Freelton and Strabane United Churches

Twenty Third Sunday of Pentecost

Freelton Strabane United Church

To live our discipleship with integrity and grace.

Horseshoe Falls Regional Council

Twenty Third Sunday after Pentecost

Sunday, November 5 2023

Anniversary Sunday

Minister: Rev. Will Wheeler, B.A. M. Div. 905-659-3380 E-mail: wwwheeler@sympatico.ca

Music Director Joan Simpson

Announcements

Gathering

Three things I promise Holy God,

In age and youth, in life and death:

To bless your Name and cling to Christ

And listen for the Spirit’s breath.

Call to Worship

One: God meets you in this place, this hour, and in all your yesterdays and tomorrows.

All: We celebrate the nearness of the Living God, whom all time and space cannot contain..

One: Through the Love of God and sacrifice of our Saviour Jesus Christ we have been given new life

All :We will sing praises to God with All the Saint’s of heaven for God’s many blessing and gifts

Prayer of Approach

Prayer :Lord, we give thanks for all your saints, for those whose faith was tested and found to be certain and sure. We thank you for those saints who suffered because of their commitment to you and did not waver, even in adversity. Lord, we also thank you for your saints who, through they were not required to suffer for you, nevertheless served you in quiet fidelity, steadfastly clinging to you and your way. We give thanks for all the saints, the great, the not so great, the courageous, the faithful, the bold one, and even the timid ones who loved you each in their own time and peace, thus showing us the way to eternal life. Amen

Our Past

One: In it’s time Freelton United Church lived a rich and fruitful ministry to Christ proclaiming the Gospel, administrating the Sacraments, offer support to those in need, hospitality and fellowship. That Light continues to burn in this place.

All Thanks be to God for the Saints

One: In it’s time Strabane United Church lived a rich and fruitful ministry to Christ proclaiming the Gospel, administrating the Sacraments, offer support to those in need, hospitality and fellowship. That Light continues to burn in this place.

All Thanks be to God for the Saints

One: The light of God in Christ has shown brightly within this congregations this past year a beacon carrying us forward. We light this candle to honour our the rich history of Freelton and Strabane and the Ancestors of those Churches. There courage and strength have become our courage and strength as we take up the mantle of faith and the call to be the Church.

All: May the light of the Ancestors enlighten our memories.

All We come as God’s people to here the story

One our lesson is taken from Psalm Psalm 34

One this is the word of the Lord

All thanks be to God

All: (sung) In God we live and move and have our story.

In love God lives in us and makes us whole

O Jesus may we hear the Word that calls us near;

Your story makes a home within our soul.

Your story makes a home within our soul

One Come people of God and know inspiration of the Spirit

All We come as a people of God to know the Spirit in words of the Apostles

One Our lesson is taken form 1^st John 3:1-3

Come people of God and hear the good news of Jesus

All We come as a people of God to learn and be reminded of the ways of Christ.

One our Gospel lesson is taken from Matthew 5:1-12

Prayer

Lord as we ponder your words open our hearts that we may understand and know you. Amen

Sermon

From the earliest beginning of the faith there has been that longing to find that deep quiet center and know God. From the time of the early Church there have and continues to be Christian mystics. Christian Mysticism through prayer, fasting, and other practices is to take the faithful beyond just the experience of God but to a Union with God. In the reflected light of apothecary bottles, in the presence of the great collection of sacred stones, the air fragrant with incense the candle guttering in the wind (of the furnace) Monastic music quietly in the background. I prayed over the ancient Celtic Ruin stones asking the Spirit of God to show me the wisdom of universe in the past, the precent and future of Freelton Strabane. Trust me nothing was sacrificed on the desk although a rather yummy almond biscotti did get dunked.

I do believe in the Spirit of God being revealed in the wisdom of the universe.

I truly believe that the saints surround us in many different ways. I can remember when I was young and taking confirmation classes asking my minister if he believed in ghosts. He said without hesitation “no, there is no such thing.” I in my head at that times decided to not pursue the point.

You see I do believe in ghosts. I am always surprised when you sit with a group of friends and ask “have your every had a spiritual, ghostly experience” there is some shy scuffling and then the stories start to flow. I have had some encounters. The general understanding is that the Manse on my previous Pastoral charge had an extra guest. My Dog would stare at one corner. It was not unusual hearing someone on the stairs, that something just beyond the corner of your eye.

What are these Ghosts? Lost souls? Those that are just not ready to move on? Passerby’s?

I truly believe that the saints surround us in many different ways. There is a great comfort at times in knowing that those whom have loved us and we have loved are with us.

We may not see them but they tickle our memories. The coach up a little bit of lost wisdom tucked away in the folds of our minds. And in those moments of our hurt, our loss, our aloneness they come to encircle us and embrace us. Who among us cannot look around our sanctuaries, stand in our kitchens here in the church and not see our Saints? We can look around our own tables and see the shadow of those whom we have loved and gone on before us. This is not a sad thing for the saints are always with us. They surround us.

Consider Again Icons. Icon translates to mean image and that is what an Icon is a representation of someone who was real verses the idea of idles which were not real.

In venerating an icon one acknowledges that reality of God and God with us. This is different from an idol which is nothing but a human creation. There is a link between the person depicted in the icon and Spirit. The icon is a tangible representation of the Saint. With symbolism the icon becomes an opening to the different reality, a bridge between this world and the Spirit presence of God and the mystical.

We have in many ways become comfortable with a separate reality governed by science and what is perceived as real. Real is grounded in science and tangible. That is why people don’t believe in ghosts.

We don’t want to disrupt the fortress of rational explanation or risk contact with the hidden world and different realties which modern mind deny. The visible and invisible world. Beyond the rational human mind lies the vast imagination and possibility of God. God is forever giving us means to reach beyond what is seen to what is not seen. The Icon is made holy because it becomes a vehicle for us to center our thoughts. To contemplate the wisdom of the saint depicted. To transcend this world to a spiritual centering.

We as a modern people who cannot allow our rational mind to be open to the mystical are challenged by this thought. The idea of a mystical encounter with God, well just down right frightens us. Like seeing a ghost.

Is there a deeper spiritual connection to encounter the divine ? Ruin Stones, meditation prayer Icons?

The Icon becomes a vehicle of faith to connect us with the divine and the saints of heaven. Again the idea of the Saints of heaven both the Holy Saints and those that have journeyed with us and have gone on before us walking with us, guiding us strengthening us is not a very Protestant Idea. We pray to God for God’s presence but we do not ask for the presence of the Spirit Saints. Could it be that the Spirit Saints are that presence of God? There are those that believe that those saints, known to us and not known to us travel with us on our journey. Some people call them Angels, other Guardian Angels. For the rational scientific mind this is perhaps too great of a stretch to grasp.

Can we not look to the Saints of heaven to, through the Holy Spirit , give us wisdom and direction? Can we not look to the Saints of Freelton Strabane for wisdom and direction. Is it not possible that those whom we have loved still walk with us, that there may be other spirit guides that walk with us?

Today’s Gospel are the beatitudes. One of the translations of Blessed is Happy. The broad stroke understanding of this passage is happy are those that have faith for faith does not fail us. Our faith is strengthened when we open our minds to endless possibilities to encounter God We are strengthened by all of the Saints.

We are challenged not to limit that blessedness of faith. There are many ways to encounter God. May we open ourselves to the mystical.

In the reflected light of apothecary bottles, in the presence of the great collection of sacred stones, the air fragrant with incense the candle guttering in the wind (of the furnace) Monastic music quietly in the background. I swear upon all that is Holy that what I share is the wisdom that was revealed.

The first Stone, our past the stone known as Berkana a ruin that reflect growth and rebirth. The Wisdom of this stone reminds us to look at what has happened and how it has filled a need. It reminds us that we have named the obstacles to our growth and found a way to overcome them. We have prepared land for growth and we need to allow the wind of the spirit to move us one.

The second stone speaks to our present the stone known as Laguz. This stone reminds us to be in the moment . That this is a time of deep knowing and study of the spiritual. This stone tells us that we are in time of drawing towards a sacred union and emerging transformation.

The third stone. The future the stone that speaks is Dagaz A stone of the daylight, of breakthrough and transformation. Not just change but complete transformation founded on a Radical trust. A time of great achievement. The moving from the night into Day. The stone reminds us not to get lost in looking to the future, for to move toward transformation will be hard work that needs to be taken on joyfully.

What is the wisdom of God to be drawn from this? That our past has brought us to this moment of a deep knowing and spiritual grow which will leads us toward our future which will be transformative. When I read the stones, I was truly surprised as I felt that they have spoken to this past years journey.

Wisdom cautions us that future will be radically different from the past and our Trust must always be grounded in our faith in God.

It has been a year. One marked with tears. One touched by fear. One touched with frustration but most of all one that shown that radical trust in God. I am immensely proud of what you have accomplished in this year as a church which trusts in the leading of Spirit. You have done great things and they are pleasing in the eyes of the Lord. As I said at Kilbride’s anniversary we clergy can do many things, turn water to wine, walk on water (in the winter) always look good in black but we can’t predict the future. I do, however, believe in the Spirit of God being revealed in the wisdom of the universe. I truly believe that the saints surround us in many different ways, I believe in the mysticism and mystical experience of God. and I do believe that God is in this place and that God in the wisdom of Christ and the guiding hand of the holy Spirit will move us forward boldly to our future for truly, with all the Saints that are here we can speak faithful confidence that in life in death in life beyond death we are not alone. Thanks be to God Amen

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

Prayer Oh God our help in ages past you have brought us to this moment in time. It has been your hand O God that has guided us. It has been your strong arm around us that have given us the courage to go where you spirit would lead us. For surely this community of faith has its firm foundation firmly in you. We give you thanks for the Saints of Freelton and Saints of Strabane devotion to answering your call laid those foundations for us to build. May we in this present time continue to build on those foundations living out our call To live our discipleship with integrity and grace a reflection of your love. We offer our hand to the Holy Spirit to lead us into our future trusting in faith where you will lead us.

We have known your presence as we have sadly given back to you those soul of those who have been a part of our community. We miss their presence but know they are alive through Christ.

We pray for this troubled world. We pray for the lost and the marginalized. We pray for those that are sick. Those that long for wholeness. We pray for those that we are asked to walk with. We name before you trusting and knowing that in your time and in your way they will know your presence. We Pray for Freelton Strabane United Church be with us on this journey. We have known your touch in our past and now bring our own prayers before you. Lord hear our prayers and in your time we ask that they be answered. We offer you the great prayer that binds us as one. Amen

Our Present

One: And Jesus said. “That they all shall be one, just as you, my Father, are in me, and I am in you, so that they also shall be one in us. “ We gather now united as one community of faith in the presence of the Saints of Freelton United Church and Strabane United, and the symbols of the faith the, Cross, and the Word to claim our calling and commitment to be the presence of Christ for all whom we may encounter.

All: This is truly the Lord’s work, and we shall rejoice in the work of the Lord. Since then we have such hope we act with great boldness, called by God to be the Church of Freelton Strabane, To live our discipleship with integrity and grace.

One: Today as We come mark our First Anniversary let us one more Commit to who we are as the Church

All: We as the people of Freelton Strabane United Church commit to take forward the vision of a vibrant faith community from the past into the future.

One May God Bless you in this commitment

All : We commit to the mission to provide a safe place of worship for all who call this their spiritual home.