The Sixth Sunday After the Epiphany: Transfiguration Sunday
February 15, 2026
Today we mark the turn toward Lent, the season of Jesus choosing the path of sacrifice and transformation. His dazzling presence with the ancient prophets was a mysterious mark of coming changes. In our season of Epiphany, we have been looking at how change begins with us, and how, even as small as we are as individuals and as a family of faith, we can help start hope-filled times by working together for peace and justice.
Once we see a path of hope, once we respond to God’s call, we can begin to make a difference, nurturing the changes so desperately needed in our troubled times. Here I’m reminded of Kevin Barwick’s email signature block: quoting Mahatma Ghandi, Kevin reminds us that” We must be the change we wish to see in the world”
Often, though, the challenge is that seeing call in a new way will lead us down an unfamiliar, less-traveled path to new life. “Epiphany” is one term for seeing those changes. The amazing “Transfiguration” that is described in our lessons for this week is a decisive experience of waking up to a new and deeper understanding of the call of God to be the change we wish to see in the world
The reflection we’ve been using this season reminds us of the importance of being open to the emergence of an unfamiliar way:
If as Herod, we fill our lives with things, and again with things, If we consider ourselves so unimportant that we must fill every moment of our lives with action, when will we have time to make the long slow journey across the desert as did the magi, or sit and watch the stars as did the shepherds, or brood over the coming of the child as did Mary? For each one of us there is a desert to travel, a star to discover and a being within ourselves to bring to life.
Today, as we turn our attention toward the journey of Lent, a journey from deeper understanding into deeper transformation, I want to explore how the experience of Jesus on the mountain with three of his disciples illuminates one of those sudden flashes of insight that can change the world. Here are three elements that I see as one way to describe that kind of change:
- What we believe is based on what we see.
- What we do is based on what we believe.
- What difference we make is based on what we do.
Let me offer a few thoughts on where “transfiguration” plays a part.
WHAT WE BELIEVE IS BASED ON WHAT WE SEE
“Seeing is believing” was an important early lesson for this VERY nearsighted, nerdy boy. In first grade the teacher finally gave me an assigned seat in the front row, so I didn’t have to walk down front all the time to see the blackboard, which was only a blur from half-way back in the room. For a long time, because I was so myopic, I was sure that if I could see it, it was true. Later on, though, I began to learn that there were different versions of “truth” that I hadn’t seen before.
As a young teen my family moved to Japan. My dad was in the Army during the war in Korea, and we lived in US military housing in Tokyo, Japan. I lived one block from Meiji Shrine, one of the treasures of Japanese culture. I explored the wooded temple grounds, but I was very isolated in many ways. The high school kids I hung out with were trying to hang onto the “rock and roll” culture we had left back home. When we talked about Japan, we sounded pretty judgmental about life on the other side of the Tokyo Metro tracks that ran next to my house.
The common sense those days among American teens was that the Japanese needed to adopt American culture in order to “fit in.” That prejudicial pattern sounds a lot like the judgement I hear these days from those criticizing immigrants. What I understand now, looking back toward those teen years, that if “seeing is believing,” and what I can see is limited by where I’m standing. Then what looks like truth to me will look a lot like something else to those who are standing on different ground.
Those high school days, 70-plus years ago, brought me a life-changing gift: curiosity about diversity. I was fascinated by the differences I saw between Japanese culture and the one I’d left back in the States. I remember the excitement of learning how to eat with chopsticks. (My brother and I practiced by racing to see who could be the first to finish eating a bowl of popcorn with hashi.) I thought geta made good sense as outdoor footwear. They had little stilts to lift you out of the mud, and they were easy to remove when you came inside, where no-one wore outdoor shoes on the tatami mat floors. I was attracted thought Japanese culture, opening a window on diversity that has been important for me for a long time.
Seeing more than one good way to do basic tasks feels like a prelude to community life here in Seekers, where we are called to be a welcoming community. One of our challenging values is learning new paths to being an inclusive community, working for peace and justice. What we believe is based on what we see. Learning to see differently is an important part of who we are.
In our Gospel lesson for this week, one challenge for Peter, James and John up on the mountain with Jesus that day was to see the path ahead as Jesus saw it: Peter’s image of Jesus as a ruling prophet with Moses and Elijah was different from Jesus’ own view. The transfiguration was a transformative moment, but I think Jesus saw it differently. And Jesus’ caution not to tell the rest of the community reflects a sense that Jesus knew the path ahead wasn’t what the disciples were seeing. They needed to wake up to a deeper understanding. The stunning vision of the transfiguration was an important part of their epiphany, opening their eyes to the need to see something new.
How do we wake up? What does it take for us to find ways to see things from a different perspective? We might try making friends with someone with different views and values. There are other opportunities here, like the life of our Racial and Ethnic Justice Ministry Team, the “Being Indigenous” class in the School for Christian Growth; and the commitment of our Creature Kind Ministry Team. We’re committed to having our actions be guided by what we believe.
WHAT WE DO IS BASED ON WHAT WE BELIEVE
That’s the second element I want to look at this morning: choosing to let our beliefs shape our commitments and guide our actions. For many of us, that sense of living out God’s call on our lives is a birthmark of Seekers. From our beginning we have understood that our “ministry” incudes working for peace and justice in family life. In fact, that early commitment to “ministry in daily life” was a challenge for some as the Church of the Saviour focused on the core values that would define member churches during the New Lands era. Some CofS members had a hard time seeing family as a ministry.
Now, in addition to our work together as a family of faith, many Seekers are working diligently to support justice and peace in the wider world: speaking truth to power, standing up for the rights of those oppressed, giving personal and financial support for other missions and ministries that express our values, and providing our space as a meeting place for other activities that work for peace and justice. After our liturgy this morning we will have a community meeting to determine how to allocate support from our donations to missions and ministries in this country (domestic giving.) All are welcome to join the gathering in the Skylight Room.
This is an important part of acting on our values, but only a part. In our regular prayer of commitment, we vow to act on our values. Let’s try an exercise in seeing where our beliefs are guiding our actions. I’m going to read part of our regular Prayer of Commitment, the one we pray every week. As I read, I invite you to think of a couple of places in your life where you see action based on the beliefs expressed in the prayer.
We’re not going to share these now, but you might find it helpful to journal about them later. Here is that part of our prayer:
- Give us strength and discipline to nurture our relationship with you;
- Give us strength and discipline to care for every part of your creation;
- Give us strength and discipline to foster justice and be in solidarity with those in need;
- Give us strength and discipline to work to end all war, and violence, and discord;
and - Give us strength and discipline to respond joyfully when you call, freely giving our selves as you have shown the way.
Take note of the examples of actions guided by beliefs that just came to mind. As you reflect, you may glimpse a deeper understanding.
The transfiguration of Jesus was a dazzling example of him showing Peter, James and John what was down the road ahead of them. It was a wake-up call to be ready for something new – something they didn’t fully understand, but, from the bright transfiguration experience, knew was an important guiding light.
What we do is based on what we believe. Do you believe that?
WHAT DIFFERENCE WE MAKE IS BASED ON WHAT WE DO.
So, what difference will all this make? Given the magnitude of violence, anger and manipulation that has gripped our global consciousness, what can we do about it? And how can what I do, as an individual, help us work for peace and justice. As Deborah often reminds me: “We can do the next right thing within reach.” That may take many different forms:
- Writing a check to some group working for peace and justice,
- Writing a letter to some lawmaker about an issue,
- Standing in a vigil,
- Joining a support group,
- Texting someone who is grieving or healing, and all the time,
- Keep praying.
In all the chaotic confusion, we can stay open to new epiphanies that are coming our way.
Seekers Church is in a time of fresh discernment. Our Weave Team is helping us focus on how we understand God’s call on us in this transitional time, and how we can relate to the community around us and the wider world. In some ways, we can see this time in the life of Seekers Church as our version of the three disciples heading off with Jesus for a time of discernment. We’re hoping to be on the road with Jesus, nurturing a new understanding of who we are that fits a place in what the world is becoming. We’d like to be part of an energetic, dynamic development process, one that helps us believe in what we see, even as what we see evolves. I’m hoping for some unexpected transfiguration of the Spirit that empowers us to do what is needed to support what we believe; knowing that the difference we make is based on what we do.
Here is a question: In our current time of discernment, are we open to Epiphany, ready to share visions of milestones on the road behind us… ready to share glimpses of transfiguration when they brighten our days?
In closing, I offer a provocative sonnet that Jacqie Wallen brought recently as a meditation for Learners and Teachers Mission Group:
Sonnet on the Transfiguration
Malcolm Guite
For that one moment, ‘in and out of time’,
On that one mountain where all moments meet,
The daily veil that covers the sublime
In darkling glass fell dazzled at his feet.
There were no angels full of eyes and wings
Just living glory full of truth and grace.
The Love that dances at the heart of things
Shone out upon us from a human face
And to that light the light in us leaped up,
We felt it quicken somewhere deep within,
A sudden blaze of long-extinguished hope
Trembled and tingled through the tender skin.
Nor can this blackened sky, this darkened scar
Eclipse that glimpse of how things really are.”
May it be so!