Sermons
The Transfigured (metamorphoō) Church
October 18, 2026 · First Baptist Church of Oak Park, Illinois
Matthew 17:1–9 · Mark 9:2–9 · Luke 9:28–36
About this sermon
The Gospels use the Greek word metamorphoō, to be transformed, for what happened to Jesus on the mountain. Peter wanted to build shelters and stay where everything felt safe and holy, but Jesus led his disciples back down into the valley, where people were waiting.
Glory is not what happens when we lock ourselves away in holy places. Glory is what happens when we come down the mountain to meet the people everyone else shut out.
Drawing on the Feast of Tabernacles, the story of Rev. Cecil Williams and Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, and Kathleen Norris's The Cloister Walk, this sermon asks what it takes for a church to become a true sanctuary of refuge: a place where people can come as they are, and where suffering is held rather than hidden.
If a person cannot bring their honest scars into the sanctuary, then it is not a sanctuary at all; it is just a social club with stained glass.
To listen to Jesus means to follow Him down the mountain.