The buzz of religious experience

I'm surprised, pleasantly so, to read something like this in the pages of Christianity Today. Mark Galli writes:

There are many reasons to question the amount of attention our age gives to helping people have memorable religious experiences. For one, other religions seem to be equally capable of giving people an encounter with transcendence. For another, as we now increasingly see, drugs seem to be able to do the same thing.

Similarly, we rightly question making our faith mostly about "deeds not creeds"—as if the Christian faith were primarily a religious ethic. Again, most of the ethical injunctions of Christianity are found in other world religions, and are even championed by many atheists. You don't need revelation to figure out that adultery, stealing, and murder are really bad ideas, and that there is something noble about caring for other human beings. We have countless examples of Hindus, Muslims, Jews, and others—even agnostics and atheists—living upright lives and giving themselves in sacrificial service to the marginalized.

In short, what Christians uniquely have to offer the world is not religious experience or even a unique religious way of life. We're not hawking "your best religion now," for our religion, upon close examination, seems no more admirable or sinful than any other religion. Christianity stands under the judgment and grace of God—as do all religions.

No, what Christians bring to the world is a message embedded in a story, and nothing less than a God-given, God-revealed message and story.

That's good! Personally, my "memorable religious experiences" come more often from a well-crafted IPA, a great film, or hearing my son say da-da, than they do in a worship service. But it's through placing myself under the ministry of Word and sacrament, and attending to the ordinary means of grace, that I find myself mysteriously and excitingly being transformed into the image of Christ. I'm not the man I used to be, and by God's grace, I'm not the man I will be. That's memorable enough for me.