FREELTON STRABANE UNITED CHURCH
To Live Our Discipleship With Integrity And Grace
Horseshoe Falls Regional Council
Forth Sunday of Epiphany
February 2 2025
Rev. Will Wheeler BA M. Div. E-mail: [email protected]
Organist : Joan Simpson
Gathering
Come out of the darkness, come out of the shadow
Come out of the endless night
All you who are poor now, All you who are broken all you who are bowed by fight
Come into the light of God’s sacred intention
Come under the shelter of his hand
Here you may find riches here you may find healing
Here now you may rise and stand
Call To worship
One: God is our Rock and our Fortress the very foundation in which we have been created.
All: God touches our lips and puts words in our mouths. God commands us to speak and removes our fears
One: God, our hope and trust, meets us where we are and leads us to times of witness and praise.
All: God’s revelation comes in unexpected places to meet our needs and empower our service.
God of love and mercy incline your ear to us and fill us with your presence this hour. Speak with us so we may hear what you command. Put your words in our mouths and your praise in our daily lives. Add to our understanding and equip us for action, we pray. Amen
One Listen for the word of God
All Our Ears are Open
One: Let us come once more to hear the story of our Faith. Our lesson is taken from 1st Corinthians 13:1-13
One: God’s light comes into the world in the word. The word was God. Here the good news. Our Gospel
The word was God. Here the good news. Our Gospel is taken from Luke 4:21-30
This is the good news
All praise be to God amen
I learned a new word this past week. Apricity as in: I am enjoying the “apricity.” of the day. An old word making it’s rounds. It means enjoying the warmth of the winter sun. For me maybe not so much warmth as just the wonderful brightness of the day and it has been rather on the windy side. It whistles around the house.
As I have mentioned in the past I have begun a early exploration of Hermetic Philosophy and begin to explore it’s relationship to Christian theology as a means of deepening faith.
It truly does stretch the mind from a state of brumation. ( yes another new word. It means a state or condition of sluggishness, inactivity, or torpor exhibited by reptiles (such as snakes or lizards) during winter or extended periods of low temperature or people like me who are not winter people.
The first principle of Hermetic Philosophy states that all things are created from thought. All things have there creation first in the Mind.
Cogito, ergo sum, I think therefore I am states Rene Decartes or We see what we want to see in its most simplest term
A friend told me a story about something that happened to her several years ago . It was a warm summer evening coming out after work. Saying good bye to her work friend and started to walk to her car. Accept well the car was not where she thought she had left it. The parking lot was empty. No other cars at all, looked at the empty parking lot walked around the building came back to the parking lot…still empty, walked around the building twice more. She really wanted to see her car. Oh part of her had already figured it out but she really wanted to see what she wanted to see. Her car. It was stolen. But in her head part of her said “its here I just can’t find it” while her hind brain was screaming “It’s been stolen.”
I look at myself each day in the big mirror in the bathroom, and think why I am rather good looking and is that the outline of a six pack. I understand the mirror came from Disney.
We see, we hear, we think what we want to see and hear.
It is closing the blind eye, turning the deaf ear that great injustice, racism, prejudice finds its breeding grounds.
This is not new history is written at time with this kind of thinking mixed in the ink.
Jesus is not having a particularly good go of it in the Gospel. The home town crowd has their idea of who is should be and he well, does what he does best. Jesus speaks a truth and they get a little upset and try to throw him off a cliff. It happens.
When it came to Nazareth people saw what they wanted to see.
The evil reputation attached to Nazareth (John 1:46) has generally been attributed to the Galileans' lack of culture and rude dialect. Nathanael, who asked, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" was himself a Galilean. He may have said that because Nazareth was such a common term of contempt among the more "righteous" Jews in Judea.
The city of Nazareth was a small and insignificant agricultural village in the time of Jesus. It had no trade routes, was of little economic importance and was never mentioned in the Old Testament or other ancient texts.
During the lifetime of Mary, Joseph and Jesus, it is believed the population did not exceed 500. Nazareth was a small Jewish village where people knew one another, and like Jesus, lived, prayed and studied in the Jewish tradition. They gathered in the synagogue, meeting for prayer and holidays.
It was a one of those places in modern terms where the speed limit drops to 50km but no one ever stops. It was on one of the main roads south to Jerusalem
It is located near Sepphoris, the capital of Herod Antipas and strongest military center in Galilee, only five miles to the northwest across the rolling hills. It is speculated that Joseph very well could have worked at Sepphoris.
It is no wonder everyone was impressed with Jesus as we heard in last week’s Gospel. Maybe he was the one that could change things around for the town. Clean up its reputation. Give it a respectable name
Look Jesus is one of us, Joseph’s boy, from our town. We all have heard of his good works in Capernaum and surrounding towns. This guy is from our town Local boy makes good. They’ll never make a joke of Nazareth again. God’s favour has fallen at last upon us and not as usual upon others. Let’s plan a papyrus tape parade down the main avenue. They saw what they wanted to see.
Everyone is happy thus we have last weeks Gospel and then suddenly in this week’s It’s run him out of town time.
Jesus was not what they wanted to see let alone hear.
There is a bigger calling
One of the themes that Luke wants to convey in his gospel is the universal impact of Jesus’ ministry. In Jesus, God is saving the lost, and that means the lost everywhere, where they may be found.
This is always very threatening to those who want to make God’s salvation a local and restricted matter, Just here and not there . Jesus loves you but I’m his favorite Jesus is always taking the norm and turning it upside down The first will be last, last shall be first. This goes against the norm.
This is not what they wanted to hear. So they turned on him. Well if your not going to help this town out then we will help you out right over the cliff.
The scripture reminds us that at times we have to see beyond what is there. To push the boundary. Like the plethora of new words, I found relating to winter.
It is the season of Epiphany and of course as I mentioned last week it is the sub season of Annual Meetings. We cannot just see what we want to see, hear what we want to hear. When new ideas or information comes to us we cannot desperately hold onto what we want to hear. We cannot grasp at our fears and pretend that if we tell ourselves what we want to hear it will become a truth. We are called not to look to the way that we have always done it, but to look forward to what will be. To see what we truly need to see.
We have in many ways come to the heimal threshold that time in winter to ponder the subnivean (that which is lying beneath the snow) of our faith and allow it and to take it from a Psychrophilic time (of thriving at a relatively low temperature) and envision primaveal Nature of who we are. Oh… Primaveal of relating to an early spring. To say Cogitamus ergo sumus. We think therefore we are or better yet. Scimus igitur erimus We know therefore we shall be. (some things seem to have a greater gravitas in Latin. ) This year is ours to envision and bring into reality. To see beyond what is there to what can be there. To allow the Spirit to enliven our minds to endless possibilities.
You have been bold in your faith in God making a difference in your own ways. Don’t limit yourself now let God’s spirit hand take you forward. Act out of faith not fear. May you act with authority in living out your calling. May you find the words that need to be spoken May you know that Lord will provide. May you abide these three faith hope and love and the greatest of these three is love. And may you 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.
God of All you think and so we are.
You have constantly shown your faith boldly in us. We see you in all that we are. We see you difference in your own ways.
We pray that help us not to limit ourselves but allow your Spirits hand to take our and lead us forward May your faith in us allow us to see beyond our fears and trust the wisdom of your leading.
May we find the words that need to be spoken May we know that you will provide. May we abide these three faith hope and love and the greatest of these is love.
For beyond all temporal matters that we may face in our lives that we may face as a community of faith at the core of who we are is your love for us. A love that teaches us to be patient and truly listen to each other. A love that teaches us to be kind and generous of heart that does keep record of wrongs A love that teaches us to seek out justice reconciliation and right relationships.
For your love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things
Surrounded by your divine love we offer prayers for your creation. A world that seems to be spinning a part. A world of lead by Egos that cannot see the hurt they cause. We pray for justice, we pray for reconciliation, equality and right relationship.
We pray for those who know a broken spirit, that have become discouraged and lost. We pray for those who know broken bodies touched by pain and disease.
We pray for those whom we will never know and we pray for those whom we are called to walk with and name them before you.
We entrust these names to you trusting in your love and wisdom
We come to you in this time in this place to open our hearts to you with our own personal prayers seeking the divine at the center of our being.
Lord you think and we are, we trust in your divine wisdom and know that in your way prayer is answered 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 For the abundance with which you have enriched our lives we give thank, gracious God. For your truth, more precious than gold, and for our individual gifts, granted for the common good, we are most grateful. Receive now the offerings we return to you, that they may declare good news and fulfill your purposes. Amen.
Sending Forth and Blessing.
One: God calls our name and bids us speak. God sends us forth to build and to proclaim the good news.
All: We shall put our trust in God day by day and commit ourselves to lives out his calling with faith hope and love.
One: God sends you out to the world. Now faith , hope, love abide, these three but the greatest of these is love.
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
VU 4
God of all places present unseen
Voice in our silence song in our mist
Send us your people knowing and sure
Called to spread the word.
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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