This Sunday is the climax of Epiphany, the season of light.  It began with the star over Bethlehem and the Magi seeing the manifestation of God in the Christ-child.  It ends with the disciples seeing Jesus Transfigured into a being of light and hearing God’s voice calling him the Beloved. We will fill with as much light as we can this Sunday in preparation for the season of Lent which will begin on Ash Wednesday next week.  Lent often coincides with Mud Season, and this year it also coincides with a time of turmoil in our nation and world.  We will find reasons to have faith and to rejoice always, an abundance of love and life and light to carry us through whatever trials may lie ahead.

The scriptures will include a Call to Worship medley of writings about the light of God and Christ from Psalms 50, 104, 36 & 139,  and II Corinthians 4.  We will also read II Peter 1:16-21 and Matthew 16:21-17:7, both of which are about the Transfiguration and how we can live in a transfigured reality where we have the light of Christ “as a lamp shining in a dark place.”  We will try to see our own lives and congregation in that transfiguring light.

We will sing Immortal, “Invisible, God Only Wise,” and “They Did Not Build in Vain,” and “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” and the choir will sing a Transfiguration hymn from the New Century Hymnal, “O Wondrous Sight, O Vision Fair” as well as “Light Everlasting” by O.C. Christiansen.  Organist John Atwood will bring more light into the service with pieces by J.S. Bach, Louis-Claude Clerambault and J. Pachelbel.  You can listen to the Bach and Pachelbel in YouTube videos below.