Freelton Strabane United Church
To live our discipleship with integrity and grace.
Horseshoe Falls Regional Council
Epiphany 3
January 21 2024
Minister: Rev. Will Wheeler, B.A. M. Div. 905-659-3380 E-mail: wwwheeler@sympatico.ca
Music Director Joan Simpson
Announcements
Gathering
(21 more voices)
Open our Hearts, open our minds
Open our lives to you O loving God
Open our Hearts, open our minds
Open our lives to you O loving God
Open our hearts
Call To worship
One: come, with undivided attention, to meet God, who calls you away from old routines.
All: Our soul wait for God in silence. We hope in God, our rock and our salvation.
One: Enter the realm of God, which is here and now, as well as beyond time and place.
All: We pour out our heart before God, whom we trust and honour.
Opening Prayer
Lord, give us the grace not to take ourselves too seriously, not to place too much hope in our projects and plans, not to give final weight to our values and virtues in order to be open, playfully open, to your incursions among us. To see ourselves as you see us is to know ourselves as those who are frail vulnerable creatures who do not know at times on our own, what is right, much less how to do that which is right. Lord, be gentle with us judge us with a sense of humour keep working with us until we more closely come to resemble what you have in mind for us.
One: Hear the word of God
All our ears are open
One: A reading from Jonah 3:1-5, 10
One This is the word of the Lord
All Thanks be to God
One: Hear the word of God
Gospel Mark 1:14-20
One: This is the Gospel of our Lord
All Thanks be to God
Prayer
Lord as we ponder your words open our hearts that we may understand and know you. Amen
Sermon
There are some stories that just take you back to sitting on one of those little chairs in a Sunday school room that was just a little to warm. Jonah and Whale is one of them.
It was a good story and those days it was the thought of a whale swallowing someone that was stood out not the idea of Call.
Now I am sure the belly of a great fish can be rather comforting, warm, wonderful gently sway of the swimming , the hypnotic gurgle of digestive system not to mention the rhythm of the heart. But cramped but somewhat odoriferous which could lead to a rather specular case of Mal di Mare.
Then suffering from a colossal bout of indigestion the fish vomits up Jonah, who after copious showers sits down and God says would you like to try this again.
Our reluctant prophet says yes.
He goes, he preaches and well Jonah, The most reluctant of the prophets one of the worst preachers ever made a massive impact.
Who among us really has not said at some time or another you want me to do what? There has to be someone better.
I can’t believe that God would choose someone like me.
There is the old saying that if you don’t like your life you should have chosen different parents. I wonder if at the moment of Jesus baptism he whispered deep in his soul
“I can’t believe that God would choose someone like me”
As Nathanael left the shade of his fig tree, did he say “I can’t believe that God would choose someone like me”
Where there times with Peter Andrew James and John as they walked away from everything they knew they said “I can’t believe that God would choose someone like me” Have there been times on a Sunday Morning you have said. “I can’t believe I got out of bed for this”
When God calls our name we say as Samuel did “yes lord I am here,” but then the answer is underscored with I can’t believe that God would choose someone like me.
The Lessons speak of transformation. Change. Christ’s appearance among us his epiphany means that change is in the works. Jonah is told go preach to the sworn enemies of Israel, the people of Nineveh. Jonah is a most reluctant prophet not only because he hates the Ninevites, which any good citizen of Israel would do but also because Jonah fears that the Ninevites might, just might, change. To Jonah’s great surprise and deep consternation, the people of that great city hear and not only hear but repent.
Jonah later explains that he refused to go to Nineveh because he was afraid that his sermon might actually have good effect. The Ninevites might actually change that is for all he knows the Ninevites might listen and repent and God would forgive them.
But if they should repent the word means literally to turn around then Jonah’s world would be disrupted radically changed because his enemies had changed. And of course Jonah would have changed too.
The response to the world’s shortest and worst sermon is the greatest in the entire Bible. Everyone from the king right down to the cats and dogs repented
Mark begins his gospel by having Jesus calling ordinary people to leave what they are doing and follow him as disciples.
One can only imagine the dramatic change that was worked in them due to this vocation. Imagine the response from Peter, James and John’s family. “What! Have you lost your bait picking mind. You are going to do what? You were born fisher folk, you are fisher folk and you are going to die fisher folk” The response? “ No I am called to a different road. I am called by name.
God shows us his grace in baptism, calls us by name we are called to discern how we shall respond. Ultimately, we shall be changed because of the experience. Christians differ from those who are not Christians. Not that we are better people, and not that we are smarter. We differ because we have come to the great realization that we are not alone. That God is calling us to bring change into the world.
The Disciples were changed. They followed and neither they nor the world has been the same since. Ours is a rich history of transformation from knowing God. Jonah, Moses, Abraham, the Disciples, Mary Paul. Stephen, Augustine, Aquinas Joan, Theresa. Pidgion, McClung Francis, and…you. This is the great promise I want you to hear today. You are changed by your human yes to God in your life. We are offered a new way of living a new world a new life.
I am in the twilight of my career 2028 seems a lot closer than it did in 1993. I had a conversation with the former minister at Rockton Sheffield and Lynden before she left and I said at this stage of my ministry I did not see myself being a pioneer and breaking ground in new ministries. She said but we are.
It is not just me, it’s us. Us here at Freelton Strabane. We are maybe not the reluctant prophet but certainly the unexpected prophet in our embrace of looking forward.
The challenge of the scripture is not to be afraid to answer that call move into that new direction. To be a part of the knowing, the seeing, the following of God.
We have said yes.
The church is about gospel about the good news that the world has changed, and we have a gracious invitation to be a part of the action to be a part of the change.
We are challenged not to be the same not to look inward at what always has been done but to look towards the leading light of the Spirit to what we can do and what we can become. We are on the forefront.
The challenge is not to tire or look back but forward.
Once more God has not said, Yall over there follow me, no, God has named you, yourself, chosen you for your gifts and invite you, yourself to be in a personal relationship with him. God has gathered you into this community to be his people, a community of faith that gathers in a sacred place called a church. Sit back and thoughtfully look at what we have accomplished this past year and be amazed and then…let’s go fishing.
In all that we do this coming year, in all of the challenges changes sorrows and triumphs that we will face together as a community of faith and as individuals may we never forget our calling to be Christians and in that remembering may we continue to come to know and see 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
Wonderful God, as we watch the winter transform the landscape with graceful drifts we watch as you transform our lives by your holy presence. We have heard you call our name and we have said “here I am Lord” We know that in that “yes” there will be challenges and even change but in that “Yes” is the reassuring embrace of your love and the unfaltering guidance of your Spirit.
We see your world and hold her pain for just a moment. We own that on the great scale all we can do is prayer. We hold that the very act of prayer is an act of love. May your love break into this broken world.
It is that healing love we pray for those who we do know. Those that we have said yes to walk with as they find their path through grief or unwellness. To walk the path that at times is hard to see. We name them before you.
May we God as your people called into being a community of faith cast out your net of love. Empower us to be an open and accepting community. We give thanks for the many things that you have provided and for the countless times your embrace has sustained us. We offer you our own prayers of petition and thanks giving in the silence of our hearts. We offer these prayers to you knowing that in your time and your way they will be answered. We come together joined by a common prayer 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.
These treasures we present for the work of your church, in this community and throughout the world. May they be used wisely where the need is great. May they be used compassionately, especially when the need is hard to perceive. Amen
Commissioning and Blessing
One: Ascribe to God glory and strength; worship God not only in prayer but also in deeds.
All: Our eyes are open to the majesty of God; we will seek by our actions to make God known.
One: The promises of Christ sends you to all people with the light and peace of the gospel.
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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