Easter Sunday Service

PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Worship via Blog                    Easter Sunday                                 April 12, 2020       

PROCESSIONAL HYMN                “Jesus Christ is Risen Today”

         

Jesus Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!)

WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

There is no pandemic, no disaster, no evil--nothing that can stop Easter and the resurrection! This is a new day in Jesus Christ. Welcome as you join the Pioneer family as we worship in praise and gratitude for God’s promise fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus. As Desmond Tutu said, nothing could have looked more hopeless than Good Friday. Yet God is more powerful than all the hate and evil in the world. We stand on the side of God. We stand on the side of good, of grace, of hope, of love. We are gathered as children of God to worship, to be spiritually fed, and to be equipped to serve in Christ’s name—from the safety of our homes. We rejoice in this day even in the midst of the crisis of this virus because we know we are not alone. God’s grace will see us through.

Announcements:

Continue to watch the blog for new postings. If you have suggestions, let us know. We want this to be a resource that is effective for you.

Demolition work for replacement of the sidewalks on the north and east side of the church and replacement of the asphalt parking there with concrete is well under way. If you come to the church, please use the back parking lot and come in those doors. This will take several weeks and while the church services and activities are on hold is a good time to get it done.

The One Great Hour of Sharing is received on Easter. This pandemic has only given us a taste of a crisis. You can understand what a destructive crisis does to people’s lives and businesses. Through this offering we help people as they face disaster and help rebuild lives. Through this offering we extend hope to those in need.

Our collection of food for the Food Bank is suspended for the time being. I talked with the Senior Center and they feel they have sufficient food for now as they have reduced hours for distribution. If they run short, Angie will let me know and I will put the word out to you for financial donations for them to replenish stock.

Now allow yourself a brief time of silence as you open your hearts and feel God’s presence with you, right where you are.

CALL TO WORSHIP                                                             

Christ is alive!

          He is present among us.

Hope is alive …

A new age is dawning.

Joy is alive …

Redemption is here.

Love is alive …

          New life is within us.

PRAYER OF THE DAY

Amazing God, it doesn’t take the walls of a church to gather in your name. It doesn’t require the familiar enclosure of the sanctuary to know your presence. The space that each of us is in this day is holy ground for you are here. The sacred is all around us—in life itself. Thank you, miraculous God, for this resurrection day, for all it represents, for how it speaks to each of us in our moment of need. Whisper your hope to our hearts and let us proclaim it to all we encounter. Help us to keep that hope alive. Amen.

OPENING HYMN                  “Thine Is the Glory”

CALL TO CONFESSION

God loves each of us as a precious child. When we stray, when we rebel, when we make wrong decisions or do hurtful things, God still loves us and calls us back to God’s heart. God’s grace lifts us above any wrong we’ve ever done. Let us confess our need for God’s mercy and love and then receive it.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Loving God, we have walked through darkness, we have faced despair, doubts have clouded our minds. We have failed to keep Jesus’ commandment to love others as he has loved us. We love selectively. We hold resentments. We have judged the failings of others while blind to our own faults.  We have been more focused on holding onto the good life for ourselves than working for justice for others so that they, too, can have the good life. Have mercy and forgive us, we pray. Help us to see others through your eyes. Guide us to be the hands and heart of Jesus in a hurting world. Help us to believe and embrace the power of the resurrection.  (personal confessions … ) Amen.*

ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS

This day we celebrate a love so great, so self-sacrificing that we can only accept it in awe. This day we truly see the depth of God’s love for us. This day we see the truth that nothing can separate us from God’s love—not betrayals or denials or shameful pasts, not powers nor systems, not hatred nor fear, not darkness,  not death. This is the grace of God. Friends, believe the good news!

          In Jesus Christ we are forgiven and restored to new life!

PASSING THE PEACE

          May the peace of the resurrected Christ be with you.

                   And also with you.

Let us extend the peace of Christ in heart and prayer to the whole world—God’s children, our kin.

TIME WITH CHILDREN

Hi Fiona! Hi Zoey! This is a special day. Do you know why? It’s Easter!! Your families probably told you that, didn’t they? Did you get an Easter basket with lots of goodies in it? I’d like to see them. But here we are still talking through the computer. You probably have colored eggs and jelly beans (yum!) and marshmallow chicks and chocolate bunnies. But Easter is about Jesus. Let me tell you the story.

Jesus loves you, right? He loved all the people and he healed them and taught them about God’s ways. But some people didn’t like what he said and did so they killed him. It was very sad that he died. But guess what? Now he’s alive! On Easter morning he came back to life! Some women went to Jesus’ tomb that morning. A tomb is like a cave with a shelf in it where they laid the body, then they put a big stone in front of it. When the women got there the ground shook really hard. Then an angel came and rolled that great big heavy stone out of the way and sat on it. The angel told the women not to be afraid, that Jesus was alive. Later, Jesus went back to heaven to live with his Father but we remember him in our hearts and we can talk to him whenever we want.

What does that have to do with chocolate bunnies and marshmallow chicks and eggs … and even butterflies? Eggs hatch into baby chicks. Caterpillars change completely and turn into pretty butterflies. They represent new life and they remind us that Jesus came back to new life and gives us new life, too. Let’s pray.

Thank you for loving us Jesus. We’re glad you came back to life and we can celebrate that on Easter. We see new life in the trees and flowers and they remind us of new life in you. We like the eggs and chocolate, too. When we eat them, help us to remember that you love us and give us new life. 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.

Recollect how, following each children’s time, they return to their pews or class as the congregation links hands in an arch over the aisle and over their heads. They go down the aisle knowing that they are part of our worship, that they count, that they are important. As we sing, we remember that this song is for us as well. Jesus loves us. The Bible tells us this truth over and over again. We tell each other. Our hearts tell us as well.

GLORY BE TO THE FATHER (think peppy version)

SCRIPTURE 1:    Acts 10:34-43

And Peter opened his mouth and said: "Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.  You know the word which he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), the word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses to all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and made him manifest; not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that he is the one ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

SCRIPTURE 2:    Matthew 28:1-10

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.  For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.' This is my message for you."  So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.  Suddenly Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.  Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

SERMON:  “He Is Risen! …….. Now What?”                             Rev. Jean Hurst

SERMON:  “He Is Risen! …….. Now What?”                             Rev. Jean Hurst

            He is risen!  That’s what scripture tells us. That’s a major cornerstone of our faith. That’s what we celebrate every year. But then what?  What do we do with it? Is it just a feel-good moment in our liturgical year? Is it something we acknowledge then go on with daily life? Or is it something that touches our soul and changes our lives? The resurrection of Jesus is the most significant event in the history of humanity… if you are a believer. Not everyone is or was. And even as believers, we have to admit that it stretches credulity.

            After all, how can someone die and then return to life? But … it has happened. A person’s heart stops and someone with CPR training compresses and breathes them back into a heartbeat. Someone dies on the operating table and the doctors, aided by all the wonders of modern medicine, bring them back. Someone drowns and they’re resuscitated. We have story after story of people who have died and gone through what’s known as a near-death-experience and then returned with amazing stories of the afterlife. But this is different. In the case of Jesus, God did it. And God is in the business of miracles that touch people’s lives.

            Part of the impact of the miracle of the resurrection has to do with the tragedy that preceded it. Jesus represented hope to a people hungry for a new way of understanding their relationship with God and with each other that didn’t have to do with a rigid set of rules. Jesus had described a new kingdom—God’s kingdom—that resonated with the longings of their hearts. It was a message of being loved and accepted for who they were, being forgiven for their sins and failings, being healed, of tomorrow being better than today and today being more bearable, of having a promise of eternal life. All of those yearnings of their heart and the hope of their being true was pinned on this one man—Jesus.

            And then Jesus was nailed to a cross and died. It was the darkest, bitterest time of their lives. Everything they had believed about a better world was snatched from them. Many of them probably felt like they were themselves locked in a tomb for those three days. They wouldn’t have understood the part about Jesus dying for their sins or this being part of God’s plan for the redemption of the world. And even those who had been told—the disciples—couldn’t seem to remember or believe that Jesus was coming back.

            The miracle of the resurrection came at their darkest hour—not just the predawn hour but when they’d probably given up, resigned to a world and a life that wasn’t going to change. And then everything changed. The impossible happened. Life from death. Love rose to conquer hate. Evil would not win.

            It was the resurrection of a man they had come to love. It was a resurrection of their own hope. It meant that what Jesus said was true—with God anything is possible. It meant for all the ugliness of their world with the Roman occupation, the abuse of power, the oppressing poverty, a culture of outcasts and marginalized, a religious system that was unachievable, a God who was unreachable—that it was really possible for their world to be different, to be better, to be transformed. It meant there was something to live for and something that took the fear out of dying. It was enough to make a believer out of the hardest skeptic.

            Then, and down through the ages, part of our believing is our desperate desire for it to be true. We want the tomb to be empty. We want for there to be purpose and meaning to life. We want a God who is in control and who is acting in the world on our behalf. We want to believe that there is redemption for all the ways we have gone wrong in life. We long to believe that evil will not win, that the wrongs of the world can be made right, that hate and greed and abuse of power will not be the last word. Our hearts yearn for relationship with a God of love rather than a God of anger and vengeance that we have to stand far away from in fear. We long for a tender God who loves and accepts us just as we are while at the same time calling us to nobler levels of being.

            Some of us believe because we were taught to believe. Our grandparents, our parents, our Sunday School teachers, our pastors have taught the message of the resurrection so many times that it is simply part of who we are. We wouldn’t even think of not believing. Of course we believe.

            And some of us believe because we have been touched by the risen Christ. Like Mary, alone in the garden on Easter morning, we hear his voice and recognize it as the one to whom we belong. We have felt his presence in times of grief or loss or fear as well as in time of joy and awe and tenderness. We have experienced his healing. We have felt his acceptance and a sense of belonging even when, in other parts of our lives, we have felt rejected, abandoned, excluded, and like a stranger looking in from the outside. In him, we have known we are enough when for a lifetime we may have felt like we were never enough, could never be enough, could never do anything good enough.

            And most of us believe because there is something within us that we cannot even understand that says this story is true. Our souls know the truth and respond. We feel the peace and joy each time we hear the story, each time we celebrate the miracle and wonder of the resurrection—the proof of God’s love for us. It is like-calling-to-like. We, created in God’s own image, God-breathed humans, connect to the reality of our risen Lord through a mystery we cannot explain. To believe in the resurrection is a coming home to who we are, who we were created to be. And then what?

            To simply believe and then walk away from the empty tomb and return to ‘life as normal’ is to forfeit the miracle and purpose of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. There is no normal in what has happened. There is transformation. There is new life. There is new purpose. There is hope. To do nothing is to deny the power of the resurrection.

            The angel told the two women who came to the tomb that Jesus had risen. Furthermore, they were told to tell the disciples that Jesus would meet them in Galilee. We hear different versions of the resurrection from the four gospels. This isn’t alarming. Each writer describes the event from his own perspective (we assume the writers are male) and according to information the writer has received from different sources. Each has his own view of what is important to relate. Matthew and Mark direct the disciples to return to Galilee where Jesus will go ahead of them. In Luke and John, Jesus meets with followers in Jerusalem. But they all vary in reporting how many encounters and the nature of those encounters.

            Following Matthew’s focus of sending the disciples back to Galilee, we have the assurance that Jesus will go ahead of them. There are several ways to understand this action. One is that Jesus sends them back to their roots, back to where they started. He did not initially send them to some far off land with the expectation that they would then change the world. He had them start at home.

            We can learn from this. We can trust that wherever we go in life, Jesus goes ahead of us and awaits us there. He had already promised that he would never leave us or forsake us, that he would be with us until the end of the age. So whatever we do, whatever happens to us in life, he is with us. What do we do with that?

            When Jesus encountered the women at the tomb he said “go and tell.” When he met the disciples again, it wasn’t just for a warm reunion and celebration. It was a bestowing of peace, a commissioning, an empowering. “Go and tell,” “go and do.” It was not just for their benefit but for the benefit of a hurting world that they were tasked with continuing Jesus’ ministry and mission. Now it was in their hands to teach and heal and tell the good news. Jesus would work through them … and us. Jesus gave his disciples instructions when he sent them out two-by-two on their test run of taking over his work.

            In part he said, “As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment (Matthew 10:7-8). Couple that with Jesus’ commandment to love: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

            Jesus has risen … now what?’ Now we live our lives as if it were so. We live as children of the resurrection—an Easter people. We face the world as it is and no matter how grim, no matter how violent, no matter how wrong it has gone, we know that this is not the final answer. Jesus is. And we have hope.

            We go and tell. We go and do. We share the good news so that everyone we encounter will also know the hope and joy and peace we experience in the resurrected Jesus. We share the good news and we live the good news so that others may also know hope. We continue to live and teach what Jesus lived and taught. We live as light to the world, as salt of the earth. We live as healers in a hurting world. We do justice. We love kindness. We walk humbly with our God. We love. And then we love some more. Even when it is hard, we keep loving. We proclaim the good news to the world and tell them why it is good news and then we live it as if it were so.

            Jesus Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

HYMN:      “In the Bulb There Is a Flower”                

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER

          Resurrection God, you bring life to that which was dead. You bring joy to our sorrow, comfort for our tears. You call us out of the grave of greed, the tomb of isolation and indifference, the darkness of fear to come alive with love, to share what we have and who we are, to become your bearers of new life. Where darkness has shrouded hope, may your light shine through us. Where sickness in our relationships creates conflict, and disease in our bodies destroys courage may your healing hand be upon us and work through us. O God, make us brave disciples who will not accept the dominance of death but will work with you, believe in you, hold steadfast to you as you create new life, new joy, new love in and around us.

          It is in love that we pray for our families and faith community. Lord, keep them safe during this pandemic. We lift up to Sandy Cargill and Linda Kaesemeyer as they recover from surgery, for Sandi Posz as she continues her cancer treatment. We pray for Paul M. … Trisha … Dave … Jacob … Linda … Joyce … Jennifer … Chuck … Courtney … Ethel … Helen.

          We pray for our nation and our world as they are impacted by the coronavirus. We pray that medical providers and other responders would have the resources they need and that they would be kept safe. Stop this virus, we pray. Grant that our lives can return to normal.

          Tender God, we pray for ourselves. For all the things that would hold us back, that keep us from the relationship with you for which we long, for the issues that divide us from other people, heal us, restore us, guide us, remind us always that we are children of the resurrection, that eternal hope is part of who we are as people of faith. We trust in you, Lord.

          We pray in the name of Jesus who taught us to pray: 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.

OFFERING

We bring before God the gifts of our hearts and labors. (The financial gifts you can mail to the church.)  We also present our offering for One Great Hour of Sharing, knowing that through our generosity, lives are touched in meaningful, life-giving ways.

The gifts of our hearts, of our time, our energy, our talents we commit to God, then live out each day in our interactions with one another. Take a moment to make those heart offerings to the Lord.

Doxology

Prayer:  Generous and compassionate God, we bring these gifts before you, the gifts of our money, our hearts, our lives so that the world may know the wonder and grace of Jesus’ resurrection and the extent of your love for them. Bless these gifts we pray. Amen.

CLOSING HYMN:        “Christ Is Alive”

CHARGE AND BENEDICTION

Remember that we are Easter people. Every day is new in Jesus Christ. Every day offers new beginnings and new hope. As a child of the resurrection, embrace the newness and  hope that Jesus offers.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 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

Worship and church activities are suspended until this pandemic is contained and it is safe for us to once more gather in Christ’s name. Use the church blog to access worship and spiritual support articles and to keep up with what’s going on.

Pastor Jean is now in the office Monday through Friday. You may stop in for short visits (six feet apart) or call for a phone chat.

Once we are well established on our blog, we’ll be testing out Zoom—in addition to not instead of the blog.

 PLEASE KEEP THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE IN YOUR PRAYERS:

Sandy Cargill (aortic valve replacement), Sandi Posz (lymphoma), Sandi’s friend Paul M, Trisha Cagley (health problems), Dave Clark (kidney cancer), Jacob Cunningham, Linda Kaesemeyer (knee surgery), Joyce Sahlberg (health issues), Jennifer Schirm (Parkinson’s), Chuck VanHise (leg/walking rehab), and Courtney Ziegler (Huntington’s).

LECTIONARY FOR 4/19/20

          Acts 2:14a, 22-32; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31