PIONEER
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Worship
via Blog 3rd Sunday after Pentecost
June 21, 2020
~~~~~~~~~~
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
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)
Facebook
posting of recorded Zoom services at https://www.facebook.com/Pioneer-Presbyterian-Church-113547145346520.
f)
Live
worship with restrictions beginning June 14, 2020. Participants are limited to
25 people including worship leaders. A six-foot distancing will be maintained.
Masks are encouraged but not mandated. There will be no congregational singing,
passing the peace, hugs, handshakes, or coffee hour. Registration is on a first
come-first served basis. Call or email
Jon if you want to be on the list.
For those who encountered a skeleton outline of the service last week, that has now been corrected and the service, with sermon, is available. Just scroll down past today's service to find it.
PPW will hold the annual rummage sale
July 10th and 11th.
Vicki Keeney has announced her intention
to move to California to be near her grandkids and greats, leaving by July 11th.
Vicki is an elder and is active in many of the church programs and well as
being friend and part of the church family. We will miss her.
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
Come into God’s presence, letting go of
your worries.
Be still and know that God is God.
We
marvel that God knows us and cares for us.
We
breathe easier knowing that God is in control.
In the midst of turmoil, confusion and
change,
God is with us to support and sustain us.
We
rejoice in God, who answers prayer.
We
trust God to guide us through our struggles.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
God of our lives, we live in times of
divisiveness and conflict. We struggle to live your will and purpose in a
culture that is torn in so many different directions. As we spend this time
with you, calm our hearts and grant us peace that we might be open to hearing
your message and following your ways. Amen.
OPENING
SONG: “We Are the Family of God”
CALL
TO CONFESSION
Whose way have we chosen to follow? If
it is not God’s way, let us turn to God and confess our need for grace. God’s
love and forgiveness awaits us.
PRAYER
OF CONFESSION
God
of all people, we confess we have not lived by the best that we know. We have
identified as enemies persons who are different from us, while you call us to
be family. We have closed our eyes to needs around us, afraid of what we might
lose if we respond. Help us to live as reflections of your love and grace. Heal
the hurts within us so that we can be bearers of light and hope to a hurting
world.
(Continue with your personal prayers of confession …) 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 God’s children everywhere.
GLORY
BE TO THE FATHER
TIME
WITH CHILDREN
Good
morning Zoey and Fiona. Did you know this is a special day? It’s Father’s Day.
Did you do something special for your father today? What did you do? Letting
him sleep in might be special or fixing him breakfast. Mama can help you do
that. Or how about an afternoon fishing? Fiona, your daddy likes to go fishing
and you fish too, don’t you? Zoey, does your daddy like to fish? Lots of
daddies do. It’s fun when you can do something together with your daddy on
Father’s Day.
The
coloring pages I sent you this week were about Father’s Day. One of them had
lines where you could list five reasons you love your daddy. What did you come
up with? How about because he loves you? And he takes good care of you. He does
things with you. He makes you feel safe. Our daddies teach us things, too. You
probably have lots more reasons. Each daddy is special in his own way. Daddies
are a really nice gift God gave us. The Bible tells us we should love our
fathers and honor them and obey them. Those are ways we show our love. Let’s
pray:
Good
morning Jesus. Thank you for fathers. Would you bless them in a special way
today? Help us to show our fathers that we love them, not just today, but every
day. We love you. 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: Psalm
86:1-10, 16-17
Incline thy ear, O
Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
Preserve my life, for I am godly; save thy servant who trusts in thee.
Thou art my God; be gracious to me, O Lord, for to thee do I cry all the day.
Gladden the soul of thy servant, for to thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For
thou, O Lord, art good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who
call on thee. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; hearken to my cry of
supplication. In the day of my trouble I call on thee, for thou dost answer me.
There is none like thee among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like
thine. All the nations thou hast made shall come and bow down before thee, O
Lord, and shall glorify thy name. For thou art great and doest wondrous things,
thou alone art God. … Turn to me and take
pity on me; give thy strength to thy servant, and save the son of thy handmaid.
Show me a sign of thy favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame
because thou, Lord, hast helped me and comforted me.
SCRIPTURE
2: Genesis 18:1-15
And the Lord
appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the
heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men stood
in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and
bowed himself to the earth, and said, "My lord, if I have found favor in
your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and
wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I fetch a morsel of
bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on -- since
you have come to your servant." So they said, "Do as you have
said." And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, "Make
ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes." And
Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the
servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds, and milk, and the calf
which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the
tree while they ate. They said to him, "Where is Sarah your wife?"
And he said, "She is in the tent." The Lord said, "I will surely
return to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife shall have a son." And
Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old,
advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So
Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "After I have grown old, and my husband
is old, shall I have pleasure?" The Lord said to Abraham, "Why did
Sarah laugh, and say, `Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?' Is
anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, in
the spring, and Sarah shall have a son." But Sarah denied, saying, "I
did not laugh"; for she was afraid. He said, "No, but you did laugh."
SERMON: Rev.
Jean Hurst
Today is Father’s Day--a day designated for remembering and honoring our
fathers. So I’ll start with a remembrance story. Robert Winnie of Bonners
Ferry, Idaho, tells of a childhood event that changed how he saw his father.
His family was backyard neighbor with a very cranky old man. I’ll relate the
story in Robert’s voice. The neighbor, Mr. Bernhauser “... was especially mean and unfriendly to
kids, but he was also rude to adults. He had an Italian plum tree that hung
over the back fence. If the plums were on our side of the fence, we could pick
them. But God help us if we got over the fence line. All hell would break
loose. He would scream and yell at us until one of our parents came out to see
what the fuss was about. Usually it was my mother, but this time it was my
father. No one liked Mr. Bernhauser very much, but my father was particularly
against him because he kept all the toys and balls that had ever landed in his
yard.
So there was Mr. Bernhauser yelling at
us to get the hell out of his tree, and my father asked him what the problem
was. Mr. Bernhauser took a deep breath and launched into a diatribe about
thieving kids, breakers of rules, takers of fruit, and monsters in general. I
guess my father had had enough, for the next thing he did was shout at Mr.
Bernhauser and tell him to drop dead. Mr. Bernhauser stopped screaming, looked
at my father; turned bright red, then purple, grabbed his chest, turned gray,
and slowly folded to the ground. I thought my father was God. That he could
yell at a miserable old man and make him die on command was beyond my
comprehension.”1
We each have different memories,
different experiences of our fathers. Perhaps some even shared Robert Winnie’s
awed esteem of his father. On the other end of the scale, some might have
viewed their father as the devil himself.
Most will have had an experience somewhere in between the two. Whatever
the experience, each father left a legacy of some type by virtue of the life
philosophy he lived out.
“Eat, drink, and be merry, for
tomorrow we die.” That’s one philosophy. “Live in the moment.” That’s another
philosophy. “Live and let live.” “Live so you won’t be ashamed to meet your
maker when you die.” “Leave the world a better place.” “Build for the future.”
Still more. Which of these makes you think of your own father? Which is true of
your own life? Each of these philosophies has its appropriate application in
life, but it’s the last one I want to focus on. Build for the future.
I’ll share with you some wise counsel
by philosopher John Ruskin. “When we build, let us think that we build
forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be
such work as our descendants will thank us for; and let us think, as we lay
stone on stone, that a time is to come when those stones will be held sacred
because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon
the labor and wrought substance of them, ‘See!
This our father did for us.’”2
It is in that sense that we can look at
today’s Old Testament passage. It’s the story of a father. Abraham had been on
a journey that began when God called him from his own country, his people, and
his family and made great promises to him. It was promises of being a
father--the father of a nation, of being blessed and being a blessing to all
peoples of the earth. That’s pretty heady stuff!
He was seventy-five when the adventure
started. Lots of things have happened in between, including additional promises
of progeny as numerous as the stars and the sand, the birth of a son, Ishmael,
to his concubine, the covenant of circumcision, renaming of Abram and Sarai to
Abraham and Sarah, and promises that his aged wife would be the mother of
nations and that kings would come from her. So he kept believing and kept obeying
and kept waiting.
Now he’s ninety-nine years old and
three strangers show up at his tent. He responds with the hospitality that is
customary--even mandatory--in their culture, even to killing a fatted calf.
They ask where Sarah is. Abraham must have been amazed that they knew her name.
Then once again he is being told that Sarah will give birth, more specifically,
in a year. These promises have been going on so long that Sarah, who is
eavesdropping at the tent flap chortles in amusement. When Abraham is challenged
about Sarah’s laughing, Sarah, afraid, pipes up from behind the tent flap,
denying it, “I did not laugh.” “Yes, you
did laugh,” is the response. One year later a son is born to a 100 year
old man and a 90 year old woman and they name him Isaac, which means ‘he
laughs.’
For twenty-five years, despite all
logic and evidence to the contrary, Abraham believed God, believed God’s
faithfulness, believed that God could keep the outrageous promise made when he
was called from his homeland. In his believing God, in his faithful response to
God’s promises, Abraham built something that lasted. Three major world
religions can look to Abraham and say, “See! This our father did for us.”
In his book, Disappointment with
God, writer Philip Yancey relates his own father story. One time he visited
his mother--who had been widowed years earlier, in the month of Philip’s first
birthday. They spent the afternoon together looking through a box of old
photos. A certain picture of him as an eight-month-old baby caught his eye.
Tattered and bent, it looked too banged up to be worth keeping, so he asked her
why, with so many other better pictures of him at the same age, she had kept
this one.
Yancey writes, “My mother explained to
me that she had kept the photo as a memento, because during my father’s illness
it had been fastened to his iron lung.” During the last four months of his
life, Yancey’s father lay on his back, completely paralyzed by polio at the age
of twenty-four, encased from the neck down in a huge, cylindrical breathing
unit. With his two young sons banned from the hospital due to the severity of
his illness, he had asked his wife for pictures of her and their two boys.
Because he was unable to move even his head, the photos had to be jammed
between metal knobs so that they hung within view above him--the only thing he
could see. The last four months of his life were spent looking at the faces he
loved.
Philip Yancey writes, “I have often
thought of that crumpled photo, for it is one of the few links connecting me to
the stranger who was my father. Someone I have no memory of, no sensory
knowledge of, spent all day, every day thinking of me, devoting himself to me,
loving me.”3 The sure knowledge of being loved is a powerful legacy
to leave a child. Yancey could join Ruskin in saying, “See! This our father did
for us.”
Leaving such a legacy is not easy. It
means persevering. It means knowing that shortcuts and taking the easy way out,
while getting one past the immediate concern, will not necessarily build the
kind of endowment that is meaningful--or that is meaningful in the way we would
want to be remembered, the way that helps to mold and guide the ones who
follow.
A couple weeks ago we looked at the
passage from Romans where the Apostle Paul acknowledged the struggles and
sufferings of life along with the role of faith. He said suffering teaches us
how to persevere, how to stay the course, even when we don’t feel like it, even
when we don’t want to, even when it would be easier and more reasonable to cut
oneself free of it. In its turn, perseverence shapes character--who we are,
what we stand for, what we value, what will be remembered of us.
Life struggles come in many forms. I
don’t think you can be a father--or a mother--without feeling the pain of watching your child make mistakes, watching
them hurt, and knowing you need to let them so that they can learn and
grow as they need. Parents seemed doom to suffer on behalf of their children.
But it doesn’t stop there. Aside from the pain of letting our kids make their
own mistakes is the pain they feel as
they watch their parents age.
Kids watch strong, healthy, active
parents become more and more frail, limited in what they can do. They see the
fear of loss of control and independence. They may even see the fear of dying
reflected in their parent’s eyes.
Perhaps it is hard to imagine that
there could possibly be a legacy left as a result of these things--a legacy
that might be cherished by those who follow. How we respond to the realities of
aging, what we present to our kids, what hope we offer and where we put our
faith is, in fact, a legacy.
God is with us in the midst of our
struggles, walks with us as comforter and guide, grants us courage, shows us we
don’t go it alone, and reminds us of the promise of life eternal. The hope is
for us--but not for us alone.
Those around us, friends as well as
family, walk that path with us. They watch and they learn from how we handle
our difficulties. It is a teaching for us, to show them how they can handle it
when they, in turn, are faced with these issues. It molds their
character as well as our own. It is the building of stone on stone that Ruskin
spoke of; that speaks of what is solid and sure and lasting. That is their
hope.
If we live as if we believe it, if we
face obstacles while embracing the knowledge of God’s faithfulness, we leave a
legacy for those who walk the journey with us, for those who follow, for those
in next and future generations who, like Philip Yancey will know us by a faded
photograph and the stories handed down and who, in turn, will be shaped by it,
who will know that they can face their own obstacles and struggles with dignity
and hope. If we allow our struggles to draw us closer to the God of hope, then
we leave that hope as a heritage of which others can say, “See! This our father
did for us.” What legacy will you leave?
1Robert Winnie, I
Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR, Paul
Auster, Ed., Picador, Henry Holt & Company, NY, 2001, p. 226
2John
Ruskin, Audels Carpenter’s and
Builder’s Guide, preface, Frank D. Graham, Thomas J. Emery, Theo Audel
& Company, 1923, preface
3Philip Yancey,
Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud, Zondervan, 1988, p.
312-13.
HYMN: “God
of the Ages, Whose Almighty Hand”
PRAYERS OF THE
PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
Almighty God, our creator and
redeemer, you are our strength and our hope.
Coming together to worship you is something we too often take for
granted … until something like the virus happens which denies us that
privilege. Restore in us a love of gathering in your name so that even in
normal times, our hearts will long to gather in worship.
God, on this day when we remember and
honor fathers, we ask you to bless the fathers. Guide them to be good role
models and loving to all their children. Help them to look to you to guide them
in how they live and the legacy they leave. Give them grace and patience to
handle situations in a loving way. Heal the memories of those who have or had
painful or disappointing relationships with their fathers. Bring reconciliation
where that is possible and peace and forgiveness where it is not.
We pray for peace for the children of
our church and for children around the world. We remember especially those
whose lives are uncertain, whose home and families and futures are threatened
by violence or who are living in the horrors and grief of loss. Grant world
leaders wisdom and hearts that seek, work toward, and find just peace. Help us
to find our common group of human worth so we may see each other the way you
see us all. Turn the hearts of people away from violence. Lord, burden our
hearts that we will not be satisfied until no child goes hungry or homeless, is
victim to abuse or neglect, or faces tomorrow with fear. Help us to be faithful
to your children.
We pray for your comfort and healing
touch for Peggy Jamison facing knee replacement on the 25th … Judy’s
daughter Rosa Lester with a retinal bleed… Darlene
Wingfield … Joel Scrivner … John Matthews … Sandi …Trisha … Dave … Jacob …
Joyce … Jennifer … Chuck … Courtney … Ethel … Helen.
(Additional
prayers …………)
We lift up our own lives—the doubts,
the struggles, the fears. When we walk in darkness, shine your light to guide
our way. When our hearts are heavy, help us carry the load. When we feel that
life is more than we can handle, when we despair of the world ever changing,
take our hand, be our strength and give us hope.
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.
CALL TO OFFERING
The tradition of bringing offerings to
God began way back at the start of the biblical story. Offerings were made for
forgiveness of sins, for expressions of thanks, for stewardship and discipline
or simply to show love and praise to God. Think now about what you bring as an
offering to God … and why.
DOXOLOGY
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
God
of bounty, God of love, we come before you with offerings from our wealth—what you
have entrusted to us. We also come with the offering of our lives, our
commitment to you as disciples of Jesus. We come to you with the offerings of
our hearts that we might walk in the path of your love. Bless these gifts we
pray and us in the giving. Amen.
CLOSING HYMN: “Joyful,
Joyful, We Adore Thee”
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
Fathers
especially, but each of us leaves a legacy for those who follow. This week,
think about what you’d like that legacy to be. As others watch your life, is
what they see what you will want them to remember?
As
you ponder that, 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.
~~~~~~~~~~
LOOKING
AHEAD
Worship has
resumed under restricted conditions which include a 25-person limit. Reservations
are on a first-come, first-served basis. Contact Jon Zieber at the church
office to get on the list. See the newsletter article for full details.
PPW Annual Sale will be held July 17-18.
PRAYER
CARE:
Peggy Jamison
(knee replacement 6/25), Judy’s daughter Rosa Lester (retinal bleed), Darlene
Wingfield (pulmonary fibrosis), Joel Scrivner (heart attack), Ralph Hook
(stroke), John Matthews (cancer), Sandi Posz (lymphoma), 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 6/28/20
Genesis 22:1-14;
Psalm 113; Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:40-42
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