PIONEER
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Worship
via Blog 4th Sunday of Advent
December 20, 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 with masks and social distancing has plenty of room for additional
worshipers.
-
A
simple service will be held on Christmas Eve. This will not be a Lessons and
Carols format. We will use the battery operated candles and remain inside. There
will not be a refreshments time afterward.
-
Today
is the last day to drop off socks for Shepherd’s House, a homeless shelter in
Bend. Collection boxes are in the Fireside Room or you can hand off socks to
someone who is coming by the church. Dark socks are better, no hats or scarves
this year.
-
Advent Candles
o
Today
is the fourth Sunday of Advent. Gathered in the sanctuary, our tradition is to
read a scripture, light the appropriate candles on the Advent wreath and
explain their meaning. You are encouraged to have your own Advent wreath or a
set of candles to light as part of worship in the Advent season. Typically,
there are three purple candles and one pink, plus the white Christ candle. You
can use colors of your choosing or all white.
-
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.
ADVENT CANDLE LIGHTING
Fourth Week of Advent – Love
1 John 4:9-12
This
is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the
world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but
that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear
friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has
ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made
complete in us.
[Light all four candles of the Advent
Wreath starting with the shortest.]
The
first three candles of the Advent wreath are lit representing hope, peace, and
joy. We now light the fourth candle which is love. It was out of God’s love for
the world that God sent his only son into the world to save it.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Come apart to this place of rest and
renewal;
Let your spirits rejoice in the presence
of God.
We
will sing of God’s steadfast love for all people.
We
will proclaim God’s faithfulness to all generations.
God looks with favor on the humble and
lowly.
God’s covenant does not focus on rank or
position.
God
strengthens those who are weak.
The
proud are scattered in the thoughts of their hearts.
Blessed are those who walk in God’s light.
Blessed are all who say ‘yes’ to God’s
call.
Let
the heavens proclaim the wonders of God.
Let
all the earth rejoice in Christ’s coming.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
We bring our spiritual hungers to this
place, O God, hoping to be fed. We bring our weariness, expecting to find rest
for our souls. We bring our dullness, asking that we might be alerted to those
things that you consider important. We come because we want the scattered
fragments of our lives to come together in a meaningful wholeness. You have
promised to be with us. Reveal yourself to us here, we pray in the name of One
who came to share our common lot. Amen.
OPENING
SONG: “God’s Love Made Visible” LU#140
CALL TO CONFESSION
The promises of God are meant for all to
enjoy. Yet we have broken covenant and declared our independence from the Giver
of Life. Then, when we are brought down from the thrones of our pretension, we
wonder why. Let us confess the sin that separates us from God’s promises.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Gracious
God, in whom all things are possible, we confess that we have doubted what we
cannot explain. We have sought strength and enjoyment apart from you. We have
taken pride in ownership more than giving praise through stewardship. We have
neglected to thank you, either in good times or when you have supported us
during days of uncertainty. We have resisted the newness you offer. Forgive us,
we pray, for installing ourselves as reigning deities. Lead us, rather, in
paths of trust and obedience. (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 Fiona and Zoey. Christmas is
almost here! Have you been counting the days off with your Advent calendar?
Well, today is the fourth Sunday of Advent. Did you notice that when they lit
the Advent candles they lit all but the center one? That one will be lit on
Christmas Eve. It’s called the Jesus candle.
Jesus is what makes today’s candle special. It stands for love. Jesus
loves us. That’s why he came as a little baby and was born in a barn. He grew
up just like us and showed us how to love each other. And because Jesus loves
us, we love Jesus. Today I have a heart ornament for you to remind you of
Jesus’ love for you. Let’s pray:
Dear
Jesus, we’re excited that Christmas is almost here. We like the presents and
decorations and good food. Help us to remember that love is the most important
thing about Christmas, that you came because you love us. 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: Luke 1:46b-55
And Mary said,
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for
he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all
generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things
for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him from
generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered
the proud in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from
their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with
good things, and the rich he has sent empty away. He has helped his servant
Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and
to his posterity forever."
SCRIPTURE 2: Luke 1:26-38
In the sixth month
the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a
virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the
virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Hail, O favored one,
the Lord is with you!" But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and
considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said
to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And
behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his
name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and
the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign
over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no
end." And Mary said to the angel, "How shall this be, since I have no
husband?" And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon
you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to
be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your kinswoman
Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month
with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible."
And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me
according to your word." And the angel departed from her.
SERMON: “Perplexed
and Pondering” Rev. Jean Hurst
Can
you pretend for a few minutes that you do not
know the story? You’re not sitting here
on this end of two thousand
years. You’re right there in Nazareth
standing in the sandals of a young girl named Mary. She may be an early teen. Maybe, like today’s young girls, her thoughts
are consumed by how she looks and her clothes and friends and chores and what
the future holds. Yet there is a big
difference. This young girl of Nazareth
would also be preoccupied with thoughts of her approaching wedding.
We
would call it abusive now, but back then marriages were arranged for young
girls by their fathers--often to secure a political or economic alliance that
would benefit the families. In other
words, there wasn’t much opportunity for ‘falling in love.’ Marriage was convenience in one form or
another--not romance. Love came
later. After the betrothal--engagement--she
is legally bound to the man arranged for her, though she lives at home for
another year. If that man were to die,
she would be considered a widow even though she was not formally married yet. She could be a virgin and still a widow.
So here is this young girl, going
about her normal everyday activities when a stranger is suddenly there with
her. It’s the angel Gabriel. Now, despite all the wonderful sacred art of
angels with huge gorgeous wings and flowing robes and long hair, Gabriel
probably just looked like a normal man.
The word ‘angel’ is a transliteration of the Greek word aggelos
(angle-oss), which means ‘messenger.’
Angels appeared throughout the Bible looking like ordinary people. In fact we are cautioned in the book of Hebrews
not to neglect showing hospitality to strangers because sometimes we may be
entertaining angels without knowing it.
This
strange man shows up with a strange greeting and an even stranger message. This has to be one of the great
understatements of scripture when it says, from the New Revised Standard
Version, that Mary was perplexed and pondered.
This
stranger tells her she is going to have a baby--without even being with a man. This is a culture where she is already
legally bound. That means for her to
come up pregnant before her wedding meant she could be stoned to death. And this strange messenger is saying, “Fear
not.” Fear not! Easy for him to say. It’s not his life that’s on the line.
First
she challenges him, asking how it could be possible since she was a
virgin. Gabriel tells her that the Holy
Spirit will come upon her and the power of God will overshadow her and the
child she gives birth to will be the Son of God. To further convince her, he tells her that
her relative Elizabeth whom everyone knows is old and unable to have children
is already six months pregnant. And then
the clincher— “nothing is impossible with God.”
This is an echo of the angel’s words to Abraham when Sarah laughed at
the idea of having a baby when she was ninety.
“Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”
Mary
acquiesces. God had a special calling
for her life. She was young. She was inexperienced. She was probably scared to death. This was going to be a huge scandal. She would face public ridicule and
condemnation. A lot of friends would
turn against her, maybe even her own family.
She might even face a brutal death.
Certainly she had to face the man she was promised to and tell him that
she was going to have a baby--and it wasn’t his. Would he believe a story about messengers
from God? Would he believe that the
child she carried was the Son of God? Or
would he think she was making up stories to cover up her own shame?
Mary
said ‘yes’ to God’s call on her life.
And it was going to cost her--big time.
Could she even begin to imagine the impact her obedience to God would
have on the world--how it has reached out and touched us these two thousand years later?
Truly,
God had a purpose for Mary’s life. We
don’t know why God chose her. She didn’t have any special talents or
abilities. She simply had to be willing
to trust God. God has a purpose for each
of our lives, too. It may not be as
dramatic as Mary’s. It may not carry the
same risks. It may not be a
scandal. It probably won’t have such
wondrous consequences. But God’s call is
there, nevertheless.
I
wonder about how the message is received.
Might it be through the angelic ‘stranger’ of which the writer of
Hebrews warns us--someone who comes out of nowhere, connects with us
unexpectedly and prompts us to particular action? God speaks in many ways if we will just
listen. It could be through a friend, a
family member, or just an acquaintance who plants a seed, saying something that
stirs a previously quiet place within us, drawing us to action when we had been
content with the way things were. It
might be in the form of a restlessness that won’t let us be, that pulls at us,
tugging at our awareness of a need, prodding us to step forward.
God
might speak in a quiet voice, a quiet knowing, in the silence of a starlit sky
or a snow blanketed landscape or just before we drift to sleep. It might instead be in the blaring need that
cannot be ignored, that is in our face whenever we turn around and causes our
stomach to clench, our heart to stir, brings tears to our eyes, and a tug to
our conscience. God’s voice often speaks
within our reason, making us know there is a task to be done and that we have
the means to see it carried out.
The
amazing part of this is how our lives are often placed in alignment with the
carrying out of a particular call. There
may be circumstances that we would never seek out. It may, in fact, be a turning topsy-turvy of
all our plans. A trauma or tragedy in
our life, the loss of a job or relationship, an opportunity that didn’t play
out, a failure or mistake that we can’t undo, even a loss of interest and
motivation for a previous direction.
The
God we know and love and worship is a good God.
God does not do evil. God does
not bring evil into our lives--not to test us or teach us a lesson or even to
guide us. But our God of love, of
redemption, of salvation, of new life and new beginnings does bring good out of
all the pain and struggle we face. God
uses the opportunity of those life twists so that they are not a loss, so that
we can then be directed into new paths of doing and being that fulfills God’s
purpose for our lives and his purpose for the world.
We
can resist. God does not force his will
on us. Always it is left to us to choose. When we face life’s changes we can ignore
God’s voice that pulls us into a direction that fulfills his will for us. When we do,
I wonder if God doesn’t sometimes feel disappointment in how we waste
the gift he has given us. If God has a
call for our lives, if God has expectation of what we can do and be, if God has
a desire that we live into the promise and if we fail to do so, is it not like
opening an empty gift?
We
were not created for emptiness. We were
not created simply to satisfy our own personal desires, to live for ourselves,
to be self-focused. We were created to
live in relationship with God and each other.
We were created to live into the image of God--the image of love. God can fill the emptiness of our lives. God can satisfy the restless longing. God can take the turmoil of our lives, the
sense that there has to be more, the longing for meaning and fill it with
divine purpose. It’s an exciting thought. It’s a scary thought. Fear not, the angel
Gabriel told Mary. Fear not. God is with you.
HYMN: “Love
Has Come” #110
PRAYERS OF THE
PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
As we come before God in prayer this
morning, I invite you to think for a moment on that which weighs on your heart
and mind, to hold that out to God and then in silence to wait on the Lord.
(time of silence).
O God of the morning star, Creator of
the day, we search the sky for the warmth of your love only to discover it in
our own hearts. We spend our whole lives wondering about the measure of your
love only to discover its height and depth, its breadth and length is
unfathomable, boundless.
Again and again our nagging doubts are
overcome by shimmering amazement. We are confounded by your love, comforted by
your love, confronted by your love, challenged by your love.
Move us ever beyond the shadow of
doubt to the beaming brightness of your Light—the Light of the World, the Light
which will not leave us alone, the Light which disturbs our sleep, pokes
through our passivity, and calls us out into the dance of a new day. We praise
you, Holy One, for your loving Spirit undaunted by our doubts, forgiving of our
fears, and ever seeking out our souls. Lift up faith in us, O Lord.
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 Pastor Jean …
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
Christmas is traditionally a time of gift
giving. Think about the gifts you bring before God. What do you offer of
yourself to God to express your love?
DOXOLOGY
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Tender God, we want to give the best of ourselves to
you in response to your amazing love. Bless the offerings we bring from our
treasures and from our lives. Amen.
CLOSING HYMN: “O
Come All Ye Faithful” #133
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
It is easier for us to image Mary
being called to be the mother of Jesus. It’s harder for us to imagine that God
might call us for a special purpose. Your challenge this week is to listen, to
watch, to open yourselves to God’s call.
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.
~~~~~~~~~~
LOOKING
AHEAD
December 24 7:00 p.m. Christmas
Eve Service
December 27 following worship Deacons
January 5 10:30 a.m. Women’s Spirituality
January 10 following worship M&M
January 12 6:00 p.m. Session
January 17 following worship Worship & Music
January 19 10:30 a.m. Women’s Spirituality
January 24 following worship Annual Congregational Meeting
M&M concludes the
Christmas sock drive for Shepherd’s House, a homeless shelter in Bend. December
20 is the last day for drop off. Collection boxes are in the Fireside Room or
you can hand off socks to someone who is coming by the church. Dark socks are
better and no hats or scarves this year. Thanks for your contributions to help
homeless men.
PRAYER
CARE:
Pastor Jean (ankle
surgery), George Sahlberg (infection, heart problems), 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 12/27/20
Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3; Psalm 148; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke
2:22-40
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