United Methodist Church Westlake Village

Raiders of the Lost Ark: Finding God in Hollywood's Greatest Adventure

• United Methodist Church Westlake Village

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What happens when you pair Indiana Jones with spiritual growth? A revelation about intentional faith that might just change your spiritual journey.

Our summer movie series concludes with the ultimate adventure film—Raiders of the Lost Ark—offering surprising spiritual insights about our relationship with God. While Indy pursues the Ark of the Covenant across deserts and oceans, we discover that his determined quest mirrors our own search for deeper connection with the divine.

The biblical Ark's remarkably detailed design specifications weren't arbitrary but purposeful. Like master craftspeople who understand that meticulous attention transforms ordinary materials into something extraordinary, our spiritual lives require similar intention. Whether through careful Bible study, compassionate care for others, or technical ministry support, intentional practice becomes our pathway to knowing God more deeply.

Indiana Jones represents the quintessential American hero—resourceful, principled, and often improvising through challenges. Yet beneath the adventure lies a profound truth: he is becoming who he was meant to be through dedicated pursuit of what matters. Similarly, our spiritual growth rarely happens by accident. Developing understanding of God's peace, justice, and love demands purposeful engagement.

As fall approaches, consider how you might become a hero of faith this year. Will you join a Bible study to engage more deeply with ancient wisdom? Become a shepherd who watches over fellow members? Or perhaps contribute technical skills to extend our ministry reach? Whatever path calls to you, remember that intention is the key that unlocks spiritual transformation.

Take this adventure seriously. Find your unique pathway to a tighter relationship with God—you'll discover yourself blessed while becoming a blessing to others. The greatest adventure isn't found in ancient temples, but in an intentionally cultivated relationship with the divine.

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Pastor Darren:

Well, we've been doing this movie series and I thought today, since we're finishing it up, I would talk just a sec about the difference between what I would call a scripture sermon, or maybe a lectionary sermon, and a movie sermon, because there is some uniqueness right. With a Bible sermon, what you are generally doing is you find that scripture this is why some of us like lectionary right the calendar that lists scriptures for you to do over a three-year time and so you're handed a scripture and then you just go into a journey with this scripture and then what comes out you pray, is what God was hoping the journey would lead to, and so a lot of people like that. I tend to like that a lot. A movie sermon's different, because you find the movie you want to talk about or you have something to say, and then you go back into the Bible and you find some scripture that agrees with what you want to say, which isn't necessarily terrible, but at the same time you do feel like you're in there controlling it just a touch. So this last week for this movie series, picking this movie and I couldn't find another summer movie that I really felt like motivated to speak about and so we're in Genesis class, which we finally finished 50 chapters of Genesis. Congratulations to the class we got through. Somehow, raiders of the Lost Ark comes up. Somehow, raiders of the Lost Ark comes up and I'm thinking, and I'm thinking well, it is potentially the greatest film ever made and it's got the Ark of the Covenant in it. Maybe I should preach on Raiders of the Lost Ark, Are you with me? Good, because that's what's happening, and if you're not bad news for you, just a little bit of bad news. And I appreciate again that everybody's been up for this journey. In fact, I've been really enjoyed, pleasantly surprised, how people enjoyed this kind of diversion of talking about some pop culture things and how that speaks into our faith and our Christianity. So thank you for appreciating it as well.

Pastor Darren:

Obvious to those of us who have watched it is they are really intentionally trying to create the great American hero. Right, this is the great American hero that is doing all the things that we Americans really, really appreciate. And you can tell when you start comparing Indiana Jones to somebody like James Bond, you start seeing a little bit of what we value and distinction to what the English culture values and in some ways it makes us feel really really good and in some ways we're like boy that Indiana Jones he's really winging it. He doesn't always seem to be in control and then we realize, well, isn't that kind of American anyway? We like that winging it, sort of just getting it figured out and ingenuity and all of that stuff. We know that Indiana Jones is highly principled. He is somebody who has these values highly principled. He is somebody who has these values. They are largely archaeology-based, culturally-based, wanting to make sure that parts of the culture are shared with the current culture, that we can continue to learn from them and grow from them, which again part of why he's a hero. What's he hunting down? But his very history, his heritage as an American, hunting down the Ten Commandments, which in the Judeo-Christian faith, leads even onto Christian understandings, and our own great commandments, commandments so you're talking about. He's on the hunt for what's core to American understandings and values. And if you're wondering too, if he's supposed to be an American hero, have you ever looked to see what state is in potentially the most middle of the continental United States? Because I don't think it's Nebraska. It just might be Indiana, right, it just might be. So there's a lot of fun and intention around that and I get a lot out of it too. So just to tell you a bit of the story, in case you haven't seen the story.

Pastor Darren:

It opens up with this great scene of Indiana Jones in the jungle and he is trying to find this artifact, an important artifact of history. But it's clear also there are others on the hunt for this. And what is even more clear is that these artifacts have been protected with traps, often dangerous traps. So many of you will remember when he puts the stick down and then the poison dart comes and hits the stick. Do you remember this? And the ball that chases him down the groove and all you know the whole deal. And he's all clever with the sandbag replacing it for the artifact itself, hoping that would save everything. So we learn quickly who he is in this brief scene. It's really a fun, fun scene and I really enjoyed it.

Pastor Darren:

But he gets out and as soon as he gets out, the artifact which he managed to recover is taken from him by his nemesis, belak. I like saying that. Like that, belak, because he's a bad guy and they deserve their name to be said in a bad way, belak. He manages to escape Belak and and the natives that Belloq sends after him in a really funny scene as well, ends up back at home. And then he starts the real adventure of the movie. He is learning that they think they have found where the Ten Commandments are buried in the Ark of the Covenant and that they are going to go do this adventure, this quest to go hunt down again our history here as a Judeo-Christian people. His first stop he goes to talk to Marian right, you got to have the? Would that be a femme fatale? Hmm, I would say not. This is a romantic interest, although there's some femme fatale working there. Anyway, he needs from her this medallion that's going to help them find the Ark of the Covenant. She ends up joining him on the journey and then they start hunting and hunting and they get over into the Holy Land and they find that the group there that they are really competing with is digging in the wrong place. They get all excited. They secretly figure out where they're supposed to dig. They go in and they actually find the Ark of the Covenant. They recover it, only for Belloc to take it yet again.

Pastor Darren:

Indiana Jones, being who Indiana Jones is, manages to get the Ark of the Covenant back. Do you remember the truck chase scene and the fights in the truck Classic. And the fights in the truck Classic we need to recognize Steven Spielberg taught us how to make an action movie. After he did it, everybody went, oh okay, oh, I see how this works. So amazing scene. He finishes They've got the Ark of the Covenant. They're on a ship back to safety. They've got the Ark of the Covenant, they're on a ship back to safety. And we think, oh yeah, this is when normal movies end, right here, after the greatest chase scene we've seen in a long, long time. Only, no, they find them again. They find the ship that they're transporting the Ark of the Covenant in and they take it. And we think, oh, he's foiled again. Until we see Indiana Jones has swam from the ship over to the submarine, is now going to crawl into the submarine before the villains Nazis in this case. We should remember get away. And you remember when he's walking on that sub and weren't you just like, yes, that's America, right there. We swim from ships to subs as Americans. This is how we do it.

Pastor Darren:

Now, final scene, or final biggest scene, the Belloq and the Nazis have decided they want to look inside the Ark to see what they have before they bring it back to Hitler, right? Hitler made his way into this Sunday mornings here this summer, didn't he? I don't know what that's about, anywho, anyway. So they want to look at it first and make sure what the heck's going on. Now you might be asking yourself why do the Nazis care about the Ten Commandments? They seem to be kind of anti-faith. You know there was some certain cooperation with Christianity in what they did, but for the most part they're not a religious movement. Why do they want this? Well, the understanding was the Ten Commandments were going to be a straight pathway, communication with God. And who wouldn't want that? Well, none of y'all, then, I guess. No, all right, well, you've seen the movie? Oh yeah, you were ahead of me. You saw what happened with that direct pathway to God.

Pastor Darren:

So they set it all up. They're going to do this ritual, they're going to open up the Ark of the Covenant. They do, and what they find is just sand. It looks like decomposed Ten Commandment tablets just laying. Like decomposed Ten Commandment tablets just laying. It's just sand.

Pastor Darren:

And there's this momentary disappointment. And then terror ensues as some strange power starts to take over the whole area there and Indiana Jones, recognizing the problem or potential problem that may be a direct connection to God and communication with God will be too strong for human beings to be able to deal with. And so he and Mary and they closed their eyes. What everybody else does not survive, because they took all that God has in and it was more than a human could take in. So it was this climactic end where we had the classic chase scene, old school style, and then technology took over for a second ending Amazing movie. I won't tell you about the end because it's a little depressing, but super good movie and God was in it. So it counts for a sermon. So you might be asking yourselves all right, where are we going to go with this? Because it has to count for a sermon in some way.

Pastor Darren:

And hopefully it's obvious why I picked the passage that I picked. It is the description of what the Ark of the Covenant was supposed to be and to look like and I don't want to read it through to you and get a little bit boring, but you were hearing the explicit way it was described what they were supposed to be building and it was this box that was two cubits by one cubit by one cubit A cubit generally understood to be about this distance right here. It was supposed to be lined in really, really special ways. They were little loops at the bottom of the box so you could put wood in there to make it easier to carry. There was a mercy seat on the top, which is kind of the lid, and then cherubim on the top that are protecting that mercy seat. I mean, it was really really elaborate, this thing that they were asked to create.

Pastor Darren:

And let's remember we're to understand this is Moses recording God's words, right. So these aren't just frivolous things that are being said. This is straight from God, with this explicit nature, not flippancy, right, we're supposed to pay attention to this. Right, we could have edited it differently, right, moses could have heard all the thing, or maybe it was even God speaking this way and God from on high says all right, I want you to build a box Better, fancy it up a little bit Going to have the commandments in it. So you want to look a little special. If it's me, I'm going to put loops on the side with some sticks so it's easy to carry. But that's you If that works. I mean, god could have said this kind of thing, right and it could have felt a lot more casual.

Pastor Darren:

But no, it's very, very intentional and, as I'm thinking to myself, this is a pathway to God that I think only craftsmen and craftspeople come to understand that value of really thinking something through and doing each and every little piece. If you're a quilter, you know the value of being able to do it just right and having it finished as a product, that you put all that intention in. People who work with wood it's the same kind of thing where you put that craft in and there's something, there's just something about that process that becomes sacred, that becomes holy. In some ways it's helping you become who you are right. In other ways it's a moment in discipline of being able to communicate with larger powers with God, with larger powers with God. I hope I'm connecting on this because this is what I felt I've heard from these craftspeople of the value of that sort of attention. I think this might be our lesson for today.

Pastor Darren:

This deep, deep intention is a way of coming to know God better. It is a way of coming to know ourselves better. When I think about Indiana Jones, he is way more out there and aggressive. His craft is adventure, but is he any less devoted, any less intentional about what he's trying to do For Indiana Jones. This is how he is becoming who he is For Indiana Jones. This is how he is becoming who God created in him. It's in that intention that we come to that depth, which is why I think the Ark of the Covenant is so explicit. I think we have an invitation that is being spoken to here about intention in our own lives and intention in our own faith Getting deeper with God, coming to know the comfort, the assurance, coming to have a better understanding of God's peace, God's justice.

Pastor Darren:

That generally doesn't happen by coincidence. It happens with some intention. We here at United Methodist Church of Westlake Village, we're starting the Fall. And what happens in the Fall? Lots of new stuff. Many of you probably think well, you know, that's what churches do, that's what pastors do, you know we put stuff out. We might be missing the part of it is. It's for you, when we've got a new Bible study out, this Bible study that might help you to enter into Scripture or re-enter into Scripture, and again in sort of a bite-sized format, that's an opportunity. In sort of a bite-sized format. That's an opportunity for you to own that intention, for you to say. You know what. This is the year I'm going to get a better grip of these stories of faith that have existed, some of them 3,000 years or more. Just ask Stephen, he'll give you the date. I really like teaching with Stephen. We always have fun that way. He's really good at that detail and I am not, which makes us a great team. But you have that opportunity this year.

Pastor Darren:

Here's another opportunity we're working on with membership care. We are in a church of people who, many of whom, have been here 30 to 50 years. That is a long time, not only to be in church but to be family together. A long, long time To me. I don't know how we look in the big church mirror of life and not see a group of people who take care of each other, who look out for each other For me and I suggested it to the prayer group. That's why I kind of slowly started changing their name right from in front of their eyes to a care group, because that's really what they do already. They do it in prayer.

Pastor Darren:

But we're starting to do other things. We're looking for shepherds. Shepherds who are willing to be people who will take on a flock a flock of people generally will be sort of in your, where you live in, that kind of regionally based. But you're agreeing to keep an eye out for those people, make sure you're seeing them in church, checking in on them every now and again when something goes bad, as they do. You would be somebody connected back to the church so that the church can be able to be helpful in whatever ways we can be helpful. You might even work within your flock to put a meal together or a couple of meals together for someone, or maybe you just haven't seen them in a while and it's important that they get a call, because God loves them all and if we're the extension of God's love, then we better be reaching out with that love. Are you a shepherd? Is that the place where you might be able to grow this year with intention, get closer to God?

Pastor Darren:

My last one I'll just put out as a general one. We've got a lot of little bit of layers in this church of different ministry roles and leadership opportunities. We're talking about a craftsman. We have a craftsman back in the tech booth back there. How many of you know Paul really well? You know him well enough. Yeah, he probably deserves a little bit of that.

Pastor Darren:

Here's how God cursed Paul. He can see what would be really cool for this church to have, and then he has to do it Right. He is cursed with that because it'll sit and it'll gnaw at him and be like, well, we're only. We're just this far away from this great thing happening. Or if only we learned how to do this then oh, this is why many of you are getting me on instagram over and over and over again blame paul.

Pastor Darren:

There's a lot of me out there, more than I'm comfortable with, but we think it's reached some people out in the community, so we're doing it. But but you're talking about, uh, that kind of craftsman role and ways to know God better. There's lots of little ways like that, even within the tech area, that help us to reach out with the love God gave us to share. Is God calling you to that, to that intentionality this year? Is that the growth that God wants for you? I'm going to encourage you on this journey to be the kind of American hero, a hero of faith, that takes spiritual growth seriously and intentionally, and find some way this year that you are going to be in a tighter relationship with God and God's love, god's compassion, god's justice, because that will be a blessing to you and then you'll be a blessing to others, amen, amen.