PIONEER
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Worship
via Blog Transfiguration of the Lord February
14, 2021
~~~~~~~~~~
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
-
Women’s
Spirituality meets Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.
-
Ash
Wednesday service is 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday
-
Next
Sunday Worship & Music meets following worship
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
Come to the mountaintop to pray,
For God will not keep silence.
We
gather to listen for God’s word
And
to make our response.
Come to the light of God’s revelation,
For we are in darkness apart from God’s
love.
The
light shines in our hearts, giving knowledge
Of
the glory of God in the face of Christ.
Come, as God’s covenant people,
Who serve and sacrifice in faithfulness.
The
heavens declare God’s righteousness
And
draw us to the excitement of worship.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Speak to us, Mighty One, for we are eager
to listen. Bless us, as we cry out to you for strength and vision. You have
acted in times past to save your people. Save us now. You have sent prophets to
change the world. Change us now. You have granted light in Jesus Christ. Shine
on us now. Let us see your glory. Lift us to the mountaintop in this time of
prayer. Stay close to us to melt away our doubts, and do not leave us we pray.
Amen.
OPENING
SONG: “I Am the Light of the World”
LU#144
CALL TO CONFESSION
The whirlwind pace of our lives becomes so
all-consuming that we may forget our origins. Our busyness separates us from
knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Christ. Now in these quiet moments
apart from our everyday distractions, we seek to renew our relationship with
God and be restored to wholeness.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
When
the gospel is veiled from us, mighty God, we feel alone. How easy it is to lose
our direction and go the wrong way! At times, we feel as if we are perishing
under the demands of our day, unable to see clearly what is most important. We
become enslaved to our routines and enticed by shallow distractions. We fill
all our hours with doing so there is no time for reflection and prayer. Forgive
us, O God, and restore balance to our lives. (continue with personal prayers
…..) 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
SCRIPTURE 1: Mark 9:2-9
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James
and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was
transfigured before them, and his garments became glistening, intensely white,
as no fuller on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with
Moses; and they were talking to Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, "Master,
it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for
Moses and one for Elijah." For he did not know what to say, for they were
exceedingly afraid. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the
cloud, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him." And suddenly looking
around they no longer saw any one with them but Jesus only. And as they were
coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen,
until the Son of man should have risen from the dead.
SCRIPTURE 2: 2 Corinthians 4:3-6
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to
those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the
minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of
the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God. For what we preach is not
ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus'
sake. For it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"
who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Christ.
SERMON: “Heart
Lights” Rev.
Jean Hurst
Are
you willing to take advice from an 8-year old?
You might scoff at that. After all, what does an 8-year old know about
life? Yet, it’s pretty close to the advice you’ve been receiving from this
sixty-8-year old. Let me tell you about Ellie first. When she was just 4-years
old, Ellie with diagnosed with childhood arthritis. For those of you who suffer
from arthritis, can you imagine that in a child like Fiona or Zoey? It got tragically
worse.
On Jan. 28th last year, Ellie suddenly became sick at school.
When her health wasn't improving, she was admitted to Children's Hospital of
Atlanta, where tests revealed she had autoimmune diseases, including Lupus,
which were attacking her blood cells. Ellie died days later on Feb. 6th. She
was 8 years old.
Going home after her death, her parents found a paper taped to her
bedroom door titled, “My Room Rules.” On it were listed four items. 1) Have
fun. 2) No fighting. 3) No pushing, shoving, or hitting. 4) Always love.
Businesses in Atlanta have picked up the message and posted it in a
variety of ways, though some of them
have abbreviated it to just the two: have fun and love always. Her mother
described Ellie as extremely smart, kind to everyone, helpful, thoughtful, able
to connect with people, and a very special little girl.1 I would add
that little Ellie had heart light.
There’s starlight, moonlight, sunlight, flashlight, floodlight. What is heart light? It’s the light you feel
rather than see. When you have heart light, it shines out of you…like it did
for Ellie.
The Apostle Paul had a sense of that heart light when he wrote to the
church at Corinth about the accusations against his teachings of the gospel.
His adversaries were saying that his gospel was veiled. Hidden.
Incomprehensible.
Paul admitted that yes, for some people it was veiled. He said that was due to blinded minds, that
those blinded minds kept them from seeing the light of the gospel. Furthermore,
he insisted it was the gods of the world that had blinded them. Paul reminded
them, “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has
shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the
face of Christ.”
When Paul blamed it on the gods of the world, this time he wasn’t talking
about Zeus and Poseidon and Artemis. I suspect it was much like the gods of our
world today. Shawnthea Monroe-Mueller explains it well when she tells of taking
a group of inner-city students canoeing in northern Minnesota.
“The first night out when the sun had set, one young woman looked up at
the star-filled sky and said, “Where did those come from?” I explained that the
stars were always there but in the city, there was too much light pollution to
see any but the brightest stars.” She goes on to say, “The same is true for
contemporary Christians: we are not suffering from blindness as much as from an
excess of light.”2
Consider the truth of that. The entertainment world--whether movies,
music or sports--with all its glitz and glitter and shallowness can blind us to
the reality of life around us. It can take the place of God in our lives.
Commercialism is another with all its promises of beauty, happiness, love, status,
and success if we just buy their products. When those promises aren’t
fulfilled, we just buy more and more, trying to find that miraculous trigger.
The gods that blind us could be love of success, accumulation of wealth,
blind nationalism, hunger for power and privilege, and even something as benign
as ‘reason’ or ‘science’. In an insistence on answers, people too often put
science and fact before faith. If it can’t be proven, then we often question
the truth and the value of it. Ego or self-focus is yet another. When we think
we have all the answers, when we’re determined to be right at all costs, when
we sure we can fix ourselves, when we make ourselves the center of our
universe, where does God fit in?
What commands your vision to the extent that you are blinded to the light
of Christ? What would it take to clear your vision? And it’s not that we’re
totally blinded. Like the young woman and the stars, the brightest parts may
still shine through.
There are times when the awe of God’s glory shines through so that
despite everything else that distracts, we can experience that light of Christ,
be touched by it, changed by it. Yet with so many other things competing, it
can be like a night sky that gives only a suggestion of what is really there.
A few years ago, on a family coast trip, after everyone had gone to bed,
I couldn’t sleep so I went outside. The Milky Way was a band of brilliance
against the dark sky. I’ve never seen the stars so bright or seen so many of
them at once. It took my breath away. I knew exactly how that young woman felt.
The next day I told my family about it and my 21 year-old grandson
insisted that I wake him when it was dark enough to see it again. He, too, was
awed. And the fact that it is there every night, but we just can’t see it
because there’s too many sources of competing light, points to the presence of
God’s glory as well—beyond our comprehension, always there, but so often dimmed
by life.
What do we do to escape from all those competing lights in our lives?
Well, maybe we don’t. The theological theme of this passage is the knowledge of
God. That’s not just knowledge in the sense of information, but really knowing
God. It’s not just reading or hearing about God it’s being in relationship.
When that happens, then God’s focus becomes our focus.
Commentator Ronald Allen puts it this way, “Paul’s gospel calls for
people to be discontent with brokenness, injustice, scarcity, exploitation,
violence, and death and to believe that God seeks to increase community,
wholeness, abundance, justice, peace, love, and life.”3 That
represents not an escape from the world and its distractions but a
transformation of them.
Isn’t that like the prayer of Francis of Assissi? 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. That is transformation—changing what is darkness in the
world into something more in line with God’s desire for the world; shedding the
light of Christ in a way that brings healing and wholeness and hope. But how?
Let’s go back to Ellie and her rules. Remember they were 1) have fun, 2)
no fighting, 3) no pushing, shoving, or hitting, and 4) always love. Because
Ellie was a little girl filled with heart light, her rules spread. You could
find them on display at neighborhood businesses, schools, and fast food
restaurants.
Children’s Hospital shared the list on its Facebook page, explaining how
Ellie inspired people to participate in the "Connect
with Kindness" campaign through its hospital. They offered, "Whether
it’s simply holding the door for a stranger, sending a note to an old friend or
completing a random act of kindness for your neighbor, join us as we reconnect,
inspire and challenge one another to connect with kindness."
Sound too simple? Maybe. But what do
we have to lose? Try it. The light in your heart will grow and the world will
be a better place. Simple acts of kindness can transform the world when it’s
done the Ellie way. Have fun. Always love.
2Shawnthea Monroe-Mueller, Feasting
on the Word, Year B, Volume 1, p. 447-448, Westminster John Knox,
Louisville, 2008.
3Ronald Allen, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 1, p. 450,
Westminister John Knox, Louisville, 2008
HYMN: “Be
Thou My Vision” #450
PRAYERS OF THE
PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
Amazing God, your promise of hope
sustains and directs our lives. We are not stopped by disappointments, nor
thwarted by disaster. The faith you have given us in your Spirit is to believe
in the unbelievable, to see the invisible, to hope the impossible. It is this
faith which gives us courage to join others in the pursuit of justice and to
affirm the worth of every human being. This faith enlarges our hearts so that
we can reach out to the lonely, the infirm, the vulnerable, and those in
despair to bring light and hope. Continue to empower and embolden us and lead
us to those for whom our love can make a difference.
We pray for those close to us,
for Tasha Sizemore … Stephen Meinzinger
… 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 …………)
We
pray for ourselves, for those times of doubt and confusion, for the times we
find it hard to love and harder to forgive, as we struggle with decisions we
face, with fragile relationships, with wounds that do not heal, with an
inability to forgive ourselves, we ask that you would hold us in your mercy and
gently lead us in the direction we need to go.
We
entrust to you our prayers and our lives and pray as 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
Through our offerings the church is able
to proclaim the good news. Our generosity can make a difference in the lives of
others. Let us give from our hearts in deep thanksgiving.
DOXOLOGY
PRAYER
OF DEDICATION
Use our gifts, mighty God, to bring light where there
is gloom, hope where there is despair, peace where there is turmoil. We dedicate
ourselves and our offering to these ends. Amen.
CLOSING HYMN: “Arise!
Your Light Has Come” #744
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
God
called light out of the darkness when the world was created. Your charge is to
let God call forth the light from you that the world might see it and know the
light of Christ.
May
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
February 14 following
worship M&M meets
February 16 10:30 a.m. Women’s Spirituality meets
February 17 7:00 p.m. Ash Wednesday Service
February 21 following worship Worship & Music meets
February 25 8:30 a.m. Men’s Prayer Group
February 23 noon PPW lunch meeting
February 28 following
worship Deacons meet
PRAYER
CARE:
Tasha Sizemore
(Crohn’s), Stephen Meinzinger (Covid), 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, George Sahlberg (knee infection), Joyce Sahlberg (health issues),
Jennifer Schirm (Parkinson’s), Chuck VanHise (leg/walking rehab), and Courtney
Ziegler (Huntington’s).
LECTIONARY
FOR 2/21/21
Genesis 9:8-17;
Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15
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