Freelton Strabane United Church
To live our discipleship with integrity and grace.
Horseshoe Falls Regional Council
Advent 1
December 3 2023
Minister: Rev. Will Wheeler, B.A. M. Div. 905-659-3380 E-mail: wwwheeler@sympatico.ca
Music Director Joan Simpson
Announcements
Gathering
God rest ye merry gentle folk
Let nothing you dismay
For Jesus Christ our savior will come to us this day
To bring us hope rejoicing and all shall sing again.
O tidings of comfort and hope comfort and hope
O tidings of comfort and hope
Call to Worship
One: God who breaks through the limits of mind and body, time and space bids us to the pilgrimage of Advent.
All Help us to walk this road
One A promise is given. In word, thoughts and life
All help us in this advent time to hear and speak and live the ancient story of Jesus Birth.
Advent Candle lighting
One: Imagine if you will two friends sitting on a hill on a wondrous clear night watching the stars. One says: “What are you looking at?”
All: the trees.
One: Why
All: Well, They are always green and when the wind blows just the right way they seem to whisper.
One: well they are evergreens and what do they whisper
All: That even when the world seems grey there is still green to be seen and that gives me hope. So I guess they whisper take hope.
One Hope? In what?
All: That even in the darkest time that God is with us that his love starts like a single candle breaking the dark. Like the stars breaking the dark of the night sky.
One: Hope found in a promise of one who will show us a way to be better people.
All: Hope in the Advent promise of the renewal of God coming into the world. Ever present, like the stars in the night sky like ever greens of the forest .
One: Then let us light a candle for hope as we watch for the promise.
Candle is lit.
All: Hope giving God, Let your spirit burn in our hearts let your light shine in our world. And as we watch through the advent season for the baby Jesus’ birth let your star of hope lead us to the place where the Christ would be born Today.
Hymn Hope is a Star
Hope is a star that shines in the night,
leading us on till the morning is bright.
Refrain:
When God is a child there's joy in our song.
The last shall be first and the weak shall be strong,
and none shall be afraid.
Prayer Confession
All: Awesome God we have heard you call our name, but somehow we have become lost. The darkness of this world draws us away from the gift of light in your love. We seek our own ends with the hope that it will be of a greater benefit to us then to others. Open our hearts that your light may shine in. That hope may dispel the darkness so that we may prepare our hearts to once more receive the great gift that you are giving us. Hear our prayers of confession and inspire our caring and doing so we may bear fruit as your forgiven and forgiving children.
Lord have Mercy
Christ have Mercy
Lord have Mercy
One Our God has shown us mercy and granted us salvation. His truth shall reign in our hearts and his love shall pour out upon us.
Tune pg 37
Glory to God
Glory to God
Glory in the highest
Glory to God,
glory to God,
Hallelujah Hallelujah
All our ears are open
One: A reading from 1Corinthians 1:3-9
One This is the word of the Lord
All Thanks be to God
One: Hear the word of God
All our ears are open
Gospel Mark 13:24-37
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
From the middle of October till now, people have posted on social media pictures of winters past, landscapes blanketed in snow, images of the great blizzards of the past and I look out the window of my office and give thanks and praise that I see grass…not really green but still grass. Alas all my prayers although not for naught will not stave off the bending snow that will laden my trees and carpet my grass. The seasons change as the seasons change the church year ends and a new year begins and the great circle begins its slow turn again. I can say that as a child I had no idea that there was such a thing as Advent. I guess for me in those years, advent was the arrival of the Eaton’s and Sear’s catalogue and hours of dreaming. Advent 1 The annual Santa Clause Parade, Advent 2 The magical arrival of the trees cat proofed tied to the walls and Dad doing the lights. Advent 3 and… well there was really no advent 4 in there are it was then it was Christmas. Ultimately is was a time of waiting.
We wait, as The great circle faith begins its slow turn again. However we are no longer children all snug with the toy section of catalogue open on our laps. We don’t imagine what can be but what is and what is, is usually the same.
We like the same, the routine of life. We live wrapped in the blanket of familiarity. All snug in our beds with vision of the same all dancing in our in our heads.
But like a mother getting her teenager out of bed in the morning stripping off the blankets and opening fire with a squirt gun with ice water, God comes into our world.
Some shocking
Do not rest on what is. Do not get drossy with what always has been. Because what always has been, is “a has been” and now is a time to be ready.
Now is the time for us to look to the heavens like the prophet Isaiah proclaim
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down so that the mountains would quake at your presence as when fire kindles brushwood and fire causes water to boil to make you name known to you adversaries so that the nations might tremble at your presence.
Why should we do this? you may ask. Why should we cast off the coziness of the life we may be leading. Why can’t we stay the same.
Stay the same and risk missing something new, un known, un expected.
Like, snails can sleep up to three years, which is one year less than most teenagers.
The fruit orange isn’t named after the color; it’s the other way around. Before the late 15th century, orange was considered a shade of red. That's right: until the Renaissance, "yellow-red" was the only term the English language had for orange.
Why is it called a mosquito bite, A mosquito has 47 teeth. These teeth are located at the end of their proboscis and are used not used to chew food like our teeth. They are used to cut through the skin or layers of protective clothes.
Like the long extinct Eaton’s catalogue, the wonder of God is somewhat lost. The people of God have become lost in the wilderness of Mall Parking lots, Hockey arena stands, six day work weeks, cellular and wifi connections, (how many of you left your cell phones in the car) with no time for family. Because God’s people have become lost.
Be awake, be open in this time of waiting, of expectation. It may be time to learn, to grow, to experience God in breaking into our world. You May miss that enlightening of the soul. That experience of God’s spirit. If you are asleep you may just miss God altogether.
Advent is about expectation and waiting, but it is also about change. Not just change but transformation change. Of revelation of God coming and being in the world. It’s about awakening .
Yes the Gospel is apocalyptic but it speaks not of end times but of God’s radical transformation. Which leaves the soul completely changed, And you see the world in a whole new way.
It is a gospel of hope. There is a wonderful patriotic him from England based on the majestic center part of Gustov Holst Planets the Jupiter suit. I Vow to thee my Country. We have song it on several occasions. The second verse speaks of the great hope of Advents promise.
And there’s another country I’ve heard of long ago Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know. We may not count her armies we may not see her king, Her fortress is a faithful heart her pris is suffering and soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase.
And her ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are peace.
This is the promised Kingdom of God, coming know into the world.
The Advent message is clear
God’s love is drawing near.
Now is the time to be awake
For God’s love is about to break.
For we are the architects to new kingdom. Our love our faithful heart and soul by soul the message of Christ shall increase and we shall strive for those ways of gentleness and paths of peace .
This is a time of waiting. Of expectation This is a time of awakening. In this time as we wait our waiting need not be a boring postponement. A variation on the mystery of the faith is that Christ has come Christ is here Christ is coming again. The presence of Christ among us is often a matter of opening our eyes waking up to a reality God is a presence among us
Advent is therefore not so much a predictable, rolling around of the same old message of Christ’s birth, a retelling of a story that we already know too well. Advent is also a message about the possibility of cataclysmic change, transformation, a new heaven and new earth, a new church, an new me, new you a new us
As you make your list, plan your plans, open plastic totes with family treasures, look for God. Look for God in the all the small places in an ornament from a dear and beloved family member or friend. In the sound of a beloved carol. in a smile a kind word a prayerful moment an assuring embrace there you will find Gods promised light quietly letting himself be revealed and then you will see that God is not a small part of your lives But something much bigger.
And there will be minute when you heart won’t feel quite so tight, that your life is not such a fright That’s God’s coming in with his load of love through the bright morning light.
And in that moment you will see that that God is right here with both you and me. For We are not alone. Thanks be to God.
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 in breaking love. As the journey begins again as we come to this advent time may we not be frightened by your word but hear your words as words of hope. That radical in breaking of your love that changes our whole being.
Help us over the next weeks and days to stay in the moment. Calm our being and help us to own the journey.
We pray for your world whose journey has been one of great sadness and loss. A world that knows war and injustice. We pray for the world. We pray for those who we know and those who we do not know who have become lost on the journey, who know great sadness of spirit. That long for love lost and dreams gone. We pray for those we know and those we do not who know illness of body.
We name those who we are called to journey with.
God of the Advent journey be with these people and all those who long for a new day. Send your Spirit of Hope and healing upon them.
Lord hear our own prayers spoken in the silence of our hearts.
Lord hear our prayers. We offer you the great prayer which you gave us as we say together 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.
We rejoice, O God in the gifts of your Spirit that offer us productive and fulfilling lives. Touch us with a renewed awareness of Sisters and brothers you call us to love. May our gifts and prayers lift them and us into true partnership in your service. Amen
Commissioning and Blessing
One: Among the poor
All: Among the proud
One among the persecuted
All Among the privileged
One Christ is coming
All Christ is coming to make all things new.
One With us
All without us
One among us
All before us
One in this place
All in every place
One for this time
All for all time
One Christ is coming
All Christ is coming to make all things new.
Blessing
Know the Blessing of God whose love is coming into the world
Know the Blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ whose story we are called to tell
Know the Blessings of the Holy Spirit who will inspire our each new day
The Hope of God be with you.
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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