Freelton Strabane United Church
To live our discipleship with integrity and grace.
Horseshoe Falls Regional Council
Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 5 2024
Minister: Rev. Will Wheeler, B.A. M. Div. 905-659-3380 E-mail: wwwheeler@sympatico.ca
Music Director Joan Simpson
Prelude
Announcements Today Our Worship is being celebrated in Lynden United Church as we gather with them to Celebrate their 154th Anniversary.
Call to Worship
One: Sing a new song to God, who has done marvelous things.
All: We celebrate God’s steadfast love and rejoice in God’s faithfulness.
One: Rejoice that God has come in Jesus Christ to call us beloved friends.
All: We sing for joy that Christ chooses us to go out and bear much fruit.
Prayer Of Approach
Lord Jesus, in your glorious resurrection, you defeated death, broke the bonds of evil, and took your place in glory. Yet you not only defeated death, but you also came back to your disciples. You called us to be part of our redeeming resurrecting work. You make us your agents in the world. You made us friends. Give us what we need to be worthy of your faith in us, equip us to do the work to which you have called us. Amen
One: Here the word of God
All: Our Ears are open
One : Our lesson is from 1 John 5:1-6
One This is the word of the Lord
All Thanks be to God
One: Here the good news our Gospel is : John 15:9-1
One: The Word of God for the People of God
All Thanks be to God
I have learned over the years to take time to appreciate the small joys that live affords us in the hecticness of living. They may be something, or someplace where we for a moment and know joy.
For some of you It is no great revelation to anyone that I have a rather large rock and mineral collection and with any grace it will find a couple more rocks this season. Some believe that rocks contain the spiritual energy of God and when we allow ourselves to open and use the stones for meditation they release that healing energy. Beyond this they are just beautiful and remind me at least of the vast and diverse creating hand of God. They bring me joy to sit at my desk and look at them.
I have also learned to laugh, a lot, and I give thanks on a rather regular basis that I have been gifted with people in my life that love to laugh as well. I think we all love to laugh, I could tell you the medical reasons why it is good to laugh, but let’s just leave it that Laughing is good for you.
Because laughing is a good thing must everyone I know loves comedies,
Comedies are stories that are filled with humour and resolved by happy endings. The best comedies are not simply frivolous, but have twists and turns of plot and some reflection on the tragic elements of life. But, in the end, the tragic is upset and the story takes a happy turn. Comedies, too, are joyful surprises.
One theologian has gone so far to state that the Gospel (which means good news) is basically a comedy. It begins with a birth, an almost universally happy occurrence. It is filled with intrigue, with surprising turns and twists. Villains you can really dislike.
It contains humorous stories and those that touch on the darkest aspects of life. It nearly ends tragically but finishes with one impossibly happy event. The resurrection of Jesus. The gospel is pure comedy.
Yes
This lesson from John provides a glimpse of the whole nature of this comedic story. Jesus is saying farewell to his follower, gathered with him for that final meal. He calls then now, not students, not servants but friends. They have been through moments of both tragic and the comic as the rabbi has led them through God’s creation and back again. They have shared miraculous moments have seen the power of God, the impossible possible.
Here Jesus summarizes all that he has taught them. They will have to continue the journey. They are to act in love and to bear good fruits. They may even be called upon to lay down their lives for other people. But they will not be alone. They have God’s love to sustain them.
Here today we find some hard lessons to hear but in the midst of them Jesus speaks of Joy.
Jesus has a purpose in recounting these hard lessons. He does so that his joy will not inhabit his followers and that their joy may be greater than expected, even complete. It is not the kind of joy that is expected. It doesn’t come from getting something, but from giving.
As the gospeler writes “so that my joy may be complete. There it is , the happy twist the comedy.
The Joy in the midst
Jesus knew that the price of being his follower would be great for those that came after. He has given them his great commandment. To love one another as he has loved us. And to follow this and to live as one who will be known as a Christian. This can and will be difficult. It may even cost you your life. But know this. The love I have for you will sustain you and give you joy. Even in the darkest hour there lost in the shadows will be that joy born of the love that I have for you.
As we age, we grow to expect happiness in measured doses and from predictable sources. Unless you have puppies or small children who randomly produce happy moments as a bi product of just being. Well cared for children are frequently joyful, but the world works it out of them. By the time they have finished secondary school, they will have sweated through innumerable tests, learned to be fearful of speaking their mind in public, and will have begun to bear the responsibility of citizenship and adulthood. Joys will come when honours are won, gifts are given or received, things are accomplished but, the basic joy of being alive and living in a magnificent universe is often squelched.
When we truly open ourselves to God and the love that can be found in Jesus, when we as believers reclaim that happiness. When hearts are changed by Christ, the world’s standards of happiness become reordered. As someone once said joy and happiness can begin at the end of our comfort zone. They begin and end with God.
For us today such joy is not purchased or conjured up. It is a gift, given with faith; the deep joy of drawing breath and sharing our lives with others.
It takes a lot to be a Christian, it takes time and resources. It means being a presence in this place. It means being open and honest with each other, it means giving, and loving and caring. It means weighing your wants and needs against the wants and needs of those people who make up your faith community.
Yes being a member of Faith community can and very well may be a burden. When a community of faith accepts a position of “why bother” and just decides to exist then it is time to consider the need to take a step back and remember we are called to find the joy of service.
In time all that you see here will cease to exist, we in our time will return to the dust from whenst we came.
But the Joy of living and serving the lord that is the gift that we can leave for the generations to come. To strive and work to make this place a crucible of joy in at times a joyless world. And strive to fill this place with so much love and joy that it cannot help but spill over to those around us.
Life is Made up of memorable moments most of them over before they have begun. But each moment is a drop of joy given by God.
I want you to find the joy of what it is to be a member of this community of faith. I want you to search out those things, or places that God has given us. To see the joy of a child and be complete, to see the life of a garden or a soft carpet of green of new growing fields, or the blaze of yellow of a pasture of dandelions. The creating hand of God the very stones of the earth to laugh and know that in you God’s joy will be made complete and then share it.
Friends, Jesus calls us, no longer servants, but friends. It means his love is for us. When his love, his sacrifice, his resurrection are precisely for you , then your joy can be complete. For in experiencing that joy we come to know that we are not alone. Amen.
Prayers of the people
Slow me Down Slow me Down
Still my restless mind Still my restless mind
Quell my fears Quell my Fears
Quench my Thirsty soul Quench my thirsty Soul
Fill me with your love Fill me with your love
God of Truth God of Truth
God of love God of love
Blessed God, In all the moments of our lives you come walk with us. You are the author of our joy, the consolation of our Soul in sorrow. As you journey with us we are called to journey with others. You call us to live in a spirit of caring and respect with those we encounter on our journey. You call us to live in a spirit of caring and respect with Creation and you call us to live in a spirit of caring and respect with ourselves.
We pray for those that struggle each day on a journey that knows no joy. For the joy of life is over shadowed by war, and displacement. It is overshadowed by food insecurity and poverty. We pray for those that struggle will illness of the body but also the lostness of the soul. We pray for those that we shall never now, and we pray for those whom we are called to journey with. We hold their names in our hearts.
We give you thanks for our Community of Faith here at Lynden and also for the our shared communities of faith. We give thanks for the ancestors of Lynden who are no a part of the saints of heaven We hold their names in our hearts. We pray that your Spirit continues to be upon us as we discern and live out our Ministry of the Gospel in this community. We ask that your courage and strength may be with us as we move into the future. You are the God, who walks with us In all the moments of our lives. You are the author of our joy, the consolation of our Soul in sorrow. We offer you our own personal prayers spoken in our hearts. Lord we ask that in your time and in your way our prayers may be answered. Amen
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.
Prayer : Thank you, God, for the joy of loving and giving, for the friendship of Christ and the opportunities you give us to serve. May these gifts be used in accordance with your love for all your people. In Jesus’ name. Amen
Commissioning and Blessing
Commissioning and Blessing
Commissioning and Blessing
One: Today and tomorrow
All Jesus Christ is Lord
One today and tomorrow
All today and tomorrow
One Lo, I am with you always
All When we try to do your will,
One I am with you always
All When we go where we don’t not know,
One I am with you always
All When we meet one we do not recognize
One I am with you always
All Where faith ends and doubt begins,
One I am with you always
All and should we forget you.
One I am with you always
All today and tomorrow, today and tomorrow you are with us always to end of the world.
One In life in death in life beyond death
All God is with us we are not alone
One: Now may the blessing of God travel with you, May the teachings of Christ Illuminate you path and may the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit lead you forward. All Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, it is now, and ever shall be world without end, 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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