Sermon on Matthew 17:1-9 (Transfiguration)
Originally given 19 February 2023 at St. Alban’s Church, Coventry
Becoming
Beloved
Believing
As I read through today’s Gospel, retelling the Transfiguration of Christ, it was these three words that kept repeating in my heart: Becoming, beloved, believing.
A few Christmas’s ago, I received Michelle Obama’s autobiography, which is called Becoming. While the book itself is remarkable, it was first the title that I found to be incredibly moving and gave me pause for thought. This one word seems to perfectly summarise all our journeys in life. God knits us together in our mother’s womb, but we are not born as a final product. We begin life waiting to be shaped and moulded into the people we are meant to become. Our lives are not static, but constantly changing and growing. The very essence of who we are is not something we are born into, but rather who we become over time. When I started theological college, someone told me, ‘don’t fake it ‘til you make it, fake it ‘til you become it.’ I think that can be incredibly difficult and even terrifying. Because we never, in fact, fully become who we are until the day we die.
In the Transfiguration, a few of the disciples got a tiny glimpse of who Jesus was to become. A figure clothed in blinding light, not meant for this world. Do you ever think about who you are becoming? Do you see yourself becoming a more perfect model of Christ’s love in the world? Do you see yourself becoming disillusioned with the lack of love in the world? We are called to love God and love each other in our life, so are we becoming a reflection of that calling? Are we fully embracing who it is we are meant to become?
Thinking of loving God and loving our neighbour, the Transfiguration also reminds us that God loves us. The Transfiguration is the second time we hear the voice of God saying, ‘this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.’ The first time we hear this is at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the river Jordan. Jesus is baptised, the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove, and the voice of God declares, ‘this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.’ Whenever I do a baptism, I always try to read the Baptism of Jesus as the reading for three main reasons. Firstly, in reading about the baptism of Jesus, we are shown a model of what we should do as Christians, which is to get baptised. Second, this is one of the few times that the trinitarian God is clearly present and allows for an opportunity to talk about our faith in a single, yet triune God. Thirdly, and for me the most important reason I read this passage to the people and families who come for baptism, is that we hear the voice of God saying, ‘this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.’ I make clear that those who go for baptism are the beloved children with whom God is well pleased. Being beloved is not reserved only for Jesus Christ. Every single one of us is a beloved child of God.
And as we reflect on whether we are becoming the people God has called us to become, we also have to reflect on whether we are showing all of God’s people that they too are God’s beloved children. Do the people on the street know how much God loves them by the actions of those who walk by? Do people in the LGBTQ+ community know they are deeply loved by God? Do people from the Black and Asian Minority Ethnic community feel the full love of God reflected on them through the Church? Do people who are differently abled know that they too are a beloved child of God exactly as they are? How much are we doing as people who love God to show every single person that God also loves them? That God loves every single part of them? Whether or not we humans understand each other, whether or not we agree with each other, God made every single one of us and loves every single one of us and commands that we love every single one of us, not in our words but in our actions.
At the end of today’s Gospel reading, Jesus says, ‘Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.’ I wonder what the disciples made of such a bold comment? Surely they didn’t even fully understand what they had seen, so how could they have possibly relayed what they had seen to anyone else? In a few months’ time, we’ll hear the Gospel reading from John 20 when Jesus says, ‘blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’ Those of us who claim Christ as practising Christians can count ourselves among the blessed who have not seen, insofar as we have not seen the Transfiguration. We have not seen Christ Jesus crucified and resurrected. We have not seen the nail marks in Jesus’s hands, feet, and side.
But we are gathered here today because we have seen something or someone in our lives that leads us to continue believing. We are here because we have reason to keep believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. We are here because we keep believing Jesus was God incarnate who showed us how to love each other. We are here because someone else, believing in the Gospel message, showed us Christ’s love. We are here for so many different reasons, but all these reasons can be summarised in the fact that we know it is right to keep believing regardless of what the world or logic may say. It makes no sense that God chose a weak human body to show us love. It makes no sense that God allowed a brutal death on the cross. It makes no sense that we are called to believe without seeing.
But we are here. We are on a journey of becoming the people who reflect God in our actions. We are here as beloved children of God who will show all the world they too are beloved children with our Gospel of love. We are here believing that God will continue to guide us on our journeys ever closer to God’s loving embracing.
Becoming
Beloved
Believing
Reflections of a Christian 