South West Norfolk Pastoral Charge

     Come to  Coffee & Conversation:)  

Join Pastor:   Rev. Ted Smith   WEDNESDAY'S at 10:00am , bring your coffee for great conversations on ZOOM

Click on the ZOOM MEETING Link Above

ANNOUNCEMENTS

COURTLAND SMORGASBORD:     Saturday, March 7, 2026         at  Courtland Community Center           4:30pm to ??                                                $25.00 per person TICKETS AT THE DOOR    TAKE-OUT AVAILABLE

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CULTUS ROAST BEEF SUPPER:     Saturday, March 21, 2026         at  Port Rowan Community Center           4:30pm to ??                                                $25.00 per person TICKETS AT THE DOOR    TAKE-OUT AVAILABLE

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A WELCOME INVITATION TO ALL WOMEN OF THE CHURCH to U.C.W. Meetings

Meeting Dates for 2026:   Meeting the 1st Wednesday at 1:00pm at Courtland United Church 

MARCH 11, 2026 (changed to the 2nd because of church supper)

APRIL 1, 2026

MAY 6, 2026

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     Join us for an enlightening Lenten Study of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

              All sessions will be on Zoom. Each session will be 90 minutes or less.

              Participants will receive reading materials prior to each session

                                                                                                 MOUNTAIN TOP EXPERIENCES

I remember, from my childhood, my very first trip to the Rocky Mountains. Though it was many, many years ago I remember it as though it happened only yesterday. It was overwhelming as I encountered the mystery and wonder of God’s creation in an entirely new way. It was in more ways than one a “mountain top” experience.

This week our worship is centered around another “mountaintop experience” where Jesus, Peter, James, and John take a hike up a mountain and, in their experience, together they witness the transfiguration of Jesus where they see Jesus shining with holy light, God’s presence shining through him and they are changed. Their understanding and experience of God goes much deeper than it was before. Over the past few weeks, we have explored stories through Luke’s Gospel where people have “encountered the holy”, stories of teaching, healing and renewal. We also learned the importance, by Jesus’ example, of taking time for prayer. So often our descriptions of prayer are about “talking to God”. This week’s story might be even more important as it reveals to us and calls us to just “be” in God’s presence. We all need to feel God’s love washing over us and enfolding us---blessing us. It’s very difficult if not impossible for us to love others if we are not in touch with or connected to God’s amazing love blessing us.

When Peter witnessed God’s brilliant light shining through Jesus, he was so moved that he wanted the moment to last forever. He suggested to Jesus that they pitch tents and set up camp there so they could continue experiencing this life-giving mystery, and give it a tangible symbol, but it was not something to be captured that way. We are often tempted to try to define God in the same way we approach another knowledge. But God is beyond our limited vocabulary and even our most creative attempts to describe God. There is an awesomeness that can only be marveled at. Peter, James and John had a fleeting glimpse of God’s essence there on that mountain top. It cannot be contained or packaged. It cannot be hidden or hoarded. This glimpse at the mystery of God is transformed into reality in our lives in the space where God’s grace intersects our willingness to invite Jesus to everything.

We get a glimpse of God in the love we receive from one another. We get a glimpse of God when badly needed help comes out of nowhere. We get a glimpse of God when we hold a new born baby. We get a glimpse of God when we look back over our lives and what we couldn’t understand in the past makes sense now. We see a glimpse of God when we witness someone making a sacrifice to help someone else. We see glimpses of God in the beauty of a fine day, fresh falling snow, the colours of the forest in the fall, the beach, the lake, a beautiful sunrise or sunset... a full moon on a clear night.

The Transfiguration was never meant to be worshiped as an event. It was a finger pointing to a deeper reality: that love shines even when the world is violent, that truth radiates even when power distorts it, that glory does not cancel suffering but accompanies it. The mistake the disciples almost make is wanting to stay with the brightness instead of letting it reorient how they live below. 

God is really all around us and within us just waiting for us to respond and let the miraculous light of God shine through us. These glimpses of God again and again in our living are meant to encourage us to persist with our ministries, joyous in our awareness of God’s mysterious, powerful presence.

My prayer for all of us today is that our lives can shine with God’s light---- even in the darkest, most challenging places of our relationships, communities, and the world. How might the light of God’s love be reflected in our faces and our lives? How might others around us experience a glimpse of God through us?

May our hearts glow, may our faces glow, may our spirits glow revealing the love of God to the world.

~Peace~      PT.