Beloved: A Foretaste | Matthew 17:1-9 | 2.15.26

On this Transfiguration Sunday, we stand at a turning point in the church year—and in Jesus’ ministry.High on the mountain, Peter, James, and John catch a glimpse of Jesus in glory: radiant, affirmed, and named as God’s beloved Son. But the story doesn’t end there. The mountaintop moment isn’t meant to be preserved or protected—it’s meant to prepare Jesus (and us) for the journey down the mountain and toward Jerusalem.As we turn toward Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, this sermon reflects on transfiguration, belovedness, and transformation. Drawing on scripture, poetry, and lived experience, we explore why God’s word of delight over Jesus comes before the suffering—and what it means to enter the wilderness not trying to earn God’s love, but already secure in it.Lent, after all, is not a season of self-punishment, but a season of truth-telling and trust. We do not go as people striving to become worthy. We go as people who already are—beloved, claimed, and accompanied by God, even in the valley.