Pastor Hector Garfias-Toledo + March 2, 2025
Transfiguration of Our Lord
The Transfiguration is a moment of revelation, but its purpose is not to transport us to another world—it is to transform how we live in this one. Jesus calls us to live in the power of the Spirit, embodying God’s justice and mercy now, not just waiting for heaven. The reign of God is already here, already at work in us and through us. What does it mean to reflect that light in our daily lives?
Sermon Transcript
From YouTube's automatically generated captions, lightly edited by ChatGPT for punctuation and readability.
Grace to you and peace from God, Abba Father, Mother, and Creator, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Savior, our Friend, our Sibling—the one in whom God is pleased. And we say, Amen.
Listening to Lori’s, young worshippers’ message, it makes me think about the questions that come to our minds regarding our faith, regarding our journey. How are you today? How are you feeling? What is in our hearts as we gather in this place, and what are we hoping for—for this time together, in this journey?
I believe that many of us have questions. And one question that I have been hearing at some point, in some discussions over the past few weeks, is whether we can get to heaven—or how we go or get into heaven. I don't know if it's the season we are in, in our journey as a society. I notice the number of, uh, events happening nationally and worldwide that are making people start asking: What is the purpose, and what is the future, of our lives together as humanity? I do not know. And I do not know if these questions have also crossed your minds or your hearts. But I tell you—it’s out there.
To the point that this morning, when I was just logging into YouTube for our service, to leave my greetings, you probably saw—on the chat section—the first video that showed up. It was titled: Can You Lose Your Salvation? And the concern is: Can you lose your salvation so that you do not get to heaven?
How many of us want to get to heaven?
I was not asking you to raise your hands, but thank you for doing that! But it was a real question, and I thank you. And yes, I think that’s one of the big questions in our faith journey. Why are we walking together in this faith journey? And after all, where are we going as we walk this journey together?
The Transfiguration—it’s a passage, or it’s a story that is hard to grasp. We tend to look at it only in terms of human logic, intellectual or factual knowledge, right? It doesn’t make sense. Scientifically we cannot explain it. It’s a story that has been told by many generations, centuries ago, and only three of the disciples witnessed it. So really—how did it happen?
But I think that it’s more than just a phenomenon—or, I would say, a supernatural phenomenon. I think that the Transfiguration is a story that tells us, as Lori was reminding us, about transformation and change.
So maybe the questions are: What does Transfiguration mean in our current reality? What does this message do to us? Or how does the message speak to us? And how do we feel about going back down to reality?
As we read today in the Gospel, after the disciples experienced the Transfiguration, and Jesus said, “Let’s go down,” what is the first thing they encounter—what is the first thing that Jesus encounters—down the mountain?
After this beautiful experience of hearing God’s voice affirming Jesus as the one in whom God is pleased—after the disciples want to make tents and stay and retain that experience—what happens when they go down?
What do they encounter?
Demons.
The reality of life—right back where we started. Where you and I are asking questions, wondering: What is this all about? And why do we need to go through all of this?
We live in a society where we believe in mer—merit—uh, meritocracy. This word is hard to say—meritocracy—where we believe in this culture that you and I need to prove ourselves. That we need to prove ourselves to deserve something.
You get as high as you want—if you want.
But also, we live in this other side, where some people get something for how they look, or what they represent—right? And that’s some of the divide we are experiencing in our current situation in this country.
On the one hand, there are those who say: You can get whatever you want if you just put in the effort and try hard.
On the other hand, others say: No, we need to help those who cannot get up there—because of how they look.
If you are darkish, or you speak like or sound like this, you may get out there—because we are giving you...
I’m not making a point, but I’m saying—how the extremes we take, in attitudes like this, actually bring segregation and separation to our society.
This idea of improving leads to arrogance and self-righteousness.
And I tell you that because I myself experienced that.
I have shared with you that I grew up in a church with a highly pietist environment. In that church, I felt closer to God. I felt better than the others.
I was ensuring—by praying harder, going to church every Sunday, and speaking the right words, reading and memorizing every single verse of the Bible—that I was better.
And with that, I ensured my ticket to—so I was already there. Almost.
But the truth is, my siblings, that later I realized this attitude was actually causing me to dismiss, to disregard, and to despise others.
Because I was better.
I was going to heaven.
And the others?
Who knows.
But I didn’t care.
Michael Frost, a theologian and missiologist that I have mentioned many times in my messages because he is one of my favorite missiologists, has said that, in some way, it wasn't us who got out there to heaven, but it was God who came here to be with us.
He uses the image that many of us have seen—us as sinners, and a holy God on the other side. There is a gap between us, and how do we get to God? Can we see our first slide that will remind you of something that you have probably seen?
Have you seen this? We, as humankind, are in sin. We are dead. We need to get to God and be with God in heaven. The only way that we can do it is through the cross. Jesus and his cross are the bridge that takes us to God. We need to work harder. We need to make sure that we cross, accept Jesus as our Savior, as the only way that we can get to a holy God and be part of God's reign. Have we seen that?
There are all the passages there that you can look at later, which are used to support this view. But Michael Frost says that, unfortunately, with this image, the story is boiled down to just giving people information about how to go to heaven when they die. The beautiful story of God's love becomes just a story about us—our sin, our death, our punishment—and it really becomes a sales pitch.
But he says, "I believe that Scripture gives us a different perspective, and maybe this is the meaning of the Transfiguration."
In the next slide, as you can see, he is proposing— and I believe this is what we believe as Lutherans. Actually, he references Daniel Erlander, one of our pastors here in the ELCA who passed away, but you have probably seen his books and drawings. Michael Frost's missiology says that sin infects everything in our lives. We are living in an order of death. You and I are asking for help.
This order of death leads to alienation from God and from each other. And it is in the midst of that order of death that God comes to us from the order of life. Again, I invite you to look—when you get home—at these slides on your screen, where you can read all those little words on the sides. They describe the order of life as an order of reconciliation. God's order of life is about reconciliation, about the unity of creation. It is about God's mercy for all. It is about blessings for all. It is about one family in Christ.
But if you notice at the top—what is the direction? Is it us working hard to go to God, or is it God, in God's mercy, coming to us in Jesus Christ?
Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and Transfiguration—In the Transfiguration, Jesus calls the disciples not because they understood, or knew, or were perfect, or had worked harder, or were pietistic enough, or believed enough, or had no doubts. Jesus calls them and invites them to experience the Transfiguration because Jesus wants them to see that God's reign has already come and is present among us—involving us, surrounding us, calling us, propelling us, and pushing us.
Sometimes, we already live in that reign, and that's why the apostle St. Paul says we do not live or believe just to go to heaven. Because God has so generously let us in on what God is already doing.
That is the good news, my siblings in Christ. It is not about you and me, every day, feeling frustrated, feeling unworthy, feeling that we cannot do anything because we will never be holy enough to go to heaven. And guess what? Life ends, and we didn’t have enough time.
But the promise—and what gives us the life that you and I need to be joyful, even in the midst of the challenges, in the midst of what St. Paul calls the hard times—is that we know that you and I are already part of a reign that is already here in Jesus. And the only thing that you and I need to do is embrace it, make it our own, and say, "Lord, transform me and make me reflect your order of life so that all creation can remember that you are with us, in us, and for us."
Transfiguration is a call to transformation, not a recipe to go to heaven or to make God happy.
Transfiguration is an affirmation of the fulfillment of God's reckless, radical reign of love that reaches us. It is a foretaste of the feast to come—of God's original intent for all creation.
As Archbishop Romero said, Abraham believed against all hope. Moses, one of the ones who appeared with Jesus at the top of the mountain, endured the opposition of God's people and was made faithful until death. And Elijah, the prophet—his, his fidelity helped him even in the pessimistically thought of suicide. Elijah wanted to die and said, “God, take my life because I cannot live with this any anymore.” But because he was open to the God of life, Elijah was alive and continued to proclaim God's message of transformation, to get up from his bed, and to continue work.
So, in light of this, Archbishop Romero told the people of El Salvador at the time of civil war, at the time when people were killed, at the time when the interventionist policies of other countries were killing that country, Archbishop Romero says:
“What stops us, Salvadorian people, brothers and sisters, the people of God in 1977? What stops us? Our desert, our land, our blood? All this can be converted into liberation, life, consolation, and hope.”
So maybe the question for us as we read the Transfiguration story today may be: What stops us, my siblings in Christ at Trinity Lutheran Church and Schools, my brothers and sisters, my siblings, the people of God in 2025, at the corner of Highway 99 and 196th Street? Yes, with all that construction going on and where we cannot find parking lot—what is it stopping you? Our desert, our suffering and blood? All this can be converted into liberation, light, consolation, and hope.
The good news is that the whole story of God, of God's love in Jesus, is not about, about us, but about Jesus, who crosses the divide to bring the order of life to us who are suffering, who are finding hopelessness, disorientation, and maybe who are tired of going through this. The reign of God reaches us, surrounds us, and eventually changes us to reflect the reconciliation, the justice, the beauty, and the wholeness of God's reign.
When and where? Here and right now.
Are we willing to be transformed? And I believe we are. And for that, I thank God.
Let's continue walking this journey of Lent. For the next 40 days, we will continue to reflect through the series that we have. We will go through Full to the Brim, remembering that God has already come to us and we are full to the brim so that we can be a blessing for a world that needs the order of life of God.
Thanks be to God.
And the people of God said, Amen.
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