FREELTON STRABANE UNITED CHURCH
To Live Our Discipleship With Integrity And Grace
Horseshoe Falls Regional Council
Sixth Sunday of Epiphany
Sunday, February 12 2023
Rev. Will Wheeler BA M. Div. E-mail: wwwheeler@sympatico.ca
Organist : Joan Simpson
Announcements
We will be worshiping in the Hall for the months of January, February and March. Worship is at 10:30.
The Trustees have signed an agreement with the Brazeau Team to list the Freelton Property. We now need to ask for anyone having a Freelton Church key to return it to the Manse as soon as possible.
Rev Will
If anyone has any agenda items they would like discussed at the annual meeting please contact Rev Will or Barb Woodburn. Thanks

Join us for The Art of the Spirit. A time for people to gather and work in their favourite art medium and share creative time and conversation.
on the first and third Tuesdays of the Month in the Freelton Strabane United Church Hall at 1pm beginning in February on the 7th.
The new technology leaving you a bit baffled? Join us for Tech Tuesday for Seniors to learn how to use your technology. We will be meeting in the Freelton Strabane United Church Hall on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the Month a 2pm beginning in February on the 14th
Do you have an idea of some programing you would like to see at the Church, send Rev Will an email.
Sock it To Me and Top Drawer is back. We will be collecting warm socks, underwear, T Shirts and hygiene items through out January and February.
Rev Will is always Available for calls. If you find you need to talk or need something please don’t hesitate to call the Manse at 905 659 3380 or text his cell at 905 869 5340 .
Consider PAR as a means to support the Church
Country Music and Coffee Bar
Enjoy some country warmth on a winter’s afternoon
Freelton Strabane United Church
Studies and Studios
presents
A fireside time featuring
Jamie Warren
Award winning country music artist
and
A variety of coffees
with sandwiches and sweets
.
Sunday, March 5, 2023
1565 Brock Road, Strabane
Tickets are now on sale $20
Call 905 869 7936
Call To Worship
Take this moment sign and space
Take my friends around
Here among us make the place
Where your love is found me
(Iona Abbey Music book pg 122)
One: Blessed are those who seek God, whose hearts are set on God’s commandments.
All We are inheritors of God’s law and heirs of the prophet’s mission
One: In worship we encounter god’s commandments and explore together what it means to love God.
All We have come away from the distraction of life to give this time to being one with God.
Prayer of Approach
Prayer. Loving and merciful God, your purposes are beyond our human understanding, your presence both confounds, confronts and comforts us. We seek your help to be open to all that you intend for us this day, to respond to your will with our whole selves, that we may find our rightful place in the work of your blessed enterprise and live out the mission you have for us. We ask this in Jesus name 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.
Your story makes a home within our soul
One Rejoice in the Lord Always and sing praises in Psalm
Our Psalm is Psalm 119
One: The Word of God for the People of God
All Thanks be to God
One: Let us continue to listen to the wisdom God has given us as found in 1 Corinthians 3:1-9
One: This is part of Journey
All May these words strengthen us for the Journey
One: The Light of Gods Love illuminates our lives in the Good news found in the teaching of our Saviour Let us listen to the Gospel of our Lord our lesson is taken from the Gospel Matthew 5:21-37
One: The Word of God for the People of God
All Thanks be to God
Layers, When you stop to think about God really liked creating in layers. Some of my favorite things come in layers. Fossils, often found in layers of stone. Painting is done in layers and if you think about it miniature building is done in layers.
Then there is food. Sandwiches, parfait Belgium cookies, and oh yes chocolate layer cake. Hmm. Each taste creates a layer a complexity to the dish.
Something that don’t look like they are layers really are for example perfume.
Top notes: The scents that are perceived immediately on application of a perfume. Top notes consist of small, light molecules that evaporate quickly. They form a person's initial impression of a perfume and thus are very important in the selling of a perfume. Also called the head notes.
Middle notes: The scent of a perfume that emerges just prior to when the top notes dissipate. The middle note compounds form the "heart" or main body of a perfume and act to mask the often unpleasant initial impression of base notes, which become more pleasant with time. They are also called the heart notes.
Base notes: The scent of a perfume that appears close to the departure of the middle notes. The base and middle notes together are the main theme of a perfume. Base notes bring depth and solidity to a perfume. Compounds of this class of scents are typically rich and "deep" and are usually not perceived until 30 minutes after application.
The scents in the top and middle notes are influenced by the base notes, as well the scents of the base notes will be altered by the type of fragrance materials used as middle notes. Manufacturers of perfumes usually publish perfume notes and typically they present it as fragrance pyramid, with the components listed in imaginative and abstract terms.
Wine makers do the same thing.
It is also the same way with coffee having had coffee I confess I never have wine in my mouth long enough to get the flavours.
The Gospels are layered
Now compared to last week’s feel good. Gospel. Very up lifting. You wonder what happened between those verses and this week’s verses to well to seem to create such a sour note.
Yet like a good perfume, once the top note, sweet and enticing begins to fade we get we begin to see the depth of the gospel. This week begins to move us into that depth but we must see beyond the first layer
What Jesus is teaching is beyond the top note of the happy you are salt of earth, light of world the city on a hill let your light so shine Kum by Ya is some depth.
Jesus is teaching us that beyond the surface of the action there lies at its heart that emotion which drives that action. This of course sounds like something your therapist would say.
It is a truth. Action is linked to the emotion.
Not to let those negative feeling to taint or poison the whole soul.
For in nurturing the darkness of the heart you begin a lost spiral downwards to greater darkness. Judgment - to council - to Hell Court - to judge - to guard- to prison.
As the prophet Micah writes “It is another thing entirely for one's heart to be oriented toward love. Just as it is easier to make a sacrifice at the temple than it is to do justice , so it is easier to keep the commandment against murder than it is to avoid anger in one's heart.”
The Theologian Amy Oden states “God's in breaking presence in Jesus Christ re-orders the relationships of this world and re-orients the internal landscapes of our lives. “
Our Relationship with God and the nature of God’s love founded in the saving action of Jesus re orders our lives indeed re-orients our whole being towards a nature of love. It shapes our Relationship with the world in claiming our Christianity. Let us not assign to much to word love, it is more easily understood and a profound respect for each other ourselves and our world. It becomes the bass note of the perfume of our lives on which we build all of our relationships
If Epiphany is a time of enlightenment then this is a Gospel which calls for us to allow the light of God’s love to shine even into the darkest corners of our being dispelling the shadows of that which would turn us away from that love.
The longest journey is the journey inward for the one who has chosen their destiny, Who has started upon his quest for the source of his being. States the philosopher. Dag Hammarskjold"
That source of our being is the presence of God .
The world we live in exists only in the top notes. On the surface.
The world lives by the rule of the “ Elevator” In elevators there is: no talking, no eye contact, no touching. No relating! You want to make an elevator car of people really uncomfortable. Get in and face the back and look at everyone.
The world has become -"Like porcupines on a cold evening trying to keep warm but unable to get very close ",
The Theologian Buechner states that “Increasingly, we live our lives from the outside in rather than from the inside out, taking our cues from the world, taking our cues from others, taking our cues from culture.”
I was in the grocery store in Waterdown last week and The casher did not make eye contact, ran my items through and then proceeded to look at her I watch and check her messages. There was next to no human contact in this exchange. She was a young person. The conversation was hi, it will be this much debit? Bye.
I understand there is a new movement in some grocery stores. It is the slow line. The idea is that the cashier will engage you in conversation. Spend time visiting. A human interaction.
The increased isolationism of society not be mention several years of Pandemic and social distancing is creating generations of people that have lost the ability to communicate or function in meaningful relationships be it personal or professional.
Our Claim of being Christians likewise should not be lived on the outside layer but first with in ourselves taking our Cues from God, learning from Jesus, living in the action of the Holy Spirit.
God in Jesus calls us to a deeper relationship. One that reaches beyond the surface to the depth of the soul. We are to strive to be in that right relationship with God, each other and ourselves. To find resolutions when we are at odds with each other. Not let things sit and fester. Not to give ourselves over to shallow or hurtful remarks or self-serving actions. As Paul reminds us. “It is not this person work, or that person’s ministry. We do not follow this person or that person”
It is together that the Lords work is done. One may plan , another may work ,but it is God whose work is being done. As Paul reminds us for we are Gods servants, working together you are God’s field, God’s building we are God’s people
It is only in our mutual love of God, our united commitment to the striving of the sharing of God’s word and Love that we shall succeed in living out our commitment.
Ours is a calling founded upon the love of God. That calling begins with deepening of our relationship with God, The deepening of our Relationship with ourselves and with those around us.
Not to live upon the surface of life but to plump the depth of our relationships and seeing that truly we are not alone. That we are United in all things with God. Thanks be to God.
Prayers of the people
Hear our prayer we humbly offer
Grant to us your peace O God
Hear our prayer we humbly offer
Grant to us your peace O God.
Prayers
God who comes to us in our everyday It is our mutual love of you O God, our united commitment to the striving of the sharing of Your words and Love that we shall succeed in living out our commitment. For we truly believe that you are with us.
Ours is a calling founded upon your love. Be with us through your Spirit as strive to deepen our relationship with you, with ourselves and those that surround us. Give us such wisdom that we may not live for the superficial but to seek the depth of relationship.
It is through the deep love that you have for us that we are able to bring you our prayers for those that know great suffering and pain. We hold up to you the people of Turkey and Syria as they live through the worst of days. Bring comfort to the grieving and strength to those that are fighting to continue on.
That deep love that you have has been known in our lives and we pray for those who we are called to journey with. We name them before you. We name those who are a part of our lives who need your presence in the silence of our hearts.
As we move forward as your community of faith we pray that your Spirit move with us. Help us to deepen the ties that bind us as a community of faith. Help us to live into our vision of who we are. Help us to seek out ways to share the depth of your love and open our doors to all who would be seeking. We offer prayers for ourselves spoken in the silence of our hearts trusting that in your time and way they shall be answered. We offer the great prayer which binds us as one. Saying Our Father…
Offering
We give thee but thy own. The work of the Church continues and there are three ways you can continue to support that work. Consider using PAR, use the donate button on our Web Site or drop your gift at the Manse. Let us make our offering and give thanks.
One: Praise God who from all Blessing flow
Prayer
Gracious God, we have promised that we will pray, love , and share. Help us to do so with enthusiasm and commitment. May all that we offer be transformed into living gifts of hope and promise. Praise and glory be yours . Amen
Sending Forth and Blessing.
One: Go forth into the world to be salt and light wherever you Go in living out the love of God.
All: We depart with joy in our hearts and the intent to live by the best we know for Jesus the Christ the wisdom of God will be our strength and guide.
One: You are supported and strengthened by God’s love and by the family of faith of which you are a part. Rejoice and be glad, for God is with us.
VU 4
God of all places present unseen
Voice in our silence song in our mist
Send us your people knowing and sure
Called to spread the word.
amen amen amen
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.
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