SPB Sermons || Contending For Hope Part 5 || 1 Peter 1:22-25 || Life in the Ordinary || Rev Andrew Irwin

From the Mountain to the Ordinary: Contending for Hope in Everyday Life

There is something about mountain-top moments that stays with us. Whether it is the physical experience of climbing high and looking out across a wide horizon, or the spiritual experience of clarity, beauty, and nearness to God, these moments feel weighty. They lift our eyes beyond what is immediate, beyond what is heavy, and remind us that there is more to reality than what sits in front of us today. And yet, the strange and honest truth of the Christian life is this: we are not meant to live on the mountain. We are always brought back down into the valley, into the ordinary, into the daily rhythms of work, family, relationships, pressures, and perseverance.

On Transfiguration Sunday, as we continue our series in 1 Peter, Contending for Hope, we find ourselves holding together these two worlds: the mountain of glory and the valley of ordinary obedience. In Matthew 17, Peter, James, and John glimpse the glory of Jesus. His face shines, His clothes are radiant, and for a moment the veil is pulled back. It is a moment of awe. It is a moment Peter wants to preserve. “Lord, it is good for us to be here,” he says. He wants to stay. He wants to build shelters. He wants to hold onto the brightness. But God interrupts him with a simple, weighty command: “This is my Son, whom I love… Listen to Him.” And then Jesus leads them back down the mountain, towards suffering, towards the cross, towards the ordinary road of faithfulness.

Peter never forgot that moment. Years later, writing to scattered and weary believers in 1 Peter, he does not promise them constant mountain-top experiences. Instead, he points them to something that lasts longer than any moment: the living and enduring Word of God. “All people are like grass,” he writes, “and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” The mountain-top fades. The moment passes. The intensity softens. But the Word remains. And it is by this Word that we are born again, sustained, and shaped for life in the ordinary.

That truth is deeply freeing. It reminds us that the Christian life is not about chasing experiences or sustaining emotional highs. It is about learning to walk faithfully with God when life feels flat, heavy, or unseen. It is about trusting that God is at work not only in moments of visible glory, but in the slow, often hidden obedience of everyday life. Faith is not proven on the mountain. Faith is formed in the valley. It is lived out in kitchens, classrooms, workplaces, hospital corridors, school gates, and ordinary streets in our city.

This is where Peter becomes deeply practical. Flowing from the gospel, from redemption, from new birth by the living Word, he gives a simple but searching call: “Love one another deeply, from the heart.” The glory of God is not simply something to behold; it is something to embody. The outworking of what we have seen of God is how we live with one another. The church is called to be a community shaped by deep love – not selective love, not convenient love, not surface-level kindness, but a love that bears with one another, forgives one another, serves one another, and keeps showing up when it would be easier to withdraw.

This love is not rooted in our own strength. Peter is clear that it flows from new birth. We love because we have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God. The Christian life is not moral self-improvement; it is spiritual rebirth. God gives new life, and from that new life grows new loves, reordered desires, and a deepening capacity to love others in costly and patient ways. The Word of God does not simply inform us; it forms us. It plants in us a life that grows into love.

There is also a realism in Peter’s words. Everything in this world fades. Glory passes. Strength weakens. Institutions rise and fall. Cities change. Cultures shift. Even good and meaningful things are temporary. But the Word of the Lord endures forever. That means our hope is not anchored in what we can build, maintain, or preserve. It is anchored in what God has spoken and what God has done in Christ. And because our hope is anchored there, we are freed to live generously, humbly, and courageously in the present. We do not cling tightly to what fades. We hold fast to what endures.

For us, in this season of life together as a church in our city, that is both a comfort and a challenge. It comforts us because we are not sustained by our own energy, visibility, or success. We are sustained by the Word of God that does not fade. And it challenges us because the call of Christ is not to preserve moments of glory, but to live faithfully in the ordinary. To love deeply. To serve patiently. To keep walking the road of obedience when it feels costly. To listen to Jesus, not only admire Him. The mountain shows us who He is; the valley shows whether we trust Him.

If you are feeling weary in faith, this passage is gentle with you. It reminds you that God does not ask you to manufacture glory. He invites you to listen to His Son and to cling to His Word. If you are feeling restless, chasing the next spiritual high, this passage reorients you. The Christian life is not about staying on the mountain; it is about carrying the truth of the mountain into everyday life. And if you are feeling ordinary, unseen, or small, this passage dignifies the ground you are standing on. It is in the ordinary that God shapes His people, forms love, and grows hope.

You can listen to the full sermon here:

If you are local to North Belfast, you would be very welcome to join us at St Paul’s & St Barnabas each Sunday at 10:30am. We gather not because we have everything together, but because we are learning, week by week, to listen to Jesus, to be shaped by His Word, and to contend for hope together in the ordinary realities of life. Whether you are exploring faith, returning to church, or have been walking with Christ for many years, you are welcome to come and journey with us as we seek to follow Jesus in our city.