Good to Be Here

Planning Worship

Focus texts: 2 Kings 2:1-12, Mark 9:2-9 

Transfiguration Sunday is here, which means many of us will enter worship today already thinking about the Ash Wednesday services we will hold in just a few days. The disciples may want to stay on the mountaintop, but some of us have one eye on the path down the mountain so we can hurry back and make sure everything is in order for the beginning of Lent. But before you start packing up your things and edging toward the metaphorical exit, let’s stop on the mountain for just a minute—not to cling to the spectacle but to allow the Spirit to transform us as we witness the full glory of Christ, or, if you are focusing on the Old Testament text, the glory of God bending low to take Elijah up to heaven. In both encounters, God, who may seem far away, comes near in God’s fullness, and none who witness it—even those of us who read the accounts thousands of years later—can help but come away changed, if we are paying attention.

We forget that God’s glory dwells among us. We search for God in the spectacular instead of the ordinary, including in our worship. We love the Sundays when the organ is played at full volume, or the band is particularly on fire, or the choir sings a full-throated anthem. And yet, we also encounter God’s glory in the small and quiet moments of worship: the handshake of a stranger, the smiles of children running up the aisles, the heart song that has carried the community through its ups and downs.

So, as you plan for Transfiguration Sunday, what are the places you encounter God’s glory in your community? What are the hymns that make God’s nearness tangible? How might corporate prayer make God’s closeness real? What “hallelujahs” will you sing to prepare your hearts for Lent as a reminder that the glory is not gone even when it feels hidden? Whether you lean into the grandeur or the intimacy of Transfiguration Sunday, may today be a day where we search for God who is close at hand, so that we might be transformed by our encounter with the glory of God’s unfailing love.

Author bio: Dr. Lisa Hancock, Director of Worship Arts Ministries, holds a Master of Sacred Music and Master of Theological Studies from Perkins School of Theology and a PhD in Religious Studies from Southern Methodist University, where she researched and wrote on the doctrine of Christ, disability, and atonement. Lisa is also the co-lead of Growing in Grace: Accessible Worship for All God’s Children.