Three Tents

 Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church

 A warm welcome to each worshiper today. We celebrate you and offer you our friendship and love. We are a congregation of people who seek to grow spiritually, to become more like Christ in His compassion and acceptance of everyone while growing more aware of what it really means to be Christians today.

As a Reconciling Congregation, EPUMC affirms the sacred worth of persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities and welcomes them into full participation in the fellowship, membership, ministries, and leadership of the congregation.

 

 

 

943 Palmer Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12309 / 518-374-4306 epumc943@gmail.com / www.easternparkway.org

Order of Worship

February 11, 2024

10:00 a.m.

*You are invited to rise in body or spirit.

 

Prelude

Greeting and Announcements

Mission Statement: We are a faith community striving to be, to nurture, and to send forth disciples of Jesus Christ.

Call to Worship:

Cry out!

God does not keep silent.

Cry out!

We long to hear God’s word.

Cry out!

Tell of God’s wonderful deeds.

*Hymn                  Christ Whose Glory Fills the Skies                      #173

Prayer of Confession:

Mighty one of yesterday, today, and tomorrow,

do not be silent, but speak, that we may hear.

Speak justice, that we may correct our lawlessness.

Speak righteousness, that we may know your ways.

Speak compassion, that we may know your mercy.

Speak abundance, that we may serve others.

Speak understanding, that we may be peacemakers.

Speak glory, that we may know your Son.

Speak, and we will listen to you.

You promise forgiveness of sins and fullness of grace

when we speak our shortcomings.

We speak of mistakes we have made.

We speak of abandoning your ways.

We speak of failures to show compassion and mercy.

We speak of our need for forgiveness.

Mighty one of yesterday, today, and tomorrow,

hear our prayer and lead us into fullness of life. Amen.

Assurance:

God will not keep silent, but will gather us in

with the tender words: “You are forgiven.”

Scripture Reading Mark 9: 2-9

The Transfiguration

2 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became dazzling bright, such as no one[a] on earth could brighten them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us set up three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6 He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7 Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved;[b] listen to him!” 8 Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

The Coming of Elijah

9 As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Sermon                                        Three Tents

Friends, on the Sunday right before Lent begins, we observe Transfiguration Sunday. We Christians have several of these odd, poorly understood, and oft overlooked holidays on our church calendar. And to most of you today is either Valentine’s Sunday, or Superbowl Sunday (or, alternatively, the day that Taylor Swift’s boyfriend will toss a ball around at the Usher concert). You have no reason to be thinking about “the transfiguration”. Yet, the Christian quirkiness of this time in the church calendar is in your face quite a bit more than usual this year because Ash Wednesday will fall right on Valentine’s Day–so it’ll be an awkward time for you if you prefer to give up chocolate for Lent. And while your non-churchy friends are either sweating over the perfect gift for their significant others or bemoaning their singleness, you’ll be in our sanctuary getting dirt rubbed on your face and thinking about your mortality. It’s little wonder that we don’t tend to plan much around Transfiguration Sunday, and that we don’t exactly pack the church on Ash Wednesday, because these holy days are a hard sell. At best, they’re boring, and at worst, they’re creepy.

But, on this odd day, Transfiguration Sunday, we get this story where Peter, James, and John follow Jesus up a mountain. It’s reminiscent of Moses’ climb up Mount Sinai to receive the Law from God. And who appears once they’re up there but Moses himself, and Elijah, standing there like force ghosts in Star Wars, and Jesus between them brighter than a lighthouse and more sparkly than Cher on a concert night. You have to feel for James and John, who have no idea what on earth they’re supposed to do with this bizarre scene, and hide in the corner. And if they weren’t overwhelmed enough, God’s voice yells out, “This is my Son, listen to him!” It feels like appropriate advice to us 2,000 years later, hearing the story in church. I’ve preached hundreds of sermons where the main takeaway, more or less, was “listen to Jesus”. But James and John are terrified at what words could come out of Jesus’ mouth at a time like this. And besides–this is the most spectacular show the disciples have ever laid their eyes on, so why is God urging them to listen to Jesus when it feels obvious that what they’re supposed to do is look at him? Keep that question in your mind, because we’ll get back there in a minute.

Peter reacts in a completely different direction. He tries the “teacher’s pet” approach. He sees the dazzling Jesus next to Moses and Elijah and suggests that they all stay on the mountain for a while, and put up three tents for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah to live in. Bear in mind that Jesus has been voluntarily homeless this entire time, if he wanted a tent he would have built one by now. It’s not in the nature of his life or ministry to have a permanent dwelling place, he moves from one town to the next until he dies. And there’s no logic in building tents for Moses and Elijah, two ghosts, unless Peter’s goal is to reverse the laws of science and get two long-dead people to come back and stay for good. That’s not a terrible instinct Peter has, to want to preserve this holy moment. But he can’t do it like that.

By the way, how did Peter, James, and John know that Moses and Elijah were with them? Yes, Moses and Elijah are very important characters in the Hebrew Scriptures, so the names would be familiar. But they died long before Jesus and the disciples were born, so they never saw their faces. There certainly weren’t pictures of Moses and Elijah sitting around. There weren’t paintings of them hanging in a museum somewhere, or printed in a history book, and their faces weren’t on the $5 bill. If we were going to draw political cartoons of long deceased US Presidents talking to Jesus, we wouldn’t need much detail to make it obvious who is who–a powdered wig for George Washington, a black top hat and a beard for Abraham Lincoln–but I’m not sure how I’d draw a picture of Elijah and Moses standing next to Jesus and make it clear to you who you’re looking at. It’s why Jesus didn’t take Peter up on his suggestion to build three tents for everyone to live permanently on the mountain, and it’s why God urged the disciples not to sit and stare and Shiny Jesus, but rather to listen to him. Our eyes only give us so much information about the Divine, and a lot of what our eyes teach us about the Holy ends up either being inaccurate, or being an incomplete picture. Peter, James, and John didn’t know this moment was so sacred because of what they saw, and they didn’t recognize Moses and Elijah based on their faces. They knew what they were experiencing because of what they heard and felt, on a much deeper level.

In that present moment, Jesus was a living man to them, with a face and body they saw every day. But this moment became a turning point, and Peter, James, and John could never think of Jesus the same as before. And that was exactly what Jesus needed to prepare them for. Shortly after this story, Jesus died. The disciples would have to go on, living their lives and serving their community, thinking of Jesus exactly like Moses and Elijah–a Spirit whose face is no longer around, but who you can feel if you listen, giving you gentle guidance and living within you.

I have something in common with Peter. I’m also a little too literal, and I also want tents to keep Jesus, Moses, and Elijah in. I want something I can see and touch as evidence that the Holy is really intertwined with my life in some way, and I want to preserve the Sacred moments to make them last. It’s ok to want that. But aside from a few miserable moments from back when I was a Girl Scout, I’ve never built a tent. Instead of a tent, I have my Grandma G’s old jewelry box, that she let me keep and play with when I was little because she saw how much I liked it. I used to put my favorite toys in there, and I kept it like that, untouched for a long time as a young adult. I didn’t want to open the box and have the magic of my Barbies and my Pocahontas action figure evaporate out. 

But I got a little older, and realized we don’t actually get to hold on to much of anything in this life, even if we build a tent for it, or lock it up in Grandma’s jewelry box. We have special moments where Jesus is so obviously in front of us that he’s practically wearing a neon sign, as the disciples experienced, and we have to hold on to those moments in our memories, and keep them fresh there. Still, for the other Peters in this room, I dumped out the old toys in here and gave them to my kids, and refilled Grandma G’s jewelry box with the items that remind me of the Transfiguration moments of my life, the times when Jesus was glowing in the room. I have the hats Highland Hospital gave me to put on my babies when they were first born. I have their newborn pictures. And I have my pocket sized NKJV that I used to carry around in my purse in college and read between classes. It was at a time when I had started applying to seminary, and I had my ear to the ground listening for Jesus more than I ever had. It was a precious feeling. I can’t bottle it to keep it fresh, and I can’t house it in a tent, but I can look, remember, and listen for the next moment like that one.

And if you, like me, and like Peter, also like to have tangible reminders of the presence of the Divine around you, I gift you, in closing, these words from a saint of yesteryear, Julian of Norwich, who had a Transfiguration moment of sorts in her garden:

“And in this he showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked upon it with the eye of my understanding, and thought, 'What may this be?' And it was answered generally thus, 'It is all that is made.' I marveled how it might last, for I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nothing for littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it. And so have all things their beginning by the love of God. In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it. The second that God loves it. And the third, that God keeps it.”

Amen.

*Hymn                        All My Hope Is Firmly Grounded                   #132

 

Offering

Offertory

*Doxology #94

*Prayer of dedication           

Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

Pastoral Prayer for Transfiguration

(inspired by Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-9, Luke 9:28-36, 2 Peter 1:16-18)

Almighty God,

before the passion of your Son,

you revealed His glory upon the holy mountain.   

Grant to us that we,

beholding by faith the light of His countenance,

may be strengthened to bear our cross. 

Indeed, O Lord, give us the vision

to see beyond the turmoil of our world

and to behold Him in all His glory... 

Lord, hear our prayer...

O God,

at the Holy Mountain we open our eyes and we see Jesus,

the months of ministry transfigured to a beam of light,

the light of the world,

your light.

May your light always shine upon us... 

Lord, hear our prayer...

O God,

we open our eyes and we see Moses and Elijah with Jesus,

your word,

restoring us, showing us the way,

telling a story,

your story, his story, our story. 

May your word always speak to us... 

Lord, hear our prayer...

O God,

we open our eyes and we see mist,

the cloud of your presence,

which assures us of all we do not know

and that we do not need to fear.

Teach us to trust...  

Lord, hear our prayer...

O God,

we open our eyes and we see Peter's constructions,

his best plans, our best plans,

our missing the point, our missing the way....

Forgive us our foolishness and our sin.... 

Lord, hear our prayer...

O God,

we open our eyes and we see Jesus,

not casting us off,

but leading us down, leading us out –

to ministry, to people.  

Help us to share his love, your love....

Lord hear our prayer...

O God,

hear our prayers not just for ourselves,

but our prayers for one another at this time:

our prayer that they who are lost might be found,

that they who are lame might walk

and they who are sick may be healed,

that they who are enslaved may be set free

and they that mourn may be comforted.

We pray, O God, for .... (bidding prayer)

Lord, hear our prayer...

O God,

at your Holy Mountain we open our ears

and we hear your voice saying

'This is my beloved Son, listen to him!'  

We give you thanks and we pray in his name

that we might always do your will and harken to his voice—

both on the mountains and in the valleys of life.  Amen

~ written by William Loader.  Posted on Kir-shalom. http://www.rockies.net/

For more of William Loader’s work, see Bill Loader’s Home Page.  http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/SacredMts.htm

Our Father, Mother, Creator God, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen.

*Hymn                    Praise to the Lord, the Almighty                       #139

Benediction

Postlude

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Staff

Natalie Bowerman Pastor

Betsy Lehmann Music Director

Joe White Custodian

Cassandra Brown Nursery Care Worker