FREELTON STRABANE UNITED CHURCH
To Live Our Discipleship With Integrity And Grace
Horseshoe Falls Regional Council
Advent 3
December 15 2024
Rev. Will Wheeler BA M. Div. E-mail: [email protected]
Organist : Joan Simpson
Call To Worship
One: This is the third Sunday of Advent. Are you ready?
All: We have walked in hope; we have prayed for peace.
One: Let us worship God in a Spirit of Joy.
All: Let us sing and listen to God’s story.
One: Let us open our hearts to God’s Spirit.
Advent Candle Lighting
The holly and the ivy
When they are full grown
Of all the trees in the wood
The holly bears the crown
The rising of the sun
The running of the deer
The playing of the organ
Sweet singing in the choir
The holly wears a blossom
One: Mary Mary how does your garden grow ?
All: With Holly branches and ivy, snowdrops and violets and, Primrose all in a row.
One: Primrose? Why that is another spring flower
All: That is true. When it comes to flowers, primrose is Joy. This wee flower comes in various vibrant colours, from deep purples and blues to pinks and yellows, joyfulness and cheerfulness. They wait under the winter snows to first bloom after winter. Thiers is a symbolism of new beginnings and fresh starts, bringing hope and optimism.
One In Advent we wait for the joy of new life found in the Christ Child.
All: Advent is Joy for In Christ the winter of death passes and new life blooms in the promise of the resurrection. How can the heart not leap with Joy in the hope that comes with this promise.
All: So as the Primrose bloom so does this candle of Joy bloom…
Prayer
In the seed there is flower, a promise O God from you. A promise of Joy. Blessed God the world has forgotten what joy is. It now measures joy in what one has or the power they feel they have. True Joy has been lost. The joy of creation, the joy of kindness, the joy of discovery of the divine in each of us. In this advent waiting we are like the flowers beneath the snow waiting to bloom. In this moment may we see the many small joys in our lives and allow your Spirit to move us so that others may know joy as well. Amen
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 Are you ready to hear the word of God.
All: Our ears are open.
One: The good word comes to us from Philippians 4:4-7.
One: This is the good word of the Lord.
All: Thanks be to God.

One: Will you listen to our story once more?
All: Yes. We come once more to hear our story, Joy
One: The story today is found in the Gospel of Luke 3:7-18
One: This is the Gospel of our Lord
All: Thanks be to God for our story.
When I was on tour in Russia, our guide told us that when we were out and about not to spend time smiling and the people that we meet. They will think that you are insane. Russians although very friendly people don’t walk around smiling. They look to be very unhappy but they are not. They have a lot of joy in their lives.
We have this western notion that we should be happy all the time. That we should have joy constant. Success is measured by how joyful you feel. If you are not happy or joyful then there must be something wrong.
Consider this question of in light of two of the hermitic principles. That of Mentalism. and the principle of polarity.
The principle of mentalism, is that all things come into being through thought. In the beginning was God the divine universal presence who conceived creation and it was. All things begin first as a thought. I have had wise council that we choose to extent how we feel. We can look for the negative which is easy or we can look for the positive which does take some. One is full of defeat and the other full of hope. If we can mentally visualize our happiness then is will manifest. As someone who does struggle at time with depression, winter and the dark this kind of suggestion makes me say this is far easier said then done. Try living it and then say this. I can say with a lot of work I have learned to look for the positive in things even if it is a bit of stretch.
The principle of polarity is that for all things have a duality. If there is joy then the extreme opposite is sadness. They hold each other in balance. We have degrees of Joy and we have degrees of Sorrow. We can only seek to find the balance point between them
The reality is that Joy comes in measured doses. Joy is not a constant in our lives. Joy comes in moments of hope found, in a peaceful moment.
The blessing of Bethlehem is the birth of a promise. A promise that somehow has got lost in the demands of our world.
What according to several sources is the most stressful month. Yes, it is December. We are called to smile, be joyful, wish each other Joy and happiness when it is something that is more than likely thrown out with the scrap wrapping paper. Some how the balance has been lost.
Christmas is hard. Sometimes it seems hard to get motivated,
Christmas is hard. Sometimes it seems hard to get motivated, sometimes It feels like everyone is asking something of you and you just don’t know which way to turn so you just stand still in the middle of your kitchen and have a nice sob and think of a warm deserted beach in Mexico.
What you discover is that what you are dreaming of is not the white Christmas after all you would have to shovel that and can truly cramp your travel plans what you truly dream of is some family time. That comes with a cost. The getting ready.
There is all that cleaning, I have decided that I will work on creating a better breed of dust bunny. As any parent can testify to As you move through the house cleaning it appears that the children followed making mess. (in my case Scarlett)
The un expected surprises, like the wine you bought in the summer turns out to still be working and blew it’s cork giving your kitchen a rather wet bath.
you discover that the dog ate something that didn’t sit well and left a little surprise beside the bed
You know its going to be a bad day when you get out of bed and miss the floor and you have dreamed you ate the world’s largest marshmallow and you can’t find one of your pillows.
Then John calls us vipers when we want a warm fluffy Jesusism. True the gospel sounds harsh but sometimes to restore that balance we need harsh thoughts.
For us it reminds us that we Need more than just church, more than being able to trace ancestry back as church people. Mores than just packages boxes and bows.
We need to come back to what the core of what Bethlehem means the divine gift.
The message of the gospel is clear in its simplicity. See the Christ clearly in these moments of grace.
Stop, calm your mind, let the inner divine help you to see. To see those moments of joy moments of gratitude and simple kindness. Shining happy people feasting at your table and see the joy of what is coming , the promise fulfilled
John Wesley said. Do all the good you can by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.
In this living of the gospel we bring that moment of promise closer and we bring just that more joy into someone’s life. We move that much closer on our journey to Bethlehem
We discover those moments of Grace that we need so very much. We need to hear that voice in the wilderness when all is going wrong and life becomes oppressive and you are asking yourself why bother. When the balance is lost.
We yearn for those moments of Grace we yearn for a new beginning on this journey of Holly to thorns.
Take a walk, in Chapters go through the “Self-Help” section. So many book, all promising one great fit that, judging from the number of titles, everybody seems to want change. You can lose extra pound, you can be a great artist, you can be a skillful business negotiator, a well adjusted person.
Trouble is, all so called self-help books are lies. If we could actually help ourselves, by ourselves, then why would we need to pay someone else $40.00 for a book on how to help ourselves!
Advent is about hope, but not self-help Advent is, at least on this Sunday, an affirmation that our “help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth” Our change does not come by ourselves, but rather through a God who enjoys “making all things new” including us. Advent is a preparation for new beginnings and loved renewed.
Get ready. God is coming. This was John’s message. I believe that nothing and nobody is beyond the reach of a gracious, forgiving God who comes to us, so that we might come to him
You can’t get to Christmas without first meeting John in the wilderness. You can’t get to Christmas if you don’t come to Bethlehem The thorns come before the holly.
Take a breath, hope is what will sustain you, hope will still your mind to know the peace of God, the Peace of God will give you joy in all that you do and then you will know that you are not alone. Thanks be to God
Prayers of the people
Hear our prayer we humbly offer
Grant to us your peace O God
Hear our prayer we humbly offer
Grant to us your peace O God.
Prayers
God you touch our lives in ways that we never know. In the great balance of life, you hold us in our sorrow, you hear our anger, assure us in our fear and laugh with us in our Joy. As we move closer to the coming Christmas it is very easy to get lost in all the secular world demands of us. We are tempted away from the divine. Once more we ask that your Spirit stills our soul. Calm our being to see beyond the tasks the secular to once more allow the divine with in us to find its way towards the light. Towards those moment of joy which come into our lives.
Joy in many ways has been lost in your world. Overshadowed by closed mindedness and tunnel vision. Overshadowed by ambition and power. Truly the great balance has been lost. We pray for your world.
We pray for those whom we know. That in being a presence for them we may help them as they search for a new balance in their lives. For strength for healing in your way we pray for those whom we hold in our hearts and we name.
In the great balance of life, you hold us in our sorrow, you hear our anger, assure us in our fear and laugh with us in our Joy. We give thanks for our family of faith. We pray that you continue to bless our community. That we may be a place where one can find the balance of life with support and understanding. A place where one can once more find the peace to discover the divine with in. We offer our own personal prayers in the silence of our hearts. Lord hear our prayers and in your time and way answer. We offer you the great prayer that 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.
One: Praise God who from all Blessing flow
Prayer We praise you with our offerings, gracious God, and honour you with our gifts. We give thanks O God, for the gift of your presence and the gift of our faith. May these gifts fill other hearts with joy as our hearts have been filled. Amen
Sending Forth and Blessing.
Sending Forth 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
One: May God the one who brings us comfort surround you, May Christ our Joy walk with you. May the Continued presence of The Holy Spirit illuminate our path and keep us safe until we can gather again in community. Amen
amen amen 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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