THIS SUNDAY: The Community of Pilgrims Presbyterian Fellowship, February 14, 2021, Transfiguration Sunday, Gather and Devotion on Zoom. If you have any questions, or are interested in a conversation, contact Pastor Brett Webb-Mitchell (919) 444-9111; brettwebbmitchell@gmail.com and visit www.communityofpilgrims.com.
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Dear Pilgrims of Transfiguration,
The holy and secular holidays are upon us! It is Black History Month! It is Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14, 2021. Today is Presidents’ Day in Washington, DC (Feb. 12, 2021). And the season of Epiphany is ending this Sunday with Transfiguration Sunday. This will be followed by Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, so feel free to have pancakes for dinner that evening as we clean out the pantry of sweet and savory things in preparation for Ash Wednesday (Feb. 17, 2021), and the beginning of our pilgrimage of Lent. Before we know it, it will be spring! So many days! And so little time to celebrate or remember a holy or secular holiday, but, heck, what a wonderful way to spend a pandemic.
This Sunday’s Gospel reading is Mark 9:2-9, which we know as the story of Transfiguration. It is a strange scene, even for the Gospels. There is Peter, James and John, with Jesus, on the top of what is now known as Mt. Tabor. Suddenly, without explanation, Jesus’ clothes became “dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them.” As Presbyterian writer Frederick Buechner writes, there was Jesus, who they had “tramped many a dusty mile with, whose mother and brothers they knew, the one they’d seen as hungry, tired, footsore as the rest of them. But it was also the Messiah, the Christ, in his glory. It was the holiness of the man shining through his humanness, his face so afire with it they were almost blinded.” Buechner then reminds us that we experience such moments of transfiguration in the world today, like “the face of a man walking his child in the park, of a woman picking peas in the garden, of sometimes even the unlikeliest person listening to a concert…or standing barefoot in the sand watching the waves roll in… Every once and so often, something so touching, so incandescent, so alive transfigures the human face that it is almost beyond bearing” (from Wishful Thinking). Join us this Sunday as we explore other moments of change, sacrifice, and transformed lives.
** Our Lenten service will be to provide parts of a breakfast program with Human Solution’s Gresham Emergency Women’s Shelter. More about this is to come.
** It still isn’t too late to send in a pledge form for 2021. As all of you know, we have been supported in large part by the generous gifts of the PCUSA 1001 New Worshiping Communities and the Presbytery of the Cascades New Ministries Team funds since we began in 2017. We are one of the rare new communities of faith ventures that have been granted funds from the Seed Grants, Investment Grants, and Growth Grants! At the end of 2021, we will be dependent upon the financial gifts, time, service, and talents of the membership of the Community of Pilgrims Presbyterian Fellowship, with possible help from other non-profits. Thank you for considering your gift in support of the Community of Pilgrims in 2021!
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Events!
Feb. 14, Transfiguration Sunday, and Valentine’s Day, Gather and Devotion on Zoom.
Feb. 17, Ash Wednesday, 12 noon to 1:00 pm, on Zoom
Feb. 21, First Sunday of Lent, Gather and Devotion on Zoom.
Feb. 28, Second Sunday of Lent, Gather and Devotion on Zoom.
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Prayers of Celebration and Concern
· Continued healing for Brett's friend writer Richard Rodriguez and thanks that he is feeling somewhat better.
· Karen's daughters Emily and Katie who recently lost a coworker and a friend to suicide and for all who struggle in these times of isolation.
· Linda's Mukilteo children's next-door neighbors whose husband died this past week and his wife Diane needs prayers.
· Celebrations for Ray and Lorinda's daughter, son, and their children that all are presently in good shape and that is not always the case.
· Healing for Chuck who feels anxious in these tough times.
· That those feeling stress can make friends with their anxiety and have hope, not for a cure but to find courage inside themselves.
· Thanksgiving that Roberta's nephew Sam has found a good job at a solid company with income and benefits.
· Roberta's friend who lost a baby at 20 weeks of pregnancy.
· Thanksgiving for people that care and make the effort to help, sometimes in unexpected places, such as the notary who pointed out to Bill his expired driver's license.
· Vaccines that the number being administered will be greater than the number of deaths, in this country and the world.
· Yemen and Syria torn apart by war
· Relief for the homeless this winter night and answers to the riddle of homelessness in Portland, California, Charlottesville, and everywhere.
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Poem
Dazzling: A Blessing for Transfiguration Sunday, by Jan Richardson
Believe me, I know
How tempting it is
To remain inside this blessing,
To linger where everything
Is dazzling
And clear.
We could build walls
Around this blessing,
Put a roof over it.
We could bring in
A table, chairs,
Have the most amazing meals.
We could make a home.
We could stay.
But this blessing
Is built for leaving.
This blessing
Is made for coming down
The mountain.
This blessing wants to be in motion
To travel with you
As you return
To level ground.
It will seem strange
How quiet this blessing becomes
When it returns to earth.
It is not shy.
It is not afraid.
It simply knows
How to bide its time,
To watch and wait,
To discern and pray
Until the moment comes
When it will reveal
Everything it knows,
When it will shine forth with all it has seen,
When it will dazzle
With the unforgettable light
You have carried
All this way.
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Buen Camino!
Pastors Brett & Karen Cornwell Fortlander.