Let me share with you an experience of holy awe shared by Thomas Merton, the American Trappist monk, and contemplative, peace worker, and writer. This is Thomas Merton’s account of what has been called his “Fourth and Walnut Experience,” which occurred when he was out walking in downtown Louisville KY:

 “In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation …

“This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. And I suppose my happiness could have taken form in the words:“Thank God, thank God that I am like other [people], that I am only a [person] among others.”…  it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun…

Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed…I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other…

At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is so to speak [God’s] name written in us in our poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence, as our sonship. It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely… I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere.”

– From “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander” pp. 153 – 154

This is the kind of experience which is beyond words, which he manages to convey with words … one word for this kind of experience is “Awe,” an experience of awe before a deeper and truer reality of this world, awe before a glimpse of a God’s eye view of this world.

Thomas Merton was a very special soul, with a rare clarity of spiritual insight and a rare dedication to practicing the presence of God and walking in the way of Jesus, and a rare talent for writing and teaching about it. Yet an experience of awe like this is not in fact unique. Each of us can be open to experiences of awe that can be a little glimpse of seeing things as they truly are, seeing ourselves and others as we truly are, little glimpses of this world in as it is in “God’s eye.”

Every time we say “Wow,” that can be an experience of insight, and an act of prayer.

What leads you to say “Wow”? Where do you find awe? What brings shivers to your skin, or tears to your eyes?

There has been scientific research that has confirmed the wisdom of our ancient traditions, that experiences of awe are universal in the human experience, and in fact support health, resilience, longevity, well-being, dedication to the greater good, appreciation for others and for the world, a deeper purpose to life. This is true for folks struggling to keep hope alive in desperate situations, as well as for folks who are susceptible to feeling entitled and complacent in their comfort and privilege.

Experiences of awe, however they come to us, open us to a sense of connection with what is bigger than ourselves. They free us, even for a moment, from a constricted and anxious sense of ourselves and this world.

This is what we will explore together in our worship this fall: the life-giving, soul-stirring dimensions of awe and how that can nourish our lives of faith. Overall, we all have the invitation and the challenge to cultivate a little more awe in our lives.

What leads you to say “Wow”? Where and how and with whom do you find awe? Where and how and with whom do others find awe? How can you and we more intentionally cultivate the conditions for awe to arise?

You don’t need me to tell you that we are living in very troubled and troubling times. Times of war, times of strife, times of disaster, times when we are inundates with news of inhumanity and meanness and neglect. We are now at the 25th anniversary of that horrific day that visited terror upon New York and Washington DC and central Pennsylvania. Those acts of unspeakable violence unleashed wrath and vengeance and recklessness that has kept us in a state of war, to this day.

To cultivate practices of positive awe is not at all a way of escaping the harsh realities of sin in this world, or in ourselves. Rather it is a way of returning to the antidote. When we return to glimpse of the Divine reality undergirding Creation, glimpses of God that lead us beyond a small and petty sense of ourselves and of others and this world, that open us to greater holy reality, these moments of awe can give us nurture and healing and strength and encouragement and challenge for our lives of faith as we seek to walk in the Jesus Way even through troubles and tribulations.

When I encourage us to cultivate the practice of awe, I don’t mean that we need to plant trips to the Grand Canyon or Mt. Rainer or Chartes Cathedral. More than anything, awe is about seeing the miracles in the mundane. Merton was in the shopping district of Lexington, after all.  “The gate of heaven is everywhere.”

The research into awe has identified eight primary ways that folks, across cultures, experience awe through normal life (from, (Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life” by Dacher Keltner):

Experiences of epiphany, the “aha!” moments of our lives; Experiences on the threshold of life and death; Experiences that are explicitly religious, centered around God or the Holy; Experiences of sacred geometry, of aesthetic beauty; Experiences of musical awe; Experiences of awe amidst the wild; Experiences of collective effervescence, of shared group inspiration or beauty or meaning or spirit … And do you want to guess what is at the top of the list, the most common and strongest occasion for awe?

Experiences of moral beauty. Moral beauty.

Experiences where we witness or we participate in people being good to each other. People across generations and cultures are most likely to report that experiences of moral beauty are what lead them to awe.

Thinking about the first responders running toward the twin towers can give us chills and bring tears to our eyes. Hearing Thomas Merton’s experience of overwhelming love for the essential God-bestowed beauty and goodness of random anonymous passersby … this can give us chills and bring tears to our eyes.

We recognize something deeply, unfathomably true in acts of moral beauty. Honoring these experiences as holy can help them inspire us, encourage us, challenge us, guide us and support us, lead us beyond ourselves into what is greater.

In the coming weeks we will be exploring all these various avenues for awe. Throughout I encourage you and us, and I will be endeavoring myself, to seek out and honor the ways we experience awe in our day-to-day lives. 

Above all, as people of faith, we have the opportunity in worship and in prayer to keep returning to the great and holy Mystery that is the sacred source of all life and love, the astonishing center around which orbits all that is good and true and right and beautiful, the One Whom we call “God.”

“Awe before God is the beginning of wisdom” – the Book of Proverbs teaches. The beginning of wisdom, and its middle, and end. That’s what we can practice through worship and prayer and community spirit and service. Thank you for sharing in those precious practices.

I invite you to pray with me, stirring awake to our deepest soul-relation to the astonishing Holy Mystery of our God Beyond Name:

Awe-inspiring God,

Thank you for the gift of awe. Help us to allow that gift to transform our lives, in deepening relationship with you.

Too often, we feel helpless when faced with the circumstances

of our lives, of this moment in time.

Open us to perceive anew.

Inspire us to receive our surroundings and our fellow beings with awe.

Forgive us when we move through our lives

forgetting that our hearts can be buoyed by your presence.

Be with us on this journey

as we seek again to marvel at your Holy Presence in and through and beyond this broken and beautiful world.

Amen.

Delivered Sunday, September 13, 2026, by Rev. Nathaniel Mahlberg at the United Church of Christ at Valley Forge.