Tag Archives: Transfiguration

Sermon: Knowing and being known

Posted on October 18, 2026 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Our hope may be that we will see our Pilot face to face when we have crossed the bar. But in the meantime, while we cannot fully know God, we are already, as Paul reminds the Corinthians, fully known. And we are known by a God who names himself, ‘I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy,’ even when most angry and disappointed with people who decided to worship a false god made of gold. The Lord ends the story of the golden calf by renewing the covenant that the Israelites broke, giving them a fresh start and repeating for them the Ten Commandments that they will need to live as God’s people in God’s land. (Exodus 34) Continue reading →

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Sermon: The Glorious Impossible of the Transfiguration

Posted on March 2, 2025 by Avril Hannah-Jones

God alone is the Holy One, and we are called to imitate God’s holiness. God’s glory is far beyond humanity, and we are being transformed into the same image. In Jesus so many boundaries are overcome, and the greatest of them is the division between humanity and God. In the words of L’Engle, we cannot make God’s mighty actions comprehensible to our finite minds. But we can ‘choose to live by the most glorious impossibles,’ in the freedom of the Spirit, with hope and great boldness, because God is with us and we are in God. Continue reading →

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Sermon: The light wherein our shadows disappear

Posted on February 10, 2024 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Is Calvin right? As we see Jesus shining with unborrowed light are our shadows made darker by the contrast? I do not think so. The Transfiguration reveals to us the beauty of God, but it reveals that beauty in the mystery of the Incarnation; the one revealed by the light is the Son of Man, the firstborn within a large family that includes us. Continue reading →

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Sermon: The beauty of the mountains

Posted on February 26, 2022 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Mountains are beautiful, but even if we feel ourselves to be living on the plain, even if our lives seem weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, God’s Son, the Messiah, walks beside us on the exodus that will ultimately lead us to the kingdom of God. Continue reading →

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Sermon: Living in the face of death

Posted on February 13, 2021 by Avril Hannah-Jones

I am almost sure that this was not what the writer of the books of Kings intended, but for me today’s story is a parable about love in the face of death. When everything tells us to turn back, not to take the hard journey of love, if we have the courage to continue to love we see a revelation of God. Continue reading →

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Sermon: Do not be afraid

Posted on February 22, 2020 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Sermon for Western Heights Uniting Church Transfiguration, 23rd of February 2020 Exodus 24:12-18 Matthew 17:1-9 ‘And [Jesus] was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses … Continue reading →

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Sermon: Love in the face of Death

Posted on February 10, 2018 by Avril Hannah-Jones

Life ends in death; and the lives of those we love might end at any time. Continue reading →

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Sermon: Do not be afraid of this story

Posted on February 26, 2017 by Avril Hannah-Jones

When I heard that one of the Electra-Lights had asked whether Adam and Eve were real I knew it was time for us to start talking with them about the nature of the Bible. Continue reading →

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