Sunday Gathering - February 27

Trinity United Church
February 27, 2022
Transfiguration Sunday
Worship

“Connection not Perfection”

Worship Leader: Rev David Cathcart
Music Leader: David Rogers
Scripture Reader: Linda Lund
Lead Singer: Choir
Zoom Hosts: Dave Squires, Ross Dunning
Soundboard: Steven Grootendorst

WE GATHER

Gathering
 
Welcome 

Rev David: May the peace of Christ be with you.

Welcome to Trinity United Church in Port Coquitlam, BC.
We are so grateful that you have chosen to spend some time with us, we are glad you are here. 

If you are joining us on YouTube, please check out our website at ucpoco.ca. We would also appreciate if you would subscribe to our channel, and like and share our service. Those buttons are right below the video, and it does make a difference when you interact with our account.

Acknowledgement of Territory 
Much of what we know as the Northwest Coast of North America was occupied by the Coast Salish Peoples. The territory where Trinity United Church of Port Coquitlam resides is the unceded territory of the Kwikwetlem First Nations. Our acknowledgement of unceded traditional territory is a first step in reconciliation between settler cultures and indigenous peoples and the decolonization of western systems that continue to oppress and exploit indigenous peoples and land. The work of reconciliation is daunting. The work of reconciliation will not be ours to complete, but neither is it ours to abandon. 

Let us prepare our hearts and minds for worship.

Prelude: David Rogers

Lighting of the Christ Candle

Call to Worship and Opening Prayer:

Jesus called to Peter, James and John and bid them to follow him up the mountain to pray.
May Jesus call us too, that we may follow.
Peter, James and John watched as Jesus was transformed and made new.
May we witness too, that we may be transformed.
The disciples heard a voice from a cloud revealing who Jesus was.
May we hear too, that we may serve.

God of Radiance and New Life, hearing the call to live in a new way, we come to worship and know transfiguration.
In this time of worship, touch our hearts with your Holy Mystery and make us new.
May our grief be comforted, our anxiety calmed, our weariness enlivened.
May we move from doubt to trust, from fear to boldness, and from anger to joy.
In the name of the Radiant One, we pray.  Amen.

Hymn:  VU 371 "Open My Eyes, That I May See" 

Reconciliation Meditation

I would invite you to close your eyes, or let them rest half lidded and take a deep breath with me as we exhale, let your body feel heavy on the pew. We’ll do that again, letting our bodies feel heavier. And one more time, really trusting the pew to hold your weight.

Imagine a warm light a little above and before you, imagine its warmth on your face, chest and arms. Imagine the warms sinking in through your skin, into the flesh beneath, all the way through your body to your back and down into your legs and feet.

Imagine the light as God’s love and you are soaking in God’s reconciling love.

I will read a few words from scripture then we will sit in God’s reconciling love for a few minutes. If you feel your mind getting busy or distracted, simply repeat the words from scripture silently to yourself and bring your focus back to God’s reconciling love.

Luke 9:31 “glory”

[3 minutes of silence]

May we too see Christ’s glory and serve as we are called.

WE HEAR THE WORD OF GOD

Reading: Exodus 34:29-35

29 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. 30When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. 31But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. 32Afterwards all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; 34but 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, 35the 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.
Hear what the spirit is saying to the church. Thanks be to God!

Psalm 99 VU 819 

The Story: “Glory, Glory, Glory”  CLICK HERE for video.

Jesus: Glory, glory, glory
Peter: I’m tired!
James: Are we there yet?
John: I’m special
Moses: Holy Moses!
Elijah: crackle their bulletins so they sound like fire burning (because Elijah ascended to heaven on a chariot of fire)
Cloud: Boom, boom, boom

One day, Jesus chose three of his disciples: Peter, James and John, to go up a mountain with him to pray.  Peter was tired.  James was impatient.  And John thought he was special.  It had already been a long day and Peter, James and John, were ready for bed.  But Jesus kept on going.  When they got to the top, Jesus started to pray.  While he was praying, Peter noticed that Jesus’ face had changed; he was shining like there was a light in him.  Suddenly, Jesus wasn’t alone but Moses and Elijah were with him!  There the three of them were, talking like it was just an ordinary day: Elijah, Moses and Jesus!  Before they left, Peter said, “we should make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”  Just then, a cloud overshadowed them.  The tree disciples were terrified as they entered the cloud.  Then a voice spoke from the cloud, it said, “This is my Son, the Chosen; listen to him!”  When the voice had spoken, the cloud went away, Moses and Elijah were gone.  Peter, James and John didn’t know what to make of what had happened, only that they should listen to Jesus.

Hymn: “We Have Come at Christ’s Own Bidding” VU 104

Message: Rev David 

“To Discover What God Is Offering Us”

Holy and Mighty God,
gather us among your faithful ones,
the people of your covenant,
to stand int he light of your glory
and listen for the world of the Lord.
Speak to us
and let the fire of your spirit
burn brightly in our hearts.
Open our minds to receive
the wisdom of the law,
the hope of the prophets,
and the life of the gospel.
In the name of your Transfigured One,
we pray, Amen.

After a long and intimate exchange with God, Moses comes down from Sinai and his face is shining. Because he has seen the Glory of God, he has been transfigured. The Israelites are afraid to come near him. Moses has to call the people back to himself so that they can receive the law, the commandments. The shining is so much that after Moses speaks to the people, he must put on a veil to protect them. and he only removes the veil when he is talking to God and then delivering God's words to the people.

One is transfigured when one is exposed to the Glory of God. And that transfiguration can be terrifying to those who haven't had the same experience.

The disciples are also described as terrified when they witness the transfiguration of Jesus. They see Jesus in all his glory and they are unable to speak.

What is Glory anyway? What do we mean when we use the word "Glory"? We hear the word "Glory" a lot around Christmas and the birth of Jesus. We sometimes hear that Jesus is the Glory of God. But what does that mean. What does it mean when the Angels shout "Glory, glory, glory!"?

A quick google search takes me to the Oxford Dictionary:

As a noun glory refers to "high renown or honour won by notable achievements;" or "magnificence or great beauty." As a verb it means to "take great pride or pleasure in." It's a start.

In Hebrew, the word for glory is "kabod" which literally means weight or heaviness. I had a prof suggest that the best way to understand "Kabod" or "the Glory of God" was to think of it as a heavy regal mantle God wears. We cannot see God God'self. Mortals would die if we gazed on the face of God. But we can see God's Glory, the heavy mantle God wears. It is both magnificent and terrifying. It is totally overwhelming for the Israelites and for the disciples.

Something of that mantel God wears rubs off on Moses and now Moses shines with God's Glory.

Our later, Christian tradition understands Jesus as the Glory of God. Jesus is what we can see of God. Jesus comes with blessing and promise and hope, but also with some heavy responsibilities. Glory! Glory! Glory! Boom! Boom! Boom!

In the story in Exodus, the people are terrified enough of the Glory of God that they insist that Moses intercede with God on their behalf. Moses becomes the high priest who mediates between God and the people of God.

As the story continues, we will see that Moses as intermediary has some problems. On numerous occasions, the people want to stone Moses to death because they don't like what he has to say to them. Sometimes the people just ignore Moses. And of course, on a significant occasion, Moses himself gets it deeply, deeply wrong. Pressured by the people, Moses makes water flow from a rock, without explicit instructions from God to make water flow from a rock. And so the whole people are punished with 40 years of wandering around the wilderness.

In Christian Traditions there is a roll for the priest, especially in the Catholic or Anglican traditions. But in the protestant tradition, and particularly in the United Church, we believe in the priesthood of all believers. There are not intermediaries. or at least, the roll as priestly intermediary is significantly reduced.

Which means that each of you is responsible for your own experience of God's Glory. I can point, I can shout, I can give you tools to help you make yourself available to God's Glory. But ultimately, only you can have your own experience of God's presence.

This week three members of your Governance Team and I started a year long workshop called "From Decision Making to Discernment."

The first thing we need to master is the difference between decision making and discernment. The secular definition of discernment is "decision making," and so in our Christian perspective, we need to distinguish between the two. I'm using the distinction made by Danny Morris:

"Decision Making has limits. We make decisions. Discernment is given. The Spirit of God brings to the surface gifts of wisdom and guidance which we can only discover and name."

Our instructor, Susan Beaumont describes discernment as "Prayer based; seeing, knowing, and acknowledging what is; Noticing the movement of the divine; a journey; not a destination; and attitude and an act. (The fruit of discernment is not exclusively the decision we made, but also what's happening in us as a whole person)."

I want to point out that Susan's final point about the fruit of discernment, is the transfiguration of the individual doing the discerning. If we are genuinely engaged in discernment, we will not just fix something out there that isn't working the way we want it to. We ourselves will be transformed.

I would argue that discernment is about making ourselves available to the Glory of God, that part of God we can see and witness, and discovering and naming what God is offering us.

It might sound intimidating and like a lot of work.

It is and it isn't. We will have to give up a lot along the way. But what we gain in return is exponentially greater.

On Wednesday at the workshop, we were asked to share a personal story of discernment and to name the qualities that guided that discernment. How did I know when God was saying, “This way”?

When I completed my undergraduate studies 25 years ago I knew three things for certain. I would never be a minster. I would never come out of the closet as a gay man. And I would never live in rural Canada every again. (I thought Edmonton was pretty rural back then). But I was also feeling really lost and without purpose and grieving deeply at the time. So when the opportunity arose, I entered a discernment process with the United Church and a personal spiritual director. The process changed me. The sacrifices have been enormous, but so has the fruit.

How did I know when God was saying, “This way”?

Remember we did three points for decision making a few years ago: Need/Passion/Resources? Well this is the new four points around how w eknow God is saying “This way”:

1)    Repetition: from different sources, the message comes that we should try this;
2)    Life-giving promise: There may be sacrifices and it might seem impossible but WOW! If it came true that would be amazing; 
3)    Meaningful contribution: we’ll be able to better serve and make a difference;
4)    Follow the breadcrumbs: there will be resources along the way if we are on the right path;

May we enter discernment honestly and whole heartedly.
May we be exposed to the Glory of God.
May we trust God's involvement in the Journey.
And May we be transformed, to better serve our God.
Amen.

Special Music: David Rogers

WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD

Offering:

Holy One, as a response to witnessing your glory revealed in Jesus Christ, we humbly make our offering of music, praise and money.
We give thanks for your abundant grace that blesses us each day by calling us out of the shadows and darkness of our lives and into the light of your glorious day.
May our humble gifts bring hope and light to your church and to your world.  In the name of the child revealed to us in Bethlehem, we pray.  Amen.

Prayers of the People:

And we continue with prayer:

Disciples’ Prayer: “Heavenly Father, Heavenly Mother”   CLICK HERE

WE GO FORTH

Hymn: “God Says” MV 172   CLICK HERE

Sending Forth

Postlude