The Transfiguration of our Lord Sunday
February 15, 2026
No Fear!
Exodus 24:8-18
I began yesterday’s sermon describing the one time that I climbed a 14,000 ft peak in Colorado. We were up early—like four o’clock in the morning—in order to be at the base of the mountain by six. I said that my dad and I were trying to remember which peak it was, Long’s Peak or Mt. Evans. I noted that at the base of the mountain it was about 8,000 feet. So, the total climb was just above 6000 feet. We planned for a hike that would last six to eight hours up the mountain and about two to four down. I commented that when the summit came into view, it seemed like it never came. We could see it, but it took forever to reach. When we did, I noted that we could see the entire Rocky Mountain Range for as far as the eye can see. It was cold. We were tired. We knew we had a difficult four-hour hike down the mountain—hard on the knees. We enjoyed a snack and then made our way down.
The readings today mentions mountains—Mt. Sinai in Exodus and the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17. It has been a long road to Sinai for the children of YHWH— their formation into Israel and their eventual arrival in Egypt, to their glorious Exodus by YHWH through the Red Sea. In Exodus 20–seventy chapters into the Bible—we learn of Moses receving the Ten Commandments. When Moses comes down the mountain and tells the people the words of YHWH, they exclaims that they will do all that YHWH has spoken (cf. 24:7).
The reading from Matthew describes Jesus taking Peter, James, and John up a “mountain”—more like a hill. I showed an image of the hill that scholars think was the place. Here, God the Father says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” I noted that because we are “in Christ,” we receive adoption as sons and daughters of God because of Jesus (Ro 8:5 and Ep 1:5). We are in the family, so to speak.
I then asked, “Which mountain are you on? Mt. Sinai or The Mount of Transfiguragtion? I then retold the story of my grandmother, who was widdowed in 1979. Four years later she married a high school classmate. By the early 1990s the relationship had become toxic. She was suffering both verbal and physical abuse. My mom and I went to visit her and she asked me what she should do. I said to her, “Grandma, do you live in the Old Testament or New?” I was asking her essentially, “Which mountain are you on: the mount of the Law or the Gospel.
I noted that on the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus says, “Rise, and have no fear!”