PIONEER
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Worship
via Blog Palm/Passion Sunday March 28, 2021
PROCLAMATION
HYMN: “All Glory, Laud and Honor” Glory
#196
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.
-
Deacons
meet following worship
-
Maundy
Thursday Service 7:00 p.m. Thursday
-
Easter
Service next Sunday
-
Women’s
Spirituality 10:30 a.m. Tuesday
-
Men’s
Prayer Group 8:30 a.m. Thursday
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
Surprising God, you come to our lives in
ways we do not expect.
We ask for success;
You teach us acceptance.
We ask to be loved;
You ask us
to love.
We ask for ease;
You challenge us.
We ask for a triumphant Messiah,
You come as one obedient to death.
We glorify the winner,
You glorify the loser
who died on a criminal’s cross.
Walk among us, surprising God of peace.
Sanctify our joys and our successes;
turn our hearts to you.
At the name of Jesus, we bow before you.
May your name be glorified in your church,
now and always. Amen.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
God of all true power and glory, we thank
you that Jesus Christ came to Jerusalem not with a sword to challenge the power
of this world, but with love, recognizing your authority in human life. Enable
your church to choose your ways, winning the victory over sin and death.
Establish your righteous realm on earth. Use our gifts and our lives to your
glory, through Jesus, who comes in your name. Amen.
SCRIPTURE READING 1: Mark 11:1-11
And when they drew near to Jerusalem, to
Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his Disciples,
and said to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as
you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat; untie it
and bring it. If anyone says to you,
`Why are you doing this?' say, `The Lord has need of it and will send it back
here immediately.'" And they went
away, and found a colt tied at the door out in the open street; and they untied
it. And those who stood there said to
them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" And they told them what Jesus had said; and
they let them go. And they brought the
colt to Jesus, and threw their garments on it; and he sat upon it. And many spread their garments on the road,
and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who
followed cried out,
(Congregation) Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the
name
of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David
that is coming! Hosanna in the
highest!
And he entered Jerusalem, and went into
the temple; and when he had looked round at everything, as it was already late,
he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
OPENING
HYMN: “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna ” #197
CALL TO CONFESSION
God’s love is
steadfast, and God’s faithfulness endures from age to age. Our love falters, and our faithfulness waxes
and wanes from day to day. Let us
confess our sin and our need for God.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Almighty God, by water and your Holy Spirit you
baptized us to be your own and call the church into being. We confess that we
hold back the love of your Spirit among us. We do not listen for your word of
grace, speak the good news of your love, or live as a people made one in
Christ. Have mercy on us, O God.
Transform our lives by the power of your Holy Spirit and make strong our
common witness to our Savior Jesus Christ. (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 2: Mark 15:1-5
And as soon as it was morning the chief
priests, with the elders and scribes, and the whole council held a
consultation; and they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him to
Pilate. And Pilate asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" And he
answered him, "You have said so."
And the chief priests accused him of many things. And Pilate again asked him, "Have you no
answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you." But Jesus made no further answer, so that
Pilate wondered.
HYMN:
“He Never Said a ‘Mumblin Word” Glory #219
SCRIPTURE
3: Mark 15:6-20
Now at the feast
he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. And among the
rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man
called Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he was
wont to do for them. And he answered them, "Do you want me to release for
you the King of the Jews?" For he perceived that it was out of envy that
the chief priests had delivered him up. But the chief priests stirred up the
crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. And Pilate again said to
them, "Then what shall I do with the man whom you call the King of the
Jews?" And they cried out again,
(Congregation): "Crucify him!"
And
Pilate said to them, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they shouted all the more,
(Congregation) "Crucify him."
So
Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas; and having
scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
And the soldiers led him away inside the
palace (that is, the praetorium); and they called together the whole battalion.
And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and plaiting a crown of thorns they put
it on him. And they began to salute him,
"Hail, King of the Jews!" And
they struck his head with a reed, and spat upon him, and they knelt down in
homage to him. And when they had mocked
him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, and put his own clothes on him. And
they led him out to crucify him.
HYMN: “Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley”
SCRIPTURE 4: Mark 15:21-32
And they compelled
a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of
Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. And they brought him to the place
called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). And they offered him wine
mingled with myrrh; but he did not take it. And they crucified him, and divided
his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should
take. And it was the third hour, when they crucified him. And the inscription
of the charge against him read, "The King of the Jews." And with him
they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. And those who
passed by derided him, wagging their heads, and saying, "Aha! You who
would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come
down from the cross!" So also the chief priests mocked him to one another
with the scribes, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let
the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see
and believe." Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.
SCRIPTURE 5: Mark
15:33-47
And when the sixth
hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And
at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama
sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?" And some of the bystanders hearing it said, "Behold, he is calling
Elijah." And one ran and, filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a
reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah
will come to take him down." And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed
his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his
last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" There were also
women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother
of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome, who, when he was in Galilee,
followed him, and ministered to him; and also many other women who came up with
him to Jerusalem.
And when evening had come, since it was
the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of
Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for
the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate, and asked for the body of
Jesus. And Pilate wondered if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion,
he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the
centurion that he was dead, he granted the body to Joseph. And he bought a
linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud, and laid
him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a stone
against the door of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw
where he was laid.
PASSION REFLECTION Rev. Jean
Hurst
What an awful story! What horrible
people they were! Look what they did to the God who loved them so much that he
took human form to come and show them what love is. It wasn’t just one or two
who did it, it was a cast of thousands who played out the greatest drama in the
history of the world. Each of the players had their own reason for what they
did and probably justified it in their own minds. But why would so many people,
so diverse a people, all turn on Jesus?
I think the problem was that Jesus
disappointed people; he didn’t meet their expectations. He wasn’t what they
thought he should be, what they wanted him to be, so they turned on him or
turned away from him. The religious leaders likely would have been okay with
Jesus if he’d kept his place, a wandering teacher from a backwater who upheld
the established system. But Jesus became a threat, challenging their authority,
the authority of the law, and their system of power.
Pilate saw in Jesus not someone
significant to use in putting the religious leaders in their place, but a
powerless man who wouldn’t even speak up for himself, so he played politics
with the religious leaders and the crowd and then lay the blame on them. The
soldiers would claim they were just following orders, but when Jesus didn’t
resist, they became the playground bullies who pushed and hit and
ridiculed.
The crowd was so sure Jesus was going
to be their hero, they couldn’t contain their excitement. When it became clear
he wasn’t going to be the one to throw off the Roman oppressors and reestablish
the glory of Israel, they joined in the chorus that condemned Jesus to death
and called for release of the insurrectionist who was doing something to try to
throw off the Roman rule.
The disciples, too, looked for a
Messiah who would be a warrior king, leading them all to glory. Though it was
going exactly as Jesus forewarned, when the disciples saw it falling apart,
they got scared and ran, afraid of what might happen to them.
There are so many different people
involved. We really can’t point our finger and say, ‘There, that one. He is responsible for the death of Jesus.’
Even Judas’ betrayal wouldn’t have meant anything if there hadn’t been the
other players to carry out the deed. The guilt has to be shared. It has to be
owned by all. Then ... and now.
We tend to think of the crucifixion as
a once and done event. But the cast of thousands spans the centuries. Over and
over we participate in that betrayal, denial, abandonment and crucifixion of
Jesus. We do it in more subtle ways, perhaps, but we do it for the same reasons
they did. Jesus doesn’t meet our expectations.
Though we are touched by the lowly
stable beginnings of Jesus, we want a rags to riches model who pulls himself up
by his boot straps and overcomes adversity and comes out on top. We really
don’t like the idea of a meek savior who stands there and takes the beatings
and humiliations and won’t fight back. We’d rather feel we have a God with an
iron fist who will crush our adversaries. Like the disciples and the crowds, we
also want a Christ of power and might, who is our national God, who leads us to
military and economic triumph, one who is on our side, ensuring our victory. We
want a God who conquers our enemies rather than insisting that we love and
forgive them.
We want a God of prosperity, who helps
us succeed, not one who tells us to give away our hard-earned wealth,
especially to those we think don’t deserve it. We don’t want to sacrifice. When
we give, we want credit for it, we want our giving to make us more important,
more respected. We want a God who makes us feel good about ourselves rather
than having us examine our own motives and actions. And we really don’t want to
be servants. We may be okay with the idea of tolerance toward those who are
different, but accepting them as equals is going too far. Like the religious
leaders, we want a God that sets us apart ... and above ... other people, who
makes us right and better than those who have a different understanding of
scripture and worship and how to live.
We don’t want a God who insists we
change--our way of life, our values, our attitudes. We don’t want a God who
takes our time and energy. We certainly don’t want a God who makes us feel
uncomfortable. We want a feel-good God. In fact, what we want is a God who
serves us. So we try to make God over in our own image.
For every one of these acts and
attitudes, we are joining the crowds at the crucifixion. We are selling out
Jesus, abandoning him, denying him, turning against him and everything he stood
for. We are following the ways of the world and not the ways of God.
And ... as he hung on that cross,
rejected by the ones he loved, he didn’t stop loving. He looked out over that
crowd, he saw all those players in the drama, saw all their failings, all their
self-centered interests, saw them striving against him and against each other
for their own agendas ... and loved them still.
His
arms were outstretched to include and embrace them all--Jew and Gentile, male
and female, servant and free, young and old, oppressor and oppressed,
proponents of war and proponents of peace, wealthy and impoverished, powerful
and vulnerable. He loved them all. He died for them all.
His arms are still outstretched. He
still includes and embraces all of us, despite our complicity, despite our
failings, despite our unworthiness. He loves us still. Had it only been us back
then, he still would gone through it for us. Had it only been me, had it only
been you, he still would have willingly hung on that cross to make us understand
what love is.
But ... it was a drama that happened a
long, long time ago. Does it make any difference?
HYMN: “Were
You There?” Glory #228
PRAYERS OF THE
PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
God who offers us grace upon grace, we
thank you for your redeeming love. God, we thank you that you wanted us to
truly see who and what you are and that you came to us in the person of Jesus
in order to do that.
Help us to live into the life you call
us to. Grant us strength and courage, patience and love. And tender God, thank
you for your grace when we fail. Help us to not be discouraged, to not give up.
Help us, Lord, to hold each other up, to encourage each other. Grant us the
right words and actions. Show us how to act in love.
In response to your call to
discipleship, God, we seek to be your hands and heart in the world. Guide us in
prayer and action as we lift up to you the Bauers in the death of Jack's mother Phyllis ... Lari Higgins … Summer Bauer … Linda and Bill
Kaesemeyer … Tasha Sizemore … Stephen Meinzinger … Beverly
Patterson … Lois White … Virginia …
Cherry … John Matthews … Margaret Dunbar … Darlene … Trisha … Dave … Jacob … George
and Joyce … Jennifer … Chuck … Courtney … Ethel … Helen. (Additional prayers
…………)
For our world, Holy One, we pray for justice, for
wisdom for our leaders, for transformed hearts of those who use violence and
oppression and exploitation. We pray for wholeness, for the healing of your
people, for hope for the lost and wounded in heart.
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
What shall we give in the name of One who
gave everything for us? What do we offer in thanksgiving for the steadfast love
proclaimed in Jesus Christ? How will good news be carried to those desperate to
hear it? What we give will make a difference.
DOXOLOGY
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
What you have done for us is marvelous in our eyes,
gracious God. Our gifts can never match your goodness toward us. Your saving
grace, your healing light, your personal sacrifice are so far beyond our
imagining! We can only offer ourselves, all we have and all we are, in response
to the coming of Christ Jesus. Receive, O God, our humble service and bless
these gifts we pray. Amen.
CLOSING HYMN: “What
Wondrous Love Is This” Glory #215
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
Your charge this week is to is to
think about what Jesus has given and done for your sake and then to consider
how you will respond.
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
April 1 7:00 p.m. Maundy Thursday Service
April 4 10:00 a.m. Easter Service
April 6 10:30 a.m. Women’s Spirituality
April 8 8:30 a.m. Men’s Prayer Group
April 11 following worship M&M
April 18 following worship Worship & Music
April 18 1:00 p.m. Prayer
Shawl Ministry
April 20 10:30 a.m. Women’s Spirituality
April 22 8:30 a.m. Men’s Prayer Group
April 25 following worship Deacons
April 27 12:00 noon PPW
PRAYER
CARE:
Jack and Carolyn Bauer and family (death of Jack's mother Phyllis), Lari Higgins
(breast cancer), Summer Bauer (breast cancer), Linda and Bill Kaesemeyer (breathing
problems, relocation to Idaho), Tasha Sizemore (Krohn’s?), Lois White
(lymphoma), John Matthews (cancer), (Jacob Cunningham, Trisha Cagley (health
problems), Dave Clark (kidney cancer), Virginia DesIlets (age 99!), Margaret Dunbar
(aging issues, knee problems), George Sahlberg (infection in knee), Joyce Sahlberg (health
issues), Jennifer Schirm (Parkinson’s), Chuck VanHise (leg/walking rehab), Darlene
Wingfield (heart valve, pulmonary fibrosis, breast cancer), and Courtney
Ziegler (Huntington’s).
LECTIONARY
FOR 4/4/21
Acts 10:34-43;
Isaiah 25:6-9; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24;
1 Corinthians
15:1-11; John 20:1-18; Mark 16:1-8
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