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

 The luck of the Irish has returned

Come and celebrate the feast of St. Patrick with a delicious Irish Stew supper March 18th at Freelton Strabane United Church 1565 Brock Road Strabane.   

Open Seating from 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. Pay at the door. 

$20 per person, $10 for children under 12 yrs.

Let us Gather together for worship. 

 Come touch our souls that we may know and love you 

Your quiet presence all our fears dispel 

Create a space for sprit to grow in us

Let life and beauty fill us, 

Come touch and bless our souls. 

Come touch us now, this people who are gathered, 

To break the bread and share the cup of peace;

That we may love you with our heart our soul, 

Our mind, our strength, our all, 

Come touch us with your grace. 

Call To Worship

One Gather us in , Holy God. Gather us in, our Creator Gather us in your name.

All Gather us this Lenten season to hear the stories of Jesus , the stories which remind us of the journey. 

One Gather us to learn, to grow, to repent, and to be renewed. 

All Gather us for worship , Lord, for this is the place we need to be. 

    When the wind of Winter Blows

Bringing lent we’ve come to know

Fill the silent icy night be our hearts compassion

Holy light warm our night

Warm this Lenten journey

Holy light warm our night

Warm this Lenten journey

One: The dark of lent shadows our hearts

All Our hearts are but snow and icicles

One Melt the snow and this ice in your love of God

All Nothing but your love can free us from this iced time. 

One: The iced indifference of this world shroud the cross We journey from darkness to light owning our faults, lamenting the sins of the world  We light this candle to lament the sense of privilege .

All: Cold darkness of night is dispelled by your promise of a coming light O God.

All: We pray for your world of God which has been frozen in a sense of privilege. Where the individual sees things as a right, and not a gift. Where the advantages of life the success of life are expected and not appreciated or earned.   

Save us from the sin of assumed privilege,  endow us with a sense of gratitude in the work that we undertake but temper it with a humility that reflects your love.   Amen 

There have been many times this past year, even this past week I have found myself sitting in the wilderness of my study staring at apothecary bottles (only because they are right in front of me reflecting on decisions I have made and the implications of those decisions.  In my head I know they were the best choices, in my heart not regret but remorse.   The wilderness, as much as the mountain top, can be a place of great insight.

Jesus needed time to be alone and to reflect both on his decision and the implications of that decision of having given himself to God’s leading .  To maybe find his way. Here we can wonder if he was tempted with the same things that tempt us. Yes our worlds are very different but at the core many of same concepts are shared.

We begin lent in the wilderness    It is time for us to find our way. To seek out answers direction, divine presence.    To use that old saying of Soul searching 

One writer suggests that : Like Jesus we hunger for something that will fill the emptiness inside of us.
In the desert there is little water or food to quench those needs. In the same way this world offers us nothing real and meaningful to fill our emptiness. Oh, once in a while the world shows us a mirage, but it is only an illusion. And so we are tempted to try to fill the emptiness with things that are not good for us. We try to fulfill our need for love with superficial relationships. We try to fulfill our need for peace by trying to ignore or escape the pain around us. So just like Jesus we are tempted. Tempted to take shortcuts. Tempted to make up our own way. 

Mark Twain wrote There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice. We are called to courage.

To walk the Road with Jesus takes courage because at times it does lead us into the wilderness. It is hard to be reflective about ourselves, to be reflective of our institution. 

We are tempted to quit, or ignore what is in front of us. Or set blinders on and be single minded. To close ourselves to what God would have us find, the truths that may be there that we may not want to grabble with.   

Moving through lent can be like being an explorer setting a course into the unknown but trusting that the earth is not flat. That there is something over the next horizon.  You must just persevere long enough to discover what that might be.  

The Lenten journey is not just about our own journey but our journey together. It is also about reaching out to others who are no longer on the journey of faith. Its about offering an invitation for those that no longer journey with us.  Its about gathering in the faithful. 

Lent is the time to slow ourselves down (no I am not joking) , and not run to Easter but stay and learn what it is that is required of us to be an Easter People.  To have faith in the Journey, to have faith that God walks with us, to know that even though we may be tempted we will find and have the strength to continue the journey. 

Because on this journey we are not alone. 

Prayers of the people

 When we shiver in despair when the chill of death comes near,

Hold us Spirit, calm our fear while the evening deepens.

Holy Light, warm our night warm the time of winter

Holy night warm our night warm the time of winter 

Dear Lord, As the sun with its longer journey melts the winter’s snow and ice with its slowly growing radiance warms our souls, may the sun of Christ’s uprising give us strength for the journey. We come to you in this time of waiting, watching at times the wilderness of our own lives seeking the comfort of your presence.  We see that there is great suffering in the world.  The wilderness of  struggle from natural disasters, wilderness of fear in the face of war and violence. The Wilderness of the unknown from change in life circumstances, health and being pushed to the fringe   Be an assurance that  we are not alone. Send your Spirit of healing on those whose lives need to know that presence.  Send strength to those that may be faltering on the journey.  Hope to those who look to you.  We hold to you those who we would name and those that we hold in our hearts You  Know the prayers of our hearts and in your time may they be answered.  God of the journey we offer you the 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.     

Through our offerings, O God, we would supply bread to those who hunger and the bread of life to feed all who need spiritual nourishment. We who have received good news seek to live by it and to share the gospel with others. May our gifts and our lives proclaim your rule among all people. Amen