Changed by Love

Mark 9:2-9

One of the things I love about watching the Super Bowl is seeing the commercials.  There have been some great ones over the years.  Remember the Budweiser frogs?  And I always enjoy the Anheuser Busch ads featuring the Clydesdale horses.  I think it was last year when the dogs tried all sorts of tricks to get Doritos from the grocery store.

This year the ads were different.  Some of the major advertisers chose not to purchase airtime this year, in light of the pandemic.  And the nature of the ads was different, too.  One of the ads that really caught my attention was the Toyota ad featuring paralympic swimmer Jessica Long.  Long was born with a condition that meant that she was missing most of the bones in her feet.  When she was just 13 months old, she was adopted from a Russian orphanage by a couple from Baltimore.  When she was 18 months old, she had both legs amputated below the knees.  And since then she has undergone more than a dozen surgeries.

Jessica began swimming in her grandparents’ pool, pretending that she was a mermaid.  By age 10, she had started swimming in competitions, and at just 12 years old she appeared in her first Paralympics in 2004, winning three gold medals.  She competed in three more Paralympics and won a total of 23 medals.

In 2013, she traveled to Russia to meet her birth parents, who had been only teenagers when their daughter was born.  She said that she was not angry with them for giving her up for adoption.  She went on to say, “I think that was really brave, and I don’t know what I would have done if I was in her situation, at 16 and having this disabled baby that they knew they couldn’t take care of.”  She said that she has great love for her birth mother because she gave her life.

Jessica Long’s life was transformed by the power of love.  First, by a mother who loved her enough to give her up, so that she might have a better chance at a good life.  And then, by the American parents who were willing to adopt a little girl with such a major physical impairment.  She did not become bitter about her situation, but became a strong, determined young woman, developing her skill in the water to the highest level. 

Love has a way of transforming people.  And on this Transfiguration Sunday, I want to talk about how love changes things, how love changes people.

When Jesus was up on the mountain with Peter, James, and John, there was the visual miracle of the transfiguration, when the appearance of Jesus was changed.  Jesus shone with a bright white light, such that his clothes were whiter than any bleach in the world could ever get them.  And seeing that miracle made a huge impression on the disciples, especially when Moses and Elijah showed up.  Peter was ready to build shelters and stay up on the mountain forever!

Then, there was the second miracle, the auditory one.  God had a message for Jesus and for the three disciples.  He spoke from the cloud, “This is my Son, whom I love; listen to him!”  God’s message to the disciples was, “Listen to him!”  But his message to Jesus was the same one that he had spoken at Jesus’ baptism: “I love my Son.”  I think that Jesus’ awareness of God’s love is what gave him the strength to pursue his ministry of preaching, teaching, healing, and casting out demons.  And I also think that it was God’s love that gave him the strength to face his arrest, torture, and execution on a cross.  Knowing that God loved him made all the difference. 

When we are loved – by a partner or spouse, by a parent or child, by a friend or relative, and especially by God – we have the courage and strength to do things we might not otherwise be able to do.  Andrew Lloyd Weber, the wonderful composer of Broadway plays, once wrote these lyrics:

Love, love changes everything:
Hands and faces; Earth and sky.
Love, love changes everything:
How you live and how you die.

The changes that love makes are sometimes superficial.  For example, a man who is interested in sports marries a woman who is into opera, and he attends concerts with her and begins to appreciate it.  He does it because he loves his wife and has been changed by her to a certain extent.  In an article, Joshua Becker writes, I have sat on benches in women’s clothing stores.  I have given up my umbrella during rainstorms.  I have spent my life savings on a wedding ring.  And I have committed my life … to one person, my wife … My love for her has changed me forever.  In addition to being changed by his love for his wife, Joshua says he has also been changed by the love he has for his children: As a result, you may find me curled up in a little ball in a closet waiting for my daughter to find me.  You may find me curled up on pink bed thoroughly engaged in a Junie B. Jones book.  Or you may find me spending an evening at the kitchen table working on 4th grade geometry.

But other changes are more significant.  In fact, we may refer to them as transformational, because they are changes in our very nature or character.  The changes we made were a turning point, something permanent.  Many transformational changes in our lives are the result of love.  Because love has the power to transform us. Becoming a Christian is one of the most significant transformational experiences we might have.  It transforms our nature.  The Bible says that we become new creations in Christ.   The love of God transforms us like no other love ever could.  God’s love can make us feel more confident and courageous.  It can turn us around from lives lived solely to satisfy our own desires to lives lived in service to others.  And it can lead us to love others in such a way that their lives are transformed too.

One writer in a Catholic online magazine compared this kind of transformational love to the story of Beauty and the Beast.  In the story, the young girl is able to see past the beast’s deformities, and through her love he is transformed into a handsome prince.  By lavishing her love on the beast, Beauty discovers that the beast is really a beautiful, kind-hearted soul.  Her treatment of him causes his transformation.  In the same way, when we love others, we may have a transformational impact on their lives.  When we love our neighbor, we participate in what C. S. Lewis called the “transforming presence of Love Himself.”  In this way our ability to love one another, “joins us with [Christ] more than anything because it transforms everything,” according to Pope John Paul II. 

In the same way that God’s love was transformational for Jesus, it was also transformational for the disciples.  After Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead, the Holy Spirit came upon those early believers and they went on to do amazing things.  They carried the gospel message to the far reaches of the Roman Empire and beyond, to India and China.  They were given the courage to preach even when threatened with persecution and death, and most of them did die as martyrs to the faith. 

How has God’s love changed you?  How could your love change another person’s life?  The power of love is greater than any other power on earth, and we have that power.  Our world – our country – needs the transformative power of love if we are ever to learn to live and work together in peace and harmony.  When so many other forces seem to be pulling people apart, let’s use the force of love to bring people together.  And let’s pray for God’s love to transform the hearts of those who hate and who seek to bring more disunity and division in our society.  Love is powerful enough to do it.  And love changes things.  Love changes everything.

LOVE.jpg