The Limitless Love of God
A non-religious friend of mine asked what Kate’s sermon was on this week. I told him we talked about the transfiguration of Jesus. He paused, thought about it, blinked twice, and said “ok but what was it about?”
As Kate mentioned on Sunday, this is a weird passage. And it is the second weird passage we’ve encountered in this Lent series. The transfiguration story is so weird that even the disciples struggled to know what to do. Suddenly, they were faced with an unfamiliar situation, and turned to the familiar face of Jesus. Imagine their surprise when they find the face of Jesus to be equally unfamiliar! The disciples, who were mere teenagers, panicked in the face of this transformation. “Uh…let’s set up tents?” The Scripture even goes so far as to tell us this response was out of dumbfounded fear. God’s transforming love can be scary. In fact, it should be scary! We are told throughout the New Testament that following Christ means radical change in our lives. That change isn’t just limited to 6 weeks with no carbs. It’s a total transformation, one where God’s glory shines through us to the point where we are unrecognizably radiant in God’s love. God calls us to be different people than we were before we knew God. To be transformed, like Christ, and in His footsteps. If I were a casual observer, I wouldn’t know what to do when faced with that either.
I was particularly struck by Kate’s story of the plant seed in the window. How she watched it for days waiting for any signs of change. Finally, the sprout appeared, then the roots, then the leaves. But what 8 year old Kate didn’t realize is that under the right conditions (sunlight and water in the plant’s case), change was happening within the seed that she couldn’t see. Under the conditions of God’s love and a vibrant church community, there is change happening within us. May we all work to sprout that change, and show the leaves of God’s love to those around us.
The transfiguration is weird. So, what is it all about? It’s about the transformative love of God, how God is working within us, and Christ’s invitation to be changed inside and out in and for His glory.
Click here to watch this week’s sermon.