Rev. Darren’s sermon on the Sunday before Lent.
Darren begins by reflecting on Evelyn Underhill’s phrase that “God is the interesting thing about religion.” While religion can involve robes, buildings, music and politics, these are secondary to the deeper question of God. In Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration, Peter, James and John are given a glimpse of Jesus’ true identity: his face shines like the sun, Moses and Elijah appear beside him, and the disciples encounter what Darren calls a taste of “the really real.” These mountaintop moments – experiences of beauty, wonder, music, art, or the sheer mystery of life – are often where our talk about God begins. In the words of a child in one of Darren’s stories, “God is wow.”
But the sermon then turns from “the wow” to “the world.” Peter wants to stay on the mountain, prolonging the spiritual experience, but Jesus leads the disciples back down into the valley, where a distressed family needs healing for their suffering child. Darren argues that the spiritual life must hold together contemplation and action, the mountaintop and the valley, wonder and service. Faith is not meant to become so heavenly minded that it is no earthly use; it must shape ordinary kindness, generosity and engagement with the needs around us.
The sermon closes by asking each listener to consider the balance in their own life between stillness and action. Some may be tempted to retreat from the world’s overwhelming needs and may be called to greater involvement; others may be constantly busy and need to make room for silence, reflection and openness to God. The purpose of the spiritual life, Darren says, is not simply to make us more religious, but more fully human and fully alive – alive to the mountaintop moments, alive to the needs in the valley, alive to the wow in the world, and alive to God.