Welcome & Intimations
Welcome Craigmillar Park and Reid Memorial Churches, and to our service of worship for the 27th February. This week we consider a rather dramatic event in the life of Jesus and the disciples, and reflect upon what it may mean for his followers today.
Call to Worship (Psalm 99: 1-2)
The Lord is king;
let the peoples tremble!
He sits enthroned upon the cherubim;
let the earth quake!
The Lord is great in Zion;
he is exalted over all the peoples.
HYMN 124 Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
Prayer:
Let us pray:
For what is beyond, not invented or made up
let us offer God our thanks and praise.
For thoughts and ways that are not ours,
let us offer God our prayers and reflections.
For the love that loves first and shows us what love is,
let us offer God our fellowship and service.
For the light that shines from the face of Jesus Christ,
and enlightens every human life,
let us offer God our joy and worship.
Holy, holy, holy, God,
to You we come
rejoicing in who You are.
You are light and in You there is no darkness at all,
You are faithful and true and there is nothing false about You,
You have shown us how much You love us in Jesus Christ,
who became one of us for our salvation.
Freely, gladly, we bring ourselves to You.
Holy Spirit help us,
that with all that is within us,
we may bless Your holy name.
Gracious God we ask:
for eyes open to see Your glory in the world around,
for ears to hear Jesus speak today,
for minds ready to engage with Your thoughts,
for hearts to love You more and our neighbours as ourselves.
Help us to see that all You have commanded us to be is found in Jesus.
Good Shepherd may You show us the paths of right living that lead to refreshing streams and green pastures for all the earth.
Saviour God, whose well-meaning disciples sometimes missed the point,
help us to keep our focus on You.
Forgive us, we humbly ask, when we have been overtaken by our own projects
rather than nurture the life of Your Kingdom.
We have looked other ways, and not been mindful of You.
We have hurt others and ourselves.
Draw us close we pray; may You speak words of forgiveness within us.
Re-ignite the fire of faith and inspire us with the breath of Your Spirit.
With the glory of Jesus Christ reflected upon our faces may we shine for You each day.
In the words Jesus taught His disciples let us pray together, saying the Lord’s prayer:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen.
Scriptures:
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, 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, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it 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 things that one hides; we refuse to practise 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.
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 dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, 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 make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’—not knowing what he said. 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.
HYMN 459 Crown him with many crowns
Reflection:
Martin Luther King famously said: ‘I have been to the mountain top, and I have seen the Promised Land. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.’
The disciples have been to the mountain top. To borrow from Dr. King, they had seen the ‘promised land’. They had seen a supra-natural vision – Jesus shining, glowing, whiter than anyone could bleach. A beatific vision, no less, and something they wanted to hold on to. That is understandable. Perhaps they felt that they were in some promised land. Here was their master, transformed by the near presence of God. Here, too, were great heroes of their faith. Here was Moses, the bringer of the Torah. Here was Elijah, representative of all that was good about the Prophets. Here, in one moment, their faith had taken on flesh. Here, their hopes had been made real. Here, their hope had been made tangible. Of course they wanted to hold on to the moment!
This whole episode, though, raises questions. What is going on? What does it mean? Also, what does it mean for the disciples of Jesus today? So, what does this episode in the life of Jesus and his disciples have to say to our lives today?
We want to know what is going on. Jesus is described as transformed, yet he remains recognisable. The text tells us that this was something beyond human doing. It is supra-natural, divine in origin. Jesus is described in words that lead us in one direction. He is described as radiating light, purity, in a way that belongs only to God. True, there is an echo here of the occasion when Moses returns form the mountain top with the second set of stone tablets. Yet this tale is qualitatively different. Moses had to veil only his face; here Jesus is transformed in whole.
We see two heroes of the faith, Moses and Elijah. Individually they represent Law and Prophets, what were regarded as the most important parts of Scripture. Together, they represent the unity of those elements. They represent completeness. Jesus stated that he had come to fulfil, complete, the Law and the Prophets.
This story is meant to make us sit up and take notice. Something new is happening here. Something significant has changed. God is doing a new thing!
For the disciples, change would come all too soon. The vision would end, and normality would be restored. The moment of beatific vision would pass. Jesus would appear once more as he always had. Yet the process of transformation, transfiguration, would change not only Jesus but the disciples too. They never understood it yet they spoke of it. It mattered so much that it was written down and conveyed to generations of believers right down through to today. Something had happened, and their eyes had been opened that they might see something of the wonder of God.
The stories of Scripture do not exist in a vacuum; they never did. They were born into a world of flesh and blood. They were shaped in a world of pain and suffering. They were shared in a world of hope and fear. We live in that same world. Just as scripture spoke to the world of Peter, James, and John so, too, is it meant to speak to us. For these disciples Scripture was made flesh that day. It touched and transformed them; will we let it do the same to us? Will we let down our guard and let ourselves be transformed, transfigured? Will we let go of our sensibilities and let God shock us with the new? Will we open our eyes, look, and see, as did those disciples? We do not have to understand, we do not have to be perfect, we just have to follow Jesus to the mountain top. If we will, if we can, then we will be transformed from the fallen to the resurrected. We, too, will become a part of the new things of God.
So what are the new things of God? Martin Luther King had a beatific vision of the mountain top, the same as did the disciples. He saw the glory of God made real in the Promised Land; a land of peace and justice. To paraphrase Saint Paul, a land where there is no slave nor free, no black nor white, no male nor female, no rich nor poor. It is a Promised Land, a just land, where all are one in God. We may be able, in principle, to say ‘Amen’ to that. Yet there are elements of our society, our community, that continue to be excluded from the community of faith. In the context of Martin Luther King it was people who were of colour. In our worship, where are the people of colour? In our worship, where are the people who are gay? In our worship, where are the people whose gender is not defined in ways we consider as straightforward or ‘normal’? Until they are as welcome as those who are different but whom we do accept then we have not seen the Promised Land. Until then we have not had the beatific vision.
Perhaps more than any other disciple, Peter had to be reminded of this time and again. This should tell us that even for the greatest of disciples there needs to be constant reminder and effort to hold up to the demands of the vision of God.
Jesus went to the mountain top and was transfigured. The disciples, Peter, James, and John went with him and they, too, were changed. If we, too, would travel to the top of the mountain then we also must be prepared to be changed. We will be required to leave behind our cultural baggage and personal preferences because the vision is greater than us. We will be required to take risks and cross lines, welcoming in those who we believe are not like us. It is then, only then, that we may catch a glimpse of the vision. It is then, only then, that we may be able to say that we have been to the mountain top, that we have seen the Promised Land.
Amen.
HYMN 356 Meekness and Majesty
Prayer:
Let us pray:
We give thanks for every good and holy joy,
for gifts of eye and ear, for the varied arts that we enjoy:
music, song, art, sculpture, video, poetry and prose
and all that points us to You.
Transfigured Jesus – Crucified, Risen and Ascended Lord –
who gives gifts to humankind, we thank You for all that You have done for us
and for the love with which You reach out to every human being.
For the presence of Your life-giving Spirit in the Church,
in our world and in our lives,
we give You thanks.
For the liberty the Spirit brings to be whose we truly are
and to work out together what it means to be church in these days,
we give You thanks.
Holy Spirit move and prompt us,
show us how to reflect Christ’s glory
that many may know the light of Christ is with them.
Receive our gifts and prayers, we humbly ask.
We offer them in faith and love.
Living God, joyfully we find in Jesus what it means to be fully human.
You give us hope that one day we shall be like Him.
May all His sisters and brothers know fullness of life and God’s glory be seen.
We pray for people who are hungry or thirsty, in need of food and drink,
for strangers hoping for a welcome,
for people without proper clothing,
for those who are ill at home or in hospital,
and for people in prison and all affected by crime.
Lord, these are our sisters and brothers too,
help us to do what we can to care and to ensure adequate support.
We look to the day when all of creation will be set free from decay
to enter into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We pray for the climate crisis
that the world’s governments may not falter in their commitment to reduce global temperatures.
We pray for the work of NGOs, charities and faith groups
raising awareness, lobbying governments and garnering support.
Lord God, who has made it known that You love justice and equity,
we pray for a better sharing of the world’s resources,
for an end to poverty and inequality.
We remember the work of Christian Aid
working with some of the world’s poorest communities
and we pray for the work of Covax,
tasked with the equitable sharing of vaccines.
We pray for those who are cast aside because they are different from us.
We pray for those side-lined because of their colour or ethnicity;
we pray for those treated as belongings because of their gender or biology;
we pray for those cast outside because they do not conform to our ideas or normal.
You invite us to collaborate with You and our sisters and brothers
towards the day when Your kingdom is complete
and poverty and injustice will be no more.
Lord of all,
as war seems to be looming on our continent
we pray for peace.
May the hurts and fears that some feel
be healed by your Spirit.
May all sides come together
seeking peace for all humanity.
We pray for the leaders of Nato,
Ukraine, and Russia;
may each see in the other their common humanity.
Gracious God, as Lent approaches and we journey with Jesus towards the cross,
may we ever be aware of His glory,
in whose name we pray.
Amen.
HYMN 465 Be thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart
Benediction:
As you leave this time apart and return to the needs of the world,
may you know Christ goes before you,
that there is nowhere you will be without Him.
May you find joy and hope as you discover Christ is by your side.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
be with us all now and always.
Amen.
Sung Amen:
Acknowledgements:
Bible Quotations taken from: New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
English translations of The Lord’s Prayer, © 1998, English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC), and used by permission. www.englishtexts.org
Prayers and final blessing adapted from Church of Scotland Weekly Worship for 27th February 2022.
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