we think, “I’m only one person, “What can I do?,” when we think, “How much influence can my one life of faith have in the world?,” we can remember the aspen trees, and we can know that, we may be one person, but we’re connected.  And together we are a mighty army of believers, we are all “one in the body of Christ.”  So when we climb, we climb together!  (And by the way, aspens tend to love the mountains.  Maybe they just want to be part of the metaphor!)

Of course, it goes almost without saying, that God is with us on the climb.  But I’m glad to say it, anyway!  And I want to end with this.  Because Jesus was there with Peter, even in his time of abject failure!  And now, by the sea, he wanted to remind him that he, Peter, loved Jesus.  He didn’t say, “Simon, son of John, I love you.”  He asked, “Simon, Son of John, do you love me.”  There is no doubt that Jesus loved Peter!  But he reminded Peter that day of his love for him.  And then he confirmed him, saying, “Feed my sheep.”  He was saying, “Keep climbing, Peter!”

We need that, too!  We need to be reminded that we love God.  There are many promises in the Bible that God loves us.  They’re hard to believe sometimes, but they’re there!  But what we need to remember is that we love God.  Remember the first commandment.  “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.”  So I ask you today, do you?  Do you love God?  “Jesus loves me, this I know.”  But do you love him?

He’s there with you, on the journey – on the climb!  And yes, there will be days when you’ll feel complacent, when you think this is all there is.  There will be days when you’ll lack vision, when you can’t see the way ahead.  They will be days when you’ll doubt, days when your fears will get the better of you.  There’ll be days when you’ll face uncertainty.  But you can know we are in this together.  We are part of that mighty army of God, that “Great cloud of witnesses.”

So, when in doubt, keep climbing!  When you’re uncertain, keep climbing!  When you’re afraid, keep climbing!  We’re in this together, and God is with us.  We may not always see the summit, but we can always take the next step.  And we never climb alone!

Prayer

Eternal God, we thank you that you have chosen to live among us in Christ Jesus.  So, in our uncertainty, in our doubts, and in our fears, help us to know that you are still with us, and that you love us, and that we love you!  Help us to have the courage, to keep moving forward, to keep climbing, no matter what we may face.  For we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.