May 2, 2021 Worship

 

PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Worship via Blog          5^th Sunday of Easter                     May 2, 2021      

 

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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.

 

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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 13^th 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.

 

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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