Today’s service is led by the Revd Andy Braunston
Welcome
Hello and welcome to worship. Today we ponder God’s glory seen in mountain top and on the face of God’s chosen ones. Moses had to veil his face to protect the people from the terror of reflected glory, Paul wanted veiled minds to be liberated to see the transformative power and glory of God and Jesus was transfigured in a highpoint of glory that prefigured his passion and death. We like to ponder God’s glory in the safety of the churches and shrines we create yet are called to take that glory out, to unveil ourselves so that others see God’s glory on mountain top and in the valleys, in city streets and country parks, in suburb and village, in the nice and the nasty areas of life. My name is Andy Braunston and I live in Orkney – beyond the mountains of the Highlands and over the sea – a place infused with God’s glory. Let’s worship God together.
Call to Worship
Come and worship the One enthroned in heavenly splendour,
the one who defends us, and feeds us with His very self.
We come to worship and adore.
Come and worship, pay homage to the One who lifts us up,
cleanses our souls, and teaches us deep truths.
We come to worship and learn.
Come and worship the One whom angels hail,
who gives water from the rock and manna from heaven.
We come to worship and be changed.
Hymn Lord Enthroned in Heavenly Splendour
George Hugh Bourne (1874) public domain Sung by the choir of St Michael and All Angels, Bassett, for Eucharist at North Stoneham and Bassett parish and used with their kind permission.
Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour first-begotten from the dead,
thou alone, our strong defender, liftest up thy people’s head.
Alleluia, alleluia, Jesu, true and living bread.
Here our humblest homage pay we, here in loving reverence bow;
here for faith’s discernment pray we, lest we fail to know thee now.
Alleluia, alleluia, thou art here, we ask not how.
Though the lowliest form doth veil thee as of old in Bethlehem,
here as there thine angels hail thee, branch and flower of Jesse’s stem.
Alleluia, alleluia, we in worship join with them.
Paschal Lamb, thine offering, finished once for all when thou wast slain,
in its fullness undiminished shall for evermore remain,
Alleluia, alleluia, cleansing souls from every stain.
Life-imparting heavenly manna, stricken rock with streaming side,
heaven and earth with loud hosanna worship thee, the Lamb who died,
Alleluia, alleluia, risen, ascended, glorified!
Prayers of Approach, Confession and Grace
Eternal One, it is good for us to be here today,
to rest in your presence, to see your glory,
to find peace and contentment in heart and soul,
to be schooled in holiness, and sent out with joy.
We worship and adore you!
Risen Lord Jesus,
your glory shines around us both comforting and terrifying;
comforting with your love, terrifying with your insistent call.
Forgive us, good Lord,
when the hardness of our hearts has veiled our minds to your message,
when we’ve preferred sin’s bondage rather than freedom’s grace,
when we’ve swapped truth’s openness for shameful underhand ways.
Forgive us and give us time to change.
Most Holy Spirit we see your glory in the world around us,
from birds’ flight to clouds on the hills,
from the glory of a city’s life, to the quiet streets of a village,
from nature’s majesty to the innocent love of a child.
As a forgiven people seeking to forgive
may we be changed from glory to glory,
that we may shine with your presence.
O Trinity of love, let the glory we receive enable us to change,
and to be agents of transformation in our world. Amen.
Introduction
Today we mark the Transfiguration of Jesus, a mysterious episode recorded in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke and referred to in 2 Peter. On the mountain top Jesus is transfigured with glory and joined by Moses, representing the Law and Elijah representing the prophets. Yet even in the awe filled glory the others talk with Jesus about his suffering and death. Our readings all deal with glory – the glory of God in our reading from Exodus so shone from Moses he had to veil his face to stop the people of Israel being afraid. In our reading from 2 Corinthians Paul notes that as we see God’s glory we are transformed by it and, of course, the glory shines through our passage from St Luke. We’re always tempted to explain the Transfiguration but, as with all good mysteries we’re better off exploring it. So let’s pray that we’ll hear and understand as we listen to the Word proclaimed in ancient and contemporary words.
Prayer for Illumination
As we listen to you, O God,
lift the veils in our minds that stop us understanding,
remove the scales over our eyes that stop us seeing your glory,
and the fear in our hearts that stops us following. Amen.
Reading Exodus 34:29-35
Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face, but whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining, and Moses would put the veil on his face again until he went in to speak with him.
Reading 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with complete frankness, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, the same veil is still there; it is not unveiled since in Christ it is set aside. Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds, but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the shameful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.
Hymn Jesus on the Mountain Peak
Brian A. Wren (1962, 1988) Hope Publishing Company OneLicence # A-734713 sung by the choir of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, Buffalo, New York.
Jesus on the mountain peak
stands alone in glory blazing.
Let us, if we dare to speak,
join the saints and angels praising.
Alleluia!
Trembling at His feet we saw
Moses and Elijah speaking.
All the prophets and the Law
shout through them
their joyful greeting
Alleluia!
Swift the cloud of glory came
God proclaiming in its thunder,
Jesus as the Son by name!
Nations, cry aloud in wonder
Alleluia!
This is God’s beloved Son!
Law and prophets sing before him
First and last and only One
All creation shall adore him!
Alleluia!
Reading St Luke 9:28-36
Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking about his exodus, which he was about to fulfil in Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep, but as they awoke they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us set up three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah,” not realizing what he was saying. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.
Sermon
My earliest formation as a Christian was within the Catholic Church; Fr Michael, a generous, open hearted and fairly liberal Catholic priest, nurtured my growing faith – a faith where, due to the traditional teaching technique of working through the Catechism, I learned the delight of questioning. One of the features of Catholicism is the reservation of the consecrated Communion bread in a tabernacle, ready to be taken to the sick, and to provide a focal point for prayer and adoration; often the tabernacle is behind the altar under a crucifix, though sometimes off to one side. Now, of course, there’s a mystery at the heart of Holy Communion where we eat bread and drink wine, listen to Jesus’ words at the Last Supper, are drawn into His presence and where His death is projected through space and time and made present to us now. Catholics have a tendency to explain the mystery of the transformation of earthly into heavenly food that the Orthodox, and John Calvin, were and are rather suspicious of. The reservation of the Blessed Sacrament means Catholics try to keep their churches open during the day for people to visit and pray. This provides wonderful spaces for silent reflection, spiritual connection, and mystery but, for some, can give a sense that God is only to be found locked in shrines. Of course, not all mysteries need to be explained and yet, here we are, looking at three readings which are all about mystery; Moses’ burning encounter with God where the reflected glory terrified the people, Paul’s insistence of minds needing to be unveiled to appreciate mystery and Jesus’ transfiguration and his insistence not to build a shrine. All these encounters of God evoke change; something we like to resist.
In our story from Exodus, Moses’ veil was to protect the people from the reflected glory of God. Focused as we often are on the Cross, we’re a bit ambivalent to glory – leaving that to the mystics and Pentecostals. Yet despite the suspicion we’re faced with the glory
Paul contemplated our Old Testament passage and contrasted Moses’ veiling his face and his desire, and that of Christians, to live with unveiled faces. Paul, of course, was not being entirely fair in his comparisons – Moses saw God face to face and that encounter meant glory radiated from him and the veil was to protect the people. Paul saw the veil, slightly differently, and held that his fellow Jews had a veil in their minds which, due to hardness of heart, stopped them understanding Jesus as the Messiah. These were hard words – hard as they go to the heart of Paul’s theology and because to read them after millennia of Christian antisemitism makes us queasy.
Paul saw Christians as having been given an intellectual freedom with both hope and boldness to proclaim the Gospel – the outworking of God’s glory – and so we are transformed – as Wesley paraphrased this passage – from glory into glory. Paul saw the glory of God that reflected from Moses as a means of bearing witness to life-changing experiences for all who encounter God. Perhaps, in Paul’s thinking, Moses veiled himself to protect a people not willing to see where glory leads, a people not willing to be changed. If that’s the case we shouldn’t think of this as a condemnation of Jewish people – after all there are plenty of Christians who won’t be changed!
All too often we remain settled in our ways and our narrow interpretations, exchanging the glory of God for the familiarity of the mediocre, the challenge for change for the comfort of conformity. The Jewish people saw the giving of the Law to Moses and the glory of the Lord which surrounded him but were unable to fathom its depths as, time and time again, they strayed from where God called them. Yet many of us can relate to that – we hear, week after week, year after year the proclamation of the Good News but never quite get it. We still think we have to prove ourselves to God, that God’s audacious love doesn’t extend to those we despise, and fail to realise that God’s call to follow is to all of us in every aspect of our lives. We have a temptation to feel smug about God’s original people not getting it whilst veiling our minds to the places where our inability to understand and follow are glaring. We can be blinded by our class, our money, our politics, our nationality, our sexual orientation, our ethnicity, to see what’s going in our world and what God would have us do about it. The things which veil us are, like Moses’ veil, things which stop God’s glory being fully seen. Our hearts and minds can be as hard as Paul felt the Jewish peoples were. Yet also for Paul only God can rip these veils in two and soften hard hearts. Only God’s transforming love can break bondage and blindness, self-contempt and despair.
And then we turn to the passage in Luke about the Transfiguration. Some think this is a misplaced post resurrection narrative – though one imagines the editor of Luke’s Gospel would have been alert and filed the story in the right place. Some think that it’s a reworking of a Pagan story from a mystery religion set into Christ’s life. Some use technical language to describe this event – epiphany, theophany, Christophany or the more straightforward revelation of the Divine. Perhaps all this comes from an understandable, Enlightenment era, desire to explain mystery. Yet I suspect contemporary readers, along with their ancient counterparts, can cope with a bit of mystery. After all we are in a culture which adores the Harry Potter stories along with stories about good, and bad, vampires, angels, and witches. So, the supernatural in storytelling doesn’t put us off (and is not always taken literally) so perhaps there’s no need to try and explain the mystery but, instead, to explore it.
The text tells us that Jesus’ face, like Moses’ in the first reading, changed. Jesus’ clothes became dazzling white and he shone with God’s glory. Here, in this part of the mystery, we have Jesus shining with the glory of the Lord and showing his divine status. So, one part of the mystery is Jesus’ divinity – a part that becomes puzzling when Jesus allows himself to be given over to torture, unjust trial, and ignoble death. Another part of the mystery is the appearance of Moses and Elijah who speak of Jesus’ own exodus journey to Jerusalem. Sleepy disciples didn’t understand the mystery nor a possible interpretation that in Jesus the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah) find their fulfilment. Then the third part of the mystery is the disciples’ reaction who, finally awake from sleep, wanted to build a shrine to encapsulate the experience; yet Jesus won’t be confined to a shrine.
There’s a temptation in Christianity to create shrines, to lock God away in our buildings – sometimes in exquisite tabernacles with sanctuary lights, sometimes just a sense that people need to come to us to experience God. We’re tempted, like the disciples to stay sleepy and to use the sleepiness as an excuse not to comprehend what’s going on. They slept at Mount Tabor for the Transfiguration and later in Gethsemene. We can sleep and ignore what God is doing, where God’s glory is leading us, what it’s telling us to do, and the changes we need to make.
All our readings today are about encountering God’s glory and how that encounter changes things; Moses needed to veil his face as the people could not cope with God’s terrifying glory but that glory provided the Law. Paul saw the glory of God as something which transforms us into glory itself and immediately after the encounter on the mountain Jesus exorcised a demon and changed a life. Peter’s desire to create a shrine to encapsulate the glory was entirely understandable but would have tried to pin God down, to keep God safe and under control.
Instead, we are called to take God’s glory to the world around us – to see where the glory already is, and to see where transformation can happen due to the glory we reflect. Whether that’s in the foodbank or a shift on the Samaritans, the after-school club or the group for asylum seekers, the Friendship Club or the toddler’s play group we are called to reflect the glory we have received not veil or lock it down. So, I look back at the church of my youth with immense gratitude and appreciation for how it nurtured and developed my evolving faith. I am always appreciative of Catholic Churches open in both busy and quiet places for prayer; I understand how the tabernacle tries to provide what Iona Community folk might name a “thin place” and find it a very helpful idea. Yet, with many Catholics, I want to find God’s glory in other places too; in the highstreets and housing estates, in places of grim grinding poverty as well as in the joy of street music. In the beauty of the natural world and in the city where God’s people dwell. God’s glory is never just in one place – it’s why Jesus didn’t want Peter to build the shrine. The glory found on the mountain peak is found also in the darkness at the bottom of the valley, in the busyness of the street, and in the quiet dusk of the countryside. Sometimes as God’s people we’re called to find where that glory is already dwelling, other times we’re called with unveiled faces and open minds to radiate God’s glory where it will make a difference and, of course, to always see that the glory we encounter in church is designed, first and foremost, to change us so we don’t get in God’s way. Let’s pray.
Glorious God,
your presence can comfort and terrify,
can urge us to change or freeze us in inaction,
take the veils from our minds and hearts,
that we may see your glory, allow you to change us,
and inspire us to change the world for your sake, Amen.
Hymn Song of the Transfiguration
Sylvia Dunstan As performed by Kathryn Becksvoort, Sara Witmer, and director of music ministries Taemin Han on Sunday, February 27, at Central Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. OneLicence # A-734713
Transform us as you, transfigured,
stood apart on Tabor’s height.
Lead us up our sacred mountains,
search us with revealing light.
Lift us from where we have fallen,
full of questions, filled with fright.
Transform us as you, transfigured,
once spoke with those holy ones.
We, surrounded by the witness
of those saints whose work is done,
live in this world as your Body,
chosen daughters, chosen sons.
Transform us as you, transfigured,
would not stay within a shrine.
Keep us from our great temptation –
time and truth we quickly bind.
Lead us down those daily pathways
where our love is not confined.
Affirmation of Faith
We believe in God, Creator of all that is, seen and unseen,
whose glory shines in both mountain and valley,
and from whom we want to hide our faces,
but who calls us to wake up.
So confusing and so very clear.
We believe in Jesus, who was born of Mary, lived in Palestine,
died a shameful criminal’s death, yet rose again for us,
who calls us to follow, grants us his peace,
and bids us shine with his glory.
So confusing and so very clear.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
who plays havoc with our dreams,
who calls us to life in both happiness and sadness
and all the shades between;
who allows us to see glory in people and in every living thing,
in every changing landscape and in every reaching thought.
So confusing and so very clear.
We believe in the Trinity of Love,
who draws us softly from our flickering prayers,
to face the changes we need to make
in ourselves and the world,
whose voice is so sudden and so ageless,
so confusing and so very clear.
Offertory
God’s glory is seen most clearly in Jesus who emptied himself of all but love, walked amongst us, taught us, lived and died for us, wakes us and calls us to follow. As we follow, we give of our time, our talents and of our treasure. As we are awakened to the life of the world, we see the need to give to transform places of pain into oases of healing, places of hate in temples of love. So let’s give thanks for all the giving that goes on in our church – the selfless giving week after week on the plate, in envelopes or directly to the bank, the fundraising and quiet giving to the foodbank and other charities which make a difference. Let’s pray:
May your glory shine in this place O God,
not a glory based on power and pomp
– but on love and service;
not a glory which draws attention to itself,
– but a glory based on giving and sacrifice,
not a glory based on wealth and prestige,
– but on humble gifts and transforming presence.
Bless all the gifts we have in this church, O God,
that your transforming glory will shine here
on those who need love and life. Amen.
Intercessions
The Word of God calls us to see
that all the places and occasions of the world,
even places of sorrow and death,
are transfigured by the presence of God’s glory revealed in Jesus Christ.
We now pray for all who are in any kind of need,
commending them to God’s transforming care, saying:
O merciful God, hear our prayer.
We pray for those who are alone,
for the bereaved
and for those whose marriages and relationships have ended…
O merciful God, hear our prayer.
We pray for the imprisoned, especially for those unjustly held,
for those whose only home is the street,
for those refugees on the move seeking sanctuary
and for those who cannot find safety anywhere….
O merciful God, hear our prayer.
We pray for the hungry,
for those who cannot feed their children,
and for those who cannot make ends meet,
even those in work…
O merciful God, hear our prayer.
We pray for those battling injustice
For asylum seekers and all held in poverty by racism…
O merciful God, hear our prayer.
And we pray for those who seek to transform the world,
for artists and writers
and for those who think on the edge of our society,
for preachers and teachers
who seek to expound the life giving Word of God,
for the Church and our leaders,
Seeking to be faithful and reflect God’s awesome glory,
and for those who assume political leadership
that the may always seek the good of all, especially the poor.
O merciful God, hear our prayer.
In a moment’s silence we bring to God close to our hearts in any kind of need….
O merciful God, hear our prayer.
As we join our prayers together we say, with confidence, as Jesus taught… Our Father…
Holy Communion
God is here! | God’s Spirit is with us!
Lift up your hearts | we lift them up to God!
Let us give God our thanks and praise! | This is indeed our duty and joy!
It is indeed right and good, our duty and our joy,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
almighty and eternal Creator, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
For on this day he revealed his divinity,
uniting in him the Law and the prophets,
waking his sleepy disciples and unveiling their minds,
transforming them even as he was transformed
with a glory both awesome and terrifying.
And so with joyful hearts we echo on earth
the song of the angels in heaven:
Blessed and Holy (v4)
Bernadette Farrell (b1947) 2012 OCR Sung by Chris Brunelle and used with his kind permission.
OneLicence # A-734713
Holy, holy, holy, God of power, God of might,
all the earth and all the heavens sing your glory day and night.
Blessed and holy your creation, blessed is Jesus whom you send.
Sing hosanna! Sing hosanna! Sing hosanna without end!
The glory that shone so brightly led Jesus to the Cross,
where, in agony and injustice, he died as one forsaken,
showing glory can be hard, weak, and vulnerable.
But before he was given over to death he shared in a meal with his friends, of which Paul wrote:
“For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said,
“This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
Let us proclaim the mystery of our faith
Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again!
And so, in obedience to the Lord’s command we, his people,
show forth his sacrifice on the Cross
by the bread broken and the wine poured
and as we eat and drink, Jesus himself, risen and ascended,
is present and gives himself to us
for our spiritual nourishment and growth in grace.
United with Christ,
and with the whole Church on earth and in heaven,
we, his people, gathered at his table present our sacrifice of thanksgiving,
renew the offering of ourselves,
and rejoice in the promise of his coming in glory.
Through him, with him, in him,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
all glory and praise is yours, Eternal Creator, forever and ever, Amen.
These holy gifts are for God’s holy people,
Let us eat and drink recognising
we are drawn into the presence of the Risen Lord
who gives us His body and His blood, to keep us in eternal life.
Music for Communion Blessed and Holy
Bernadette Farrell (b1947) 2012 OCR Sung by Chris Brunelle and used with his kind permission. OneLicence # A-734713
Post Communion Prayer
Holy One, we see your glory in the beauty of the world around us,
in dawn’s gentle light and the stillness of dusk,
in the people we meet and the love shown to stranger and friend,
let us reflect your glory in our lives and our loves,
that our world may be changed into your coming kingdom, Amen.
Hymn The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns
John Brownlie (1907) public domain sung by the The Singing Family and used with their kind permission.
The King shall come when morning dawns
and light triumphant breaks,
when beauty gilds the eastern hills
and life to joy awakes.
Not as of old a little child,
to bear, and fight, and die,
but crowned with glory like the sun
that lights the morning sky.
O brighter than the rising morn
when He, victorious, rose
and left the lonesome place of death,
despite the rage of foes.
O brighter than that glorious morn
shall this fair morning be,
when Christ, our King, in beauty comes,
and we His face shall see.
The King shall come when morning dawns
and earth’s dark night is past;
O haste the rising of that morn,
the day that aye shall last.
And let the endless bliss begin,
by weary saints foretold,
when right shall triumph over wrong,
and truth shall be extolled.
The King shall come when morning dawns,
and light and beauty brings;
“Hail, Christ the Lord!” Thy people pray,
come quickly, King of kings!
Blessing
May the One who meets you in mysterious glory,
the One who wakes and changes you,
and the One who won’t let you be silent,
bathe you in glory, continue to change you, and give you words to speak,
that the Light of the World may bring change through you,
and the blessing of Almighty God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
be with you all now and forever, Amen.
Come to the God who loves you.