Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

 This sermon was given at our Sunday morning service on 15th February 2026. The readings were Exodus 24:12-18 and Matthew 17:1-9. I hope you enjoy reading it!

 

I’ve been thinking a lot – for various reasons recently – about Change.

I swear I saw some of you almost shudder there. I think, deep down, none of us really like change.

The American journalist, Sydney J Harris, once wrote: “our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time. What we really want is for things to remain the same but get better”. I can very much relate to that, can you? Wouldn’t it be excellent if things were different? Not the things I like, though…

 

The master of self-change and reinvention, David Bowie

This morning’s readings are all about change. They’re probably the readings about change in the New Testament. This morning, we heard the story of the Transfiguration. And the story of the Transfiguration is a pivotal point in God’s story of how the world changes.

 

If the story of God and his people is a story, then what we heard this morning is the Reader’s Digest version. The whole story is brought together in this one moment that we’ve just heard; it references the sum of the Jewish faith that’s gone before, in bringing Elijah and Moses together, but not only that, we also have references in the passage to Christ’s baptism (when we hear God’s voice from Heaven), his death (made explicit in Christ’s final comment at the end of the passage), and his resurrection and ascension (in Christ’s dazzling change of appearance). This is a key event, bringing the eternity of God’s story together in one fleeting moment.

 

I think that this bringing together of God’s entire eternal story into a finite period of time is the reason we’ve got this reading today, on the Sunday before the start of our holy season of Lent. In Lent, we’re encouraged to look at this whole story too. In this forty-day penitential period that mirrors both Christ’s wilderness journey, and also the journey of the Israelites in the desert, we also find ourselves contemplating Christ’s journey (both literal and metaphorical) towards Jerusalem, and his crucifixion, and, of course, the glorious events of Easter at the end of the season.

The events of the transfiguration are a reminder of the season to come for us; this one moment sums up our Lenten pilgrimage, and it refocuses us on the preparation of Lent; preparing to be changed.

 

 

In Lent, we are on a pilgrimage towards Easter. Truly taking part in Lent is not an easy journey. Lent asks us to make a commitment, to put more time aside for God and for other people, to even deny ourselves and our desires perhaps. But, if we can do that, we’ll find the experience of Lent changes us. That journey of Lent prepares us for this morning’s Gospel experience. It prepares us to get to the summit of the mountains we have heard of this morning, with Moses on Sinai and Christ and the disciples on the un-named mountain in our Gospel reading, and to be transfigured.

Transfigured. That word doesn’t just mean changed. It’s more than just change. To be transfigured is to be changed into something more beautiful, more elevated, more divine.

 

Yesterday, a number of us made our own journey (not quite a Lenten pilgrimage!) to St Matthew’s in Chadderton for our planning day to think about the church we want to be over the next few years. It was a really fruitful day, and – if you couldn’t make it – please do try to have a chat with some of the people who were able to come along to get their thoughts. There were some great discussions and – of course – conversations about change.

 

Some people think a transfiguration is a major change. I don’t think it necessarily is. I think we can all be transfigured in small ways every day. As we make conscious decisions to choose others over ourselves, to choose love over hate, or even indifference, to choose to open our church in service to our community, I think we will day-by-day find ourselves becoming more and more like Jesus. This is transfiguration. Becoming more like Christ day-by-day.

And through these small changes in ourselves, and in us corporately as the Church here in Flixton, we have been gifted with the opportunity to be able to participate in bringing God’s kingdom here on earth; to be able to – in turn – transfigure our community, and the world itself.

 

I started my sermon with a quote this morning. I’ll leave you with another one to ponder as we all start our journey into Lent towards Easter; that one weekend just over two thousand years ago that changed the world forever. It’s a quote from American author, Margaret Mead:

“Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.”

 

Amen.

 

 

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