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FATHER ADRIAN PORTER SJ:

Good morning and welcome to the Jesuit Church of the Sacred Heart in Edinburgh.听 I am Father Adrian Porter, and we鈥檙e joined by Edinburgh University Chamber Choir for Sunday Worship.

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This weekly gathering before God with our prayers of petition and hymns of praise is important in the lives of Christians.听 It gives us a point of reference in the busy-ness of our week.听 We bring everything from the preceding days back to God in thanksgiving, and, where needed, ask for forgiveness, and we take away from this worship God鈥檚 blessing, inspired and refreshed for the challenges of the week ahead.

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Today, Christians mark the Second Sunday of Lent 鈥� a time of reflection and repentance lasting forty days and forty nights, and which leads to the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus at Easter.

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And so, with joyful hearts, let our souls sing to our Saviour God. . .

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MUSIC:听 HYMN - O LORD, MY GOD, WHEN I IN AWESOME WONDER (Tune: HOW GREAT THOU ART)

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ADRIAN:听

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father,

and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.

ALL:听 And with your spirit.

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ADRIAN:

We come into the presence of the God who, his Son not sparing, sent him to die on the cross, my burden gladly bearing.听 Mindful of our unworthiness and seeking God鈥檚 pardon for the burden of our sin, we pray in humble adoration:

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MUSIC:

SOLO:

Lord Jesus, you came to reconcile us to the Father and to one another.

Lord, have mercy.
CHOIR:听 KYRIE, ELEISON (Byrd, from Four-Part Mass)

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SOLO:

Christ Jesus, you heal the wounds of our sin and division.

Christ, have mercy.
CHOIR:听 CHRISTE, ELEISON

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SOLO:

Lord Jesus, you intercede for us with the Father.

Lord, have mercy.

CHOIR:听 KYRIE, ELEISON

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ADRIAN:听 May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.

All:听 Amen.

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ADRIAN:听
The Collect for the Second Sunday in Lent.听 Let us pray.

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O God, who have commanded us to listen to your beloved son,

be pleased, we pray, to nourish us inwardly by your word,

that, with spiritual sight made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, forever and ever.

All:听 Amen.

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ANGELA:

In our first reading, from the book of Genesis, we are at a turning point.听 For the previous eleven chapters of the story, human beings have rebelled and turned away from God, preferring their own company.听 But at last God finds a righteous man in Abram, willing to listen to God鈥檚 call to depart for a new life in a new land.

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LOUISE:听 (Genesis 12:1-4)

The Lord said to Abram, 鈥楲eave your country, your family and your father鈥檚 house, for the land I will show you.听 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name so famous that it will be used as a blessing. 鈥業 will bless those who bless you: I will curse those who slight you.听 All the tribes of the earth shall bless themselves by you.鈥櫶� So Abram went as the Lord told him.

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The word of the Lord.

All:听 Thanks be to God.

MUSIC: PSALM 42 (Setting:听 Freu dich sehr)

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As a deer in want of water,

so I long for you, O Lord鈥�

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READER:听 In the gospel reading appointed for today, Jesus is at the end of a long stretch of teaching and healing in the towns, villages and countryside.听 He goes up a high mountain, taking only his closest disciples.听 Mountains are important places of the presence of God where God speaks to his people.

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READER: FR DAVID STEWART SJ

The Lord be with you.

All:听 And with your spirit.

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DAVID:听 A reading from the holy gospel according to Matthew.

All:听 Glory to you, O Lord.

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(Matthew 17:1-9)

DAVID:听 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain where they could be alone.听 There in their presence, he was transfigured: his face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light.听 Suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared to them; they were talking with him.听 Then Peter spoke to Jesus. 鈥楲ord,鈥� he said, 鈥榠t is wonderful for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.鈥櫶� He was still speaking when suddenly a bright cloud covered them with shadow, and from the cloud there came a voice which said, 鈥楾his is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour. Listen to him.鈥櫶� When they heard this the disciples fell on their faces overcome with fear.听 But Jesus came up and touched them. 鈥楽tand up,鈥� he said 鈥榙o not be afraid.鈥櫶� And when they raised their eyes they saw no one but only Jesus.听 As they came down from the mountain Jesus gave them this order, 鈥楾ell no one about the vision until the Son of Man has risen from the dead鈥�.

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The gospel of the Lord.

All:听 Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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ADRIAN:听 Reflection

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Not far from my parent鈥檚 home was a piece of common land which was for us children a place of infinite adventure and imagination: a forest where, rumour had it, monsters lurked; a purple river which, we were told, you could follow down to the sea; a vast echoing cavern, pitch black and drip-dripping with water, through which you had to run as fast as you could to avoid being eaten by the dragon.

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In reality, it was the sort of scrubby in-between land that exists on the edges of many cities 鈥� the liminal meeting place of suburban sprawl and the countryside for real; neither one thing nor another.听 The forests were, in reality, those tangled thorn bushes; the river a small winding brook, often dried up and often polluted by discharge from a nearby engineering works; and the cavern a dank railway underpass.听 But, of course, none of that reality mattered to us as children.

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In the middle of this place was a steep hill, a sort of small escarpment that led up to the railway line.听 And it was here that I would often come as a teenager, in the years after the magic of the surrounding scrub had revealed its ordinariness.听 Clambering up that hill, where there were no paths and where the bushes were at their thickest and thorniest with shallow roots in the thin stony soil, took me to a place that remained special despite adolescent cynicism.听 It wasn鈥檛 quite in the clouds (wasn鈥檛 anywhere near the clouds!), but it was a long way above the paths and tracks below, the meandering brook, the occasional passer-by, and it afforded fine views where the scrubland gave way to neater hedgerows and ditches, and clumps of ancient trees, old tumbledown farm buildings and a patchwork of fields gently rolling towards big distant skies.听 In the evening twilight, it was as magical as the adventure-land of childhood that it had replaced.听

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Up here there was silence, apart from the insistent chorus of crickets in the summer, and if you ignored the deafening screech of the occasional passing train.听 It was a place where you gained perspective, where things could be seen in their proper proportions, where the pieces of life鈥檚 jigsaw began to fit together and to make sense.

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I knew that this place had been named in the Doomsday Book.听 This place had been known for a thousand years.听 I guess my father had told me that.听 He was interested in such things.听 And, just as he had passed on to me this sense of the importance of place, so, I supposed, and despite never having encountered another living soul there, my perch atop this brambled hillside had been visited by generations before me and would continue to be so for a thousand years hence.

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In the gospel for today, Jesus goes up a hill, a pretty spectacular one from Matthew鈥檚 account 鈥� the sort of high mountain where God is to be found.听 He takes with him his three closest associates: Peter and Andrew, the fisherman brothers who were the first called to be his followers; and John who too left his boat and his father and followed Jesus.

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It is here that Peter and Andrew and John first see things in perspective.听 Jesus is seen in the company of the two great figures of the Old Testament:听 Moses, receiver of the ancient Law (also given on a mountain top like this) and Elijah the prophet.听 Moses and Elijah represent the fullness of God鈥檚 revelation to his people and they sum up the Jewish religion that Peter and Andrew and John and Jesus shared and practiced. 听

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Here on the mountain top, is seen all that has gone before in the remarkable story of God鈥檚 chosen people, Israel, stretching back nearly two thousand years.听 And here, in the same moment, on the mountain top, are Andrew and Peter and John who will be the first members of the community which will follow the teachings of Jesus and which will call itself Christian.

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MUSIC:听 CHOIR 鈥� Ps 42: O my soul, why are you grieving, why disquieted in me? 鈥�

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Jesus himself is transfigured in a blaze of light: 鈥渉is face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light鈥� 鈥� and they understand him to be the hoped-for Messiah, the glory of God, the human face of the Father in the Son.

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For that brief moment 鈥� and the gospel-writer Matthew is very careful to tell us the place and the time, for this is not a dream or an imagining but something in real time, a real place 鈥� these three disciples, with their feet firmly planted on earth, see things 鈥渁s [they are] in heaven鈥�.

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In the language we use to describe our religious experience, we call this an epiphany.听 And there are several epiphanies in the gospels: when the three wise men follow the star to Bethlehem, when Jesus is baptised by John in the river Jordan, when the sun is eclipsed at his crucifixion, the earth quakes and the centurion declares, 鈥淭ruly, this man was the Son of God!鈥�

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Epiphanies show how thin the barrier between heaven and earth really is.听 We pass within a hair鈥檚 breadth of God every day but we鈥檙e usually too busy to notice.

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When we do trouble to stop and notice, it is shown to us what it will be like when God鈥檚 nascent Kingdom on earth is eventually transformed into the way God鈥檚 kingdom is in heaven.听 What is begun in heaven is fulfilled on earth.听

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It shows how glimpses of heaven can break through into our earthbound lives at unexpected moments.听 It shows how there is always more to everything and everyone than we dare allow.听 As Shakespeare鈥檚 Hamlet tells his friend Horatio, 鈥淭here are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.鈥澨� The world is indeed 鈥渃harged with the grandeur of God . . .鈥�

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MUSIC:听 CHOIR 鈥� Ps 42: O my soul, why are you grieving, why disquieted in me? 鈥�

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Peter, always the one to rush into solutions, to speak before thinking, wants to prolong the moment and offers, rather impractically, to make three tents for Jesus, Moses and Elijah.听 But this reality which has been revealed, the shocking nearness of God, of earth to heaven, the whole of Jewish history and Christian future brought together in this moment, is not for the quite yet.听

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Following this epiphany on the high mountain, Jesus sets out on his path to Jerusalem and to the sacrifice of the cross which will make this union of heaven and earth a reality.听 The disciples must await his resurrection and the coming of his Spirit.听 We, their successors in faith, must, by the example of our lives, work hard at bringing goodness into our world, when so often darkness and confusion edge in and sometimes seem to prevail.

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In presenting us with this gospel reading, as the season of Lent begins to unfold, the ancient tradition of the Church invites us to stop and step back from the busy-ness of our everyday lives and to climb our own hillsides.听

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We too can see things afresh in a new light, from a new perspective, without our thoughts being drowned out by the constant noise, for our eyes as well as our ears, with which contemporary life besieges us.听 The disciples see Jesus transfigured and they hear the voice of God, both their eyes and their ears bear witness to this epiphany.

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When God breaks into our lives, things change, sometimes radically.听 In our reading from the Old Testament, Abram leaves everything behind, his country, his family, his father鈥檚 house, and strikes out into an uncertain future in the sure hope that the God who has called him will lead and sustain him in his journey.听 This simple story comes after the first twelve chapters of the book of Genesis record the different ways in which human beings turn away from and reject God, the God who created them.听 In obeying God鈥檚 instruction, Abram (not yet Abraham, for renaming was a sign of God鈥檚 special favour for those who respond 鈥渢hy will be done on earth鈥�), Abram journeys to a land, the promised land, the holy land, where God鈥檚 kingdom will be first established and worked out; and ultimately spread through the whole world.听 鈥淪o Abram went as the Lord told him鈥� and consequently was made a great nation and his name became a blessing.

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Let our prayer today be the words of the psalm we have just heard sung: 鈥淪end your light and truth to lead me:听 send them forth to be my guide.听 To your mountain let them bring me, to the place where you reside.鈥澨� Let us pray that we may behold God鈥檚 face, as Peter, Andrew and John did; that we may have the Lord鈥檚 鈥渉elp and blessing . . . kept safe from all oppressing鈥�.

For this to become a reality in our lives we need to leave the familiar behind, at least sometimes 鈥� to find our hill, our vantage point, our sacred space.听 Perhaps it can even be a railway embankment running through a stretch of unloved wasteland.听 I wonder where yours is?

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MUSIC:听 BRING US, O LORD GOD, AT OUR LAST AWAKENING (William Harris)

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ADRIAN:听 We bring our prayers before you, God our Father, to the house and gate of heaven.

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CHOIR INTONES UNDER PRAYERS (Responses by Michael Bawtree):

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PAULINE:听 We pray for the whole world, that the conflicts of the nations, and the sufferings of her peoples, may be resolved in peace and justice, through our service of compassion, forgiveness and love.

SUNG:听 Lord, hear our prayer; Lord hear us.

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ANDRE:听 We pray for all those for whom life is overwhelming and who struggle with physical or mental ill health, with economic hardship, or with loneliness and broken relationships.

SUNG:听 Lord, hear our prayer; Lord hear us.

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PAULINE:听 We pray for the Church, for all God鈥檚 people, that we may hear again the gospel of Jesus Christ and, by the example of our lives, bring his ever new hope to those around us.

SUNG:听 Lord, hear our prayer; Lord hear us.

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ANDRE:听 Let us pray for our own intentions, for those who have asked for our prayers,

and for those who have no one to pray for them.

SUNG:听 Lord, hear our prayer; Lord hear us.

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ADRIAN:听 We bring all our prayers and petitions before God our Father, in the words that Jesus taught us:

MUSIC:听 CHOIR - OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN (Rose)

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In your mercy, Lord, hear the prayers we make in faith,

through Christ Jesus your Son.

All:听 Amen.

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MUSIC:听 HYMN 鈥� I HEARD THE VOICE OF JESUS SAY (Tune: KINGSFOLD)

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ADRIAN:听 Blessing

The Lord be with you.

All:听 And with your spirit.

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May the ears of your mercy be opened, O Lord,

to the prayers of those who call upon you;

and that you may grant what they desire,

have them ask what is pleasing to you.

Through Christ our Lord.

All:听 Amen.

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And may the blessing of almighty God,

the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

come down on you and remained with forever.

All:听 Amen.

MUSIC: 听ORGAN CHORALE -听JS BACH; VATER UNSER IM HIMMELREICH 听(THE LORD鈥橲 PRAYER) 听BWV听636