FREELTON STRABANE UNITED CHURCH
To Live Our Discipleship With Integrity And Grace
Horseshoe Falls Regional Council
Fourth Sunday of Epiphany
Sunday, January 29 2023
Rev. Will Wheeler BA M. Div. E-mail: wwwheeler@sympatico.ca
Organist : Joan Simpson
Announcements
Surplus items
We are at a point where we are selling surplus items from both Churches. the Church will be open to the public on Feb 4th. 9 am- 1pm.
We will be worshiping in the Hall for the months of January, February and March. Worship is at 10:30.
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
Join us at Freelton Strabane United Church for a Studies and Studios event on February 18th at 1p - 4pm in the Church Hall to
Learn the art of needle felting by creating this beautiful Winter scene. Fibre artist and instructor, Cathy Disbrow, will teach you how to needle felt a Winter landscape into a 4” x 6” wool painting, using a special needle to stab sheep wool onto a felt sheet. Students will learn a variety of needle felt painting techniques. Needles, wool, and wool felt sheet to create your painting are included in the cost. Foam felting pads are provided for students to use during class and can be purchased separately. JUST ONE SPOT LEFT
Cost: $60.00 Register at:
https://woollydoodles.square.site/product/workshop-ticket-needle-felt-a-winter-scene-painting/68
Refreshments are also included.
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: Come together, people of God, for you are blessed
All: We come with joy to serve the lord to come into his house with thanks giving
One: Come to worship, people of God to pray for the meek, the hungry and the peace makers for they are blessed
All: We come to renew our spirits and to know our God once more.
Prayer of Approach
Prayer. Lord , for our sakes you came among us, you revealed yourself to us as your sacrificed son the suffering servant. Give us the grace to walk the way of the cross with you. Help us not to just listen to your words but to act upon them. Give us the courage to by your faithful disciples in a world where the way of the cross is thought to be foolish. 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 15
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
One This is the word of the Lord
All Thanks be to God
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 5:1-12
One: The Word of God for the People of God
All Thanks be to God
One of the side effects of the Covid times was the need to start posting the services on line. This meant that I had to do some creative photography. Not a real hardship. I have been known to take one or two photos.
I have been asked in the past by my family once asking me if I ever see anything that was not through the view finder of a camera. Haha. Another friend has been noted at saying that wow Will you have been away for two weeks and managed not to take a photo of another human being. It is a skill.
I was once told by avid photographer and has even done some classes and one of the instructors said you should not have to take more than one photo of something. Clearly I have failed at this. I will take several, each slightly different each revealing its own snapshot of what is really there. Sometime what looks good in the view finder does not look good on the screen, what seems to be different in the real world when seen all together is all the same. You can only take so many pictures of a forest path before it looks like every other photo of a forest path. Sometimes the photo reveals things that you could not see such as some of the photos of humming birds I was lucky enough to capture. These captured moments in time can reveal the reality of the world in which we live.
That picture of a frog when you realize the second set of eyes belong to the snake that is half way through breakfasting on the frog.
Photos reveal to us those at time very real moments of our humanity.
Understanding Jesus humanity and his view of humanity is like looking at the world through a Camera lenses it captures what is there and changes our view of how we see the world. In following the teaching of Christ we become more fully human we see our world with greater depth.
This is what we learn in the Beatitudes.
The Beatitudes are not so much something we’re to do, but something we’re to see. This is to see the world as God sees it.
The Beatitudes tell us the shape of our character when we are ruled by the purposes of God and not by credentials, status, or the bottom line
They challenge us to see who we are as a people of faith from a different perspective.
Blessed can also translate to Happy. Happy you say? Happy are the poor, the meek the hunger and the rest. Wait. It’s the good the righteous the devoted the hard church worker. You know those that actively seek the jewel for the crown. Are they not the happy ones?
Hmmmm. Something is a skewed here.
An older perhaps more accurate translation of the this scripture which has the word “blessed” meaning something a lot more along the lines of “get up and take action” This is a not little “pat you on the head” bit of scripture here. It is a scripture that calls to action.
Get up and take action you poor in spirit for in changing your life you will gain the kingdom of God.
Get up and take action you who mourn, for you will be comforted in the knowledge of life in Christ. .
Get up and take action you who are meek, for you will inherit the earth in being bold .
Get up and take action you who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for you will be filled in . Get up and take action you who are merciful, for you in your kindness will know kindness and will receive mercy.
Get up and take action you that are pure in heart, that strive to follow in the ways of God for you will see God.
Get up and take action you the peacemakers, for you will be called children of God.
Get up and take action you who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.
I think that’s what the beatitudes are all about. Attitudes. Attitudes we may already have with in us.... we are already meek; we are already pure in heart, etc. But also to remind us of what we need to cultivate in answering the call of God. To change how we see what is around us. To take action.
We all view the world from our own small place in it. And to a certain extent we shape that world into a form which is pleasing to our eyes. And if we are honest most days (not all) we are the center of our own world.
I want you to consider not what “we ought to do with these beatitudes”, but what these Beatitudes do with us, the way they push us from where we are perched, viewing the world as the world loves to view itself, towards viewing the world as God see us.
To allow that light of God, that Epiphany light to illuminate how we see things. Without that light of God we cannot find our way
A light that shines in Christ’s teaching
A light that brightens in the Holy Spirit to allow us in our world to see how things can be not just the way they are. As one theologian said “Only the fulfillment of what we really are, can give us joy.”
The camera in many ways takes us places we did not think that we would go, to see things that we never thought we would see.
Jesus’ sermon wants to take you someplace else. We’re not there yet, but we’re not supposed to settle down, settle into present arrangements. (we are more than an one photo people) We’re on the move. We are called to action. Jesus goes with us. Giving us along the way those moments to see ourselves more clearly, our calling more clearly, our place in this community more clearly a snapshot of the way things will be, not the way things have to be. To be bold in what we do. Not timid.
May we be so illuminated by the light of God so changed by the words of Christ. So driven by the Holy Spirit that we see our lives transformed. We have a picture of who we are as the people of God. Let’s develop it and move forward with it in our minds as those claim our calling moving as people united in Christ together one for we are not alone 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
Blessed God, we come to you hearing your words to not just settle in where we might be in our life but to allow your light found in Christ and the Holy Spirit to transform our lives. To get up and take action, to know that we are blessed. In all of our life journey’s Christ walks with us. His arm a comfort in our sorrow his laughter resounds with ours. We would wish O God and would be our prayer that the comfort of Christ be with all that are struggling with just making it through each day. We pray for those that live in fear and oppression. We pray for justice. We pray for those who live on the margins. We pray that we may learn from past wrongs and move towards truth. We pray for those who are a part of our journey so that they may be blessed. We name them before you.
We pray for those who are a part of our journey in silence of our hearts.
We pray for ourselves. Be with us as journey as your people. May we in knowing that we are blessed take action and strive to a place of welcome and inspiration. We offer our own prayers in the silence of our hearts.
For all the blessings that we know each day we are content in the knowledge that you hear our prayers and in your time and your way will answer. We offer you 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
Dear Lord, we offer these gifts, not because you require them, but because we want to express our gratitude. With them we commit ourselves to justice, kindness, and a humble walk with our creator. Teach us to give with out counting the cost in Jesus’ name Amen
Sending Forth and Blessing.
One: Carry with you today the wisdom and strength that the world calls foolish and week. Blessed are you who have chosen to follow the Lord your 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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