Listen to God's Heart - Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday (February 15, 2026)

Scripture Readings: Exodus 24:12–18 | Psalm 2 | 2 Peter 1:16–21 | ​Matthew 17:1–9

“While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’” (Matthew 17:5).
 
Can you recall a time when you were able to really open up to someone else? When you found the courage to lay down your guard, and really speak from the heart, and share some of your innermost thoughts with them? Your hopes and dreams? Your fears? Your failures? The things that really make you tick?
 
Sharing our hearts with other people can be both a profoundly positive or painful experience… opening us up to the possibilities of deep friendship, and deep disappointment. I mean, when we’re vulnerable enough to let people see the real us, and they welcome the real us with open arms… eager to hear what we have to say, and maybe even respond by sharing their hearts too… it can create a whole new level of trust between us, and bonds of understanding.
 
But what happens if we pour out our hearts and the other person doesn’t really want to hear it? What if they reject what we have to say? Or what if they are simply too distracted by something else… by their own cares or concerns, and prove to be unable, or unwilling to listen… to attend to our moment of self-disclosure? Well, in that case, what could have been a beautiful moment of building up mutual trust and fellowship becomes something else instead: a painful reminder that we’re not quite as in sync at the moment as we had hoped.
 
Now this might seem like a strange way to start a sermon for Transfiguration Sunday, but as we look closely at our Scripture passages this morning, and take to heart what is being shared with us through them… perhaps we are being invited into a similar sacred… heart-sharing moment as well?
 
In our first reading today from the Book of Exodus Chapter 24, we hear of a particularly transformative moment in the life of Moses, and the story of Israel. After setting the Israelites free from slavery in Egypt, and delivering them from the fury of Pharoah by leading them safely through the Red Sea, the Living God led His people through the wilderness to the foot of Mt. Sinai, where God graciously invites them into a sacred covenant… a sacred commitment and relationship where they would be set apart as a holy people, devoted to the LORD, and to following God’s holy ways together, so that His goodness and steadfast love would be made known to them, and to the world around them.
 
In the chapters before our reading today, God spelled out the terms of this covenant… the laws and commandments that His people were to follow together… and Israel had agreed to all the LORD has said. And so, as we heard today, the LORD then summons Moses to come up the mountain again to meet with Him, and to give Moses the stone tablets with the commandments written on them.
 
What’s going on at Sinai is that God is opening up His heart to Israel in a new and incredible way: the Almighty Creator of everything has set them apart for a special role in His story… to get to know Him up close and personally… to share their lives with Him, and to have their whole way of life to be reshaped by His holy ways. They were to become His people, and He would be their God. His own beloved children… faithfully listening to His voice.

And as their faithful representative, Moses goes up to meet with God on the mountain. Exodus 24:15, “Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.”
 
God summons Moses to enter the cloud… to step behind the curtain, so to speak, and meet with Him intimately, surrounded by God’s overwhelming glory… trusting the LORD, and fully attentive to what He had to say.
 
Now tragically, Exodus goes on to tell us that while Moses had gone up to meet with God, and receive from Him the instructions for His people, those left below began to grow impatient, and following their own desires and plans, they constructed a idol of a calf, made of gold… and began to worship it… breaking the covenant they had just committed to, and turning their back on God’s holy ways.

And so, what was meant to be one of the most spectacular moments in Israel’s story turned out to be one of their lowest points ever… a painful reminder not only of their failure to remain faithful to God, but of the same tendency at work in every human heart: that even when the Living God pours out His heart to us, and invites us in to deep fellowship with Himself, we all so easily ignore His voice, and refuse to listen to Him… with disastrous results.
 
But what if someone truly did listen to God’s voice? What if someone flipped the story around and instead of tuning out the LORD’s instructions, they were actually fully attentive to His every word?
 
Turning to our Gospel passage this morning, we hear the story of Jesus our Lord also ascending a mountain for a special meeting, while accompanied by three disciples: Peter, James, and John. And what follows is a remarkable story: before their eyes, Jesus is transfigured. His appearance is dramatically transformed. Matthew tells us “his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.” (Matthew 17:2-3).

So not only is Jesus suddenly transformed in glorious light, but two of Israel’s ancient prophets from centuries past step out of the pages of history and are somehow standing by His side conversing.
 
Now, Moses and Elijah are both significant for many reasons. Both had their own mountain-top meetings with the LORD on Mount Sinai (or Mt. Horeb, as it’s sometimes called.). Moses reminds us of the Torah… the Law… the Instructions God gave to His people Israel to follow. And Elijah reminds us of the Prophets… those special messengers sent by God with words of challenge and comfort to His people… warning or calling them back to His side, when they wandered far from His holy ways.
 
And so, standing by Jesus’ side we see these two fallible but mostly faithful spokesmen for the Living God… those who eagerly sought to help their people to heed God’s voice and follow His holy ways. And these two spokesmen remind us how through all the Law and the Prophets… that is through the whole Old Testament Scriptures, God has been at work pouring His heart out, and calling us to trust and follow Him… to learn how to live according to His goodness, and grace… to share in His passion for both justice and mercy… to know the Almighty Creator of all, up close and personally, and to love Him with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength… and to love all our neighbours as ourselves.
 
And Jesus invited His closest disciples up the mountain to witness this moment: to let them catch a glimpse of His glory… His true self… shining like the sun, and speaking to these representatives of God’s word at work in ages past. Far from setting aside or getting rid of Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, Jesus was carrying on their work to its full completion… revealing the depths of God’s heart to the world, which has been unchanged from all time, but was now made known most clearly in Him.
 
And as St. Peter stumbles through his clumsy attempt to make sense of this remarkable moment, suddenly, a cloud descends on them, just like it had appeared at Mt. Sinai… and these three confused and terrified disciples hear a voice with a message that transforms their lives forever.
 
Matthew 17:5-8, “suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’ When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Get up and do not be afraid.’ And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.”
 
“This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” This is the message of Transfiguration Sunday: that in Jesus, we are not just meeting with another good teacher, or prophet, or miracle worker with some insightful things to say that we should really consider every now and then. In Jesus, we are met with the singular Son of God Himself. The Beloved One who has been eternally in sync with the character, purposes, and heart of the Father… and who completely embodies both heavenly holiness and earthly obedience.  
 
As the Eternal Son, the Living God in the flesh, Jesus is God’s heart poured out for humanity to see, revealing God’s holy love reaching out to rescue the lost and redeem those bound by darkness, sin, and despair.

But this eternal, Beloved Son truly became one of us… He took on everything that we are, in order to be for us what we could never be: the truly faithful human… who listens completely to God’s voice, and who always responds wholeheartedly to His Father’s voice. Where we all wandered and walked away, Jesus alone remained true to the end… taking up His cross and bearing our sins to set us free.
 
And yes, on the mountain top Jesus was transfigured before the eyes of Peter, James, and John, where they caught a brief and private glimpse of His divine majesty and glory. But it was at the cross where Christ Jesus our Lord truly revealed Himself and His glory to the world… pouring our His heart and laying bare the lengths that God’s love will go to save His beloved, and broken world.
 
Jesus remained faithful to the voice of His Father, and laid down His life to set us free. And the Father faithfully raised His Beloved Son from the grave, and set Him at His own right hand in glory. And through the Holy Spirit, God speaks to us even now, especially through the Holy Scriptures, drawing us to Jesus in faith, and opening our ears, and our minds, and our hearts to hear His voice, and follow His holy, life-giving ways.
 
In Jesus, God’s beloved Son and our blessed Saviour, we come face to face with God’s own holiness, and faithful humanity all at once. He is both the Living God, and the righteous human servant all wrapped up in one.
 
And so, it is to Jesus that we turn to hear God’s voice… to truly come to know the mind and heart of our Creator… to discern the right path to follow when we are lost… to know what to do when everything around us seems so chaotic and confused. 
 
The Living God has opened Himself up to us in Jesus Christ His beloved Son, and in Jesus, He has shown us His heart and desires for us and for our world. How will we respond?
 
Will we simply shrug, and turn away to our own interests? Will we decide that we know better, and ignore all that He offers us? Will we let ourselves be so distracted by everything else going on, that we fail to hear His voice?

Or, with the help of His Holy Spirit, will we turn to Jesus, again and again, and take time to be still, and to truly listen to Him? To study His word, together and alone… to offer Him our full attention in worship and prayer… and then, to actually do what He says to do… to put His holy ways into practice… letting our lives be transfigured by His own… leaning on Him, and learning from Him how to truly love God, and love all our neighbours.
 
My prayer for us today is that we will heed the voice that the disciples heard from the cloud on top of that mountain: that we will all lift up our hearts in devotion to Jesus Christ God’s Beloved Son, and always listen to Him. Amen.