February 15, 2026 | Word Out!
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READINGS AND SERMON
First Reading: Exodus 24:12-18
12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there; I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13 So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up onto the mountain of God. 14 To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come back to you. Look, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.”
15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 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. 17 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 Israelites. 18 Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.
Second Reading: 2 Peter 1:16-21
16 We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.
19 So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
Gospel: Matthew 17:1-9
1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became bright as light. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will set up three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8 And when they raised their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Sermon: Do Not Be Afraid
Grace to you, and peace, from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, who is the Christ. Amen.
Our message this morning is, “Do not be afraid.”
Here’s what we know from the First Reading, that is, the story itself: God invites Moses up the mountain to receive tablets of stone containing the commandments and teachings of God. Moses, accompanied by Joshua, go up the mountain thereafter. Moses, however, before he begins the journey up, says to the people at the foot of the mountain, “Wait here, Aaron and Harare will be with you, and they will settle your disputes.” Moses then goes up the mountain into a cloud.
How long does Moses remain in the cloud? Six days. On what day does Moses come down the mountain? The seventh day. These numbers are important. Six days it takes God to create the world. On the seventh day God rested. Most scholars believe that the author of the first Creation narrative in Genesis also happens to be the author of this text.
People at the foot of the mountain see God as a devouring fire. Moses ascends up the mountain once more, and remains there—for how many days?
Forty—which, in Bible-speak, means “a really long time.” That’s the significant number the Israelites are in the wilderness: 40 years. Moses goes up the mountain for 40 days. Jesus spends 40 days out in the wilderness at the beginning of His ministry.
Later in the Book of Exodus, we will learn that when Moses comes down the mountain, his face “shone like the sun.” He was, in other words, transfigured, which, as you know, simply means his appearance was changed. That’s what we know from the First Reading, the story itself. Here’s what we might not know, when it comes to the broader literary context in which this story takes place. God, according to the previous chapter, had just established a covenant with Israel. What does the word “covenant” mean?
It means “agreement or contract,” for how God and the Israelites will get along. Moses, three other men, as well as 70 elders, have already, by this point, beheld God at the top of the mountain, which means to see God in God’s glory, in God’s majesty. So they have arguably a direct encounter with the Divine, whereas the people below see God concealed by a cloud, and then as a devouring fire. After Moses and the elders have this encounter with the Divine and receive the covenant, we are told that the people replied, “All that the Lord has spoken, we will do and we will be obedient.”
That, of course, doesn’t play out very well. Shortly after this story, they build a golden calf and worship it in place of God.
What we also might not know, is that the people asked for some distance between themselves and the Lord. Why? Because they couldn’t stand, or rather withstand, the voice and appearance of God. They were terrified, and so they tell Moses, “You speak with us, and we will listen, but let God not speak with us, lest we die.” The experience of God here was too overwhelming for the Israelites.
Moses, accordingly, became the first intercessor, or prophet, to serve as a human intermediary between the voice and words of God and the people to whom the words are directed. The beginning of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible starts with Moses.
So, we’ve now talked about what we know from the reading, that is from the story itself. We’ve also talked about what we might not know about the reading, which is to say, the broader literary context in which it takes place.
Here’s what we definitely don’t know about the First Reading. We don’t know what it was like for the Israelites Moses left behind. Let me repeat that: we don’t know what it is like for the Israelites Moses left behind. I’d like you to imagine for a moment that you are in their shoes then and there. What are you feeling right now, as Moses ventures back up the mountain? Perhaps you’re feeling scared, perhaps you’re feeling abandoned, perhaps you’re feeling isolated, as we talked about in today’s forum, perhaps you’re feeling nervous or uncertain. The spiritual leader of your people has just departed to be with God and you, along with the other Israelites, you find yourselves at the bottom of the mountain, perhaps not sure what comes next.
Now let’s turn to the most important character of the New Testament—and he would be? Jesus, very good! Jesus Christ. Here’s what we know about his experience at the top of the mountain, according to our Gospel reading for today. It begins six days later. That’s a pretty important number, isn’t it? This author is riffing off the experience of Moses going up the mountain in the story of Exodus, six days later. So those are not yet complete.
Jesus takes Peter, James and John up on a high mountain. That’s no mistake. The reason it’s no mistake is because in Matthew’s Gospel, written by a Jewish Christian, primarily for other Jewish Christians, presented Jesus as a new Moses figure, as Moses 2.0. The updated Moses; the Moses for our time, the Moses for our people in this place.
You may recall that when Jesus gives his Sermon on the Mount, he is once again enacting what Moses did. He is not simply receiving the law. He is reinterpreting the law for his audience. That story occurs only in Matthew, because again, Matthew presents Jesus as a Moses figure, a second Moses, Moses, 2.0.
Like Moses, Jesus is transfigured. His appearance is changed. He shines like the light. Then, we learn, he is accompanied by two people. And who would they be? Moses and Elijah. Now those are alsosignificant, because Moses represents the Law, which Moses received from God, and Elijah, although Moses was one too, represents the prophetic tradition. So here we have Jesus standing on the top of a high mountain, transfigured, talking to Moses and to Elijah, which represents continuity with the Israelite tradition, which makes perfect sense for an audience consisting primarily of Jewish Christians.
Then we learn of how a bright cloud—Does this sound familiar?—A bright cloud, just as in the book of Exodus, comes over Jesus and the disciples, Peter, James and John. But from this cloud, we hear a voice. Now, who is this voice? (You can’t say Jesus. We’ve already ruled that out.) It’s God. And what does God say?
“This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Now, God said this earlier in the ministry of Jesus. Do you recall when it was? Baptism. Exactly. It was when Jesus was baptized at the beginning of His ministry, God says, “This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
But in this case, and this is the only other time in the Matthean narrative that God speaks, in this case, a clause is added to what God said about Jesus during His baptism. Do you know what it is? “Listen to him.” Listen to Him. God says, “This is my Son” but then adds, “Listen to him.”
We then learn about how Peter, James, and John do what? They freak out, they fall to the ground. I would too. There’s a voice speaking from a cloud. What else would you do but fall to the ground? They fall to the ground. And the text says, “They were overcome by fear.”
What does Jesus say in response? “Get up. Do not be afraid.”
Get up. Do not be afraid. Those are the basic plot points of Jesus’s Transfiguration, according to Matthew’s Gospel. Those are what we know.
Here’s what we might not know, that is, this text in its broader literary context. As I mentioned, this is the second time God speaks in the Gospel of Matthew. The first time, as we’ve now heard, was at his baptism, the baptism of Jesus at the beginning of the story. What did God say there? Again, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
The question then is, why now does God add, “Listen to him?” Well, according to one biblical scholar, we have an answer. He writes, “Earlier, Paul had correctly identified Jesus as Messiah. Now, Messiah simply means “Chosen One of God,” the Greek term for Messiah, which is Hebrew, is “Christ.” So, Christ is not his last name, as you know, if you went back to the first century and looked through a phone book, you wouldn’t find him under “Christ, Jesus.” He is “Jesus the Christ.” He is the Son of God. Or you might think of him as God’s representative on earth, God’s ambassador, whose task it is to bring about God’s kingdom.
Peter had correctly identified Jesus as Messiah, but he had vehemently rejected, objected to the notion that Jesus, as God’s Chosen One, as the Messiah, was going to have to die. Peter got Jesus’s identity right. He is the Messiah, but the other half he got wrong: that he’d have to die.
Now why would Peter get that wrong? Because remember that Peter and the other Jews living at this period were expecting a Messiah who would come in glory, power and might and overthrow the Roman authorities, just as Moses had overthrown the Egyptian authorities.
But guess what? This Messiah is going to die on a cross. This Messiah is not going to rise up and violently overthrow the Roman state. This Messiah is going to die in agony on a cross, out of which God will then bring about God’s emerging kingdom. So, the Messiah that Peter and his contemporaries expected, was not the kind of Messiah that Jesus turned out to be, which is why God says in this passage, “Dude, listen to him! He’s not the one you’re expecting, but he is my Messiah.”
So, we’ve now talked about what we can know from the story. We’ve talked about what we might notknow about the reading, namely the broader literary context, and that’s a consequence, you might say, casualty, of reading biblical passages piecemeal from a lectionary; we tend to forget the broader story in which they appear.
So we know now that when God says, “listen to him,” he’s telling you about himself as a different kind of Messiah than the one you expected. Here’s what we definitely don’t know about today’s reading. We don’t know exactly what was going through the mind of Peter, James, and John when they fell to the ground. Sure, the text says they were “overcome by fear,” but imagine if you were in their shoes right then, right now, at this moment. What else besides fear might you be feeling?
Well, I don’t know about you, but if I heard somebody speaking from a cloud, I would be confused. I would be terrified. I would be perplexed, and I should probably be on medication. So what we have here is a series of feelings that people in these moments would have felt that seems to coincide. In the case of the Israelites at the foot of the mountain: uncertainty, fear, confusion. In the case of the disciples, not knowing how the story is going to turn out, overshadowed by a cloud falling to the ground, overcome by fear, to be sure, but also probably confused, perplexed and maybe even terrified.
This is exactly where I think we are today in the United States at this moment, at this time. Everything seems, like it was for the Israelites and the disciples of Jesus. At this moment, so uncertain now, doesn’t it? So scary now, doesn’t it? When we read or watch the news, we are constantly being bombarded by the news of various threats! The threat, for example, both here and abroad, of authoritarianism; the promise, but also the potential peril, of AI—how that is going to change, not only the job sector, but how our young people learn in the classroom and what skills they develop in the process; and of course, this past week, we know that environmental regulation was marginalized, thanks to the current administration, such that climate change becomes not only a looming threat, but an even more likely threat.
We are living in a time where everything, whether it’s the threat of AI, whether it’s the threat of climate change, whether it’s the threat of civil government, everything feels so uncertain, and many of us—maybe I’m speaking for you, I’m certainly speaking for myself, and I’m definitely speaking of the Israelites, Peter James, and John, are overcome by fear.
Are we not scared about what’s going to happen potentially to our country? Are we not scared about what’s potentially going to happen to the rise or fall of literacy rates? Are we not scared about what’s going to happen to our planet, and are we not bombarded on a daily basis with all these messages via the news? There are so many things we don’t know.
But here’s what we do know, and it’s the only thing we need to know. You and I are not alone. You and I are not alone—and we see evidence for that in today’s readings. When Moses leaves the Israelites at the foot of the mountain, he doesn’t say, “Good luck!” He doesn’t say, “So long.” He doesn’t say, “Go fend for yourselves!” He doesn’t say, “God helps those who help themselves.”
Instead, he entrusts the Israelites to the care of Aaron and Harare and, by implication, the elders. He doesn’t leave people at the foot of the mountain alone.
We see this also in the book of Genesis, when Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden: God provides them clothing and resources, such that they are not alone, even when they’re expelled from Paradise.
And we see this especially in our Gospel reading for today, when Peter, James, and John fall to the ground after hearing the voice of God in fear. Jesus doesn’t say, “Come on, get up!” He says, “Get up, and do not be afraid.”
He reassures them. “Get up and do not be afraid.” To which we might add the final words, and indeed the promise, of Jesus at the end of Matthew’s Gospel; remember he says, “I am with you always to the end of the age.”
You see, it all comes down to this: no matter what fears we have— and we may have very different fears in this congregation, I simply mean named three that were on the top of the list for this week’s news. But no matter what fears we have, whatever challenges we face in our lives, whatever obstacles present themselves to us, whatever threats appear on the horizon, the message of the Gospel is simply this: You and I are not alone. Jesus is with you. God is with you. So, get up, and do not be afraid, for today, tomorrow and always, God and Christ are with us. Indeed, to the end of the age.
Amen.