PIONEER
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Worship
via Blog 14th Sunday after
Pentecost September 6, 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 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.
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.
Session will meet at 6:00 Tuesday the 8th
in the downstairs Fellowship Hall.
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
Tell the whole congregation of God’s
people:
This is a day for new beginnings.
This
is a time of God’s appearing.
This
is the moment for faithful response.
Praise God in the assembly of the
faithful.
Make melody to God and sing a new song.
Praise
God for life enriched by love.
Praise
God for love that fulfills God’s law.
This is the hour to wake from our sleep.
The energy of God’s love fills this
place.
Here
we claim our identity as Christians.
Here
we become the church of Jesus Christ.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
This is, O God, a day of remembering
your faithfulness through the centuries, a time for celebrating your constant
presence with us, a pause of anticipation for the seasons yet to be. We rejoice
at the assurance that you take pleasure in us, that we are known by you, called
by you, empowered by you to live honorably and humbly, in the spirit of Christ.
We would exalt your name and sing for joy, knowing that we can trust you for
the guidance and direction we need. Amen.
OPENING
SONG: “Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying”
CALL TO CONFESSION
Our ancestors in the faith sometimes
sought vengeance on their enemies. Jesus challenged his friends to listen and
reconcile to those with whom they disagreed. Paul counseled followers to put
away quarreling, jealousy, and harmful behavior. There is much in our lives
that is harmful to ourselves and others, much that leads to brokenness and
lasting pain. Let us confess our need for healing.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
O
God, we have not been faithful to your commands. We have been more ready to
condemn than to console, more eager to justify ourselves than to work for
understanding. We feed the flames of dissent instead of welcoming the freeing
power of forgiveness. We gather as two or three, not to welcome your presence
but to gossip about those who are absent. Our sins are destroying us, God. Turn
us around to a new way of being. (Let
us continue our prayers in silence……) 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
Good
morning Zoey and Fiona. Today we’re going to talk about love again. We do that
a lot, don’t we. That’s because Jesus said that love is the most important
commandment. He said we’re supposed to love God and love each other and that’s
more important than all the other things put together.
Jesus
tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Someone asked Jesus who our
neighbors are. Didn’t that sound kind of silly? Do you know who your neighbors
are? They live right next door, right? Well those are neighbors, but Jesus
meant more than that. He told a story about a man who was hurt and how two
people passed by and wouldn’t even help him. They pretended they didn’t see
him. That wasn’t very nice, was it?
Then
another man came by and saw him. He was a Samaritan and the Jewish people and
the Samaritan people didn’t like each other. But the Samaritan saw the man was
hurt and needed help so he stopped and helped him anyway. He washed his hurt
places and put on bandages and then put him on his own donkey. He took him to
an inn and asked the innkeeper to take care of him and paid for it. Jesus said
he was the one who acted like a neighbor. Jesus says everyone is our neighbor.
So
when Jesus says treat your neighbor as yourself, he wants us to be good to
others just like we would be good to ourselves. That’s a lot like the golden
rule we talked about before. We’re supposed to treat other people like we’d
like them to treat us—to love them, be kind, help them when they need help,
give them food if they’re hungry, be their friend. Those things don’t sound
hard, do they? Let’s pray:
Jesus, thank you for loving us. Help us
love others and treat them in good ways like we would for ourselves. Amen.
HYMN: “Jesus
Loves Me”
SCRIPTURE 1: Romans
13:8-14
Owe no one
anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has
fulfilled the law. The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You
shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other
commandment, are summed up in this sentence, "You shall love your neighbor
as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the
fulfilling of the law. Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full
time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than
when we first believed; the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then
cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct
ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in
debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
SCRIPTURE 2: John
8:2-11
Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the
people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the
Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in
the midst they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the
act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you
say about her?" This they said to test him, that they might have some
charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the
ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let
him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."
And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. But when
they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus
was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus looked up and said to her, "Woman,
where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one,
Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin
again."
SERMON: “Stonecatchers” Rev. Jean Hurst
How do we balance justice and grace?
Aren’t there consequences for a person’s actions? Doesn’t God want us to live
up to certain standards? Shouldn’t the consequences of evil be punishment in some form or another, so
people are held accountable for what they do?
Some things are clearly based on law.
If you murder, if you cheat on your taxes, if you run a stop sign, there are
clear penalties in the law and you have to pay the price for your deeds. Some
things are settled in a civil court. If you slander someone, if you violate
copyright laws, if you damage a neighbor’s trees, accusations can be made and
resolved in civil court with a financial settlement.
But there is no criminal or civil
repercussion for unkindness, greed, exploitation, rudeness, gossip, or
mean-spiritedness. Those are just as wrong but there’s no legislated
consequences for them. With the criminal and civil situations, a jury is
involved in concluding what is right and what is wrong. In a sense, right and
wrong is determined by community. That’s the case with most of our moral values
which we base on scripture. So a faith community is often the community that
determines what is right or wrong and what the consequences should be based on
their understanding of scripture. But is the community always right?
Technically, perhaps so. That would seem to be the case in today’s gospel
reading.
The woman was clearly guilty, caught
in the act. The scribes and Pharisees brought her to Jesus, expecting to entrap
Jesus, who already had a reputation for acting contrary to the law, putting
love and mercy above rules. In this case, the law said she should be stoned to
death. Watching to see his response, to see if they could condemn him as well
as her, they asked Jesus what should be done with her.
Ignoring them, Jesus squatted and
began writing in the dirt with his finger. He knew the law and they knew he
knew the law, so they persisted. He stood and said to them, “Let anyone among
you who is without sin cast the first stone.” Then he continued to write in the
dust. One by one, her accusers slipped quietly away. It is supposed that Jesus
was writing in the dust the hidden sins of each of those scribes and Pharisees
so that each saw only the indictment of their own deeds. In shame, each turned
away, not wanting those deeds to be made public.
When we are quick to judge the actions
and attitudes of others, we are encouraged to remember this story of the woman
who was brought before Jesus for judgement. Each of us carries our own guilt.
While we may be fortunate enough not to have been publicly accused of those
deeds, in our hearts we know our own failings. Yet despite that, we are quick
to judge someone else. Perhaps because it creates a diversion away from our own
misdeeds.
Yet it seems, from Jesus’ point of
view, that another person’s guilt does not give us license to judge and
condemn—even when the deed is so great that the death penalty is the
consequence. Jesus calls us instead to act in loving, life-giving, grace-filled
ways, even if we are the victims of the hurtful acts of others.
When we carry the pain of another
person’s actions, a natural response would be bitterness and anger and a desire
to strike back. Bryan Stevenson tells a different story. In his book, Just Mercy, Bryan tells of his life as
an attorney representing people who had been unjustly condemned to death and of
people who had been condemned to die in prison for something they’d done as a
teen.
He was in court on one such case when
he encountered an old black woman he’d seen in the courts several times before.
He asked if she was related to his defendants. She said no. “I just come here
to help people. This is a place full of pain, so people need plenty of help
around here.” Bryan said that was really kind of her but she responded, “No,
it’s what I’m supposed to do, so I do it.”
They talked and she told him that
fifteen years before, her sixteen-year-old grandson had been murdered. She
said, “I loved that boy more than life itself.” The youth who had killed him
were arrested and tried. She said, “I grieved and grieved and grieved. I asked
the Lord why he let someone take my child like that. He was killed by some
other boys. I came to this courtroom for the first time for their trials and
sat in there and cried every day for nearly two weeks. None of it made any
sense. Those boys were found guilty for killing my grandson, and the judge sent
them away to prison forever. I thought it would make me feel better but it
actually made me feel worse.”
I sat in the courtroom after they were
sentenced and just cried and cried. A lady came over to me and gave me a hug
and let me lean on her. She asked me if the boys who got sentenced were my
children, and I told her no. I told her the boy they killed was my child.” She
sat with me for almost two hours. For well over an hour, we didn’t neither one
of us say a word. It felt good to finally have someone to lean on at that
trial, and I’ve never forgotten that woman. I don’t know who she was, but she
really made a difference.” That difference led this old woman to her sense of
mission and purpose. She continued her story.
“When I first came, I’d look for
people who had lost someone to murder or some violent crime. Then it got to the
point where some of the ones grieving the most were the ones whose children or
parents were on trial, so I just started letting anybody lean on me who needed
it. All these young children being sent to prison forever, all this grief and
violence. Those judges throwing people away like they’re not even human, people
shooting each other, hurting each other like they don’t care. I don’t know,
it’s a lot of pain. I decided that I was supposed to be here to catch some of
the stones people cast at each other.”1 She was a stonecatcher.
People throw a lot of stones. It comes
from feelings of being in the right and wanting to point out the wrongs of
others. It comes from condemning those who don’t measure up to our values and
beliefs. It comes from being wronged and wanting to retaliate. It comes from
judging another person’s motives and attitudes and finding them suspect. It
comes from wanting to elevate oneself by demeaning an opponent. It comes from
having one too many stones thrown at them. Sometimes the stones are thrown at
the pains of the past.
That was the case of Jenny in the Forrest Gump movie when Jenny visited
her old homesite where she’d been subjected to her father’s sexual abuse. It
all came back to her as the pain washed over her again and she began throwing
stones at that abandoned house until she’d run out of stones and strength and
fell to the ground sobbing. Forrest remarked, “Sometimes there just aren’t
enough stones.”
Remember that scene? It was gut
wrenching. You felt her pain—pain that wasn’t her fault but still changed her
life. Think about the BLM movement, the Palestinians, indigenous people. Think
about your own life. No, there aren’t enough stones. There aren’t enough stones
in the world to destroy the pain we carry or to right all the wrongs. Yet we
keep throwing stones anyway.
What does it mean to be a stonecatcher?
It may not be heroic or world-changing in the sense of power and
sensationalism. It may not even be popular. A person can end up with very bruised
hands. For the old black woman in a courtroom, it was seeing pain without
ascribing guilt, feeling and knowing that pain because she’d felt it herself,
and then doing something to ease that pain.
That’s what Jesus did when he
encountered the woman in this passage. The religious people were stonecasters
and legally they were in the right about her guilt. Jesus was a stonecatcher.
By being a stone catcher, his actions affected both the woman and her accusers.
For the accusers, he wasn’t telling them they were wrong in their accusations,
he simply reminded them that they carried their own guilt, that they, too, were
in need of mercy. Of the woman, he wasn’t condoning her actions. He showed her
mercy, then told her to go and not sin again.
What are you? What reflects your
attitudes and actions—stonecaster or stonecatcher? There is a lot of pain in
the world. What will make a difference? What does the world need for its
healing and reconciliation—stonecasters or stonecatchers? What do you want to
be in response to all the pain in the world? What does Jesus call you to?
1Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy, One World Press, NY, 2015,
p. 307-309.
HYMN: “Make
Me a Channel of Your Peace”
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
God
of life, who is with us all our days, breathe deeply into us for we come
breathless to you from fretful times and fragile relationships, our attention
distracted, our energy drained, our intentions splintered, our love glazed
over, our hopes unmet and our faith frayed. Still we come to you with praise
and thanksgiving, for your blessings, your grace and your love, for this
insistent yearning to know you and to love you back. Lord, pour your Spirit
into us, so that despite painful times, sobering losses, and puzzling trials,
our lives may be healed. We are yours, and you are forever, heeding our prayers
and the needs of our lives.
We are living in desperate times amid
a confused and hurting people. There is much wrong in the world and we are torn
as we try to understand how you would have us respond. We don’t have the
answers, Lord. We don’t even know all the questions. But we trust you and believe
in what Jesus taught. And so we join in praying the prayer of St. Francis of
Assisi.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where
there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where
there is injury, pardon;
Where
there is doubt, faith;
Where
there is despair, hope;
Where
there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O
Divine Master, grant that I may not
so
much seek to be consoled as to console;
To
be understood as to understand;
To
be loved as to love.
For
it is in giving that we receive;
It
is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying that we are born to
eternal life.
Grant
us compassionate hearts to mean what we pray and the courage to face the world
standing firm in what Jesus taught. Lord, we remember your children here and
around the world—the hungry, the scared, the hurting, the lonely, the
abandoned. In the face of violence, disease, fires, politics, and economics we
trust in you and pray for your guidance. We lift up those close to us--families,
friends, community. We pray for Laura VanCleave … Lois White … Virginia
DesIlets … Judy’s daughter Rosa Lester …
Darlene Wingfield … John Matthews … Margaret Dunbar … Trisha … Dave …
Jacob … Joyce … Jennifer … Chuck … Courtney … Ethel … Helen. (Additional prayers …………)
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
Our Hebrew ancestors offered the best of their
flocks and crops to honor God. We bring symbols of our labor, dedicating them
and ourselves to upholding the highest values of human life. May our offerings
be a joyous expression of worship.
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Holy God, may these offerings be used for sharing
the good news of Jesus and be a source of healing for your children. May the
light of your love shine through all our efforts. We dedicate these gifts and
our very lives to you. Amen.
THE LORD’S
SUPPER
Song
of Preparation: “I Come with Joy”
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. It is the
place we come to renew our commitment to continue his ministry and mission. 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: “Song
of Hope”
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
Your charge for the week, and hopefully beyond, is
simply to choose to be a stonecatcher.
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.
~~~~~~~~~~
PRAYER
CARE:
Laura VanCleave
(lung cancer), Virginia DesIlets (broken hip/surgery), Lois White (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 9/13/20
Exodus 14:19-31;
Psalm 114 or Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21;
Romans 14:1-12;
Matthew 18:21-35
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