November 8, 2020 Worship

 

PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Worship via Blog          23rd Sunday after Pentecost   November 8, 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)    Live worship with masks and social distancing has plenty of room for additional worshipers.

 

-         M&M meets following worship

-         Session meets Tuesday at 6:00 p.m.

-         Worship & Music meets next Sunday following worship

-         Thanks to all those who contributed cookies, pies, crafts, time and energy for a successful Harvest Bazaar.

 

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

Put away the things you have substituted for God.

Let your worship of the one true God be genuine.

We seek to know God and to rejoice before our Creator.

We know that God is beyond all our false images.

God is not deceived by our solemn assemblies.

Our empty rituals do not impress our God.

We want to give joyous expression to a growing faith.

We choose to serve the God whom Jesus revealed.

Our hope is in God’s grace beyond all judgement.

Our trust is in God’s love, greater than our feeble imitation.

We welcome the light God promises us.

We seek to respond with faithful service.

 

PRAYER OF THE DAY

Meet us here, Gracious God, for we need your reassurance. Amid our griefs and empty toil, comfort and redirect us. From our fears, deliver us. In our confusion, lend your light to guide us. Gather us in watchful anticipation, lest we miss the signs of your presence and fail to hear your summons to ministry. Amen.

 

OPENING SONG:      “Take Up Your Cross”                            LU#117

 

CALL TO CONFESSION

How seriously do we regard the decrees of our spiritual ancestors? The psalmist commands the teaching of God’s law to our children, that we and they might not forget all that God has done. Obedience to the way of life God sets before us makes hope real. Let us confess our need for help.

 

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

If sin means cutting ourselves off from you and being unprepared to respond to your presence, surely we have sinned. We are not ready for your trumpet call. We have not listened well or encouraged one another in the faith. The distraction of many things has kept us from meditation and prayer. We are witnesses against ourselves, for we have vowed our loyalty and then have gone our own way. Merciful God, we seek your forgiveness. 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.

 

TIME WITH CHILDREN

          Good morning Zoey and Fiona. Today we’re going to talk about something really important. First, ask you Mama or Daddy to loan you a dollar bill. We’re going to talk about money just a little bit but that leads us to more important things.

          Got your dollar? Good. There’s a picture of someone on that dollar, isn’t there? I guess you have to be pretty important to get your picture on a dollar bill, don’t you? That’s George Washington. Do you know who he was? He was the very first president of our country, the United States of America. He was our leader and a very good one. The president is the most important leader in our government.

          We’ve just finished the elections to decide who will lead our country next. President Trump was running for re-election and former Vice-President Biden was also running. They are still sorting things out so we’ll hear more about that. People are still very excited about it.

          People were excited about Jesus, too. They expected Jesus to be like a king. There is a game called King of the Mountain. When you play, someone stands on top of a hill and claims to be king and others run up the hill and try to push them off so they can be king instead.

          The people expected Jesus to run up the hill and push the Romans off. The Romans were ruling the people and the people didn’t like it. They thought Jesus would be better. But that isn’t the kind of leader Jesus planned to be.

          Jesus is the leader of the church. And not just this church but leader of all the Christian churches in the world. Jesus shows us that power and authority come from God, not from having the most guns or jets or bombs. Jesus is our leader because we are part of his church.

          If you turn that dollar bill over, there’s a message on it to remind us. It says, “In God we trust.” Let’s pray.

          Dear Jesus, thank you for being the leader of our church. Help us to be good followers. Thank you that we can trust 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.

 

GLORY BE TO THE FATHER

 

SCRIPTURE 1:  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

 

SCRIPTURE 2:   Matthew 25:1-13

"Then the kingdom of heaven shall be compared to ten maidens who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, `Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Then all those maidens rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, `Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the wise replied, `Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.' And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut. Afterward the other maidens came also, saying, `Lord, lord, open to us.' But he replied, `Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.' Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

 

SERMON:           “Prepared to Wait”                                   Rev. Jean Hurst

          Here we have ten young girls who just want to party. They aren’t very old; they’re unmarried girls. Girls were married off around the age of fourteen.  So these are bridesmaids whose friend would be getting married. Don’t look for logic in this story of the party girls.  It’s more an allegory than a parable. The events are framed in order to give the desired meaning to the story rather than being true to life.

          For example, a real life story would have the bridesmaids going to the bride’s house to wait for bridegroom to come and fetch the bride to his own house. Here we’ve got the maidens waiting outside the groom’s house for the groom to show up, with no mention of the bride. Where is the bride?

          We’re told right up front that five of the girls were wise and five were foolish. No suspense builds on this one. We just wait to see it revealed as to why five were considered foolish.  Each has an oil lamp. 

          The wait for the bridegroom takes a lot longer than people expected. And the girls fall asleep--all of them, so the foolishness is not in dozing off. The cry goes out. The bridegroom is within sight. Everyone rouses up, trims their wicks and relights their lamps. Now we have a problem. Five of the girls--the foolish ones--failed to bring enough oil. 

          You might think a person would have to be pretty stupid not to bring along enough oil. Maybe so. But it reminds me of when Sheila Cunningham and I were coming back from a presbytery meeting in Pendleton. If I were honest I’d have to say Sheila was the wise one and I was the foolish. As we’re heading out of Pendleton she asks if I have enough gas. I glanced down to check my mileage predictor and looked at the wrong number. I reassured her we were fine.

          We were well on our way to Pilot Rock when I looked again and saw my error. We wouldn’t even have made it to Pilot Rock! We had to turn around and go back. I can empathize with the foolish maidens. It’s pretty easy to be foolish, really. It’s easy to take things for granted, to become complacent, to just not think. Or to underestimate time. Like how long it’ll take for the bridegroom to arrive.

          The foolish girls ask the wise girls--who came prepared with an extra flask of oil--to lend them some oil since they’d run out. The wise girls said no. Go to the oil merchant and buy your own, otherwise we might run out, too. 

          The five foolish girls stumble off through the dark to buy oil. While they’re gone, the bridegroom shows up and everyone goes inside where the party begins. The foolish girls return and knock on the door to be let in. The reply comes through the door, “Truly, I tell you, I know you not.” That’s a euphemism for “get lost,” or more specifically “I will have nothing to do with you.” No party for these girls.

          So what does that mean for us? This parable or allegory is about what the followers of Jesus do while awaiting his return. This story is one in a series on that topic. It is preceded by the parable of the master who went away and left his servant in charge of the household and whether or not the servant would be faithful in his task.

          Following today’s passage are two more on the same topic. In upcoming texts, you hear about the parable of the talents in which the Lord of the house goes on a trip and leaves his servants with money and expects them to make good use of it while he’s gone. The other is the familiar passage of “as much as you have done it to the least of these.” Each of these is a story about whether Jesus’ followers will be faithful to his teachings until he returns.  

          The gospel of Matthew was written after the fall of Jerusalem, which was in 70 A.D.  The first century Christians believed that Jesus’ return was imminent.  Many of them quit working and doing anything and just sat around waiting for the return. That’s where the delayed bridegroom fits in. Jesus is the bridegroom and he’s been delayed a lot longer than his followers anticipated. The bridesmaids represent the church.....us.....the body of Christ.

          The issue in this passage isn’t about falling asleep. The wise and the foolish all did that. Nor is it about living in constant fear that God is going to turn you away from heaven’s gate at the final hour because you didn’t believe in just the right way or have enough faith.

          The oil does not represent our belief in Jesus. If it did, they had oil, they just didn’t have enough of it. To believe that our salvation can be secured if we just have ‘enough’ faith puts us at risk of the heresy of believing that we can save ourselves. If our salvation is reliant on our believing hard enough or long enough, that negates God’s grace. We are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Scripture is clear about that.

          Yet we so often struggle with the question of whether we’ve done enough, believed enough, been good enough followers of Jesus. How much faith is enough? How much discipleship is enough? We’re always going to end up feeling that we’re just a little bit shy of what we need. If we approach our relationship with God that way, we will always live in fear. I don’t believe that is what God wants for us. 

          God wants us to be in relationship with him, to respond to his grace out of love, not fear. God wants us to continue to act faithfully, doing the things that Jesus taught, the things that Jesus commanded. Jesus told us how to treat each other and all of God’s children. He told us to love. He left us in charge in his absence. Are we going to be faithful servants or not? Are we going to be wise bridesmaids or foolish bridesmaids?

          According to commentaries, the oil represents obedience to Jesus’ teachings, continuing Jesus’ work. Not having oil is allegory for failing to continue Jesus’ work until he returns. It’s believing you won’t need the oil--won’t need to follow Jesus’ teachings because he’ll be returning shortly. That is foolish thinking. It’s just as foolish to become complacent, feeling like we’ve got all the time in the world and that sooner or later, when it’s convenient to us, we can get around to living out our discipleship as Jesus taught us. We all need the oil of obedience. It can’t be borrowed.

          Oil doesn’t come cheap. I would not have you believe that salvation is based on ‘cheap grace’. That was the term German theologian Deitrich Bonhoeffer used for believing that God’s grace is casually and generously poured out to make people feel good and to excuse them from Christian accountability. That kind of grace denies transformation of ourselves or the world, fails to require change--a turning away from our sinful behaviors. It costs the recipient nothing; it is a ‘grace’ that is void of substance, of the cross, of obedience to or following of Jesus. It is an empty grace. 

          By contrast, Bonhoeffer presents ‘costly grace’ as that which cost one everything that is previously meaningful. He uses the biblical illustrations of the hidden treasure and the costly pearl for which everything is sold in order to acquire it. He calls for us to live in the world, not of it and to live in discipleship to Jesus.

            Discipleship is going to cost us.....  time....money.... energy ....sacrifice of what we could do instead. It might cost us status or prestige or the appearance of affluence. It can cost us our pride. It can cost us those things that the world values, things that are worthless in God’s kingdom. It can cost us having to think and act differently than we might have, differently than our friends do. And yet, it is not such a great price to pay. Jesus said, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. We are not asked to do more than we are able. Yet we are able to do much.

          Just think about what we do through the church—what you do. Think of all the food we’ve collected for the Food Bank—one item at a time—just like the Faith Dollars collected one dollar at a time in order to provide clean water systems for people around the globe. We’ve sent money for Oregon wildfire relief. When we vote for legislation that helps people whose lives are mired in poverty or crime or addictions or violence--that’s evidence of oil in our lamps or when we work to eliminate oppression, to bring peace closer to reality, to ensure human dignity—that’s the oil of discipleship. 

          When we visit our seniors who are lonely and isolated, when we offer a kind word or a listening ear to someone who is hurting or scared or confused—that is discipleship.  When we act with integrity and love in dealing with aging parents as heartbreaking and frustrating as that can be—that, too, is discipleship. When we stand up to intolerance and bigotry and injustice—oil in the lamp--discipleship. 

          When we raise up a child in the faith, bring a child to church, take time to show kindness and interest in a child--that is precious oil in our lamps. When we let go of grievances, when we forgive, when we work to bring reconciliation, when we treat others as we would like to be treated--discipleship. When we create a sense of hope for a better tomorrow, that is a living of our faith, that shows we’ve not run out of oil. When we do these things, big or small, we are living out our discipleship.  It’s what we, as Christians, do while we wait. There is much that needs to be done while we are waiting. Are you prepared for the waiting? Are you willing to do the work of waiting? Amen.

 

HYMN:     “Today We Are Called to be Disciples”                             #757

 

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER

          Holy and mighty God, in whom we live and move and have our being, we praise you for all that you are, for all that we are and all that we can be because of you. Thank you for your steadfast love, your constancy in a world that is ever-changing, a world in which we don’t know what to believe and where the future lies. The only reliable future is in you, Holy God. Your promise is sure. You are faithful. We put our hope in you.

          Tender God, your attention to all your children amazes and surprises us. Help us this day to hear your call to us, to accept your direction, and to follow your commands that the world may become more faithfully your realm, a place acknowledging your rule, a homme for those who have been intimidated and afraid, a community in which all are valued and welcomes, whatever their contribution. Help us to celebrate your grace to others with as much joy as we celebrate our own.

          Sometimes it is hard to see, hard to receive your grace. Too often our lives are in such turmoil that we lose our focus on you. Thank you that even when we don’t feel worthy—even when we aren’t worthy—you love us and accept us anyway. Touch our hearts, touch our lives and bring renewal and joy.

          We pray for your children here and around the world—those who live in the shadow of fear and violence and hunger and loneliness, those impacted by Covid, by wildfires, by economics. We pray for those close to us, for George Sahlberg ... Phyllis Bauer … Beverly Patterson … Darlene Wingfield … 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

How will our neighbors be prepared for times of crisis? Who will help them discover spiritual riches more valuable than all their material possessions? Our church is a resource, and our ministry is for the whole world. Let us give our support, both financially and through the gifts with which God has entrusted us.

 

DOXOLOGY

 

PRAYER OF DEDICATION

We set our hope in you God of all ages, and seek to serve you through our offerings. You have entrusted us with abundance and we are grateful. You have comforted and delivered us in times of trouble, and for this we pour out our thanks. We bring ourselves with our gifts, asking you to help us use all we have in the best possible ways. Amen.

 

CLOSING HYMN:     “Called As Partners in Christ’s Service”       #761

 

CHARGE AND BENEDICTION

          There is a lot of uncertainty in the world right now. As Christians, our charge is to live faithfully and to trust our faithful God.

          As you do 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.

 

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LOOKING AHEAD

November 10      6:00 p.m.                      Session

November 15      following worship       Worship & Music Committee

 

 

 

PRAYER CARE:

George Sahlberg (infection, heart issues), Phyllis Bauer (aging issues), Beverly Patterson (Sheila Cunningham’s mother) (aging issues), Lois White (lymphoma), Virginia DesIlets (broken hip), Darlene Wingfield (heart valve, 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 11/15/20

Judges 4:1-7; Psalm 123; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 25:14-30