Freelton Strabane United Church
To live our discipleship with integrity and grace.
Horseshoe Falls Regional Council
Easter 6
Sunday, May14 2023
Minister: Rev. Will Wheeler, B.A. M. Div. 905-659-3380 E-mail: wwwheeler@sympatico.ca
Music Director Joan Simpson
Announcements
Art for the Soul/Tech Tuesday Tuesday May 16 1pm in the Hall.
Euchre Friday May 19 7p in the Hall
Cooking with the Saints. Saturday May 20th 1pm in the Kitchen. Check out the Website to see what the menu will be
Join us for “Sweet Memories” a Dessert Buffet fund raiser to aid with the installation of the Freelton Memorial Windows at Freelton Strabane United Church May 27th at 7pm 1565 Brock Road Strabane
The Evening will be Featuring a buffet of homemade dessert tea and coffee and silent Auction. Tickets are $20 and can be reserved by calling 905-869-7936 or contacting the wwwheeler@sympatico.ca
BBQ season is almost here so don't miss out on ordering some wonderful McGregors Boxed meats. All your favorites. Contact Rev Will at 905 659 3380 or wwwheeler@sympatico.ca for product lists. The Orders are due back buy Sunday May 28th with payment via cash or Cheque Made payable to “Freelton Strabane United Church”” . Pick up is at the Church 1565 Brock Road on Tuesday June 6th @ 6:45pm. Product comes frozen and must be picked up.
Orders can be dropped off at the manse mailbox @ 10 Douglas Street Freelton, or sent to Email jmcgeachy@xplornet.ca.
Call To Worship
One: Come to the source of all truth, to the author of life.
All: We dare to approach our Creator in humility and thanksgiving.
One: In Christ, god comes to us again, saying “will not leave you desolate”
All: Let us open our lives to the Spirit of Truth as seek new life in Christ.
Prayer of Approach
Lord, help us to understand your truth. Enable us to lay aside our doubts, to cast away our preconceptions, and to think of you with open minds, willing hearts, and an eagerness for your word to us. By the power of your Holy Spirit, reveal to us those things that we could not have known had you not loved us enough to show them to us. For your grace in speaking to us, in coming to us, in giving us new life in the resurrection of Jesus, we give you thanks. Amen
All: (sung) In God we live and move and have our story.
In love God lives in us and makes us whole
O Jesus may we hear the Word that calls us near;
Your story makes a home within our soul.
One Gathered in this time let us continue to listen to words of wisdom given to us in our lessons taken from
Psalm 31
1 Peter 3:13-22
One. This is the word of God
All thanks be to God
One Here in this place in this time let us here the words of life given to us by our Loving god. Let us listen to the Gospel of our Lord our Gospel is taken from John 14:15-21
The Word of God for the People of God
Thanks be to God.
Prayer. Lord may we read these words and feel your presence. Amen
There are advantages to being single. You can live out of the laundry basket. When the basket is empty it is time to do laundry. (the clothes are usually kicked into a corner) and if the basket is full you don’t have to do laundry. You always know who to blame when the milk carton is put back in the fridge with just a dribble. The dog. There are advantages to married life and challenges (so I am told .
The greatest challenge a married couple may ever face is having to work together to hang wall paper or redecorate a room. How hard can it be to hang wall paper as a couple? I understand it is very hard. Why is this?
It is all in how we think. Debra Tannen , in her book, A You Just Don’t Understand, talks about the very different ways men and women communicate. It’s not that one is more intelligent than the other. That is just propaganda. But rather in the way men and women think. The way we put together the world. For instance, men tend to think as a general rule in a linear progression (first A, then, B, then C. unless they are putting something together it is try to put it together then look at the instructions.) Women are more holistic, they think things in context, connecting different elements. C, connected to A, leading to B. How we think dictates how we process information, and ultimately how we communicate.
Plato said “He who gives us an idea increases our life and expands reality around us.” The Platonic notion that we do not look with our eyes but through or by means of our eyes is literally true. We observe by means of concepts. Idea in Platonic thought meant “point of view.”
Our perceptions.
Who we are as individuals is created by that point of view. The information we have taken in, our experience, or understanding, what is a truth for us. And like a finger print it is something that is uniquely who we are.
Our family of origin, the family rules that we grew up with all our education careers life experience all define who we are.
And because we don’t live inside a vacuum or a dark closet we are constantly redefining who we are. Sometimes we become stuck sometimes changes happens to fast.
William Willimon states.
“The gospel is an invitation to practice a “Wider rationality than that offered to us by the world. After Easter, we are challenged to rethink the world, to go beyond the boundaries of conventional thinking in order to be integrated into the in breaking kingdom of God.”
The in breaking of the kingdom of God is not complete. It is a constant and because it is a constant We are constantly redefining who we are.
What is it that leads us beyond ourselves, the counsellor the advocate the Holy Spirit the action of God through Jesus in our lives.
Faith is to be experienced and the greater the experience the more faith continues to grow. As our lives are constantly changing so is our faith life. Faith formation and our understanding of faith both as an individual and a collective is fluid. We are therefore challenged to be re-evaluating our faith. Our Faith is redefined because or perception of our faith is redefined.
When you are young the glass of faith seems so full, now that you are older the glass appears to be not as full. It’s not that you have less faith. It’s just that the glass got bigger. What are you doing to fill up the glass?
The challenge of the scripture is to reach beyond ourselves to be open to the leading of the spirit and the action of spirit does not have to be some mystical experience.
This past week Rev Allison Playfair of Carlisle and Killbride United Churches led a group in a spiritual practice known as Soul Collage. A topic for perhaps another sermon. Rev Allison closed with a prayer written by Steve Garnaas-Holmes. Well it is more of a faith question then a prayer. It was different and I have been re reading it though out the week.
It challenges us to see differently. A exciting and yet frightening thought it starts…
What if God is joy?
What if the Father is bliss and the Son is gratitude
and the Holy Spirit is gleeful wonder?
What if creating is God's play,
and the big bang was an outburst of happiness
and the galaxies are spun from pure delight?
What if gravity, that holds the universe together,
is simply the pleasure of harmony,
and every created thing's ecstatic desire for one another?
What if earth is God's great celebration,
spinning and dancing and making music and beauty
and inviting everyone in to feast and wonder?
What if being itself is such a miracle
that God gets endless enjoyment out of it?
What if God doesn't own a throne (most uncomfortable)
and has never handled a gavel,
but has a million musical instruments?
What if God goes to hell every weekend
with a load of tissues and listens to everybody
who's locked themselves up in there
until they've cried out all their sorrows,
and they come out laughing and dancing?
What if what it means to come to God
is to enter into God's joy?
What if the work of justice is to enable everyone to truly know joy?
(And would that not mean that cruelty and injustice are most heinously sinful?)
What if even in our grief and our despair
the root of our being is joy,
and resurrection means passing through our sorrow
into God's delight?
What if salvation means
being rescued from our inability to rejoice?
Why not? Why not? Do you think you can convince me
that God is all somber and serious?
What if even now, as you consider this,
and think it's kind of silly,
God is laughing... and waiting?
I found it wonderful to consider God from a point of joy.
The caution is not to go all Polly Anna. Life is not all joy and great party.
True happiness does not come in one big lump sum. There is no point when you can say “At last I have obtained happiness” and spend your day walking around with a silly smile on your face. True happiness comes in moments that are often punctuated by sorrow, frustration and anger. But without those moments how would you know joy. Even God at times weeps for us or with us in our sorrow. Knowing God’s love is knowing Joy and it is knowing that even in those moments when we are burdened it is that promise of God’s love that brings back to joy. Beyond reminding us of God’s love, this writing reminds us that Church does not have to be religious stiff and stuffy and God is not all straight back and serious. God cannot be limited. It reminds us that there is a lot out there to fill the spiritual glass and experience wonder of God with us. We don’t always experience God in A then B then C but sometimes C then N then A then C (again) and W. Now is the time to remove the boundaries of doctrine and experience the greater potential of God surrounding us. To all the different ways to fill the glass of faith.
The world around us is big full of the familiar but also full of the wonder and at times overwhelming wonder of God. It is full of that which will reassure our faith but also that which will test our faith. Every once in a while there comes shoulder tap and God reminds us “As your counsellor and advocate don’t let your world be small, don’t let your thinking be small, don’t let your faith be small. Believe in me, I will not leave you I am with you always Then the holy spirit, the advocate the counsellor whispers in the faint warmth of a new spring breeze “ Being a Christian, takes you well beyond the small That’s why I am here I will help you to grow dare to think big for You not alone. We are not alone Thanks be to God
Prayers of the people
God of joy, whose Son shows us gratitude and whose Holy Spirit invites to gleeful Wonder Help us to see delight in all of your creation and the harmony which can flow between all things. In this moment in many moments to come ground us in your love. For in your love we find strength. Help us embrace the wisdom in seeking peace within us over simple pleasure. To see the joy in challenge and find the happiness in process of living and experiencing you in the everyday. We pray for all of those who are locked in themselves. Prisoners of conflict, fear and loneliness. We pray for those that face the unknown of unwellness. We hold in prayer those that we shall never know. We name those whom we are called to walk with. We trust in your presence as Christ trusted in you to lead him through death to resurrection. We trust in your Holy Spirits presence. May we open ourselves to deepening of Spirit and allow the Spirit to take us well beyond the small and empower us to grow and dare to think big. Hear our own prayers as offer you the prayer which binds us as one.
Offering
In gratitude and humble trust
We bring our best today
To serve your cause and share your love
With all along life’s way
O God, who gave yourself to us
In Jesus Christ, your Son,
Teach us to give ourselves each day
Until life’s work is done.
Prayer Offering Eternal God, beyond the limitation of silver and gold, we bring to your altar what is valuable to us, that you may bless and multiply our efforts to make faithful response. We would send our best for the sake of the poor and the needy, recognizing that we also have need of what others can share with us. We depend on your love, received day by day and passed on by each of us to all who journey through life together. Thank you for all your gifts. Amen
Commissioning and Blessing
One: Go forth, with gentleness and reverence, to proclaim the hope that it in you.
All: The Spirit of Truth has come to us; we would keep faith with the God who loves us.
One: You are called to seek peace. God’s love for all humankind unites us as one family and one nation on this planet
One: Declare the wonderful deeds of God, who brought you from night to day.
All: God has built us into a spiritual house with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. .
One: Go forth as witness to the living Christ. God, in Christ, declares there is a place for you; in loving mercy you are chosen by God.
Yesterdaywe honour our heritage.
Todaywe know that we are not alone,that we live in God's world.
Tomorrowwith God,we will discoverthe undiscovered country.
Upcoming Events
SWEET MEMORIES
Join us for “Sweet Memories” a Dessert Buffet fund raiser to aid with the installation of the Freelton Memorial Windows at Freelton Strabane United Church May 27th at 7pm 1565 Brock Road Strabane
The Evening will be Featuring a buffet of homemade dessert tea and coffee and silent Auction. Tickets are $20 and can be reserved by calling 905-868-7936 or contacting the wwwheeler@sympatico.ca
Fiddley dee dee it BBQ you See
BBQ season is almost here so don't miss out on ordering some wonderful McGregors Boxed meats. All your favorites. Contact Rev Will at 905 659 3380 or wwwheeler@sympatico.ca for product lists. The Orders are due back buy Sunday May 28th with payment via cash or Cheque Made payable to “Freelton Strabane United Church”” . Pick up is at the Church 1565 Brock Road on Tuesday June 6th @ 6:45pm. Product comes frozen and must be picked up.
Orders can be dropped off at the manse mailbox @ 10 Douglas Street Freelton, or sent to Email jmcgeachy@xplornet.ca.
