Transfiguration & Transformation

Luke 9:28-36
Gospel Reading for Transfiguration Sunday (Year C)

High up on a mountain comes a voice: “This is my Son, the chosen one.” In that moment it was hard not to believe the call that thundered from the cloud. Their teacher’s face had transformed and his garments shined like lightning. Moses and Elijah stood there at his side. Surely this man was the Son of God.

Yet the voice was not finished. Lost in the cloud, those three dumbfounded disciples heard instruction: “Listen to him!” It was those words on which the Transformation of Peter, James, John, and the rest of us hang. It was one thing to think that he was God’s Son, but it was another entirely to listen to him.

I want to see transformation. I think that most of us do. Not so much for our faces to change or our clothes to flash with blinding light. But the kind of change that comes from truly listening to Jesus. To truly love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. To love our neighbors, enemies, and ourselves. To be those blessed peacemakers. To feed the hungry, clothe the naked, to give and to forgive. To see those who are hurting healed. And in these days when the drums of war boom loudly, to see swords and guns beaten into plowshares, tanks turned into tractors.

To quote a song from my more idealistic years: I want to see miracles, to see the world change. There are too many days when it seems like the only change has been the crashing down from fall after fall after fall. I grow weary with it all: the hurt and the brokenness of it all. I want to see transformation in me, in those who claim to follow that Son, and in a world whose heartbreak is piled up like mountains. And I know that transformation hinges on what that voice told Peter, James, and John:

Listen to him.