PIONEER
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Worship
via Blog 2nd Sunday
of Easter April 11, 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
-
Prayer
Shawl Ministry meets at 1:00
-
Session
meets Tuesday at 6:00 p.m.
-
Worship
& Music 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
Life has been revealed to us in this Easter
season.
Gather once more to testify to life.
We
declare to each other what we have experienced.
In
community we find the life God intends.
Early believers were of one heart and
soul.
We, too, are called to find common ground
in Christ.
How
very good and pleasant it is
When
kindred live together in unity.
Peace be with you as we celebrate
resurrection.
Christ is with us to renew our faith.
We
are here to testify to God’s grace.
We
will share our story and ourselves.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Gracious God, you have given us the Word
of Life; we have heard and seen your greatest of all gifts and testify to that
experience by our presence here. Let Jesus Christ be known among us, in our
conversation and in our prayers. May our thoughts center on the message that
light has come to chase away the shadows, community has been born to remove our
isolation, joy has been heaped upon us that we might share it with the world.
Amen.
OPENING
HYMN: “Justified Freely” LU#77
CALL TO CONFESSION
Life with eternity in it is God’s present
gift to us. We have heard it, but we are slow to believe. We have received it,
but we are slow to trust. It is ours to enjoy but we have not lived it. Let us
discuss the matter with our Creator.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
We have taken the name of Christian but few of us are
known primarily by that name. We have experienced Easter radiance, but we
seldom reflect the light of our risen Savior. We have heard the message of
salvation, but it grows cold on our lips and is of little influence on our
lives. Sometimes we delude ourselves that, because we are basically good
people, there is no sin in us. We deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in
us. Sin is separation from you and we have allowed great chasms and built high
walls to keep you out of our lives. Forgive us, we pray. (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: John 20:19-31
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week,
the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came
and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his
hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus
said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so
I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to
them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not
with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen
the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the print
of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand
in his side, I will not believe."
Eight days later, his
disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were
shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, "Peace be with
you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my
hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but
believing." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus
said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are
those who have not seen and yet believe." Now Jesus did many other signs
in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these
are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and
that believing you may have life in his name.
SCRIPTURE
2: 1 John 1:1 – 2:2
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen
with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning
the word of life -- the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to
it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made
manifest to us -- that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so
that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and
with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing this that our joy may be
complete.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is
light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him
while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but
if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and
his word is not in us.
My little children, I
am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if any one does sin, we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the
expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the
whole world.
SERMON “A Believer or a Doubter?” Rev. Jean Hurst
It is
Easter evening. Jesus walked out of the
grave just that morning. We don’t know
where he spent the day, but as night falls, he has an important visit to make. The disciples are huddled in fear behind
locked doors. They watched Jesus
die. They’re afraid they’re next. But if a tomb couldn’t keep Jesus in, then a
locked door won’t keep him out.
Suddenly, he’s just there, right in the middle of the group.
Immediately,
he calms them. “Peace be with you.” Then, so there is no question in their minds
who this is and that he’s not a ghost, Jesus shows them the nail holes in his
hands and the spear mark in his side.
The text says they were ‘glad’ to see him. That seems an understatement of what their
reaction would be. Though the women had
told them about seeing the risen Jesus, they still had to be totally amazed if
not totally terrified.
Jesus
repeats his words, “Peace be with you.” And then he does two things. He commissions them for the work that lays
ahead and he breathes the Holy Spirit upon them. The work has just begun. They are charged with continuing Jesus’
ministry. The Holy Spirit will empower
them and guide them in carrying that out.
Not
everyone was present for the event.
Thomas heard about it later, but he’s not buying into it. “Not until I put my fingers in the holes in
his hands and my hand in the tear in his side.”
He’s not going to believe based on someone else’s story, not even a
whole group of others.
What’s wrong
with Thomas? Do you think Jesus made a
mistake calling him as one of the disciples?
Even though Jesus told them multiple times what was going to happen,
even though the women saw and told them, even though the other disciples had
seen and talked to Jesus, Thomas refuses to believe until he can see and touch
Jesus for himself.
We
might write Thomas off for a lost cause.
Jesus doesn’t. Jesus knows how
incredible this all is. He waits to
return until Thomas is with the disciples, then comes again, speaking his words
of peace. He walks up to Thomas and invites
him to touch his wounds.
What
Jesus did was offer to Thomas exactly what Thomas needed in order for him to
believe. Jesus consistently met people
where they were. Jesus would ask many of
those he healed what they wanted of him.
He understood their doubt.
Remember the man whose son he healed of an evil sprit? Jesus said, “Just believe” and the father
replied, “I believe. Help me overcome my
unbelief!” And Jesus did.
So it
is no surprise that Jesus would offer to Thomas that which he needed in order
for him to believe. Thomas responds with
what is said to be the most powerful confession in the Gospel, “My Lord and my
God!” He may have been skeptical, he may
have been slow to believe, he may have thought he needed irrefutable proof, but
once he experienced the risen Lord for himself, there was no shaking him.
Thomas
wasn’t any different than the other players in the resurrection drama. They, too, had their doubts--the women
looking for a dead body at the empty tomb, Peter who saw the empty tomb and
then just went home, the disciples who heard Mary’s story but refused to
believe even though it matched what Jesus had previously told them, and Thomas
who also could not accept on the basis of someone else’s experience.
Like
them, we each seek our own experience of the risen Lord. And, however long we have been rooted in our
tradition of belief, we at times have our doubts. The doubts sometimes arise as nearly silent
questions tugging at the backs of our minds and hearts. Where is God?
Does God care? Can God answer
prayer? Can God do anything? Is God really there? Too often we feel guilty for the doubts, as
if we are losing our faith, as if we are unworthy.
But
doubt is nothing new to those of deep faith--in fact, doubt can bring us to new
levels of faith and understanding.
Frederick Buechner, Presbyterian minister and author, says in his book Wishful
Thinking, “Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a
God, if you don’t have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or
asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants
of faith.”
Think
about that expression for a moment. Ants
in the pants. I’ve heard it used by
adults when referring to squirmy, fidgety children. Doubt can be those ants that make us squirm,
that keep us restless, that keep us seeking.
When we struggle with doubts, we are not abandoning our faith. We are probing, going deeper. It means that God matters, that we take God
seriously.
Even
Jesus, from the heights of the cross, in the fullest moment of his humanity,
cried out his own doubt, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In his time of tribulation he felt alone and
abandoned by the God he had known so intimately. Sooner or later, we, too, will feel forsaken
by God, no matter how sure our step has been on our path of faith.
Or we
may be in a wilderness time of our faith.
It feels dry and empty, dark and cold, lots of nothingness. We can’t get up any enthusiasm about our
faith. We don’t even know what we
believe anymore. When we try to pray, we
feel nothing. It sounds like empty words to an empty room. God feels hidden--or non-existent. We try to fake our way through, pretending
our faith is the same as always. It
isn’t.
In
panic at the perceived crumbling of our faith, we search for God. We search to understand why God would be
absent or why we do not have a clear sense of God’s presence and action in our
lives. We wonder if we’ve driven God
away. We ask questions. We seek the answers in scripture, in church,
in community with other believers, in other faith traditions, in the very drama
of life.
We may
rant and rave at God, shaking our fist in God’s face, demanding God’s presence,
demanding answers, channeling our anger at God.
Sometimes we even seek the answers in rebellion, ourselves turning away
from God as if daring God to do something about it, trying to force God’s hand,
to prove himself. And as long as we
seek, no matter the depth of our doubt, as long as we seek--we grow. And as long as our doubt leads us to seeking
the basis for that doubt, we are still connected to the God of grace who is
ever present with us in our struggle.
In the
midst of our doubts, our seeking, and our struggle, we cannot totally let go of
our faith. There is a lifeline between
us and the God who chooses us--even in the midst of our doubts. That lifeline draws us back to the One who
knows us completely. Martin Luther’s
lifeline was his baptism. In moments of
despair and doubt and desolation, Martin Luther would remind himself, “I was
baptized.”
Our
doubt doesn’t mean that we have relinquished our faith. Ron Delbene, Episcopal priest, spiritual
leader, and author, maintains that doubt is simply one in a series of phases of
spiritual growth and says that doubt is a natural outgrowth of fear. As our faith journey leads us into a deeper
relationship with God, we begin to wonder if we’re going in the right
direction. And we begin to fear where
God may be leading us and so we begin to resist, to find excuses, and to
struggle with God.
Back in
1605, Francis Bacon said of learning, “If a man will begin in certainties, he
shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall
end in certainties.” So it was with
Thomas. So it is with the doubts that
arise on our faith journeys. Beginning
with certainties too often means having accepted someone else’s encounter with
the risen Lord. By doubting,
questioning, and seeking, we grow in our faith and we encounter the resurrected
Jesus in ways that deeply enrich our lives.
We learn what our faith means for us on a very personal level.
Through all our doubts, when we don’t even know what we
believe, we can count on this: God never stops believing in us. Though we seek and feel we’ve lost sight of
God, God never loses sight of us. Our
risen Lord welcomes us in our quest, no matter where we are on our faith
journey, no matter what our need, no matter our level of doubt or belief, he
calls us to that personal encounter. Like Mary at the tomb, our hearts listens
and responds as our risen Lord speaks our name.
HYMN: “Fairest Lord Jesus” Glory #630
PRAYERS OF THE
PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
Ever
present God, who by the power of the Holy Spirit transforms us individually and
as a church to be your dwelling place, confront us here in the midst of our
doubts, grant us your peace while we face our fears, and increase our trust
that we may embrace life in all its fullness. Speak to us now the word that we
need, empowering us to be a unifying presence in our broken world. In the midst
of conflict, help us to love as Jesus commanded.
It
is in love that we lift up to you Judy Hook ... Jack and Carolyn Bauer (death of Phyllis) ... Lari Higgins … Somer Bauer … Linda and Bill Kaesemeyer
… Tasha Sizemore … Beverly Patterson … John
Matthews … Lois White … Margaret Dunbar …
Virginia … Cherry … Darlene … Trisha … Dave … Jacob … George and Joyce …
Jennifer … Chuck … Courtney … Ethel. (Additional prayers …………)
We
pray, Holy God, for your children everywhere, especially for those who are lost
and lonely, those in need, those who live in fear and without hope. Show us
your way in the midst of their need.
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
Among the early Christians, they shared
with one another so that none would be in need. This is a legacy that has come
down through the centuries. This we remember as we bring our gifts before God
in gratitude and in a desire to help others.
DOXOLOGY
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
We offer you our common stewardship, loving God. We want
to be faithful in meeting one another’s needs and in serving the world in
Christ’s name. We sense that you are sending us, as Jesus was sent, to share
light with the world. Thus we dedicate our time and effort as a further
offering. May life and faith be extended to many through us. Amen.
CLOSING
HYMN: “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” Glory #611
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
Go from here and do not sin. But if
you do …. remember that we always have before us a fresh start thanks to God’s
love and grace.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be 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 11 following worship M&M
April 11 1:00 p.m. Prayer Shawl Group
April 18 following worship Worship & Music
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:
Judy Hook (medical procedure), Jack and Carolyn Bauer (death of Phyllis), Lari Higgins
(breast cancer), Somer Bauer ( breast cancer), Linda and Bill Kaesemeyer (breathing/heart problems), 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), 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 4/18/21
Acts 3:12-19;
Psalm 4; 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48
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