Freelton Strabane United Church
To live our discipleship with integrity and grace.
Horseshoe Falls Regional Council
Lent 2
Sunday, March 1 2026
Minister: Rev. Will Wheeler, B.A. M. Div. 905-659-3380 E-mail: [email protected]
Music Director Joan Simpson
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 to this time, to this place.
All Gather us in to this place of hope, of calm , of renewal.
One We come to this place a resting place of renewal in the journey.
All We come to your house to worship you, for this is the place we need to be.
Throughout these Lenten days and nights
we turn to walk the inward way
where meeting Christ our guide and light
we pray in hope his coming day
We bear the silence cross and pain
our human burdens human fear
Kept dark and deep until we see
the promise of the coming dawn
One: In the darkness, our fears come to own us
All The fears we press down into the boxes of our soul
One fear is the great destroyer.
All Fear separates us from the Divine within and without.
One Christ is the key that will open our boxed fears and free us.
All Our fear hides behind many things.
One: within the boxes of our fears are all the regrets. All that which says I should have, I could have. The Regret for those times we fail to speak up or express our thoughts. Those regrets that played to our fear of not being good enough.
All Christ is the Key that will free us from our fears.
One We light this candle to dispel the darkness and place this key to open the box of our fears
Prayer of Confession.
God of continued Mercy we come to you holding the box of our regrets. Help us to let go of our regrets as they feed resentment. Help us to find our voices to speak to that which matters to us and not let our fear keep us silent. Help us to not hold to what might have been but to open ourselves to what can be. May your Spirit speak to our souls to give us such confidence to have faith in ourselves to own our fears and let them go. . We bring our own personal prayers of confession before you.
Song
(81 More Voices)
Love us into fullness,
Touch us with your grace;
Jesus, in your mercy,
draw us to your face.
Assurance of Pardon
One: and Jesus said “ Come to me , all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
One: Who we strive to be is founded in our story.
All Please, share once more with us our story.
One Our Epistle is taken from Romans 4:1-5 13-17
One This is our Story
All Thanks be to God
One Our way through the wilderness is found in the gift of the Gospels our Lesson is taken from John 3:1-7
One: The Word of God for the People of God
All Thanks be to God
Prayer
Lord as we ponder your words open our hearts that we may understand and know you. Amen
Understanding begins with the question “how can this be? ”
Being away was good. However the landscape outside my office window is somewhat differ. Sure it is sunny but rather white as compared to when I was away which was sunny and rather green. There was a bit of a temperature difference as well. It was a good time away. It was a change and you know what is said about a change. A change is as good as a rest. Not always sure that is a truth. Change happens and it only rarely happens as planned. There was a hiccup when we arrived in Mexico. The ground transportation which was to be a part of our package was not there. Well actually there was no record of it ever being there. There was no ground transportation. It is getting on 8:30 in the evening you had been travelled all day long and there was no ground transportation. In the name of all the Saints. It was a change. It was not planned. In the end the question is how many people with their luggage can you squeeze into a Mexican Taxi. Well it was a van so the answer is all of us. Some were angry, some were task orientated, some of us were “well what can you do” . Change is challenging, change is frightening. It means new beginnings. It means learning new ways, new ways of looking at things. Sometimes we can pivot with a change easily and sometimes it takes time. Change is about moving forward, or, not. I think Change always comes with choice. Today’s Gospel is in many ways about change. The conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus is really about Change.
Consider Nic. He had the perfect life. A good job, a family, respected in the community. He knew what he believed in. Followed all the holy teachings. He knew his place, knew his role, Understood his place in the grand scheme. Never questioned life because life was good. Always walked to work the same road, took lunch at the same restaurant, at his favorite table where he listened to all the local news. All things in there place no disruption no interference. Order strict order. Order, routine, tradition all lead to the perfect life. He had the perfect life.
This man was respected by his community. Looked up to and trusted. The result of following the road that stayed between the lines.
Then some street corner prophet shows up. A cart load or two of followers hanging on his every word shows up in town.
This new guy is always posing questions. All turning things upside down Always making cryptic statements. A lot of talk about born again. Suddenly life is not clear. Suddenly there is no Black and white but all these shades of grey. How can these things be. The poor man with the perfect life just couldn’t understand anymore. Things would never be the same.
How can you be born twice. How can this be?
Change it happens, Change comes with the question How can this be?
This encounter with Jesus, this mid night, I need to know moment changed Nicodemus and left with the question how can this be which is an invitation to the Spirit to provide answer.
The Holy Spirit that moves us in new directions sometimes like a gentle breeze sometimes as a mighty wind. Whispers to us How can this be and I wonder.
When is it that we are moved? Well, who knows. Trying to regulate the spirit in our lives is like trying to catch the wind.
. Whispers to us How can this be and I wonder.
How do we know that God’s spirit is working in our lives?
Simply by believing that God so loved us that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him will be have everlasting life.
Our salvation is secure we cannot do good works to get us into heaven, all the penance on earth will not make a difference because we have already be born again in Christ by the virtue of our Baptism and our profession of faith as an adult.
Well that sounds rather complete but is it? Well know, there will always be those questions How can this be, I wonder.
They are the questions that lead us on a journey of discovery in which we learn and redefine ourselves in who we are as Christians.
It is well known that I have built one or two architectural miniatures over the last several years. What I have discovered is every time I think one of them is finished and I photograph it, I find something else to add to it or change it. I have come to realize that they are never quite complete, that there will be always something to add to them.
Like the miniatures our faith is never quite complete it always needs to worked on stretched grown. It Changes.
I think that life and life with God is the same. There are so many details to our lives so many aspects that go into making us who we are. Some things fall together other aspects of our lives need to be fixed while there might be some scratch building
We don’t see the progress of our lives until we step back and look. We progress moving towards that completeness of spirit and understanding.
In hearing truly hearing Jesus’s words we are pushed to see our best self the divine with in us and to see the best in others and the divine with in them.
God moves among us here and there working on our completion giving us insight understanding direction. Sometimes we understand and other times we are confused and sit and wonder how can this be. We are gifted with free will one of the greatest gifts that God has given us, it is up to us to allow the spirit to move us or we can be closed to the spirit of God and refuse to move ahead. It is then that we will wither and die.
God is still working on me. And on you. You as a communities of faith have shown great courage in allowing God through the Spirit to reshape and shape you into the community of faith that you will become. We have seen God’s doing in our lives and yes in the coming times God will move us and we will not be aware of it.
We again and again ask the question how can this be? I wonder? Change will happen, the planned the unexpected but threw it all we will know that we are not alone. Thanks be to God
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
God who walks with us on this journey . We listen to the news, we see images of what is going on in our world. Our hearts cannot but help be heavy. It is so easy to loose faith, to become discouraged. To ask how can this be? Our souls are tired. In that moment as we sit on rock on the side of the road on our journey you come and sit with us looking at where we have been, where we are going putting your arm around us and simple say “I am here. “
You are here God. That brings us great comfort.
We pray for all those in Ukraine who are living their worst nightmare. We remember all those people that are displaced by war and conflict. We remember all those that have lost loved ones. . We pray for all those that struggle with illness, and the unknown. We pray for all those who long for the renewal of Spirit to know the way forward. We pray that your healing Spirit be upon them. We find great comfort knowing that here in this community of faith, we can bring out prayers to you. Prayers for those who we know, and for ourselves and those that we shall never meet. We name before you those who we are walking with. Hear our prayers O lord. Take our hand once more on this journey, lead us forward for in our faith from the cold into your warmth. We know you hear our prayers. 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.
God of all humankind, send our generous gifts where we are unable to go/. Send us to places where we would not venture to witness to your love. We offer these gifts to do your work and rededicate all we hare to your service. 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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