A sermon delivered at an all-age service on the last Sunday prior to Lent, on Christ’s Transfiguration : Luke 9:26-36
Today, we celebrate a special event in Jesus’ life—it’s known as His transfiguration.
This was a moment when he showed His true, glorious self to those closest to him on a mountain-side.
Lent is a time for us to think about how we can grow closer to Him during this time before arriving at Holy Week and Easter.
To think about how we can gradually become more like Jesus, through personal transformation.
A Dream of Transformation
To let you know how I see personal transformation, let me share an astonishing dream I once had in which I experienced this.
In my dream, I was walking along a crowded road.
Lots of younger people were rushing past me on both sides, and I was feeling rather old and tired, with the worries of the world on my shoulders.
Then, a lovely young man came up alongside me, he took my arm and said, I’ll help you get there, Mary’.
‘But where are we all going to?’ I asked him, ‘To Heaven’ he replied.’
‘But where IS Heaven?’ I asked. ‘Oh, it’s just up the road here a bit further, and around the corner’ he said.
Then suddenly, there we all were—in Heaven!
It was stunningly beautiful, just as we might imagine.
But what amazed me most in the dream – was the feeling I had.
All my worries and cares dropped away in an instant, and I felt an overwhelming sense of joy and peace.
It was as if I had been transformed from a struggling old lady into someone ageless, timeless, and freed from an old body and the worries of the world.
The Light of Christ
Now, let’s talk about Jesus’ transfiguration when his appearance was transformed into dazzling light.
Jesus took three of His friends – the disciples Peter, James, and John, up a mountain called Tabor, to pray.
There, He was transformed by God into a light shining brightly like the sun.
Standing beside Him were two well-known Old Testament characters.
The great prophet Elijah, and Moses, who gave God’s laws to the people.
Then, the voice of God was heard saying, the same words as he said at Christ’s baptism;
“This is my Son, who I have chosen; listen to him.”
And when we listen to Jesus and do the things he teaches, we can share in His glory too.
Peter, James, and John could not really make much sense of all this at the time, and we might not always understand everything about Jesus.
But we can always trust him to guide us when we ask him to.
Lent: A Time for Growth
As Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness praying and fasting, so too we also spend the 40 days before Easter in prayer, reflection, and sometimes fasting.
We call these 40 days Lent, and it is a time for us to think about our spiritual journey and how we can grow closer to God.
During Lent, we might try to overcome bad habits or do kind things for others.
Because it’s a time to focus on becoming the best version of ourselves, with God’s help.
Spiritual Evolution
The older ones amongst us will know about the theory of evolution, and the younger ones might have learnt about it at school.
It is about how simple life forms changed over time (over millions and millions of years) into more complex ones, and eventually became human beings.
But there’s another kind of evolution—it’s a personal and spiritual one.
And our mission as Christians is to grow and develop. To evolve, in a spiritual way and become all that God made us to be.
Which is a reflection of Jesus’ light and goodness.
Trusting in God
But it’s not always easy, trying to be like Jesus. And a common challenge to our spiritual growth that we all, young and old alike, face today is worry.
Because we often want to control everything in our lives and can become anxious if we cannot.
But Jesus taught us to do our best and then place our trust in God.
In the Sermon on the Mount, he reminded the people that as God takes care of all the birds and flowers, so too He will also take care of us when we ask him to.
‘Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?’ Matthew 6:26-34
Jesus also told us, in the sermon on the mount, that we should not build up worries about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have it’s own worries – meaning, don’t let worries about tomorrow steal your joy in today.
‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.’ Matthew 6:26-34
So, why not let’s all try to worry less and trust more in Jesus’ love and guidance during this coming season of Lent?
Looking Forward to Heaven
We believe that when we finally enter Heaven, we will be surrounded by God’s beauty and experience perfect peace.
But we can find an element of that peace here on earth before we arrive in heaven.
Because unlike organic evolution, which took many millions of years to complete,
we can make a difference, and start evolving spiritually today just by listening to and practising Jesus’s teachings.
Then, as we do this, we will experience a deeper calmness, which will reflect onto the lives of those around us.
And as this happens they will also experience the soothing effect of Jesus’s words, as their spirits, like ours, transform into Christ’s likeness.
