PIONEER
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Worship
via Blog 5th Sunday of Easter May
2, 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.
We will share the
Lord’s Supper as part of this worship service. So please pause
and gather your choice of bread and beverage. While the bread and grape juice
served in community and led by the pastor in person is our tradition, we are
facing times that call for us to do worship in new ways rather than being tied
to rigid tradition—much like the early church.
-
Women’s
Spirituality meets Tuesday at 10:30
-
M&M
meets next Sunday 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 worship God whose love was
revealed in Jesus.
Let all the ends of the earth turn to our
God.
We
will worship the Almighty and sing praises
We
will proclaim good news to others.
Beloved, we are called to love as God
loves us.
We are to love one another as sisters and
brothers.
Everyone
who loves is born of God and knows God.
We
seek to let God’s love be perfected in us.
Remember that you have been baptized.
God claims you and has high expectations
of you.
Christ
is the vine; we are the branches.
We
will bear fruit when we abide in the vine.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Open our senses to your direction, amazing
God, so we may be alert to opportunities you give us. Fill us with good news to
share with those who seek meaning for their lives. We are here because we need
the good news ourselves. There is much in life that we do not understand. We
seek to know your Word and to be led by it. Recall us to the vows of our
baptism, reconfirming in us the covenant promises that link us to you and to
one another. As we meet you here, our hearts are lifted up in praise. May our
worship glorify your name and be pleasing to you. Amen.
OPENING
SONG: “Love Is a Circle” LU#94
CALL TO CONFESSION
Sense the love of God that seeks to live
in us. Remember the times you have felt connected to the true vine, Jesus
Christ. Listen again to the promise and challenge: If you abide in me and my
words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you . . .
. bear much fruit and become my disciples. Have we lived into that challenge?
Let us bring our confessions before God.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
O God, we have ignored our origin in you
and denied your rule over the nations. We have pursued illusions of
self-interest rather than abiding in your love. We have turned away from
brothers and sisters as if they were enemies to be hated. We are afraid to love
those who differ from us or who have the power to harm us. We hesitate to take
the risks of caring for fear that we may be hurt. Discipleship seems too
demanding. O God, release us from our fears and failures to trust your love and
live with bold generosity. 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: John 15:1-8
"I am the true
vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no
fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it
may bear more fruit. You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken
to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself,
unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the
vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that
bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide
in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered,
thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you,
ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is
glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.
SCRIPTURE 2: 1 John 4:7-21
Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and
he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know
God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that
God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In
this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be
the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love
one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us
and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in
us, because he has given us of his own Spirit. And we have seen and testify
that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses
that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we know and
believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides
in God, and God abides in him. In this is love perfected with us, that we may
have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so are we in this
world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has
to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because
he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his
brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen,
cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him,
that he who loves God should love his brother also.
SERMON: “Searching for Loopholes” Rev. Jean Hurst
If anyone says, “I love God,” yet
hates his brother or sister, that person is a liar. Wow! That’s a powerful
indictment. This passage also says that the one who does not love does not know
God, for God is love. Clearly, the message of this passage is that we are
supposed to love. This is not my
opinion. This is holy scripture. And it’s not an isolated passage. The Old
Testament book of Deuteronomy says love God with all your heart and soul and
strength. Leviticus says love your neighbor as yourself. These are laws handed
down to the Israelites by God through Moses.
Then Jesus told us that these two
commandments are the greatest in all
of scripture. And lest we think that loving is selective, Jesus tops it off by
telling us to love our enemies too. Then, right before he died for us all—an
act of unbelievable love and sacrifice—he told his followers that he was giving
us a new commandment: that we love
one another as he has loved us. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13—the love
chapter—said that no matter what knowledge or ability or faith or generous act,
despite whatever we are or do, without love it’s meaningless, useless,
worthless. The author of the letters of John repeatedly reminds us of our
obligation to love. Not much wiggle room, is there?
Yet,
if we are truly honest with ourselves, we really don’t want to love everybody. Right? We have all kinds of reasons. We
don’t want to love people who have hurt us. We don’t want to love people who
judge us or think they’re better than us. We don’t want to love people who
don’t like us. We don’t want to love people who don’t embrace the same values
or politics or lifestyles as we do … or those who don’t agree with our own
values and politics and lifestyles.
We
don’t want to love people with whom we’ve had or have disagreements. After all,
we’re right and they’re wrong. If we love them it might look too much like
we’re acknowledging they are right or it might look like we’ve given up on our
convictions. We don’t want to love people who don’t deserve to be loved—it
would be too much like condoning values or behaviors with which we disagree. We
don’t want to love people who are perceived to be some type of threat to us,
our loved ones, our country, our way of life. We don’t want to love someone
when it might cost us in one way or another. We don’t want to love when it
might put demands on us, our time, our resources; when it might result in more
and more demands on us.
Does
God have any idea of just how many reasons there are not to love someone?! How can God put such a burden on us? Why
would God make such unreasonable demands on us? There’s got to be some way
around this. There’s got to be a loophole. Let’s explore that. There are many
ways to try to get around this passage while keeping our sense of righteousness
intact.
Love
might be a relative term. For example, we can claim that we don’t hate that brother or sister. We just
don’t like them. Hate is the opposite
of love so if we don’t hate then maybe by default, we are adequately covered.
Or we can say, of course we love. We
love lots of people--just not all of them. Haven’t we fulfilled the
requirement for loving one another? We simply choose which ones to love and let
someone else love the ones we don’t. Or we can claim exemption to loving
certain people because they don’t deserve it or they believe or act or live
contrary to our values—which must be God’s values, too, because we are, of
course always right. God wouldn’t want us condoning sin.
Does
that work? Does that get us over this troublesome hurdle? What does your heart
honestly tell you? What if we applied our rationalizing to God? For example, if
we said God loves some us so that should be sufficient without having to love
all of us. Then we’d have to ask ourselves, am I one of the loved? If God loves
only some people, can we still call him the God of love? Or are we among those
God doesn’t hate, but doesn’t
particularly like either? We can say
we are justified in not loving some people because they believe things or do
things that we don’t agree with or that are contrary to our values. If we apply
that to God, then God doesn’t have to love us if we do things that don’t fit
God’s commandments or God’s vision for the world or God’s values. Don’t you
think that would leave most of us sitting on the doorstep, shut out?
Have
you noticed how much we expect from God that we are not willing, in turn, to
extend to those around us? Have you noticed that we tend to attribute God’s
favor to us and God’s judgement or disapproval to those of whom we disapprove?
We tend to create God in our own image, attributing to God what we believe and
feel. It might be a rude awakening, but our concept of love does not define
God; God’s love defines us. If we read and follow scripture, we might find we
have more difference with God than we would like to admit. If we didn’t, we
wouldn’t have such an issue with loving those we deem unworthy of our love.
The
author of this first letter of John tells us in no uncertain terms who God is
and what God is about. God is love. The word for love is agape—self-sacrificing
love that gives without expecting anything in return. That, in itself, goes
against the grain. We live in a quid pro
quo world. There’s always paybacks. We favor those who can do something for
us in return. We also find ways to retaliate if someone does us an ill turn.
That’s not the example Jesus gave us.
Jesus
gave his life in agony on the cross—for me, for you, for each person who has
ever lived or ever will live. What he experienced—rejection, abandonment,
denial, beatings, ridicule, and a physical agony we can’t even imagine—was done
out of love. What does Jesus ask in return? Love—for us to love each other. And
as today’s scripture points out, we can’t obey the commandment to love God
without also obeying the commandment to love one another. Jesus said our loving
others is the hallmark by which we are seen as followers of Jesus. In the 13th
chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus said this is how the world will know that
we are his followers, if we love one another.
Might
that be our loophole? Jesus said if you love one another. He didn’t say love
everyone. He was talking to the disciples. And Paul’s writings use that phrase
over and over again. Love one another. Doesn’t that mean we only have to love
those who are also Christians? In fact, doesn’t it mean we only have to love
those who believe like we do? Don’t we
only have to love our brothers and sisters?
That
sounds reasonable—except for that darn story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus said,
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” A lawyer—good at finding loopholes—asks
Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” That’s
when Jesus tells the story. A man going from Jerusalem to Jericho is attacked
by bandits, beaten, robbed and left for dead. A priest sees him and passes on
the other side of the road, as does a Levite. The Samaritan stops to help,
bandages his wounds and takes him to an inn to be cared for … and pays for it.
Jesus asked which one acted like a neighbor. The lawyer had to admit it was the
one who had mercy. Jesus says, “Go and do likewise.”
The
Samaritan was a neighbor to the injured Jewish man even though their separate
cultures held centuries of hate and disdain for each other--differences,
different ways of expressing faith, different values, different cultural and
social behavior, etc. I imagine there was also a lot of fear between those two
groups.
Our
passage speaks of fear. As commentator William Self reminds us, “Fear cannot
generate love, sympathy, tenderness or compassion. The fruit of fear ends up
being distrust, suspicion, and resentment.”1 The Samaritan chose to
override fear and a history of animosity—to do what was right instead. What is
the fear that keeps us from loving? Are we willing to let God’s perfect love
cast out that fear?
God
is love. We learn what God is by what God does. For God so loved the world that
he sent his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him might have eternal
life. Jesus sacrificed himself out of love for us. Without love, there would be
no gospel. As another commentator stated, “It is not enough to remember Jesus’
self-sacrifice, to think about it, or even to be moved by it. We must live it.
To know the God of love is to live the love of God.”2
Why
do we make love so complicated? Why do we tend to make love so conditional? Why
do we mix up the love God wants from us with all the issues of our world? In
his book, Our Endangered Values, Jimmy
Carter told of working with Reverend Elroy Cruz on an evangelistic mission
trip. Cruz said, “You only need two loves in your life: for God, and for the
person in front of you at any particular time.”
Think how different the world would be if we could simply do that—just
the person in front of us right now.
Between
times, we are left to consider the implications of what God is asking of us. We
can say that we live in a complex world, that the realities of our era are much
different than those of biblical times. We can even claim that we do love, we just love according to our
standards and values, not by the dictates of someone else, and that each person
has to decide for themselves what that love looks like.
That,
of course, raises the question, “What is
love? To start with, love is not an ideal. It is a relationship. God created us
to be in relationship—with God and with each other. We don’t have time today to
flesh that out. It will have to wait for another time. We have lectionary
passages coming up that can lead us into that conversation.
While
we await that conversation, I challenge you to give serious thought to this
issue. While we may have questions about what love is, we do know what love
isn’t. Hurtful, negative talk and behavior against another is not love. God
never promised us an easy way out or around the things that are important to
God. When God gives the command to love, it means that despite all that we see
wrong in the world, despite everything that is contrary to love, God has a
vision of a world of love and peace, one of God’s shalom. If it were
impossible, God wouldn’t ask it of us. When it feels the wrong choice, when it
feels too complex, when our own interests would bar the way, we need to ask God
to show us the way through. When we simply don’t want to love, we can pray that
God will change our hearts and enable us to love. God is love. We can trust
that. Amen.
1 William Self, Feasting on the
Word, Year B, p. 471, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville
2 Ronald Cole-Turner, Feasting on
the Word, Year B
3 Jimmy Carter, Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis, p. 67, Simon &
Schuster Paperbacks, NY, 2005
HYMN: “Though I May Speak” Glory #693
PRAYERS OF THE
PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
God of grace, we thank you that your love
for each one of us is so great that you sought us out to bring you to yourself.
As a church, Lord, may that continue to be our message—that your love is
unconditional, that you seek and welcome all, that for you there is no
difference among people, that we are all beloved by you.
We pray for all who have been
belittled by others, all who have been squeezed out of their community, all who
are despised or rejected, all who have to do unpopular work. We remember those who
are feeling hurt, those who are despairing or desolate, those who feel lost and
don’t have anywhere or anyone to turn to.
We pray for Sandy Cargill ... Bob Smyth … Lari Higgins … Somer Bauer … Tasha Sizemore … Beverly Patterson … Lois White … John Matthews … Jacob Cunningham … Linda and Bill Kaesemeyer … Judy … Virginia … Darlene … Margaret … Trisha … Dave … George … Joyce … Jennifer … Chuck … Courtney … Ethel. (Additional prayers …………)
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
God loves us so much that Jesus was sent
to be the atoning sacrifice for our sin. The balm of love was offered for our
healing so we might be reconciled to God and one another. What will we offer in
thanksgiving for so great a gift?
DOXOLOGY
PRAYER
OF DEDICATION
We
give, gracious God, because we are grateful. Your love has sustained us through
many trials and temptations. We are thankful for those who have guided our
attempts to understand the scriptures. We give in order to extend to others the
blessings we have received and to continue the ministry we need as we seek to
abide together in your love. Amen.
THE LORD’S SUPPER
Song of
Preparation: “I Come with Joy” Glory #515
Invitation to the Table
The
Lord’s table is not a piece of wood with clay dishes, but a place in our hearts
that connects us to our Lord Jesus. It is a place to which we come as we
remember his sacrifice, as we seek to experience his presence, as we are
nourished to continue his work, as we recognize our community in him despite
whatever distance or disease or obstacle that might separate us. It is the
place we come to renew our commitment to continue his ministry and mission. Our
Lord invites us to the table without condition, simply because we are loved.
Come with grateful hearts. Come with joyful hearts.
The Great Thanksgiving
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our
God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right, O Holy God, to
give thanks for your amazing grace, to praise you for who you are, for who you
created us to be. We marvel at the truth that you are with us wherever we may
be. Though we worship from home, separated and for some, isolated, it is still
in you that we find life and purpose. We are children of grace and nothing can
separate us from your love.
You have given us the gift of your
Holy Spirit who unites us, binding us together as one body across the miles. By
your Spirit of grace transform our social isolation and distance into a holy
community, connecting us to each other by your sacred presence.
Bless the elements we each have
gathered, elements common to our ordinary lives. Let them represent for us the
body and blood of our Savior who gave himself for us. Amen.
Words of Institution
As we share these symbols of bread and
cup across the distance, we remember the story of Jesus with the disciples that
last night before he was arrested. He took the bread and blessed it and broke
it and gave it to them saying “Take, eat, this is my body, given for you.” And
with the cup he said, “This cup is the new covenant, my blood poured out for
you for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink of it, remember me.”
And so we do. As we lift up many
pieces in scattered places rather than sharing the same loaf and as we drink
from separate cups instead of one, we do so remembering that throughout history
God’s people have often been scattered and in exile. Through the power and
mystery of the Holy Spirit, we are made one in Christ Jesus. These are the
gifts of God for us the children of God.*
The Bread of Life……………..
The Cup of Salvation …………….
*portions of
prayer adapted from prayer by Rev. Steve Kliewer, Interim General Presbyter,
EOP
Unison Prayer of Thanks
Gracious God, you have made us one with all
your people in heaven and on earth. You have fed us with the bread of life, and
renewed us for your service. Help us who have shared Christ’s body and received
his cup, to be his faithful disciples so that our daily living may be part of
the life of your kingdom, and our love be your love reaching out into the life
of the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
CLOSING HYMN: “To
God Be the Glory” Glory #634
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
You are children of the resurrection.
That means you are also children of love. As you go through the week, your
challenge is to watch for ways you can love as Jesus loved you. Then do it.
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
May 4 10:30 a.m. Women’s
Spirituality
May 9 following
worship M&M
May 11 6:00 p.m. Session
May 13 8:30 a.m. Men’s Prayer Group
May 16 following worship Worship & Music
May 16 1:00 p.m. Prayer Shawl Ministry
May 18 10:30 a.m. Women’s Spirituality
May 23 following worship Deacons
May 25 noon PPW
May 27 8:30 a.m. Men’s Prayer Group
PRAYER
CARE:
Sandy Cargill (precancer
surgical procedure), Bob Smyth (surgery
recovery), Linda and Bill Kaesemeyer (Bill’s heart/breathing issues), Lari
Higgins (breast cancer), Somer Bauer (breast cancer), Tasha Sizemore (Crohn’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), George and 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 5/9/21
Acts 10:44-48;
Psalm 98; 1 John 5:1-6; John 15:9-17
