Brief synopsis of the readings: In Genesis God spoke to Abram and told him to leave his home and go to a land that God will show him. God promised to make of him a great nation: “I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” Abram then “went as the Lord directed him.” Matthew’s Gospel describes what we call the Transfiguration. Jesus took Peter, James and John on a high mountain where his face shone like the sun. They saw Jesus conversing with Moses and Elijah. Peter responded by saying: “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” A bright cloud shadowed them and a voice from the cloud said: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” The disciples fell to the ground out of fear but Jesus told them to stand up and not be afraid. He then told them not to tell anyone about this “until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

We’re all familiar with the story of Abram (whose name was changed to Abraham later in the story). He and his family lived in the land of Ur (modern day Southern Iraq) and on God’s instruction left there and journeyed toward the west, eventually settling in the land of Canaan. On the surface there isn’t anything unusual in this. As humans we’ve always been on the move. Nearly everyone believes our earliest ancestors lived in Africa and we migrated from there in every direction. As a matter of fact we’re the only animal on earth that is able to live everywhere in the world.

Our reading of Scripture doesn’t tell us why Abram left, only that God told him to. Many of us generally read this thinking that God picked the land of Canaan and then told Abram to go there and to this day we call it the “Holy Land.” But how do we know that’s true if we believe only because that’s what we’ve always believed? God created the entire world and in that sense everywhere is holy land. Perhaps what made Abram’s journey holy wasn’t the destination but the journey itself.

We are a curious people and we do like to explore but generally people of that age didn’t pick up and move without a reason. Oftentimes it was necessary because there were too many people and too little food. Or because of natural disasters like droughts or famines or floods. Or because of politics like conquest or exile. As I said, we don’t know why Abram left and we’ll likely never know.

But in the years since this story was written Abram and his family have come to personify the idea of moving to new land and an unknown future. They were, simply put, immigrants and strangers and I think we’ve found this story fascinating because we can all relate to his journey. But we can also whitewash this story in the belief that since God told him to go, God would make certain it would be easy.

It wasn’t. They had to go to Egypt to avoid a famine and were not welcomed there. Abram and Sarai also dealt with infertility and this must have made God’s promise of a new nation ring hollow. They eventually had a child but not before Sarai told her husband to have a child with one of his servants.

And yet their journey, like our journey, was one of hope and faith realized. Each year we talk about Lent being a journey toward Easter where we know the destination but not the path. We learn (hopefully) again and again that our path forward relies more on our faith than our sight and always looks forward.

In today’s Gospel we can understand the amazement of Peter, James and John in seeing Jesus with Moses and Elijah and why Peter wanted to mark the event. But placing tents would look backward. There’s nothing wrong with commemorating events but when the voice from the cloud said “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” they were being told to look and move forward.

Thousands of years after these passages were written we still find ourselves on the move. True, we’ve fully explored our world and there are no lands left to conquer. And true, in the last hundred years we’ve turned our attention to outer space. But that doesn’t mean our journeys are over. The events that may have caused Abram to leave Ur continue to this day and often for the same reasons.

Our climate is changing and with it weather patterns that affect food supply. And alas, even 2000 years after the Prince of Peace many find themselves as political refugees. I’ve spoken before about the responsibilities of those called to welcome those journeyers and I don’t wish to ignore that but that is not our subject today.

Instead we need to see that no matter where God calls us, God will be with us. No matter what calls us to journey we need to understand anew that we are being led by hope and faith. Each February in the United States we commemorate Black History month and I’m constantly struck by the courage and faith of those who walked the Underground Railroad escaping slavery. The odds were never in their favor and desperation always followed them.

We are still early in our 2026 Lenten journey. Let us sojourn (journey) not for discovery of new places but for new experiences and relationships. Let us not offer to build tents over what we’ve seen but to recognize that we’ve been promised a Promised Land beyond our predictions and oftentimes beyond our imaginations. Jesus instructed Peter, James and John not to talk about the Transfiguration until the Son of Man had been raised from the dead. This will happen at Easter and hopefully we’ll be able to celebrate Easter with what we’ve found.