PIONEER
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Worship
via Blog 13th Sunday after Pentecost August 30, 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)
Zoom
services are being downloaded now to Facebook on the Tuesday following the
service. https://www.facebook.com/100050946663006/videos/163070122067876/?t=5
f) We can now allow up to 40 people in worship. A six-foot distancing will be maintained. Masks are mandated. There can be congregational singing with masks, but no passing the peace, hugs, handshakes, or coffee hour.
NOTE: There will not be a worship service in the park for Labor Day Sunday (formally Idlewild Sunday). We hope to return to that tradition next year.
Now allow yourself a brief time of silence as you open your hearts and feel God’s presence with you, right where you are.
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BAPTISM: Friends, remember your baptism … and be thankful.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Tremble, O earth, at the presence of
God!
Obey God’s voice, and keep covenant with
God.
Day
by day, we are lifted up on eagles’ wings.
Today
we have been led to this place of worship.
I appeal to you, sisters and brothers:
Remember the mercies of God, and seek
God’s will.
We
bring ourselves as living sacrifices,
That
we may be transformed, and our minds renewed.
Seek here what is good and acceptable
and perfect.
Recognize once more the gifts God has
given you.
We
are here to recognize ourselves as one body.
In
Christ, we are empowered to be the church.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
In each place that we gather, we pause
to worship you, Holy God, and to contemplate your greatness. Out of the thick
clouds that limit our vision, we hear you whisper our names and call us into
community. You claim us as your own and equip us to be a holy people. Help us
to accept that role without misusing it, that your name may be honored in all we
do, and your way be lifted up among all people. Amen.
OPENING
SONG: “Take Up Your Cross”
CALL TO CONFESSION
In what do we take pride? To whose
standards do we conform? Is our faith all that God intends? Are we functioning
effectively as members of one body? Are we using the gifts God has given for
the benefit of all of God’s creation? As we examine ourselves before the wonder
of God, let us confess all that falls short of God’s plan for us.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
We tremble before you, O God, when we
consider our broken and damaged relationships. You have made us for community,
but we act as isolates. You seek our transformation and renewal, but we tend
rather to conform to the world’s agenda. You call us to love that is genuine,
and to affectionate devotion, but we have put self-interest first. You have
called us to be zealous for the good, but we have become complacent about evil.
You have given us gifts to use for the common good, but we have hoarded them
for our advantage. Save us from our self-destructive ways. (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 Zoey and Fiona. Do you
like to play games? I do. When I was little, one of the games we played was
follow the leader. Someone got to be leader and wherever they went you were
supposed to follow. When my brother was the leader, he tried to make it really
hard for those of us who were following.
Jesus told his disciples to follow
him. He calls us to follow him, too. Jesus leads and we go where Jesus goes and
we do the things Jesus does. This week I sent you crosses and words to put on
the crosses. The cross reminds us of Jesus. What were some of the words that
tell us how to follow Jesus? Love. Forgive. Be kind. Pray. Be joyful—that means
be happy. Care about others. Help. Respect. Be patient. Be peaceful.
Some of those things are easy, aren’t
they? Loving and being kind can be done in lots of ways. So can helping others.
It can be little things like helping Mama set the table or picking up your
toys. Loving can be shown by giving Daddy a hug or bringing food for the
foodbank. Being peaceful means not making a fuss when things don’t go your way
or not demanding to always have things the way you want them. Praying is easy
because that’s just talking to Jesus.
Some things are harder though. To
respect would be like having your Mama tell you it’s bedtime and even though
you don’t want to go to bed, you obey her anyway instead of getting mad and
talking back to her. Being patient is usually hard. When you want something you
don’t want to have to wait for it, but sometimes you have to. Forgiving others
can be hard, too. If someone does something to make us mad or hurts our
feelings, sometimes we want to hurt them back or we don’t want to be friends
with them anymore. But Jesus wants us to forgive them, to not hold it against
them and to love them anyway.
So sometimes following Jesus is easy
and other times, it’s hard. That’s true for adults as well as for kids. So
whether we are young or old, when following Jesus is hard, we can ask Jesus to
help us. Let’s do that now.
Dear Jesus. We want to follow you.
Sometimes it’s really easy and it makes us happy. Sometimes it’s hard and it’s
not what we want to do. When it’s hard, please help us so that we can be more
like you. Thank 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: Matthew 16:21-28
From that time on
Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and
suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and
teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on
the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to
rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to
you!" Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You
are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the
things of men." Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would
come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For
whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his
life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole
world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory
with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has
done. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death
before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."
SCRIPTURE 2: Romans 12:9-21 (New Living Translation)
Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate
what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine
affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy,
but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident
hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God's people are in
need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. Bless
those who persecute you. Don't curse them; pray that God will bless them. Be
happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony
with each other. Don't be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people.
And don't think you know it all! Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things
in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to
live in peace with everyone. Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to
the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, "I will take revenge;
I will pay them back," says the LORD. Instead, "If your
enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to
drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads."
Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.
SERMON: “Well,
Now What?” Rev. Jean Hurst
“We are sick and tired of this. It’s been going on for so
long. It just feels like it’s never going to end, as if it will always be this way.
We keep waiting and waiting … and waiting and waiting. We were promised it
wouldn’t last long. People keep saying, “This too shall pass.” But it doesn’t.
It just keeps going on and on and on. When will it end? How do we look forward
to a future that keeps sliding away from us?”
No, I’m not talking about Covid-19. No, I’m not talking
about the current political climate. This is the voice of first century
Christians. It was Jesus’ fault, really. It was that ending of today’s gospel
reading that left people believing that Jesus’ return was imminent. “Truly, I
say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they
see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Remembering that proclamation after Jesus’ death, those
early Christians started looking for the return of Christ. Even Paul was caught
up in that, preaching that they shouldn’t marry or become attached to worldly
things because Jesus’ return was imminent. There were those who interpreted
Jesus words to their own ends by sitting on their backsides and letting the
church support them. Since Jesus was returning any minute, why commit to
getting a job? Fed up, Paul announced, if they won’t work, they don’t eat!
You’d think that would put an end to it, but to this day,
people are still trying to interpret current events as the end times with a
desire to hurry Jesus back. Many of us, weary of the world today, have joined
them in praying, “Come, Lord Jesus.” Alas, Jesus already told them—and us—that
not even he knows when that return will be, only God the Father. It seems God
still has hope for humanity. Sigh.
Well, now what?
If we are, for now, stuck with this broken world, what do we do with it? What
do we do with ourselves? Do we just throw up our hands and surrender to the
pressures of the culture and embrace a hedonistic life, turning our backs on
the flawed humanity which is clearly irredeemable? Of course not. If that had
been our bent, we never would have given ourselves over to a God of grace and
transformation. Neither would those first century Christians have become part
of a movement that put them at such risk.
There was something so compelling in the message of the
gospel, something so amazing for those who encountered Jesus, that they
couldn’t turn away from it—not even when it led to the cross. Not even when
Jesus warned them that following him was not for sissies. He warned them it was
a path of persecution, pain, rejection, betrayal, and sacrifice. He said that
he would lead the way but that they were to take up their crosses and follow
him. And for reasons they perhaps couldn’t’ even explain, they did just that.
We all get discouraged and need direction or re-direction
now and then. Those early Christians were no exception. Paul’s words to the
church at Rome apply to all who would have the conviction to become followers
of Jesus the Christ. Being a follower, as Jesus was quick to say and
demonstrate, was not a self-serving
way of living. Just the opposite. It was about being a servant, serving others,
acting in the best interests of others even when it goes against the grain and
against reason, even when you’d rather just tend to your own business.
I wonder if those early Christians would have preferred to
just keep their heads down and be as inconspicuous as possible. Paul’s words
must have been alarming. It was an era of persecution of Christians. Paul himself
would literally give his life for his beliefs. Many of the early Christians
were martyred as well. In their culture, holding to their beliefs and
convictions could be a death sentence. They had enemies. This climate of
hostility is what they had to live with while awaiting Jesus’ return. What,
then, were they to do? Paul tells them.
These teachings were echoes of Jesus’ own words. Love.
Really love. Don’t just put on a good front with it. Hate what is wrong and
hang on tight to what is good. Respect each other. Don’t lose your enthusiasm
for the gospel and for what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Help
others. Be welcoming. Bless those who would wish you ill, who would despise
you, who would smear your name, who would take hurtful action against you.
Don’t curse them. Don’t go into payback mode. If there’s any payback to be
done, that’s God’s job, not yours. Don’t get even. In fact, ask God to bless
them instead.
Stand in solidarity with others, sharing their grief and
their joy. Get along with each other. Live in peace with everyone. Don’t just
try, but do all you can to make it happen. Be intentional about it. Set aside
the divisiveness and backstabbing and gossip and put downs. Don’t set yourself
above others. One person isn’t any better than another. Don’t be an
insufferable know-it-all. Never pay back evil for evil. That just increases the
evil in the world and evil wins. Instead, speak and act in ways that others can
see who you are—a person of integrity and honor, a follower of Jesus.
And then there’s the stuff Jesus expected of us that seems
to go against reason. Love your enemies. You’d think avoiding them would be
good enough or gritting our teeth while biting our tongues, only speaking
against them when we’re talking to people who agree with us. But no, Paul
repeats what Jesus commanded. Love our enemies. If they’re hungry, feed them.
If they’re thirsty, give them something to drink. Saying that, Paul reaches
into the Old Testament Proverbs, which advocates giving your enemy food and
drink knowing it will be like heaping burning coals of shame on their heads. I
don’t think that’s exactly what Jesus had in mind. That’s a rather
self-serving, self-satisfying way of putting the enemy in their place. Not, I
suspect, how Jesus would define love.
As unlikely as it would seem in the face of what those
early Christians were experiencing and what Paul himself would soon face, Paul
also speaks of hope. He says, “Rejoice in your hope.” Be confident in it. He
didn’t say try to drum up a little hope. Paul spoke of the surety of hope. It’s
there already. It’s ours. It’s concrete. It’s sure. Count on it. Be joyful,
knowing that love will conquer hate and
fear. Jesus’ kingdom will prevail.
Jesus did, indeed, come into his kingdom. With his resurrection,
Jesus conquered death and many of his followers were there to witness it. They saw and interacted with the resurrected
Jesus and were given instructions by Jesus for their continued work in his
kingdom.
This, friends, is exactly what we are engaged in now in a
broken and hurting and dark and often evil world. This is kingdom work. The answer to “Now what?” is that we remain faithful. We continue loving and
serving and holding to what is good and right. We refuse to bow to evil yet we
strive for unity and tolerance and forgiveness and grace. As Paul urges, we are
patient in the face of all the world’s troubles, troubles that bruise our
souls.
Because of all that is wrong in the world, we love and we
pray. We don’t give up. We don’t give in. We refuse to let evil win, not over
us individually, not over our families, our communities, our nation, our world.
We conquer evil and we do it by doing good. Some might ask what ‘good’ is. What
exactly are we supposed to do that would be ‘good enough’ to conquer evil? If
we look into our hearts, if we measure what is happening in the world that is
contrary to the teachings of Jesus, then we know the answer to that. We know
each time we encounter evil what we need to do.
It’s fair to ask, will it work? Will it accomplish
anything? Will things get better? The answer is yes. Bit by bit. Person by
person. Incident by incident. If we persevere, insisting on a higher standard—a
standard set by love, then yes. And that not by our own power but by the power
of God’s love and grace, by God’s working through us for the healing and
transformation of the world.
We are able to do that today because those faithful
Christians were able to do it in the first century. Many were martyred, yes.
Times were hard, yes. There were setbacks and disappointments and losses, yes.
But they persevered. They were constant in prayer. They kept praying. They were
people of faith and conviction. They listened to what Paul taught and they
followed it. They heeded the commandments of Jesus to love even their enemies.
They committed their lives to this new way of being and it worked. Their legacy
is handed down to us today. It is our turn, today, to stand against evil and to
stand for the love Jesus taught.
The history of humanity has been a struggle of good against
evil. Always, evil rears its ugly head. Always, evil strives to win. And like
the snake in the garden, evil tries to sway the world with arguments and
justifications of why its way is the best way and how we’re better off aligning
ourselves with it and why it isn’t, of course, really evil. Paul urges us not to be fooled. Do not be overcome by
evil—don’t buy into it, don’t give in to it, don’t let it become the norm,
don’t let it be the measure by which you live. Don’t let it get the better of
you.
Always, God uses love and grace to counter evil. God came
into the world through Jesus to show the way of love, to call out the best in
each of us in order to work for good in the world—even through us flawed
individuals. We don’t have to be perfect; we just have to persevere in choosing
good over evil, love over hate, compassion over fear. Through all of this, we
hold onto the sure hope of the triumph of Jesus’ kingdom where love wins.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
God of our lives, we long to be part
of your vision for the world, to join in the joy and celebration and work of
your kingdom. We are humbled and we thank you that you invite us, that you have
included us, that you deem us worthy. And yet we struggle Lord. We have so much
going on in our lives, we are weary with the load and it is hard adding one
more thing. Help us God, to put you first, to give you the best of who we are,
not the leftovers. And help us to truly embrace the new life you give us and to
live out that life in love and service in your name.
God, you call us to your kingdom work
in the world, to love and serve your people. Guide us. Let your Spirit lead us
into the paths you would have us to follow. Teach us how to serve, how to love.
Tender God, we lift up to you those of our congregation and community, praying
for your comforting presence, your healing touch, your tender care for Virginia ... Lois
White, Laura … Cherry … Judy’s daughter Rosa … Darlene … John Matthews
… Margaret Dunbar … Sandi …Trisha … Dave … Jacob … Joyce … Jennifer … Chuck …
Courtney … Ethel … Helen. (Additional prayers …………)
We
continue to pray for an end to the pandemic, for the medical personnel and
emergency services personnel who are providing aid, for healing for those who
are ill, for comfort and peace for those who grieve. We pray for the safety and
well being of teachers and students as classes resume. We remember your people
throughout the world who are victims to addictions and violence, war and
oppression, disease and hunger, the poor, the lonely, the fearful. Bring hope
to their lives and show us our role in being part of that hope.
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
The God who bears us up on eagles’ wings
invites us to participate in the transformation of the world. The church at its
best is devoted to nothing less than changing people’s thoughts and actions to
a more loving way. Our offerings symbolize our commitment.
DOXOLOGY
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
As a covenant people, we seek to do our part to
witness to your will and way. As we give, help us to perceive more clearly what
you would have us do with the wealth entrusted to our management. Direct us
according to your will. Amen.
CLOSING HYMN: “Spirit,
Open My Heart”
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
Fiona
and Zoey were each given a cross with words to put on it as a reminder of what
Jesus calls us to. The point is to keep those things before us, to focus on
them. I would challenge you to do the same. When we see every day what it is
Jesus expects of us, then we’ll be looking for opportunities to live that. When
things are ‘out of sight’ they are often ‘out of mind’ and then they are out of
our actions. This week, take up your cross and follow Jesus.
As
you do, know that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit goes with you. 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 has
resumed under restricted conditions which include a 40-person limit, 6’
distancing, masks, and no physical contact.
PRAYER
CARE:
Virginia DesIlets (broken hip), Lois White (cancer), Laura VanCleave (cancer), Margaret Dunbar (fall/broken
tailbone), Judy’s daughter Rosa Lester (retinal bleed), Darlene Wingfield
(pulmonary fibrosis), 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 9/6/20
Exodus
12:1-14; Psalm 149; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 18:15-20
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