Transfiguration of Our Lord – February 15, 2026

Matthew 17:1-9

I know it’s not the best form to say not nice things about Bible texts…

But if I was made to choose one text from the gospels that I find the least useful it would be this one…at a time in our history when:
Global freedom is experiencing a long-term…multi-year decline driven by rising authoritarianism…
At a time of: The erosion of democratic norms…and increased state surveillance.
At a time of: The suppression of speech by both governments and corporations.
At a time of: The misuse of technology for control.
At a time of: Economic inequality…and the rise of populist movements that restrict civil rights.

So…what do I care that Peter James and John witnessed some enchantment on a mountain.

This week I struggled with what real-life application is here.
Not to mention…when Peter says it is good for us to be here…
It feels like one of those circle tour bus trips or vacations when you are with relatives that you do not really want to be with.

So…good for Peter…he got to see the most awe-inspiring thing ever…

But what about the rest of us?

How do we even start to reach those kinds of heights?
Because we are here…in the valley of the shadows of real life.
The closest I got to experiencing awe and wonder this week was reading Ken Follett’s Circle of Days and buying food at Trader Joes.

Author…Cole Arthur Riley writes:

Wonder includes the capacity to be in awe of humanity…even your own. It allows us to jettison the dangerous belief that things worthy of wonder can only be located on nature hikes and scenic overlooks.
That’s a dangerous thing to say in our culture…given the state of religion in America.
But what a helpful thing to preach…on the feast of the transfiguration…in the year of our lord 2026.
The Lord be with you.

Here’s the thing: After reading Riley’s quote…I realized…I was in awe all week at something in this text.

I was experiencing a sense of wonder but it was not about Moses and Elijah up on a shiny mountain in the middle of the story
It was about that terrified parent struggling with an out-of-control kid at the end of the story:
When they came down from that enchanted mountain…the text tells us that a man from the crowd shouted:
Teacher…I beg you to look at my son…my only child. A spirit seizes him…and he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth…it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. I begged your disciples to cast it out…but they could not.

I do not know how many of us are having mountain top epiphanies right now…

I cannot imagine the shame the man who spoke out of the crowd felt.

This was his only child.
He did not also have an honor student at home…or a kid who just got a football scholarship.
This was it. His one child.
I wonder if he had to fight off the self-incrimination we feel when our kids are struggling with their own demons.
The self-blaming thoughts of…if I had only not worked so many hours,
If only I had not let them hang out with those other kids.

We know that this man and his son were living in a who sinned…this man or his parents time…

Where people wanted to know who or what was to blame for an ailment.
And yet this exhausted dad spoke up in the middle of a crowd and asked Jesus to please look at his boy.
So…yes…I am in awe of the humanity it took for him to do that.
Because so many of us would rather die…than admit in the middle of a crowd of people that our child is not doing well.
But then Jesus responds: You faithless and perverse generation.

These are harsh words coming from the mouth of our savior.

What I mean is this: There is a reason we recoil from the suffering of others…

And search for reasons why someone was diagnosed with cancer.
What was their diet? I don’t eat red meat so I should be OK.
Were they a smoker? I never smoked so I am not in danger.
Did their mom have a career? I stayed at home with my kids so we should be safe.

We scan the lives of those who suffer for who and what is to blame.

This week…I needed the way Jesus…fresh off that mountain…hesitates…not at all…to heal those in the valley.

Jesus said…bring him here and as the dad and his kid were approaching Jesus…
The demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions so much so that he was foaming at the mouth.
And Jesus did not look away.
It did not make him uncomfortable.
He did not look for who or what was to blame.

Jesus was just about to set his own face toward Jerusalem where he was to suffer…and due to no fault of his own…

The text says that he rebuked the unclean spirit…healed the boy…and gave him back to his father.

So yes…shiny Jesus on a mountain this week was of little comfort to me…

Because I do not know how to reach for that kind of glory from here in the messiness and uncertainty of real life.
But the Son of Man reaching unflinchingly into the chaos of dirt and saliva surrounding an out-of-control kid fighting his demons?
That’s different.
The Prince of Peace rebuking the demons that maul us from the inside?
The Holy One of God healing a troubled boy?
Yes…that is the epiphany of the glory of God…I needed in this moment in time.

Because this story is not about the unreachable holiness of God.

It is a story about the transfiguration of holiness itself.
Richard Rohr says: Real holiness never feels like holiness…it just feels like you are dying.
In the transfiguration…Jesus collapses any meaningful distinction between lofty mountains and dusty valleys.
Fulfilling the words of the prophet Isaiah that:
Every valley shall be lifted up…and every mountain and hill be made low…Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed…and all people shall see it together.

Jesus has made low even the mount of his own transfiguration to be with us.

We need no longer climb up to…strive for…or achieve holiness…

For it is too busy already reaching into the troubled dust and dirt of our humanity.
It has come to dwell with us.
In the valley of our shadows.

The curtain of the temple is being torn in two so that grit and glory are indistinguishable.

So…the brokenhearted…and the fearful…and the confused…and the lost and the least and the lonely can say: