Transformed by Love
After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There Jesus was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said,
“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
-Matt. 17:1-5
Love changes things. Love changes people. One of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr. is, “Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” The full context of the quote comes from his sermon “Loving Your Enemies”: “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
Jesus went to the top of the mountain knowing that the course of his ministry was about to change. He would set his face toward Jerusalem and the punishment and death he was to endure at the hands of the religious leaders and the Romans. But first, God had a particular blessing for him in the Transfiguration. On top of that mountain, the disciples saw Moses and Elijah standing there with Jesus and he was transformed by light. Then they heard the voice of God coming from a cloud saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” Love transformed Jesus. Knowing that God loved him and was pleased with him, Jesus was able to endure the suffering, the pain and death.
Knowing that we are loved by God changes us too. We are empowered to reach out in love to people who have been unkind to us. We are able to forgive those who hurt us. We are able to stand up for those who have been knocked down… because of love.
This winter, we will explore specific ways we can work for justice in the world, love others with mercy, and walk humbly with God. I hope you join us in worship as we walk with God on this journey.
Whether we have the gift of beautiful speech, or the gift of understanding and knowledge, or the gift of faith or of generosity or of any other good thing—if we do not love, even our most precious talents are as nothing. And if we believe Love to be a only feeling or a thought, still we miss the Truth. Before God, with the people of God, let us confess the ways we have fallen short of God’s Love. Let us pray.
Love is patient and kind… and we are in a bit of a hurry.
Love does not insist on its own way… but really, God, my way is clearly best.
Love is not envious or resentful… and yet we hoard it as if there might not be enough.
Love is all these verbs—rejoices, bears, believes, hopes, endures— but we are so tempted to confine it where we can understand and control, domesticating love into romance or intellect.
God is Love, and those who abide in Love abide in God.
When we have not lived in your love, when we have insisted and hurt and believed ourselves to know fully even as we know only in part, forgive us, O God.
When we have thought, spoken, and acted in childish ways even as you call us to grow in your grace, forgive us, O God. Draw us again into your embrace, that we may abide in faith, hope, and love. Amen.
