Sermons

Sunday next before Lent
Sunday 22 February 2009

David Paton-Williams
Readings: 2 Corinthians 4 v3-6, Mark 9 v2-9

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

Have you ever had a religious experience? I remember being asked that question once by some teenagers in an RE class.
How would you answer that question?

The problem I had was that by "religious experience" they seemed to be thinking of an experience that was somehow totally extraordinary, like that of Peter, James and John on the mountain top, or like speaking in tongues.

Well I tried to say to them was that I do have religious experiences but that my experiences and those of most people are far more ordinary and low-key, but no less real.

A religious experience is that moment when we become aware that God is with us and at work in us and in our world.

And usually that isn't something spectacular, but something that is going on day by day.

As Jesus says so often in the parables, God's kingdom (which is the way God is present and active) is usually
- something small and easily missed like a mustard seed or a pearl
- something hidden, like treasure buried in the soil of our everyday lives;
- or like a bit of yeast mixed into the flour of our ordinary experiences
What we experience as Christians isn't God in a pure, direct and immediate way - that would be too much for us, far too much.

Rather God touches us and speaks to us in and through what happens every day:

- in the awareness of beauty and wonder in nature
- in the coincidences that happen when we pray or the sense of being held by the prayers of others
- in the experience of fellowship in times together with others
- in a renewed sense of hope or strength or well-being, or a chink of light when all seems desperate
- in a new insight and the ability to see life in a new way
- in a sense of God's presence with us in our worship together

These and many more are religious experiences.

Or at least they can be if we recognise that in these ordinary human experiences we are being met and touched by our extraordinary God; that here God is shining his light into the darkness of our lives and our world.

But of course there are times when people are given something more unusual and extraordinary, when the encounter with God is more intense and intimate and profound.

The experience of Peter, James and John on the mountain was certainly at the top end of the scale of religious experiences

- to be aware of the eternal light of God shining through Jesus was life-changing for the three of them

- not at the time - they didn't seem to understand what was going on and they struggled to stay awake (a part of the story that gives comfort to all preachers)

But later on - when Jesus died and their world collapsed around them, they had something to hold on to so the seed of faith was buried deep in grief and doubt until it burst forth on Easter Day

Very occasionally in our lives we may be given an experience like that

We may be given a new glimpse of God, or a new insight into ourselves our faith is deepened and we know that God has been shining his light into our hearts.

That may seem like being on a mountain top or the experience may happen in the deepest darkest valley of our lives and we know that whatever we may have to go through we are not alone

Or we may have a deep sense of just how much we need God's grace and forgiveness and then discover the freedom of knowing ourselves to be forgiven

Or we discover a new intimacy in prayer

Or we know that we are being called into a new life of service to offer ourselves for the sake of others in the church or the world

These experiences are not the ordinary everyday sort of religious experience. They are like being with Christ on the mountain top, or in the dark valley.

But we can't go looking for them, they come unexpected and out of the blue, because they are simply a gift from God

And we are not the only people to have these sorts of experiences - whether ordinary or extraordinary Some recent research found that perhaps as many as 70% of people have had experiences that we might want to call experiences of God - even if that is not how they themselves see them.

If that is true then evangelism may not be as much about taking God to people as helping them to reflect on their experiences, to recognise God in the experiences they already have. And even as Christians we don't always recognise them; or we can sometimes have a secret fear that somehow our faith isn't quite up to the mark because we don't seem to have the same sort of experiences of God as others.

If so, we need to trust that God is with us just as much as anyone else, but that we may need to take the time to notice him.
Taking the time to notice God is what we call prayer not the kind of prayer that is full of a long shopping list of what we want from God (though there is a place for that)

but the reflective prayer where we look back over the day so that we can notice the little hidden signs (or sometimes the great big obvious signs) that we missed, signs that God is with us.

So sometimes we have big religious experiences and very occasionally life-changing ones but more often they are part of the fabric of everyday life.

Later this week the church remembers George Herbert He served God as a humble country vicar 400 years ago but wrote some of the most profound religious poems many of which became much-loved hymns.

He wrote "Teach me my God and King in all things thee to see" - reminding us that in every moment, every task, every person there is the chance to recognise that God is with us and is shining his light in our hearts, just as he shone on that mountain top.

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay