Freelton Strabane United Church
To live our discipleship with integrity and grace.
Horseshoe Falls Regional Council
Lent 5
March 17 2024
Minister: Rev. Will Wheeler, B.A. M. Div. 905-659-3380 E-mail: wwwheeler@sympatico.ca
Music Director Joan Simpson
Gathering
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.
(More voices 12)
Call To worship
One: We have come in this time to glorify God, to sing the praises of the most high.
All We gather to renew our spirit to replenish our soul
One Let us enter this time we hearts of faithfulness and a spirit to follow the cross.
All: We will lift up our voices and renew our vows to be God’s people.
One: A hammer. It holds within it the potential to build and tear down. To create and destroy.
All: As we journey through this time of reflection may we seek the tools we need to create the world that God would have us build.
One Out of the ruins and ruble and struggles of this age.
All May we seek out the ways of God and allow God’s presence to needs of others.
One We can build a beautiful city a city of God. We lay this hammer, a symbol of how we have built barriers layers of bureaucracy that represses those that are most vulnerable
All: God builder of all we know The world has built barriers of Bureaucracy a reflection of our compulsion to control grows our society creates more systems. We confess to the sin of controlling others. Systems reduce humanity to numbers and then use rules and regulations to control those around us. We reduce people to less than they are so that we can feel better about ourselves. Help us to tear down Barriers that have reduced people to statistics and Help us to strive to put a face on humanity and find ways to make systems work with out crushing the creative spirit. Lord give us a hammer of justice. Hear our own private prayers of confession
All: The Light of God in Christ is our promise (Candle lit)
Assurance of Pardon
Song Come now, O God of second chances
May we forgive ourselves
May we become your living sign
Children of God’s love
One: we Know our God as a God who renews broken covenants, who offers blessings, and who has the power to make each of us a blessing to others. Despite our frailty and weakness, when we turn toward God, God accepts us and offers us forgiveness
Epistle Hebrews 5:5-10
One This is the word of the Lord
All Thanks be to God
Gospel Lesson John 12:20-33
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
Sermon
We everyday are faced with uncountable decisions. Most are so trivial that we don’t even give them a second thought. Some take a little to a lot more thought. I was raised in the United Church. It is the only Church I know so not surprisingly I tend to make decisions by committee followed up with a casserole. Don’t get me wrong I can make decisions on my own but every once in a while, I will second guess myself. Is this the right choice? This week we see another very human moment by Jesus. Here Jesus questions the direction he is headed. Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say: ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Doubt and a second thought and then a realization that the outcome is inevitable. The inevitable. That which we cover with curtain of denial. The inevitable although may not be seen is there. Jesus is seeing the inevitable. Here we see Jesus frightened seeking courage. In our life journey both for ourselves and our Church there will be times that will make good solid decisions.
There will be time we will end up second guessing our decision and there will be times we will have to pull back the curtain on the inevitable
So we are faced with the as Henri Nouwen states that Paradox is indeed that new life is born out of the pains of the old.
Does the inevitable insinuate a dire end.
Niagara on the lake faced its inevitable dire end when the Americans burned it to the ground during the war of 1812 . And yet from the ashes of the original town a New Niagara on the Lake was built which was burnt to the ground during the war of 1812
Cities built on cities. Jerusalem for example the streets that Jesus walked are a full story underground. Actually most cities in Europe are the same.
Several years ago a Leonardo DaVinci painting was found in Florence in the Palazzo Vecchio underneath a large fresco by Vasari. It was Over top of lost DaVinci. That which was lost is found.
Fort York used to be right on the shoreline in Toronto Change happens.
One of the big songs from Chitty Chitty bang bang From the ashes of destruction grow the Roses of success.
The inevitable happens. Jesus is seeing the inevitable
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit.
Does the seed truly die. Is it inevitable that the seed dies to bear fruit? The seed carries genetic information of all the seeds that came before it. When a seed falls to the ground it does not die but is transformed to something new.
The old is lost but not lost.
The butterfly has become a very modern Christian symbol because it goes through such a radical transformation. Truly if the gospel writer had known about the scientific process of becoming a butterfly they would have used them instead.
A bit on the yuck side of things the caterpillar digests itself, releasing enzymes to dissolve all of its tissues. If you were to cut open a cocoon or chrysalis at just the right time, caterpillar soup would ooze out. But the contents of the pupa are not entirely an amorphous mess. Certain highly organized groups of cells known as imaginal discs survive the digestive process.
I really like this idea of imaginal discs. They strike me as oasis of imagination in the landscape of life. They are what lies beyond the inevitable.
There are inevitable truths. We know them. We will get older. I will buy more antiques this summer and someday I won’t be here in the pulpit. You will find me in the middle of the manse floor tied up by wild dust bunnies gone rogue. I really should clean. There are inevitable truths. The church that was yesterday is not the church today. The church today will not be the church of future.
Because we will be like butterfly. We will be transformed and see the imaginational disks.
We will be the seed that carries the genetic information of all that came before us to be transformed into a new plant to set out seeds for what is yet to come.
Spring is coming and the time will be when we will have to pull all the dead away to discover the wonderful green growing points pushing their way up.
Our Faith is built upon those that have gone before us. Each a butterfly or seed or both transforming the faith.
Throughout our history the saints of the church have crafted words and hymns which bind us to our faith on which we can build.
Is the feast of St Patrick, but beyond the green bling, and beer, beyond the Irish stew, St Patrick proclaimed the gospel of Christ in a foreign land (St Patrick was a Roman Britan)
His words made into a hymn even today speak to us of that Light in breaking of God.
I bind unto myself today the power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay, His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach, His hand to guide, His shield to ward;
the word of God to give me speech, His heavenly host to be my guard.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
Our faith is built on such words, Our live in Christ is pushed into new life on the foundations of faith of those that have come before us.
Every dead leaf that clings in the winter is pushed off by new life. This is inevitable. Death shall be pushed off by new life . This is inevitable.
We can and will be transformed when we allow the Spirit of God to move us. We just need to let go at times to those burdens that hold us. To live in faith so We live in hope Forgiven for our short comings Strengthen to do better
In this Lenten time of reflection may we see that when we have had to make the big decisions when the inevitable has been before us it has been the Wisdom of God, courage of Christ and the strength of the Holy Spirit that has moved us forward. For in this life we are surrounded by the love of God founded in our communities of faith and our family and friends. Always trusting that we are not alone.
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
God of all ages. We all in time find that the curtain which covers the inevitable must be pulled aside and we see what must be and it seems so finite. We pray that in those moments it is your hand that rests upon us and your voices that reminds us that the inevitable in not a finite ending, that beyond that there is hope and new life and beginnings.
Your World O God so needs new beginnings. We see so much suffering and injustice. World powers in their ego centered grasp for more fail to see how their people hurt. Economies become more important than people. We pray for your world and it’s people
We hear your call to sew the seeds of faith. To find ways to let your transforming love be known. We hear your call to walk with those who we know on their journey. We pray that your strength be with them. We name them before you.
We are blessed to find ourselves within this community of faith. We Pray that when we have had to make the big decisions when the inevitable is before us that your Wisdom , courage of Christ and the strength of the Holy Spirit will move us forward. For in this life we are surrounded by the your love of God. We offer you our own personal prayers spoken in the silence of our hearts.
We offer you the great prayer which binds us as one as we say…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.
Prayer : God of many gifts we bring back to you this our offering as a means of thank you for your presence in our lives Use them to continue your work in our community and world.
Amen
Commissioning and Blessing
Commissioning and Blessing
One: Where Christ walks
All we will follow
One Where Christ stumbles
All We will stop
One Where Christ cries
All We will listen
One Where Christ suffers
All we will hurt
One When Christ dies
All We will bow our heads in sorrow
One When Christ rises again in glory
All We will share his endless joy
One There is no other way
All Christ is the only way.
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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