Sunday, February 11, 2024

Theme:

Mountaintop experiences can be life-changing.  They inspire us and encourage us and are special times in life, but they don’t last forever.  We still have to go back into a society and culture that challenges us as we seek to live out our faith.  Join us as we celebrate the mountaintop experiences and search for ways to hear God’s word to us as we prepare to go out “into the mission field” as the signs say as we exit the SAPC parking lot.

Reflections:

On the last Sunday of the Epiphany season, just before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, we celebrate Trasfiguration Sunday, recognizing the transfiguration of Christ in radiant glory before the disciples. There is a small selection of hymns in the Jesus Christ:Life section of Glory to God specifically referencing the Trasnfiguration. The opportunity to sing them generally only comes around once each year, so it makes for pretty easy selection process.

Introit: “Sing of God Made Manifest” is about the epiphanies, or disclosures, of Jesus as the Messiah. We sing the fourth verse, which sums up the Transfiguration.

Opening Hymn: “We Have Come at Christ’s Own Bidding” compares the attitudes and assumptions of the disciples to the expectations of present-day Christians.

Transition Hymn: “I Depend Upon Your Faithfulness”

Special Music: An arrangement of “Be Thou My Vision” by Skip Stradtman.

Responsive Hymn: “Swiftly Pass the Clouds of Glory”; this 20th-Century Transfiguration hymn guides the singer through a contemplation of the disciples experience, followed with a coporate prayer of enlightenment.

Sending Hymn: While generally understood as a reference to Jesus as the Light of the World, “Lord, the Light of Your Love Is Shining” is best understood as a response to the Transfiguration.

Benediction: One more time before Lent begins… “May the Love of the Lord”.