GREETINGS TO GOD’S IMAGE BEARERS,
Now is the time to stir your creativity and begin thinking about making an ALLELUIA (Greek) or if you prefer Halleluia (Hebrew) to add to our Transfiguration of Our Lord Sunday (Feb. 11) where we feast on the alleluias before we fast during the 40 days of Lent. The rhythm of moving from feast to fast to feast helps us to engage fully in our relationship with God as we move from celebrating the goodness of God to a time of great desire and need for God. This rhythm keeps us in step with Jesus and Jesus’ journey with humanity as we move back and forth between feasting and fasting.
When I was in Israel we visited Mt. Tabor, one of the possible sites of Jesus’ transfiguration (the other is Mount Hermon) as the Bible does not name the high place Jesus took Peter, James and John. We visited this high place. Our guide pointed out that the architecture of the church reflected Peter’s question to Jesus of his desire to build 3 booths for them. The structure reminded us that we would like to stay in the feasting place as long as we can and experience the glory of God, the parts of us that want to shout out allulia.
Inside the main worship area there are two levels of worship beside the many little chapel areas. I like that idea of high and low worship areas mingling together with the idea of the movement between high places and low places and the worship in both with different tones and rhythms. At times we feel close to God and at other times the distance seems far and yet God is here and it is good to be here.
In our chapel time at this church, we were asked to reflect on transfiguration experiences and to briefly share. I shared that the Sunday of Transfiguration was the Sunday I was installed at Christ the King. I remember saying like Peter, “It is good to be here.” How true that statement is even after all these years. How good it is to be here to worship God with you in the high place and the valley times.
Sit with God, the God who loves you and wants good things for you. Give God praise with your alleluias in whatever shape they take, with your desire to want to stay with God, to be in God’s presence with joy and delight. And even though you would like to stay here in this good place, begin your preparations of going down into the valley again for the journey of Lent, asking God to show you where your life needs examination, to show you your blind spots, the places you cannot see on your own but need God’s help to see.
It is good to be here with you and with God, to move between these high and low places, the places of feasting and the fasting and feasting again.
Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,
Pastor Connie Spitzack
