October 25, 2020 Worship

 

PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Worship via Blog        21st Sunday after Pentecost        October 25, 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 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)    Live worship. 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.

 

-         If you wish to contribute toward the relief effort for the Oregon wildfires, you can do that through the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Fund. You can write a check to the church, earmarked Oregon wildfire relief or you can contribute directly to PDA by phone at 800-872-3283.

-         Deacons will meet following worship Sunday, October 25^th

-         PPW will hold a lunch meeting Tuesday, the 27^th at noon.

-         Turn your clocks back next Saturday, October 21.

 

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

Blessed are those who stand in awe before God;

Happy are all who walk in God’s ways.

The true and living God turns us from our idols.

The Spirit directs us in the way we should go.

Link your hearts with one another in God’s presence;

Know that you are a part of God’s family.

The love of God chooses and unites us;

That love causes us to value ourselves and others.

Many felt God’s love in knowing Jesus.

They experienced a new relationship with neighbors.

We have come seeking community centered in Christ.

We want to feel God’s presence as we worship.

 

PRAYER OF THE DAY

God, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the earth was formed, long before there were people on this planet, you were fashioning life in its myriad forms. Out of the billions of years you have been creating, our lives have come to this moment of meeting. We stand in awe before you, amazed to discover that you care about us, tiny blips on the screen of eternity. O God, we want our lives to count for something. Show us how to fit into your plans. Amen.

 

OPENING SONG:      “Great and Mighty”

 

CALL TO CONFESSION

How often have we been unwitting opponents of the gospel, denying good news by the way we work and relate? How much do we rely on human wisdom, rather than thirsting for the pure waters of eternal reality? Who do we seek most to please, God or influential persons? Let us confess our unfaithfulness and the limits of our trust.

 

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

We confess, O God, that we have not held the gospel in trust nor been diligent to share the good news. We have nursed our grievances rather than the people who need our care. We have been more concerned with honor than with service. Our greed outruns our generosity. Perhaps we have not loved others because we have not fully claimed our own worth as your beloved children. Grant us the will and the courage to change. (continue your prayer 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. Today we’re going to talk about rules … again! Keep your golden ruler handy because that’s part of it. Back in Jesus’ time, there were lots and lots of rules. So one day a man asked Jesus what rule was most important of all those rules. Jesus said the most important rule is to love God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind. And then the said the second one was kind of like that one. It’s your golden ruler one. Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said that these were more important than all the others.

          So let’s talk about that first one. Jesus said we are supposed to love God. He didn’t say love God like we love other things or other people. He said love God even more. How much more do you think would be enough? Hard question, isn’t it? Jesus told us how much.

          He said love God with all our heart. As much as we can possibly love or feel. He said love God with all our soul. Our soul is our spirit within us that shows that we’re alive. So that would be loving God with all that we are. And then Jesus said love God with all our minds. That’s kind of a funny one, isn’t it? I think it means that we love God with how we think. If we think about love, if we think about good things and doing good for other people, that’s a way we love God. In another place in the Bible, Jesus says love God with all our strength. Maybe that would be like using our muscles to help other people. When we help others, we are loving God.   So there are four ways to love God.

¨ One is with our … heart, right! Love God with what we feel.

¨ Love God with our … soul, our very life.

¨ Love God with our … mind, with what we think.

¨ Love God with our … strength, with what we do.

     Jesus said loving God is the most important rule of all, to love God with all of us. Heart. Mind. Soul. Strength. Got it? Let’s pray.

          Thank you, Jesus, for teaching us about love and for showing us how to love. Help us to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind. And help us love others, too. 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 90:1-6, 13-17 (New Living Translation)

Lord, through all the generations you have been our home! Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from beginning to end, you are God. You turn people back to dust, saying, "Return to dust, you mortals!" For you, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few night hours. You sweep people away like dreams that disappear. They are like grass that springs up in the morning. In the morning it blooms and flourishes, but by evening it is dry and withered.

 

O Lord, come back to us! How long will you delay? Take pity on your servants! Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives. Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery! Replace the evil years with good. Let us, your servants, see you work again; let our children see your glory. And may the Lord our God show us his approval and make our efforts successful. Yes, make our efforts successful!

 

SCRIPTURE 2:  Matthew 22:34-46

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets." Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, "What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." He said to them, "How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, `The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put thy enemies under thy feet'? If David thus calls him Lord, how is he his son?" And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did any one dare to ask him any more questions.

 

SERMON:           “Can You Pass the Test?”                        Rev. Jean Hurst

          Can you pass the test? Jesus was being tested by the Pharisees. They were feeling pretty smug since Jesus had just put the Sadducees in their place. These two groups didn’t share the same theological beliefs especially when it came to the resurrection. The incident that preceded today’s interaction was when the Sadducees were trying to put Jesus to the test—or entrap him—around what happens after you die.

          Scoffing at the idea of a life after death, they propose a scenario of life continuing as it has been. A woman has been married to successive brothers who each die without producing an heir. In their law, when a brother dies without offspring, the next brother in line is required to marry the widow to produce a son in his brother’s name.

          In this contrived scenario, all seven brothers die with no heir; then the widow dies. Since Jesus claims there is a heaven or an afterlife, then whose wife will she be? Jesus corrects their thinking. Heaven won’t be a continuation of earthly life with all its religious laws. Instead we’ll be like angels.

          So now it’s the Pharisees’ turn to take a shot at Jesus. Lest we think that Jesus is being treated unjustly, this practice of debating the law and scriptures was a common practice in that era. But the Sadducees and the Pharisees are trying to disprove Jesus’ teachings in this debate and, as a result, seek to undermine his credibility with the people.

          A lawyer poses the question. Which commandment is the most important? That might seem simple and obvious to us, but in the Jewish faith, there are 613 mitzvot or commandments. Those commandments governed everything in the life of the people, so they would already be very familiar. Still, Jesus doesn’t even hesitate in order to mentally sort through them.  His answer shows what Jesus is about in his ministry and teachings. Jesus answers by quoting the shema from Deuteronomy 5:6. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

          In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is quoting from the original commandment given through Moses, which follows shortly after the Ten Commandments. It reads, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might.” These words are known as the shema, which means “Hear!” and was to be worn on the arm and forehead, placed on doors frames, taught to children and thought about before you go to sleep and when you wake up in the morning.

          The gospels of Mark and Luke say it a little differently, listing four ways to love God instead of three. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I suppose it’s just a way of placing emphasis and interpreting from the shema, which would be the core teaching for every Jewish person.

          The Hebrew lexicon or dictionary for Deuteronomy 5:6 offers multiple interpretations for use of those words. ‘Heart’ can mean inner man, mind, or will. ‘Soul’ can be defined as living being, self, person, passion, appetite, or emotion. ‘Might’ can mean power, muchness, force, or abundance. In this era, we tend to scramble some of those meanings, like putting emotion in with heart. It seems that the Gospels of Mark and Luke have done similarly, creating an extra category. Matthew did that, attributing Jesus as saying 'mind' as opposed to ‘might’.

          If we get caught up on which words are used and which are right, we miss the point, which is that we are to love God with all we are, every bit of us, every part of our being and feeling and thinking and doing.

          If we were to do that, what would our lives look like? How would we live? How would we relate not just to God but to each other and to those with whom we differ. I suspect that for most of us, it would look very different from the present reality in which we live. Hence the question, “Can you pass the test?”

          We have a habit of picking and choosing what, of ourselves, we are willing to give to God and how much or to what extent. Some of you may have just moved into resistance mode when I made the leap from ‘loving’ God to ‘giving’ to God.

          We tend to prefer keeping God on an emotional leash, like a pet, and lavishing affection on God as the mood strikes us. It’s fine to feel something about God or toward God, quite another to do something with that feeling. God doesn’t need our warm and fuzzies. God wants our actions, the living of our lives. In this commandment, love is not a noun. Love is a verb. Love is something that becomes love in the doing.

          Those different ways of loving God lead to the doing. The heart was considered the center of a person’s willing, choosing, and doing. If we love God with all our hearts, we will be willing what God wills, choosing what God wills, and doing what God wills.

          If we love God with our entire selves—our souls, our life being, then everything in our lives will be governed by our love for God and lived out in every aspect of our lives.

          If we love God with all our minds, then what we think, which leads to what we say and do, will be focused on God. If we love God with all our strength, then we will be using our physical abilities, our power, our influence in ways that serve God and God’s purpose for the world.

          Where does that leave us today? I suspect in a place we don’t want to examine too closely. Can we honestly say that the thoughts in our minds are reflective of our love for God and governed by God’s will? More than occasionally?

           Can we say that the things we do, the use of our power and influence is a reflection of our love for God and of our desire to be in line with God’s will and purpose for the world? Can we say that how we use our bodies, our physical abilities, our strength, our might shows our love for God and is in line with what God wants for us and for the world?

          Let’s consider some examples. Foremost in most minds right now is the election. We’ve received our ballots. How will we vote? Will we love God with heart, soul, strength, and mind? Will what we think about the issues and candidates align with God’s will and vision for the world? Will the action we take through our voting be a reflection of God’s will as opposed to our own? Or are we tending to decide what God’s will should be and then voting according to our own will or how others have told us we should vote? Where is our love for God on the ballot?

          Another example is materialism. Jesus had a lot to say about wealth. How we manage our wealth, what we spend it on, is a reflection of whether we are loving God with heart, soul, mind and strength. Is our accumulation of more and more material things showing a love for God or a love for self? Do we give more than a pittance of what has been entrusted to us to help God’s children who are in need? Our money becomes one of those aspects of power with which we either love God or love self. Jesus said we can’t serve both God and money.

          Are we loving God with our whole selves or does that give way to loving self instead? Think about our frequent need to be right. That is about ego and control which is about self. We are too often ready to sacrifice relationships with others in order to be right. Is that what God wants for us and for the other? Judging is yet another as we see ourselves as better than, more deserving than those we are ready to condemn. How about how we spend our time? Does that show a love for God? Does it reflect loving God with all of who we are?

          The issue of self comes into play in myriad other ways. Consider all those teachings of Jesus—forgiveness, peacemaking, generosity, grace, acceptance, tolerance, healing. All of it and all the Bible teaches is, according to Jesus, tied in with those two commandments. He said all the law and prophets hang on those two.

          The greatest commandment is to love God. Love God with all your heart. Love God with all your soul. Love God with your entire mind. Love God with all the power and wealth and influence and resources you have available to you. If we do that, we will, without hesitation, love our neighbors as ourselves. Amen.

 

HYMN:     “Take My Life”

 

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER

          God who has given us life and then redeemed our lives, thank you for your great love. Because you love, we know how to love as well. God, for all that you have provided, for all the ways you have blessed us, we thank you. We especially thank you, Lord, for the many ways you have been present in our lives, even though we may not have understood it at the time or may even have resented it. Thank you for watching over us, guiding us, and protecting us. Thank you for not giving up on us.

          Through the power of your Holy Spirit, create in us a restlessness, a hunger to be close to you. Help us, O God, to want you enough to risk failing and to trust you enough to know that your hand will support us.

          As election day nears and as people are already making decisions about who will lead this country, grant us all wisdom to discern your will for us and help us have the integrity to vote accordingly.

          We continue to pray for those who have suffered because of  the Covid virus and the wildfires. For those who have lost loved ones and homes and businesses, Lord help them so they don’t lose hope.

          We pray for those close to us, for  Phyllis Bauer … Beverly Patterson … Darlene Wingfield with heart valve replacement on Thursday… Lois White …  Virginia … Cherry … John Matthews … Margaret Dunbar … Trisha … Dave … Jacob … Joyce … Jennifer … Chuck … Courtney … Ethel … Helen. (Additional prayers …………)

          God who guides our lives, 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

We have been issued the invitation and the means to be generous, whether in material things or in the capacity to care. All of us have received, and all of us have something to give. Our offerings are a symbol of our intent to please God and to realize in and through the church the community God intends.

 

DOXOLOGY

 

PRAYER OF DEDICATION

Giver of all gifts, we seek to share as you have shared with us. We want to serve in the spirit of Christ. Therefore, we rededicate ourselves with this offering. May we love you and one another as we learn to love ourselves as we should. Amen.

 

CLOSING HYMN:     “Fill My Cup”

 

CHARGE AND BENEDICTION

          Your charge is to love. It’s not my charge to you, it’s Jesus’ charge to you. And not just for this week but for every week. When you’re voting … do it with love. When you’re talking about political issues or Covid or anything … do it with love. When you’re praying or worshiping … do it with love. First love God. With all your heart. With all your soul. With all your mind. With all your strength. And then love everyone else.

          And remember …  that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is with you now and always. 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

October 27                   noon                              PPW

November 3                 10:30 a.m.                    Women’s Spirituality

 

PRAYER CARE:

Phyllis Bauer, Beverly Patterson (Sheila Cunningham’s mother) (aging issues), Lois White (lymphoma), Virginia DesIlets (broken hip), Darlene Wingfield (heart valve replacement 10/29), pulmonary fibrosis, breast cancer), Margaret Dunbar (fall/broken tailbone), 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 11/1/20

Joshua 3:7-17; Psalm 34:1-10, 22; 1 John 3:1-3; Mathew 5:1-12