Matthew 17:1-9
“The Beloved”
Preached Sunday, February 15, 2026
Who here likes to talk without being listened to?
Admittedly, some of us may like the sounds of our voices or to process things aloud, and yet, when we are talking to someone, we hope they would not just hear the sound of our voices but listen to our words as well. Although, anyone with a spouse, long-term partner, children, grandchildren, or siblings…actually, any human in relationship with other humans knows what it’s like to not be listened to when speaking.
We often talk about prayer as the act of not just speaking to God but listening too. Of course, if it can be hard for our spouse to listen to us - or our children or grandchildren who are distracted to pay attention to us - how much harder is it for us to discern the voice of God in our lives when that voice is not an audible voice but the nudges and leanings of the Spirit?
In fact, there are only 3 times in the Gospels where a voice from heaven speaks audibly. And only two of those are in the synoptic Gospels - what we call Matthew, Mark, and Luke whose narratives largely overlap while John is out here doing his own thing. So the two times that God speaks audibly as a voice from heaven in the synoptic Gospels are at Jesus’s Baptism and Jesus’s Transfiguration. Let’s look at both of those, from the Gospel of Matthew:
Jesus’s Baptism: “And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from the heavens said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’”
And the Transfiguration: “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!’”
If we were to make a venn diagram of these two statements from Heaven, there would be significant overlap. Especially the phrase, “This is my Son, the Beloved.”
What does it mean that in these very rare instances where it is recorded that the voice of God came from heaven, came from above - not words spoken by Jesus, not the rush of wind of the Holy Spirit, not that still small voice inside of us, not from an angel or messenger - but an unexplainable voice coming from God the Creator of the Universe - what does it say that in the two rare instances this happens in our Synoptic Gospels - that the voice of God calls Jesus, “Beloved”? To call someone beloved or “my beloved” is basically saying, “I love you.”
For God to express Love is inherent in the very nature of God’s self.
Our traditional language for the Trinity, our three-in-one God is, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” St. Augustine referred to the Trinity as, “the Lover, the Beloved, and the love which exists between them.” This stems from the statement in one of the most beautiful passages of Scripture that God is Love. 1 John 4:7-12: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.”
God is Love and this Love extends to our understanding of the Trinity. Richard Rohr defines the Trinity in his book, “The Divine Dance” like this:
“The fourth-century Cappadocian Fathers tried to communicate this notion of life as mutual participation by calling the Trinitarian flow a 'circle dance' (perichoresis) between the three. They were saying that whatever is going on in God is a flow that’s like a dance; and God is not just the dancer, God is the dance itself! The Incarnation is a movement—Jesus comes forth from the Father and the Holy Spirit to take us back with him into this eternal embrace, from which we first came (John 14:3). We are invited to join in the dance and have participatory knowledge of God through the Trinity.”
Let me state that a little more simply: The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit are dancing together! And they’re not just dancing together - they ARE the dance. As the three persons of the Trinity dance together, you can no longer see any lines where they differ, they become a blur of unimaginable beauty, awe, and wonder.
Combined with Augustine’s definition of the Trinity as “the Lover, the Beloved, and the love which exists between them” we can understand The Trinity as a Divine Dance of Love. And when we Love - when we love God and when we love neighbor as self - we become participants in the Divine Dance of Love along with the God who is Love itself. Augustine is also attributed with saying, when teaching on the doctrine of the Trinity, “Lest you become discouraged, know that when you love, you know more about who God is than you could ever know with your intellect."
Perhaps we can now understand why God, in those rare moments in the Gospels when the God of Love, the Creator of the Universe, speaks in an audible voice - it is to call Jesus Beloved. Because there is no more important thing that God could call Jesus -- or even us.
Jesus is called many things in Scripture: Rabbi, Messiah, Anointed One, Saviour, Lamb Who Takes Away the Sins of the World, Emmanuel, The Good Shepherd, King of Kings, Prince of Peace, The Word, Lord…and many, many more.
Beloved may be one of the most important names that Jesus is called in Scripture - not only because this is the name that God the Father places on Jesus but because it tells us not only of Jesus’s identity but our identities in God’s eyes as well.
We were made in the image of God - the God who is “the Lover, the Beloved, and the love which exists between them.” Scripture tells us that we are children of God and joint heirs with Christ - part of our inheritance is the Love of God, the title of God’s Beloved.
Part of the miracle of the Transfiguration up on that mountaintop is it’s a moment where the layers of our earthly reality are pulled back and we see the heavenly reality of who Jesus is - God’s Beloved son, shining in glory.
It is at the moment where that voice from Heaven calls Jesus “son” and says, “listen to him.”
So my question to us today is - are we listening to the voice of God who is telling us that we too are beloved, loved by God? The voice is not coming out of the clouds and reverberating in our eardrums but there are other ways that the Holy Spirit is constantly telling us - “You are beloved.” Are we listening? Are our spirits attuned to listen to the voice of Love? God may be speaking to you through the people in your life who love you well. God may be speaking in your life through nudges towards kindness. God may be speaking in your life that comes in the outrage of injustice against fellow children of God. God may be speaking in your life of moments of peace. There is never a single moment of our lives where God is not speaking love to us.
I am going to say that again because I really truly believe this:
There is not a single moment of our lives where God is not speaking love to us.
The issue comes from us not listening.
Mother Theresa said, “God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer... Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.”
I would define listening to God as an openness of heart. True listening comes from a place of receiving. So often we don’t truly listen to one another. We are simply waiting for our turn to talk. Our turn to make our point. Our turn to share our story or to win the argument. To listen means to open not just our ears but our hearts and minds as well. This takes practice in listening to our fellow human beings and certainly in listening to God - and listening for God through our world and our fellow human beings.
Are our hearts truly open, truly listening, ready and waiting to receive what God has to give to us? Wherever that message comes from.
Let us listen to the voice of Love. Let us listen to the voice of God that is calling us Beloved. Let us listen to the voice of God that is calling - our neighbors, our friends, and even our enemies - beloved as well. The God who is calling each and every person in this world “Beloved” - loved by God. We need to listen to that Love so that we can act on that Love.
When we attune our souls to constantly listen to the voice of God we may be surprised in all the numerous ways that God uses to speak Love into our souls. God has no limits - not even of what we would divide into camps of sacred versus secular. During the Super Bowl halftime show last week, it ended with a giant message on the screen: "The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
In a world where the message of hate, of othering, of diminishing the image of God inside of ourselves and one another, this is an important reminder. Love is stronger than hate. As Christians we believe that Love is stronger than evil. Love is stronger than the Grave. Love is more powerful than all for our God is Love itself - “the Lover, the Beloved, and the love which exists between them.”
And so - are we listening to Jesus, God’s Beloved?
Are we listening to the voice of Love?
Do we know our own Belovedness?
Do we love others as if they are beloved by God?
Are we participating in the Divine Dance of Love?
May we listen to Jesus.
May we listen to all the ways God speaks Love to us.
May we know our own belovedness.
May we love all like God loves.
May we be a part of God’s Divine Dance of Love.
May it be so. Amen.
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