Sermon: February 19, 2023
Reading: Matthew 17:1-9
Like Peter, James, and John, we are invited to go up the mountain for a glimpse of Jesus’ divine glory. The disciples were at a disadvantage because they were trying to make sense of what they were witnessing as it was happening. We, on the other hand, know the rest of the story. We’ve journeyed with Jesus to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We have knelt at his cross on Good Friday. We have been to the tomb and seen the stone rolled away on Easter morning. We have experienced Jesus’ resurrection.
We know Jesus is the Son of God, so discovering Jesus' true identity isn’t an issue for us. What does trip us up is God’s voice coming from the cloud. It’s God saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Those last three words, “Listen to him.” That’s the challenging part. It can be a struggle for us to listen to God’s Son. Besides having that little voice in the back of our head that double dog dares us to push back and do whatever we want. We have an entire world that clamors with a deafening noise demanding we listen to it and prioritize it over listening to Christ.
In last week’s gospel reading, Jesus called us to be a beloved community, a community that chooses life based on the loving relationship between God and God’s people and God’s people with each other. A relationship based on God’s love that supports one another by honoring and respecting every human being. If we are to listen to Jesus, as God says, then how do we apply our calling of a beloved community to the immigrants at our southern border? Are they to be thrown back into obscene violence and poverty? Or do we figure out how to share abundant resources? How is someone who is gay or transgender to be treated? Should their basic human rights be governed and dictated, or should they be respected as treasured children of God? As a beloved community, how are we to address gun violence? Besides these issues that confront us as a society, we face everyday situations that can challenge us to demonstrate how we are part of God’s beloved community. How we respond with our words and actions reveals if we are listening to Jesus by showing love and compassion not only when it’s easy but also when it is challenging and difficult.
Today’s scripture passage about Jesus’ transfiguration gives us a glimpse of Jesus’ divine nature and God’s love for humanity. God speaks to us, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him.” May we carry God’s words with us down the mountain and into our daily lives and listen to Jesus as he guides us to enact his love and mercy in the world, even to the point of becoming last so others may be first, fulfilling Jesus’ call to us to be a beloved community.
