PIONEER
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Worship
via Blog 1st Sunday of Christmas December 27, 2020
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WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Welcome to Pioneer’s blog worship service.
Though we are accessing this remotely and unable to look each other in the eye,
we are still the Pioneer faith community, gathered as children of God to
worship, to be spiritually fed, and to be equipped to go out to serve in
Christ’s name—though we do it differently during this pandemic.
Pioneer offers worship in several modes:
a)
The
blog.
b)
The
blog service mailed through US Postal service.
c)
Sermons
only, mailed to those who so request.
d)
Zoom
services at 10:00 Sunday mornings.
e)
Live
worship with masks and social distancing has plenty of room for additional
worshipers.
-
Deacons
meet following live worship
-
Women’s
Spirituality meets January 5th
Now allow yourself a brief time of silence
as you open your hearts and feel God’s presence with you, right where you are.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BAPTISM: Friends, remember your baptism … and be thankful.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Rejoice in God, who is our life and
salvation.
Christ has come to make us heirs of God’s
promises.
God
commanded, and we were created.
We
are children of the Most High.
Praise God from the heights of heaven.
Praise God, all people of the earth.
God
opens our eyes to see the light.
We
will be called by a new name.
Men and women, youth and aged,
Sing of God’s glory; shout your praise.
God
has made us heirs of promise.
We
will praise God’s holy name.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Faithful God, by whose Spirit all people
and places become holy, lead us by that Spirit today. We have come to celebrate
a birth that offers us rebirth. We have gathered that you might claim us as
heirs, with Christ, of eternal life. Unite our hearts and minds in a chorus of
praise, that the life of this church might be quickened, renewed, and
refocused. May your faithful people become a crown of beauty in your
hands. Amen.
OPENING
SONG: “I Am the Light of the World” LU#144
CALL TO CONFESSION
Come, all who are slaves of their own
passions. Approach God, all who are bound by habits that destroy. In God’s
temple, there are many surprises. In God’s presence, dreams are fulfilled. By
God’s power, lives are transformed.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
We
bring our prayers to you, gracious God, sensing that there is more to life than
the ways we have known. We are drawn to the Messiah, yet we shrink from
following where faith leads. We are afraid of what we might lose if we are
guided by the Spirit. Thoughts of sacrifice and servanthood are not appealing
to us. We are reluctant to enter into a close relationship with you. We think
we know, better than you, what is best for us. Forgive our arrogance. Help us
see the Christ. (let
us continue our prayers in silence…..) Amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.
The old life has gone; the new life has
begun.
Friends, believe the Good News!
In Jesus Christ we are forgiven and
restored to new life!
PASSING THE PEACE
May the peace of Christ be with you.
And also with you.
Let us extend the peace of Christ in heart
and prayer to one another.
GLORY
BE TO THE FATHER
TIME WITH CHILDREN
Good
morning Fiona and Zoey. Are you enjoying Christmas? What? Did you think Christmas
was over? Not at all. Christmas isn’t just a day, Christmas is a season. Have
you heard a song called the twelve days of Christmas? It has silly gifts in it.
How would you like to get some birds for Christmas? It gets worse, you could
get 9 ladies dancing, 10 lords a leaping, 11 pipers piping, and 12 drummers
drumming. That would be noisy, wouldn’t it?
And you’d have to feed all of them, too.
That’s
not what Christmas season is about, though. Christmas season lasts through
epiphany. That’s a big word that means God revealed. I’ll tell you about that
next Sunday. The important thing to remember is that Christmas doesn’t end when
you take down the tree. Christmas is the day we celebrate the birth of baby
Jesus and we remember the things the angels told the shepherds that Jesus would
bring peace to the earth. So we’re supposed to keep remembering and to live
every day with love in our hearts and being kind to others. Think you can do
that? That’s how you keep Christmas going all year. Let’s pray:
Dear
Jesus, we watched and we waited until it was your birthday. And we celebrated.
Help us to keep remembering the good things about Christmas and to be kind and
love others. Amen.
HYMN: “Jesus
Loves Me”
Jesus loves me,
this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him
belong, they are weak but he is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves
me. Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves
me. The Bible tells me so.
SCRIPTURE 1: Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exult
in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered
me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a
garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings
forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so
the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the
nations.
For Zion's sake I
will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her vindication
goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. The nations
shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be
called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be a
crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your
God.
SCRIPTURE 2: Luke 2:22-40
And when the time
came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up
to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the
Lord, "Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the
Lord") and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of
the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons." Now there
was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and
devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon
him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see
death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And inspired by the Spirit he came
into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him
according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God
and said, "Lord, now let thou thy servant depart in peace, according to
thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in the
presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory
to thy people Israel." And his father and his mother marveled at what was
said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,
"Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and
for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own
soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed." And there
was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher; she was
of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years from her virginity,
and as a widow till she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple,
worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very
hour she gave thanks to God, and spoke of him to all who were looking for the
redemption of Jerusalem. And when they had performed everything according to
the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth.
And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God
was upon him.
SERMON: “Walking
in the Light” Rev. Jean Hurst
A cartoon in the new Yorker magazine
says it all. In the middle of the floor
is a dried up, withered, Christmas tree.
The calendar on the wall reads December 26. Dad is sitting in his chair with an ice pack
on his head. Mom is in a bathrobe and
her hair in rollers, looking exhausted.
The floor is a virtual mountain of torn wrappings, boxes, and bows. Junior is reaching in his stocking to be sure
that there is no more candy. In the
background we see a table with a thoroughly picked turkey still sitting
there. The caption on the cartoon reads
simply: The morning after.
Can anyone here relate to that? There is all the anticipation and
preparation, the flurry of activity. The
buying and wrapping and baking and decorating, the music and calls of Merry
Christmas, Advent wreaths and Advent stories, Christmas Eve service and then
the big day, all that work and build up and then over so quickly, almost
anticlimactic. The ‘good will to all’
too quickly turns into ‘yeah, whatever.’
A sense of letdown is common to the
aftermath of Christmas. Perhaps you
didn’t get what you were hoping for or the gift you thought would please was
received with indifference. Your house
is trashed and so is your budget. You’ve
eaten way too much and put on extra pounds but you’ve still got all the left
over goodies and what do you do with them?
And that snow doesn’t look so magical now.
On a more significant level, we’ve
heard the proclamation of the angels to the shepherds about good news of great
joy, a Savior for all the people of the earth, that the world would be changed,
there would be peace on earth, good will to all. And we believed it was really possible, the
spark of hope was ignited in our hearts.
Then we pick up the newspaper or turn on the radio or TV or computer and
it’s all still there--all the fighting and killing, all the hatred and greed
and exploitation and oppression and poverty.
What went wrong? There is no
peace on earth. The world is still the
same.
If any of that rings true for you,
think how Mary felt. Remember, she’d
been just an ordinary young girl, still living at home but anticipating her
upcoming wedding when she is visited by an angel who tells her she’s going to
have a baby without even being with a man.
She may be young but she still knows the way of the world. And she’s told the baby will be the Son of
God. She has to face her family and
fiancé and break the news and face the scandal of her village. There’s that long trek to Bethlehem during
her third trimester. She gives birth in
a stable instead of a proper bed. A
bunch of awestruck shepherds show up to ogle the baby and loudly praise
God. Exotic strangers from the far east
were to show up claiming to have followed a bright star, bowing down and
actually worshiping her baby and then presenting him with rather odd
gifts.
What must the morning after have been
like for Mary? For her, there wouldn’t
have been the Christmas tree and the pile of wrapping paper and a turkey
carcass and a credit card bill. She
might even have wondered if it had all really happened. All the hubbub, angels and star and shepherds
and wise men--though there was no denying this child in her arms. What does she do with all that besides, as
scripture says, ‘treasuring up all these things in her heart and pondering
them.’
What she does is get on with
life. She keeps the faith. In her case...and Joseph’s...faith means
keeping the Mosaic law. First up was the
eighth day circumcision and naming ritual.
They named the baby ‘Jesus’ as the angel Gabriel had instructed.
Then they waited until her time of
‘purification’ was complete, as required by their religious laws. According to that law, a woman was considered
impure for forty days after the birth of a male child, for eighty days after
the birth of a female child, then a sacrifice of a lamb and a turtledove is
offered at the Temple. For a poor woman,
a pair of pigeons would suffice. Note
that Mary and Joseph sacrificed the pigeons, which indicates that they were
poor.
Also according to the law, the
firstborn male child belonged to God and is presented to God at the Temple by
the father, Joseph. That child could
then be redeemed or bought back for five shekels of silver. The writer of Luke, who was believed to be
Gentile and may not have been thoroughly familiar with Jewish law, does not
mention the redemption.
Mary and Joseph are not the only ones
who ‘keep on keeping on’. There was an
old man in Jerusalem who had been promised by the Holy Spirit that he would not
die until he laid eyes on the consolation of Israel, the coming of the
Messiah. This man, Simeon, was a
righteous and devout man, living faithfully.
That term, the ‘consolation of Israel’ refers back to the words from
Isaiah, “Comfort, O comfort my people.”
The Spirit leads Simeon to the Temple
at the exact time that Joseph and Mary take Jesus in to be consecrated. Simeon had long watched for and waited for
the coming of the Messiah. He was an old
man, ready to die, yet for all those years he had faithfully watched and waited
and lived his life in righteousness. How
long does a person wait before they give up?
He didn’t give up.
Simeon sees in this child the promise
of God fulfilled and he is filled with joy.
He lifts up the child and praises God, saying, “Sovereign Lord, as you
have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which
you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for the revelation to the
Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
He blesses them and then tells Mary, “This child is destined to cause
the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken
against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
Simeon is not the only senior citizen
in the Temple that day. There is an old
woman, a very, very old woman by the life spans of the day. Her name is Anna. She has been working in the Temple since she
was widowed as a teen, fasting and praying, worshiping God day and night. Now she is eighty-four years old, a shut-in,
not having left the Temple in all those years.
She was considered a prophet and when she saw the child she thanked God
and told those gathered in the Temple about the child being the redemption of
Jerusalem.
There are five people in this story,
each faithfully living out what God has called them to. Simeon, an old man ready to die and Anna, a
widow for most of her life--old people ready for the grave who have waited all
their lives and may have, at times, been tempted to give up on God’s promises,
knowing by virtue of their age that they could join their ancestors at any
moment. Yet they chose to continue to
live in faith, believing God’s promises, holding onto the hope that promise
kindled. When the moment came they were
ready, their eyes able to see the fulfillment of God’s promise, their hearts
willing to proclaim it to the world.
Mary and Joseph are the third and
fourth, Mary just a child, Joseph old enough at least to have established his
profession as a carpenter, but he may be a middle-aged man. They’re just working class people, poor by the
standards of their time as most people were.
Everything that should have been normal in their lives was turned
topsy-turvy. All these strange
happenings and proclamations. Yet they
choose to trust God, to continue to live their lives in obedience to their
religious practices, to not sit and wait for the peace that was proclaimed, but
to keep living their lives in the ordinary way, believing that somehow God
would continue to do the extraordinary.
The fifth person, was, of course, Jesus.
He, too, continued in the faith of his parents and grew and became
strong and was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.
And where does that leave us? We live after the historical facts of that
first Christmas. We have watched and
waited. All of humanity has watched and
waited for two thousand years and still there is not peace on earth. We continue to say and do hurtful things to
each other. We keep putting our own
interests before God’s interests. We
keep worshiping status and wealth and things rather than a newborn king. There is still violence in the home ... and
the streets ... and between people groups ... and between nations.
We say Christmas is over and the world
is tempted to say that nothing has changed.
But Christmas is not something that happens at a single moment and is
then over. Christmas is the
beginning. It’s not something that we
pack up and put away until next year, hoping that somehow, then it will
be different. Christmas is just the
beginning. It’s the start of something,
not the end of it.
January 1 is just a few days away. We mark that as the beginning of the new
year. We made resolutions of what we
will do differently to make the next year...and the years after...what we want
them to be. But as Christians, we need
to look at the liturgical calendar.
Advent is the beginning of the church year. We anticipate and we prepare and then we
celebrate the coming of the Christ child and the redemption of the world.
But we don’t stop there. Simeon and Anna were old, their lives essentially
done. But even then they were living
their lives in righteousness. They were
serving God. They were keeping watch. They were proclaiming. Mary was very young, Joseph in his prime, yet
despite the wondrous things occurring in their lives, they didn’t sit back as
if it were a done deal. They continued
faithfully. And Jesus, an infant,
continued in the ordinary growth of a child.
They all functioned in the ordinary but they did it faithfully, living
out the promise.
No less is expected of us. Whether we’re old, middle-aged, young, or
still just a child. We are called to the
same faithfulness in our ordinary living.
We are called to wait and to watch.
We are called to open ourselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We are to keep our eyes open and whenever we
see the Christ in the world around us, to proclaim it.
At that first Christmas God sent light
into a dark world. It did make a
difference. The darkness has not been
able to overcome the Light. That Light
shows us the path. Our call is to walk
in the light, to live as if the promises of God were true, to continue to be
God’s instruments in the world to bring fulfillment of the promise--peace on
earth, good will to all.
Friends, Christmas is not over. It is just beginning. Thanks be to God.
HYMN: “We
Three Kings” #151
PRAYERS OF THE
PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
Emmanuel—God promised and God with
us—give us peace as we need peace; give us courage to live in times without
peace. Awaken us to the hope of your reign, but restrain us from vain hopes in
the dominions around us. Free us to claim our own welling-up joy, and sustain
us when joy seems far away. Lead us to service in your world; strengthen our
feeble attempts to serve. Spirit of holiness and good tidings, we have come
through Advent and entered this Christmas season and again we learn the meaning
of incarnation. Open our eyes to see you in the world, open our lips to
proclaim your grace and love, and open our hearts to the needs of your people
around us and around the globe.
We pray for your children—those who
live in the shadow of fear and violence and hunger and loneliness, those
impacted by Covid, by disasters, by economics. We pray for those close to us,
for Pastor Jean … George Sahlberg …
Phyllis Bauer … Beverly Patterson … Darlene Wingfield … Lois White … Virginia … Cherry … John Matthews … Margaret
Dunbar … Trisha … Dave … Jacob … Joyce … Jennifer … Chuck … Courtney … Ethel …
Helen. (Additional prayers …………)
God
who guides our lives, we entrust to you these prayers and those that remain yet
in our hearts as we pray the prayer Jesus taught: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever. Amen.
CALL TO OFFERING
What seeds are we sowing for the sake of a
more righteous and just world? Who will witness to God’s intention that we live
together as heirs to a rich, full life? It is our duty and our privilege to
give our best that Christ may be revealed to all.
DOXOLOGY
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
With joyous praise, we return to you a portion of all
you have given to us. You have invited us to sacrifices befitting our
blessings. You have asked us to care for those less privileged. What we offer
in these moments is a beginning. Praise to you, O God. Amen.
CLOSING HYMN: “Go
Tell It on the Mountain” #136
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
It’s been a rough year, a dark one.
But as scripture tells us, the darkness is not able to overcome the Light that
came into the world. Proclaim that light. Walk in the light. Be a reflection of
that light. And wherever you see the presence of Christ in the world … go and
tell it.
As you do the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is with you now
and always. Amen.
CHORAL RESPONSE
May the Lord, Mighty God, bless and keep you forever.
Grant you peace, perfect peace, courage in every endeavor. Lift up your eyes
and see his face and his grace forever. May the Lord, Mighty God, bless and
keep you forever.
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LOOKING
AHEAD
January 5 10:30 a.m. Women’s Spirituality
January 10 following worship M&M
January 12 6:00 p.m. Session
January 17 following worship Worship & Music
January 19 10:30 a.m. Women’s Spirituality
January 24 following worship Annual Congregational Meeting
PRAYER
CARE:
Pastor Jean (upcoming ankle
surgery), George Sahlberg (infection, heart problems), Phyllis Bauer (aging issues),
Beverly Patterson (Sheila Cunningham’s mother) (aging issues), Lois White
(lymphoma), Virginia DesIlets (broken hip), Darlene Wingfield (heart valve,
pulmonary fibrosis, breast cancer), Margaret Dunbar (fall/broken tailbone),
John Matthews (cancer), Trisha Cagley (health problems), Dave Clark (kidney
cancer), Jacob Cunningham, Joyce Sahlberg (health issues), Jennifer Schirm
(Parkinson’s), Chuck VanHise (leg/walking rehab), and Courtney Ziegler
(Huntington’s).
LECTIONARY
FOR 1/3/21
Jeremiah 31:7-14;
Psalm 147:12-20; Ephesians 1:3-14;
John 1: (1-9) 10-18
