The Transfiguration of Christ- March 2, 2025

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ and welcome to the first perian church of Mount Dora where lives are changed but I almost feel like we need to change that slogan to where we celebrate a festival every weekend because today we are celebrating with our chili Fest and if you have purchased a ticket great you can pick up your

chili in the kitchen after this service and I understand you can eat it here or take it home with you or if you have not I know that uh Chef Doug Mitchell where are you Chef ah there he is he has his chef hat on and he is now going by Chef Boyard Doug so you may purchase your ticket from him and also take a chili home with you but if you were here y yesterday you'll know that we also had a festival of the handbells and our Prelude today was compliments of that as well it was a wonderful concert and I I

know many of you were able to to be here for that so we are here to worship our Lord together I hope that if you have not already done so that you will find the Friendship pad it's a red pad it's either on the inside of the pews or in the middle of the Pew sign your name and let us make sure that we have the most accurate information for being in touch with you because we want to let you know about all of the many wonderful fabulous things that are going on at the church many are already listed for you on the

back of your bulletin so I hope that you will take note of those as well of course we are about to turn the corner into the church season of Lent the time of preparation leading up to our celebration of Easter and we be that this coming Wednesday with Ash Wednesday so we will have an Ash Wednesday service with the imposition of Ashes at 12:00 in the chapel then later Wednesday evening at 5:30 we will begin our Lenton soup and study which will take place every Wednesday leading up to our Holy Week

celebration so I hope that you will mark your calendars and plan to join us for that as we we hope to see everyone there I would like to begin by also thanking our liturgist this morning Jan greo uh Jan I warned her that today's service has several readings and she said she is up for it so we are thankful we are thankful to Jan for assisting with that we have one more announcement and Debbie Smith I'm looking for you uh if you could quickly come forward Debbie would like to share a very uh important

announcement that is a passion near and dear to her heart and so if you can um I'm GNA come stand next to you so my microphone can pick up your voice wow I know everybody thinks they can be heard but go ahead okay we are starting a new flower Ministry and I encourage you to sign up a lot of times we don't know how to give to the church this Bringers te neighbor Church said earful wonderful thank you so much thank you so much good morning let's start with the call call to worship please God Reigns let the people tremble

god reigns let the Earth shake the our God is exalted over all people god reigns let the people tremble god reigns let the Earth shake for the Lord Our God loves Justice and works for righteousness so come and Proclaim at the Holy Mountain of the lord god reigns the people tremble Gods let the Earth shake our invocation in unison God of faith God of hope God of love grant us this day a fresh vision of your presence in this world help us to see all the places you are at work and having seen oh Lord send us out the

world to share and at work with you meet with us today and guide our minds and our feet along the path of your choosing in Christ we pray amen [Music] glor oh God might in the morningly holy holy holy all SS of God hly holy holy Darkness glor isly God Almy shall prise and holy holy might please be seated please join me now in our prayer and confession you know us oh Lord better than we know ourselves there is nothing we can hide from you even though we try forgive us for our unwillingness to face our ownes

and for pretending they are not as bad as they are help us instead to acknowledge our shortcomings to be honest about who we are and receive your forgiveness and loving guidance to be the people you created us to be for it is in Christ we pray amen beloved God hears us when we cry out God knows our hearts despite of our failures and treasures the beings that we are that he created my friends it is always a privilege for us to gather together and remind ourselves that in Jesus Christ we are forgiven thanks be to God thanks

be to God God glory to Father it in the is and please be seated Old Testament reading this morning is from from the book of Exodus I'm going to be reading from the Chronological Study Bible the NLT but you will find your in your pews the uh pages will be page 77 if you'd like to follow along when Moses came down from Mount Zion carrying the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the Covenant he wasn't aware that his face had become radiant because he had spoken to the Lord so when Aaron and the people

of Israel saw the radiance of moses' face they were afraid to come near him but Moses called out to them and asked Aaron and all the leaders of the community to come over and he talked to them then all the people of Israel approached him and Moses gave them all the instructions the Lord had given him on Mount Zion I when Moses finished speaking with them he covered his face with a veil and whenever he went into the Temple of meeting to speak with the Lord he would remove the veil until he came out again

then he would give the people whatever instructions the Lord had given him and the people of Israel would see the radiant glow of his face so he would put the veil over his face till he returned to speak to the Lord the word of the Lord thanks be to God [Music] by [Music] by come by here my Lord [Music] here come by here my Lord come [Music] by oh [Music] my [Music] PR my [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] by on C [Music] [Music] now we're going to the Gospel reading and the Gospel of Luke it would be on page uh let's see

99901 Luke 9: 28-36 about 8 days later Jesus Took Peter John and James up on the mountain to pray and as he was praying the appearance of his face was transformed and his clothes became dazzling and they became dazzling white suddenly two men Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking to Jesus they were glorious to see and they were glorious to see Jesus as well and they were speaking about his Exodus from the world which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem Peter and the others had fallen asleep and when they woke up they

saw Jesus's glory and the two men standing with him as Moses and Elijah were starting to leave Peter not even knowing what was saying blurted out Master it's wonderful for us to be here let's make three shelters as memorials one for you one for Moses and one for Elijah but even as he was saying this the cloud overshadowed them and Terror gripped them as the cloud covered them then a voice from the cloud said this is my son My Chosen One listen to him when the voice finished Jesus was there alone they didn't tell anyone at that

time what they had seen the word of the Lord thanks be to God this is a special time for us to be able to approach the throne of God to share our prayers of Thanksgiving as well as our prayers of request and isn't it special that we are able to do this as a family of Faith right now I would like to begin by um sharing just a a little bit of news with you many of you knew Kathleen Ward who had been a member of of this congregation for some time and was living at Waterman Village Kathleen went to be with her

Lord and Savior this last week on Thursday she was three days shy of turning 103 years old God gave her a long and wonderful life I had the opportunity to speak with her daughter Sandra Sandra said that they were going to be returning her mother to Alabama where her family were interred and that her memorial service and her burial will be there however uh when they get back to Florida they hope to have a memorial service at Waterman Village so when we hear about those arrangements I will certainly make sure

it's made known to all of you as well Tom we see you are here and we are so thankful that Brian had her procedure it sounds like she is doing well and we thank the Lord Lord for that and please let her know she continues in our prayers I also heard that Joyce Whitbeck who had been in the hospital for some time returned home on Thursday as well so we thank God for that progress I know that every one of us know of friends perhaps family members I have um an aunt Doris up in Palm Coast who we were notified just this past week

has been placed on hospice and so I ask your prayers to be with our family with her husband Gary uh their daughters Babs and Lynn and the grand children um as they're facing the end of her life as well so many of us have prayers that we would like to offer up to the Lord and we will take a few moments to offer those up in silence during our prayers of the people of God so I ask you now to please join me in prayer together let us pray almighty God we come to you today hungry for your goodness and worn down by

Life by the news by loss by fear and hate hear us as we call out to you trusting in your promise that you are present in our midst in the good times the struggles the bad times that you accompany us as we are here and even when we leave this place you will never ever leave us dear Lord we pray we pray for all your people we pray for the church Universal we pray that you will grant wisdom and courage to those who are seeking to do your will even in difficult times and facing diff difficult challenges surround your people with

your love and with discernment with courage we pray for leaders Lord leaders of the church as well as those who lead your people through the governments of this world may each of them listen to your still Small Voice instructing us to care for the least of these to lift up the downtrodden to welcome the stranger and always to share your love with those who are so in need dear God we pray for peace peace in Israel in Palestine in Ukraine in Sudan in Myanmar in all places where violence stands on the threshold of your

people Lord we pray that your servant leaders will come forward and help to work for peace in this world may we be humbled by your call to love one another you are the Lord who loves all people that you sent your son Jesus to be our savior such good news that needs to be shared with so many who are searching for you Lord so we pray Lord that you will be in our lives open our eyes to where there is work that we may participate and share your presence with those around us today Lord we lift up to

you those who are in need we lift up Joyce and Linda we lift up Brian we lift up Kathleen's family who are going through this season of grief we lift up others who are even printed on the back of our bulletin Nancy and Jerry Carell Cindy Stan Barb Harry Vicky Gordon Irene be with them Lord give them your peace and the knowledge that you will not leave them you will not abandon them but that you are working in their lives helping them to be the people that you wish for them to be we thank you for all of this and the

hope that we have and we pray all these things with boldness in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus the one who taught us how to pray by saying Our Father 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 debts as we forgive our debors and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen my friends we are certainly blessed

to be called together to be a family of faith it is always our privilege to participate in what God is doing here and through our denomination by the giving of our tithes and our offerings so for this purpose I invite the ushers to please come forward [Music] from the clouds you speak what was Veil now is seen Jesus the image of the invisible God div confirmed in the transfigured [Music] word a kingdom once concealed on the earth now revealed holy is the Lord revealed before my eyes my Burning Heart can scarcely take

it as I behold your beauty with unworthy eyes the only song My Soul can find to sing is hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah my [Music] king lead my longing heart to the a high ground to a clear view and in all I'll be there beholding you holy is the Lord revealed before my eyes and my Burning Heart can scarcely take it in as I behold your beauty with unworthy eyes the only song My Soul can find to sing is hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah my king hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah my king now I know I have

seen your glory that cannot be unseen I am changed and changing still as I look upon you Lord and believe holy is the Lord revealed before my eyes and my burning Hearts can scarcely take it in as I behold your beauty with unworthy eyes the only song My Soul can find to sing is hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah my my king hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah my king [Music] [Applause] all will you please join me in a prayer of dedication oh holy God we do thank you to be able to stand here with these

gifts these tithes and offerings that we return to your service oh Lord search our hearts and know our love and know how we wish to do your will in this world through this church and through our denomination we are grateful Lord and we pray all of this in your name amen please be seated our epistle reading is taken from 2 Corinthians CH 3: 12 through chapter 4: 2 and I ask that you hear now the continuing word of the Lord since we have such a hope we are very bold not like Moses who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites

might not see the end of The Fading splendor but their minds were hardened for to this day when they read the old Covenant that same Veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away yes to this day whenever Moses is read a veil Lies over their minds but when a man turns to the Lord the veil is removed now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being changed into his likeness from one

degree of Glory to another for this comes from the Lord who who is the spirit therefore having this ministry by the mercy of God we do not lose heart we have renounced disgraceful underhanded ways we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God this ends the reading of God's holy word may God add to our understanding and application of its truth in each of Our Lives will you join me in a prayer

of preparation let us pray Lord we do thank you for all of these readings that have pointed us to your truth Lord I do pray now that the words of my mouth and that the meditation the openness of our hearts openness of our ears that we might hear your still small voice speaking to each of us so that we may truly serve you as your children for we pray all of this dear Lord in Christ's name amen the church calls the events that we read particularly the ones that were read by Jan uh from Luke the Gospel of

Luke it is called the Transfiguration of Christ Jesus was transfigured the figure the image the look that Jesus had the face that showed to all those around him was changed the appearance of his face was Shin shining bright now Transfiguration I have to admit especially in in this country is Big Business certainly we know plenty of people maybe even you and me and everyone else who wants to transfigure ourself into the person that we want to present to the world my husband and I for fun had thought it was fun to watch a particular

YouTube video called staging your comeback there was a gentleman on there Christopher Hopkins who would take women and a few men over the age of 45 who were really unhappy with their lives and who they had become many times they had I guess you could say let themselves go but something had happened in their life they just were not happy with who they were so they would share with him their desire their belief of who they could become and then we would watch the Transfiguration the transformation happen he would perhaps

change their hair colors certainly change the style of the hair they would do their makeup they would help them find clothing that was complimentary to them they would teach them how to stand how to walk how to interact with the world and lo and behold there was a new person standing before you transfigurations are truly a big business who hasn't heard about the power of Botox and what it can do you know this needs to be pulled up that needs to be pulled up everything needs to be pulled up everything needs a

tuck a TI a tuck and a well we won't even go there but anyway people work hard and they spend a lot of money to get that new face to get that new look to get that changed appearance transfigurations not only are big business as we Face the world but sometimes we even look for some help in schools now I'm going to go way back do you remember back in the day you know how we say that back in the day when there were fish finishing schools finishing schools to teach young men and women how to become proper ladies and

gentlemen how to to present yourselves with manners politeness how to eat at a fine dinner which pork to use you know the the drill maybe even how to dance now for others they went to a catian where they would actually put these Newfound uh skills into action or like my mom when I was young she enrolled me in the Sears Rob robug um charm school and so I learned how to become a Charming young lady I learned how to walk I learned how to be polite which hand to extend when I was introduced to someone and it all ended with a fashion

show at the end of the course how do we want to present ourselves to the world sometimes the change though is not just in looks sometimes we change our image as we present ourselves to the World by changing our name and certainly if anyone is good at at that it's going to be Hollywood California let's see if you know some of these famous figures and by their original names do you know who iser Dan yelovich densky was it was Kirk Douglas of course or perhaps you know and remember Francis gum Francis gum transfigured herself

into the image of Judy Garland how about archal leech known oh very good Carrie Grant also known as Archie to his friends and family or how about Aaron schalt Aaron was red buttons and you would have paid lots of money to see Mary and Morrison in the movies yeah we've got we've got the choir fired up here John Wayne you're you are good that's right John Wayne maryan Morrison became John Wayne he changed his name to change his image for the public but you know what Hollywood was not the first to start

with that because certainly in the Bible we have plenty of places where a name was changed because of the life the new life that someone was called to by God for instance Abram became Abraham Sarai became Sarah Jacob became good Israel Israel Saul became Paul and Simon became Peter The Rock that's right transfigurations for each of them as God called them to a new purpose in this life you see there are times in our life when we are transfigured as well I believe that we are not here this morning by accident we believe that we

serve a God who is over all and in all and in our lives that we were called to this place at this time in particular this very day to be the people that God wants us to be and to hear God's message for you and for me this very day to be able to live out the purpose for our lives God came to you and when you turned your life over to Jesus saying I know I can't do this on my own I am a sinner I need your forgiveness I need you in my life to help me with this life to be the person that you created me to

be at that point in time my friends you changed your whole life changed your old life was gone it is no longer you are forgiven you are a child of God and your new life has become begun you are a new creation transformed by God's holy spirit and that very same Holy Spirit lives within us and enables us to be able to become the people that God wants for us to be become every day we are becoming the people that God wants us to be we know that Jesus was praying on the Mountaintop he took with him his good

friends and as he was praying his appearance changed he began to be filled with God's glory he became brighter and shinier than they had ever seen before and suddenly with him were Moses and Elijah Moses representing God's Commandments the law Elijah representing the prophets two of The Guiding posts for all of our faith and Jesus was talking with them about his crucifixion and the end of his ministry on this earth now Peter and James and John had fallen asleep I don't know why with all of this action going on but

Peter woke up and saw saw Jesus talking to Moses and Elijah and got really excited it's like wow this is great here we all are why don't we make a tent for each of you we'll make one for Moses we'll make one for Elijah one for you Jesus and then they disappear and it was time to go home you see Peter was so excited to experience that Mountaintop Revelation seeing that Jesus was God's son they heard God's voice saying this is my son whom I love listen to him the very same words that we heard at Jesus

baptism listen to him no wonder Peter and probably James and John wanted to stay on that Mountaintop oh my goodness how amazing it was to be basking in the glory of God but they had to go home this is so much like us too isn't it though we have all had that Mountaintop experience in our life perhaps it was when you had your first child or your grandbaby and they handed you this new life this miracle and you looked at this child and you thought it can't get any better than this or perhaps it was when you were

standing face to face across from your beloved and you took those vows to love and to honor for the rest of your life as you said those vows to be married to become husband and wife can't get any better than that I remember our son getting got married and the very next day he got a job as an attorney which he had trained for for a very long time and he called us and he said it just can't get any better than this we all have these Mountaintop experiences I remember and I've shared with many of you my story about when I

had been diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 40 and so I went through the process of getting ready for surgery I went through the surgery the doctor took out a a significant amount of my left breast where the cancer had been located handed it off to the oncologist the oncologist came back he was waiting the doctor was waiting to make sure he got everything before he sewed me back up and the doctor the oncologist said there's nothing here the doctor couldn't believe it so he went back in looking for the

cancer and he didn't find anything so he sewed me back up and in recovery he said to me you may not believe this but we went in where we had done the test and saw the cancer and there was nothing there your mother thinks it's a miracle but we won't know until you're strong enough to have another mamogram which I was strong enough five days later Believe It or Not ladies they were very kind but that mamogram showed that there was nothing there and there were three Radiologists from three different

hospitals looking at the scans on the screen what had been there what was no longer there and my doctor called and said we will not have to have radiation we will not have to have chemo because what was there was no longer there and I said well Dr peoples are you a man of faith and he said oh yes he said I am always willing to step aside and let the higher power do the healing but I can tell you another part of that story that is something I hold to this day to be very precious as I was in recovery I had been told that I would

wake up with a drain on my side that I would be prepared with Staples in my left breast so that they could do the radiation and as I was laying there in recovery I realized I didn't feel anything on my side but I felt like I had seen God I felt like nothing nothing could hurt me nothing could harm me everything was fine everything was good and that feeling went with me into the recovery room as my doctor was telling me this great news it went with me throughout my life every day I felt like there was nothing that could harm

me it was such a wonderful feeling freeing feeling I met with my session I was serving a church in South St Louis at the time and I talked to the elders and I told them about about this feeling of just freedom I said it's like breathing pure oxygen but I said I'm noticing that as days are going on and I'm getting back into my routine here at the church I'm starting to lose that feeling I don't want to lose that feeling it was too wonderful one of my elders who was the head nurse for one of the larger

Hospital Systems in St St Louis turned to me and she said to me Brenda she said it's okay you're in the Valley now but you will return to that Mountaintop you will get that feeling once again you see we're not meant to stay up on that Mountaintop that was just a glimmer a glimpse of who Jesus is for us and for the world those Mountaintop EXP experiences that we have in our life are wonderful and they are just a glimpse of who God is in our life and we probably will have many more but we were not made

to stay on the Mountaintop because the fruit you see grows in the valley so we must return to the valley to be able to participate in growing and developing the fruit of God's God's presence here with everybody else in this world remember that whenever you're a little down remember those Mountaintop experiences because God gave that to you as a gift and we all will return to that Mountaintop one of these days and we will see God's glory face to face just as Jesus was there for Peter James and John we will see God face to face and we

will experience God's glory once again but for now we have work to do here in the valley we have Works to do to cultivate the fruit of God's holy spirit in our lives for others who so need to hear about God's love for them it reminds me of someone who comes from our US History Martin Luther King as he had that very fous famous sermon he talked about seeing God I have been to the Mountaintop he said and I have seen God's glory and I know that God will bring about peace on this Earth one day later Martin Luther King

was shot and he did see God's glory once again there is evil in this world and we will not Escape but God is with us and God will see us through.