Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

Remember this? Do you see a young woman or a more wizened woman? (Yes, I chose that more appropriate adjectival construction.) Can you see both? What do you see?

Our gospel reading in Matthew 17:1-9 is that writer’s telling of the Transfiguration, a moment when his (new) followers see the face and figure of Jesus in all the glory of God. It is a moment that today’s special effects, AI and computer generated graphics could have a field day with. Alas, those disciples had only the transfigured face of Jesus, in the glorious company of Moses and Elijah. Not bad for a carpenter’s kid of ambiguous parentage.

As it happens, that blinding, mountain top moment was only part of the challenge. Peter, James and John are instructed not to speak of it until after the Resurrection. Bummer, yes? What did they see that they weren’t to talk about or  make sense of (somehow) together? Perhaps Jesus was insisting that they “just be with that for a while,” as my friend Paul used to say. Hence, Lent?

Of course, I have a few thoughts about this which you will hear about when we gather for worship on Sunday.

Transfiguration Sunday is always the last Sunday in Epiphany, the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, February 18, beginning the Season of Lent. Which, of course, is the road we take to Easter or Resurrection Sunday. In Matthew’s gospel, Chapter 17 comes just after Jesus foretells his death and the trials in Jerusalem where he must go, and “(f)rom that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples” what he could about how his followers [us] bring the kin-dom and glory of God into our world (Matthew 16:21). 

Come be with us on Sunday, extend your Valentine’s Day celebration to the LOVE of God we know in Christ Jesus and the congregation of God’s people for one more day. (This is our celebration, not inspired by or dependent upon commercial interests.) We will sing and pray and praise and give thanks in the ways we hope will give us the courage and imagination to love and serve fearlessly. 

And we will be prepared afresh to do the business of Central Church in a congregation meeting just after worship. Please make your plans to stay. Copies of the documents needed are in the Enews and in print as you enter the sanctuary. 

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz