Transfiguration

February 15th 2026

Transfiguration Sunday

Readings: Exodus 34:29-35 & Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon Series: Noteworthy Christians - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

On this transfiguration Sunday, we recall the majesty of our God, who comes to us as a great light. Moses’ first encounter with God was through a burning bush. Later, as we read today, God spoke with Moses on the mountaintop as a pillar of light; light which was so bright it made Moses himself radiate sunshine! When he went back to the Hebrew people to share God’s message, his presence was too intense for them and his ‘glow’ made people avert their eyes.

Similarly, when Jesus went to the mountaintop to speak with the Lord, his entire being began to glow. The light was so extreme that Peter, James, and John fell to the ground; they also averted their eyes, for the presence of God was too strong, too overwhelming, too scary for their comprehension. Very few, like Jesus and Moses, can stand the heat of being so close to God. When Jesus returned to the disciples, he was no longer glowing, but when Moses would come down the mountain, he would need to wear a veil over his face in order to keep interacting with his people. It seems as if the scriptures are revealing here that we, the average people, struggle to take God full faced.. we would prefer the message to come to us veiled and in a manner we can tolerate. We like to be comfortable, unafraid and unchallenged.. that is just part of our human nature.

History also confirms this, as throughout the millennia the Church has exiled, and worse, killed those who tried to create change or dared to think differently, challenging the status quo. As I continue on our sermon series of Christians of notable worth, I offer you one such rebel this morning – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Teilhard was born in France in 1881 and was raised by his mother’s Christian mystic faith and at the age of 18 he decided he would become a Jesuit – a religious order of the Catholic Church. 

He began his studies as a Jesuit and was encouraged to follow his passion for science as a legitimate path to God. Teilhard was born around the time Charles Darwin died, and he believed in evolution. However, Darwin taught that evolution was an undirected process, which Teilhard argued against. He believed that the world was indeed being directed by an ultimate purpose and power. That all creation was evolving toward an Omega Point (which we will come back to).

Teilhard’s scientific studies led him to rethink creation and original sin. The official Catholic teaching was that sin originated in Adam and Eve’s eating of the apple. However, evolution and science challenged this view and suggested that while we can learn from the story of Adam and Eve, it likely isn’t historically accurate. While in his upbringing, science and faith were allowed to co-exist, fueling these sorts of conversations, in 1907 the Pope banned works that spoke of evolution.

Teilhard took 4 years of a study break to be a stretch bearer in WWI. When the war ended, Teilhard began his professorship at a French Catholic University, where he lectured on evolutionary thought. By 1923 he had gotten so much pressure to stop teaching about evolution and faith that he moved to China to continue field work in archeology. When he tried to return home, he was summoned to the Vatican to sign a statement renouncing his ideas on evolution and original sin. He hesitantly signed and moved back to China in exile; told he was no longer allowed to pursue theology, only archeology.

Teilhard remained in exile in China through WWII. After the war, when China became a closed nation, he returned to France and suffered a heart attack. He was once again called to the Vatican and ordered not to publish any works nor teach any theology. For about 3 years he was a nomad, traveling around on different archeology tours, before taking a research position in New York in 1951. In 1954 he returned to France to visit the house he grew up in and the gravesites of his parents and siblings. While at home, he made one last appeal to his superiors to end his exile and allow him to die and be buried in his homeland. They refused. He died of a heart attack in New York on Easter Sunday the following year.

Despite his exile, Teilhard remained faithful throughout his life to the Catholic Church.. that didn’t stop him, however from writing and publishing many works. Teilhard shown bright with a light of God that others were not ready or capable of seeing. He was one of the first advocates of the relationship between science and religion. He dedicated his life to this work of helping us see the ways in which science can in fact, lead us closer to God, not further away.

From Teilhard came the term, Cosmogenesis, which describes how the universe is not static, but rather evolving, existing as a process, increasing in complexity of consciousness toward, that ’omega point’ I mentioned earlier. Evolution is the process through which all things are constantly changing and growing more complex, especially our consciousness. We, human beings, are creation that has evolved enough to be conscious of itself. We human beings have the ability to self-reflect, unlike other life forms (as far as we know), but we are not finished! Evolution continues and who knows what the next development will bring.. I guarantee you, with the advances in AI we’ve had even just over the last ten years, we are about to find out sooner rather than later!

Whatever it is that’s next, Teilhard believed it would lead humans to be more loving, more free, and ultimately more united. He felt that each evolution of humanity was a deification – a process of becoming one with God, just like Jesus. This deification is a process of identifying with our deepest divine self, owning our divinity, resting in it, and manifesting it by contributing to the evolution of the world. This is a holy process that ends in salvation, the fulfillment of the universe’s spiritual life – the return of creation to the Source from which it came - the omega point!

However, one does not get to this point theologically within the framework of the traditional narrative. It does not fit with the 7 day creation story, the doctrine of original sin, nor the concepts of heaven and hell. When these original stories were shared and eventually written down, humans didn’t know the science we know now. It’s a common quote to say that once we know better we can do better.. yet, much to our detriment, that is rarely the case in the Church.

As revealed in Moses and Jesus, we as human beings struggle to take God full faced, but prefer the message to come to us veiled and in a manner we can tolerate. We like to be comfortable, unafraid and unchallenged.. that is just part of our human nature. Thankfully, God continues to show up, to blind us with light, overwhelm our senses, and call us toward more.

God pursues us whether we like it or not and pulls us in the direction of the kin-dom of God, the salvation of all creation, the omega point, the direction toward which all of creation is evolving. Sometimes that pull is just a soft hand being held, other times that pull is like God running so fast we fear our shoulder might be pulled out of the socket! Regardless, we all get to decide to either face God head on or to accept God in small, veiled doses; to turn toward God or look away altogether.

We are in an evolutionary moment. We are living in dark times. However, dark times are often when we are finally able to surrender, to take off the veil and see the light of God before us.. within us.. beside us.. all around us. As they say, only when it’s dark out can we see the stars.. but they are always present!

We are increasingly becoming aware of the ways in which the paradigm we have been given both as a society and as a Church is not working. This is scary and uncomfortable and challenging, but also a time in which we have the opportunity to see God more clearly. As the world grows darker around us, God’s illumination grows brighter. What new things will we learn about what is divine and sacred if we take this opportunity to turn our faces toward the light? Perhaps, we will take another leap forward in evolution, as Teilhard believed, increasing our love, our unity, and our understanding of our own divine essence.

Understanding our own divine essence means shaking off the long-held belief that humans are inherently bad. As you hear me talk about most thoroughly on All Saints Sunday, I believe all matter is created from Gods’self, therefore all things are made of and for love. Do we stray from our true self and act in ways that are unloving? Obviously! But I, like Teilhard, want to challenge you to a thought experiment. Think through the idea of original sin – we are all bad, we are all sinful by nature and therefore need our souls saved by something external (Christ) or else suffer the consequences of eternal hell. Then, think through the idea of cosmogenesis – God, who is love, created everything that exists out of love, not to control it, but to love and be loved by it. This creation evolved to our point of humanity today, able to love God in return and share that love with all creation. Because we have free will, we can do terrible, unloving things, but our salvation comes in our ability to reflect on our actions and consistently choose to return to the core of our being – the divine essence we share with our Creator. Our salvation then is as internal as it is external – happening when all of creation reunifies at one Omega Point – God – Creator – Love.

What I find appealing about the second framework is that it does not rely on fearmongering, nor does it promote judgment or condemnation of self or others. Its clear focus is on love. Is it non-traditional? Sure.. but it is clearly not new, as the Christian mystics promoted similar ideas far before Teilhard or the scientific discovery of evolution.

As I always say, just because I believe something doesn’t mean you have to believe it. However, if you’re noticing resistance to these ideas, I invite you to be curious – ask yourself why.. challenge yourself to explore your own beliefs further. That’s all I ask! Explore and unveil your mind – let the light in! Turn your face toward the light and let God illuminate your path. One thing I can promise is that wherever God leads you.. you can’t go wrong.

Amen; may it be so. A light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot and will not overcome it.

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Learn more: https://christogenesis.org/

and/or watch PBS' Documentary: Teilhard: Visionary Scientist 

and/or read one of the many books by Teilhard: https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=teilhard+de+chardin