May 3, 2020 4th Sunday of Easter

PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Worship via Blog            4th Sunday of Easter                     May 3, 2020   

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Jesus Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!

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 crisis.

We will share the Lord’s Supper as part of this worship service. So please pause and gather your choice of bread and beverage. While the bread and grape juice served in community and led by the pastor in person is our tradition, we are facing times that call for us to do worship in new ways rather than being tied to rigid tradition—much like the early church.

The blog continues to be our resource for worship and communications. If you are having difficulty using the blog or setting up a shortcut to it, please call Jean or Jon and we will walk you through it or Jean will stop by and put a shortcut on your computer—keeping appropriate distance, of course. (Unless you have an Apple.)

We will soon be testing two different ways to access the service “live”. One will be through Zoom and the other through Facebook Live. Zoom will be real time and will be by invitation, so let pastor Jean know if you want to receive the service that way. A test run of Zoom will be held on Wednesday, May 6^th at 11:00. If that goes well, a “real” service will be held on Sunday, May 10^th at 10:00. The Facebook Live will be a recorded service that you can tap into as it fits your schedule. More info on that as we progress.

The construction work continues. The main sidewalks east and north are in. The sidewalk from east up to the church is in. The first phase of the east side parking is done and they’re doing the prep work for the rest of the east side and the north side

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

Everything as it moves, now and then, here and there, makes pauses.

The bird, as it flies, stops on one place to makes its nest, and in another to rest in its flight.

In the same way, God has paused as well.

The sun, the moon, the trees, the animals—all are places where God has stopped, leaving the touch of the Holy in all things.

We too, have had God pause in us. We, too, have the Holy touch in our beings.

Let us now pause ourselves, and listen for the voice of God in our hearts and feel God’s holy touch.

PRAYER OF THE DAY

Gracious and Holy God, we gather to bring you our praise and to celebrate your goodness to us.  We come to you because you have first come to us.  We know you because you have shown yourself to us in Jesus Christ, and empowered us through your Spirit.  As we worship, lift our hearts in song, enliven our hearts and minds with the words of scripture, and strengthen us with your presence that we may serve you with joy and gratitude and holy imagination.  We pray in the name of Jesus.  Amen.

OPENING PRAISE SONG: “We Are the Family of God”        

CALL TO CONFESSION

Even when we’ve been too busy to notice, God has been constantly loving us and encouraging us to grow in the light of that love. Let us confess to our God of grace.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Gracious God, we confess we have not loved you with all our heart, our soul, our strength, our mind. We have not loved our neighbors with a deep and abiding compassion. And we have not loved ourselves and cared for our own truest needs. Transform our shallowness, enliven our deadness, heal our wounded, broken places, and fill us with your Spirit. Forgive us even as we forgive ourselves and others. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ who brings us love that has no end. (personal prayers …..) Amen.

ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS

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 God’s children everywhere.

GLORY BE TO THE FATHER

TIME WITH CHILDREN

          Hello Zoey and Fiona. I hope you’re keeping busy during your time at home and not getting bored. There are lots of things that you can do—besides coloring the pictures I sent you. One of the things I did when I was little was make things out of paper and paste. Paste is a type of glue. Have you glued things together before? You can make pictures by gluing different shapes and colors onto a sheet of paper.

          Long, long ago people couldn’t just go to the store and buy what they needed. They had to make it themselves. Over a thousand years before Jesus was born, the Egyptians made glue by boiling animal bones and skins. They even figured out how to glue the stems of grasses together to make a type of paper called papyrus. During pioneer times people would use the whites of raw eggs or else mix flour and water together and make paste. Now they use chemicals to make glue as well as plant and animal products.

          Besides making pictures, glue can be used to fix things that are broken. It is also used to make new things. Cars and airplanes and beams to make buildings all have lots of glue in them. That glue has to be really strong, doesn’t it?

          But you know what the strongest glue is? It’s love. Families can be held together with love. So can nations. And churches. A long time ago, after Jesus died and came back to life, small groups of people began meeting. They didn’t have big church buildings. They met in homes. When they did, they worshiped God and learned about their faith and read the Bible and sang songs and prayed—just like we do at church.

          Even though we can’t meet as a church, we still love each other and we are still a church family and look forward to the time we can be together again. Love is also the glue that holds us to Jesus. He loves us and we love him. Love is a strong glue that holds us all together. Let’s pray:

Dear Jesus, thank you for loving us. Thank you that love is like glue that holds our families together, including our church families. If glue is strong enough to make a big beam that holds a building up, then love is a strong enough glue to hold us all together. Help us to be like glue when we 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.

Who does Jesus love? Yes, Jesus loves Zoey and Fiona. And Jesus loves each one of us. Jesus remembers when we were little like they are now. Jesus watched us grow up and he loves us still.

SCRIPTURE 1:  1 Peter 2:19-25

For it is commendable if you bear up under the pain of unjust suffering because you are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. "He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed." For "you were like sheep going astray," but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

SCRIPTURE 2:  Acts 2:42-47

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

SERMON:           “Back to Our Roots”                               Rev. Jean Hurst

          If you’ve had the opportunity to travel to Europe, you’ve likely had the delight of visiting cathedrals that are massive monuments to the Christian faith. They were built to honor and worship God. Generally, tall steeples slice through the sky, pointing upward to God. Often crosses of various types adorn the roofs. With solid stonework, ceilings that arch high overhead, ornate furnishings, and inspiring artwork, they represent the best that believers could construct to house the presence of their God and proclaim their faith to the world. Some of these cathedrals were centuries in the making.

          Many, if not most, of the European cathedrals were built in the middle ages. At the turn of the millennium--the year 1,000--people thought the world would come to an end.¹ (Think about Y2K or the end of the Mayan calendar.) When everything didn’t come crashing down around them, something started going up instead—churches and cathedrals. I wonder if the construction of those cathedrals was in response to the gift of life continuing.

          Dial back a thousand years before that and you find the first century church doing much the same … but in heart and action rather than bricks and mortar. Jesus was gone … twice. First was his crucifixion followed by the resurrection. Next was the ascension after a limited number of people had witnessed his risen presence. His disciples had been given their commission to continue Jesus’ ministry. Peter began preaching and the Holy Spirit made a public appearance in Jerusalem at Pentecost. The church was born.

          In faith and thankfulness and awe they gathered—not in magnificent cathedrals but in simple homes; not by the hundreds or thousands but in handfuls; not with formal structure and liturgy nor with ordained pastors and professional musicians. They simply gathered. They experienced community and understood what that meant. They encouraged one another in the faith, especially during a time of intense persecution where gathering in Jesus’ name could mean a death sentence.

          What held them together during a time of profound opposition and adversity?  It was the truth and power of the resurrection. As they heard the story, their hearts were touched. Deep within, they understood a truth their logical minds would have denied. Their faith in the risen Jesus gave them the courage and conviction to be the church. Because they believed and continued to live and share the truth, others came to believe as well and the church continued to grow.

          Initially, the early church sounds idyllic. That was very much influenced by the four practices listed in the Acts passage which helped this infant church grow and thrive. Those four practices defined their worship and lives as Christians and as church.  1) They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. 2) They devoted themselves to fellowship. 3) They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread. 4) They devoted themselves to prayer.

          All this sounds pretty basic for worship from our contemporary experience. But the results were so much more. The passage says that they held the good will of all the people and more were added to their numbers. This was a time of exponential growth in the church. It was more than a simple formula for gathering and worship. These early Christians held a deep-seated belief in the resurrection and church growth was based on the Easter truth and the Easter proclamation. Those gathering felt awe and wonder at the presence of the eternal in their midst.

          The church was not without its issues and struggles, especially as their numbers grew and more and more Gentiles were converted. We read of that not only in Acts but in the Epistles as well. The concept of sharing possessions leads to deception. Distribution of food to widows in ethnic groups becomes controversial. The question of whether Gentile converts must adhere to Jewish laws becomes divisive. In the Epistles we’ll learn of the abuse of table fellowship, disruption of worship, competition around whose spiritual gifts are more important, and the list goes on.

          The church has always been a collection of imperfect people. God has always worked in and through imperfect people. Just read scripture for story after story of what God has done through flawed, ordinary people. And through the amazing, transforming power of the Holy Spirit, the church has continued to grow and touch lives for over two thousand years.

          And here we are today. The church is socially distanced. Members are isolated. We are forced (or we have the opportunity) to explore new ways of continuing what the early church began. We worship in homes. Remember their faith was based on a resurrection experience so real to them that though most of them didn’t have a first-hand experience, they embraced it with awe and exultation. They practiced being the church through devotion to following the teachings, to fellowship, to communion, and to prayer. Not just adhering to these, but devoted to them. They had a Spirit-filled passion. Do we?

          Though our building is closed, the Church is open.² We are the church, the body of Christ. And Christ is the head of the church. We strive to follow the teachings of Jesus—though we may do that imperfectly. We will come to the Lord’s Table in a new-for-us way. We pray … as Jesus said, without ceasing. It’s something we can do from the isolated safety of our homes. And the world desperately needs our prayers right now. And we are still in community though that happens one-on-one (with appropriate social distancing), by telephone, through social media, by Zoom … by heart. Community helps remind us who we are.

          Our community is not a private club but instead reaches beyond denominational boundaries to a broader community and out into a world of need. Our generosity responds to those impacted by the coronavirus and wherever we can act in life-giving ways to bring healing and transformation and hope.

          When we go through times like these, it can feel like the beacon of hope is dimmed and the church is at risk. But the body of Christ has experienced obstacles and oppression and persecution--and even pandemics--throughout its long history. Rather than diminishing the church, it seems to make the church stronger. It is because resurrection truth is stronger and more life-giving than anything that might oppose it.

          I ran across a quote by Lilias Trotter on a piece of artwork one time. It read, “Believe in the darkness what you have seen in the light.” We are an Easter people. We are children of the resurrection. No matter how dark it gets, we know that truth. We have seen it in the light of God’s love.

¹https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/901-1200/magnificent-medieval-cathedrals-11629780.html

²borrowed from a cartoon sketch in the April 22^nd edition of Christian Century.

HYMN:     “God of Grace and God of Glory”

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER

          Still your hearts and minds as you feel God’s presence surrounding you and God’s love holding you. (silence …)

          God of all creation, we praise you and thank you for all the ways that you have blessed us and sustained us. We thank you especially for your love and grace revealed in Jesus Christ and for the salvation we have in his name. Hear our prayers of thanks ….

          God you know our deepest feelings. Touch us where we are. Lord, help us as we struggle to forgive and love ourselves and others. Hear our prayers for our own physical, spiritual, and emotional needs ……..

          Guide us and teach us to reach out in love to all who need food, inspiration, direction, care and healing. Fill us with your Spirit of love and grace. We place in your tender care Sandy … Sandi …Trisha … Dave … Jacob … Linda … Joyce … Jennifer … Chuck … Courtney … Ethel … Helen.

          We pray for all your children—those who are afraid, lonely, hungry, oppressed, who face the perils of war, violence in their homes and on the streets, those suffering because of the coronavirus. We pray for the businesses whose survival is at risk, those who have no resources to fall back on. Help us to be generous and guide us to compassionate action.

          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

All good things come from God. All that we have. All that we are. God’s gifts. God’s blessings.  Let us bring before God the offerings of our gratitude—in our financial gifts, in the dedication of our lives to sharing God’s grace and love. (Pledges and monetary offerings can be mailed to the church.) Take a moment now to make your heart offerings ………………..

DOXOLOGY

PRAYER OF DEDICATION

          Gracious God, we bring our offerings before, knowing that you gave them into our hands in order for us to be good stewards and to use  them wisely. Bless these offerings, we pray and us in the giving, that your kingdom work would be done. Amen.

THE LORD’S SUPPER

          Song of Preparation:

          Invitation to the Table

          The Lord’s table is not a piece of wood with clay dishes, but a place in our hearts that connects us to our Lord Jesus. It is a place to which we come as we remember his sacrifice, as we seek to experience his presence, as we are nourished to continue his work, as we recognize our community in him despite whatever distance or disease or obstacle that might separate us. Our Lord invites us to the table without condition, simply because we are loved. Come with grateful hearts. Come with joyful hearts.

The Great Thanksgiving

          The Lord be with you.         

                   And also with you.

          Lift up your hearts.              

                   We lift them up to the Lord.

          Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.         

                   It is right to give our thanks and praise.

          It is indeed right, O Holy God, to give thanks for your amazing grace, to praise you for who you are, for who you created us to be. We marvel at the truth that you are with us wherever we may be. Though we worship from home, separated and for some, isolated, it is still in you that we find life and purpose. We are children of grace and nothing can separate us from your love.

          You have given us the gift of your Holy Spirit who unites us, binding us together as one body across the miles. By your Spirit of grace transform our social isolation and distance into a holy community, connecting us to each other by your sacred presence.

          Bless the elements we each have gathered, elements common to our ordinary lives. Let them represent for us the body and blood of our Savior who gave himself for us. Amen.

Words of Institution

          As we share these symbols of bread and cup across the distance, we remember the story of Jesus with the disciples that last night before he was arrested. He took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them saying “Take, eat, this is my body, given for you.” And with the cup he said, “This cup is the new covenant, my blood poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink of it, remember me.”

          And so we do. As we lift up many pieces in scattered places rather than sharing the same loaf and as we drink from separate cups instead of one, we do so remembering that throughout history God’s people have often been scattered and in exile. Through the power and mystery of the Holy Spirit, we are made one in Christ Jesus. These are the gifts of God for us the children of God.*

          The Bread of Life……………..

          The Cup of Salvation …………….

*portions of prayer adapted from prayer by Rev. Steve Kliewer, Interim General Presbyter, EOP

Unison Prayer of Thanks

          Gracious God, you have made us one with all your people in heaven and on earth. You have fed us with the bread of life, and renewed us for your service. Help us who have shared Christ’s body and received his cup, to be his faithful disciples so that our daily living may be part of the life of your kingdom, and our love be your love reaching out into the life of the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

CLOSING HYMN:     “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”

CHARGE AND BENEDICTION

Your charge for the week is to remember the roots of your faith and the faithfulness of God’s people. You are one of them. We live through times that can tempt us to become complacent in our faith and indifferent to our call to follow Jesus. It is also a time that challenges us to go deeper in our relationship with God, to live a faith that the world can see makes a difference, a faith that loves beyond measure and expectation. Choose well and be at peace.

As you do, 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 the coronavirus is contained and it is once again safe to come together and worship. Use the church blog to access worship and spiritual support articles and to keep up with what’s going on. If you have trouble accessing or using the site, call Jean or Jon.

Zoom test run Wednesday, May 6^th at 11:00 by email invitation. (See newsletter for full details.) Contact Jon if you would like to participate.

PPW Annual Sale will be held June 5^th and 6^th assuming the virus restrictions have been lifted.

PPW Summer Outing will be June 12^th to Fort Rock and Lost Forest again assuming life is returning to normal.

PLEASE KEEP THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE IN YOUR PRAYERS:

Sandy Cargill (aortic valve replacement), Sandi Posz (lymphoma), 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 5/10/20

Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14