PIONEER
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Worship
via Blog Day
of Pentecost May 23, 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.
-
Deacons
meet following worship
-
Spirituality
meets Tuesday at 10:30
-
Men’s
Prayer Group meets Thursday at 8:30
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
The day of Pentecost has come, and we are
together.
Will the works of God be known among us
today?
We
live in the valley of dry bones.
Around
and within us is emptiness.
God comes to us as a gentle breath or
violent wind.
Catch your breath, God’s breath, and live.
There
are stirrings deep within that give us hope.
There
is a Spirit linking us to one another.
The fires of love dispel life’s shadows.
God’s Spirit comes to give us new life.
Surely
God is in this place!
May
the glory of God be known among us today!
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Holy God, pour out your Spirit upon us
today. May your Spirit come among us to guide us in the footsteps of Jesus.
Amaze and astonish us with the gifts already present among us. Awaken us to the
wind and tongues of fire waiting to fill us with new life and vigorous hope.
May our meditations be pleasing to you and our service to others be truly
helpful, that your great and glorious day may be realized in our midst. Amen.
OPENING
HYMN: “Spirit Song” LU#13
CALL TO CONFESSION
Like the first disciples, we have much to
learn about sin and righteousness and judgment. Almost without conscious
awareness, we slip into the valley of dry bones, devoid of meaning and hope,
unable even to pray. But together we can join our voices, asking that our
spirits will awaken to new possibilities.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
When your face is hidden from us, mighty God, we
forget that there is more to life than the daily pursuits that occupy our
attention. We are weak because we have not tapped the resources you place
within us. We are engaged only by what we can see and touch and hear. Our
frantic self-centeredness dries up our bones and we lose hope. Call us out of
the graves in which we have chosen to live, the deep ruts that keep us from
knowing the fullness of life you reveal when we welcome your Spirit. (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: Romans
8:22-27
We know that the
whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the
present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the
Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the
redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen
is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what
we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps
us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit
himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who
searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes
for the saints in accordance with God's will.
SCRIPTURE 2: Ezekiel 37:1-14
The hand of the Lord
was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down
in the midst of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me round among
them; and behold, there were very many upon the valley; and lo, they were very
dry. And he said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I
answered, "O Lord God, thou knowest." Again he said to me,
"Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of
the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to
enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause
flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you
shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord." So I prophesied as I
was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling;
and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And as I looked, there were
sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but
there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath,
prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from
the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may
live." So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them,
and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host. Then he
said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.
Behold, they say, `Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean
cut off.' Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold,
I will open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people; and I
will bring you home into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord,
when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I
will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your
own land; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done
it, says the Lord."
SERMON “Fresh Breath, New Life” Rev.
Jean Hurst
Do
you ever feel like your life is a valley of dry bones? Those are times
when the questions begin to surface. Why am I here? What is my life about? What
is important? What purpose does my life have? In the dry valleys, little things
lose their pleasure and life can seem empty and meaningless.
For
some people, the dry bones represent bigger issues, bigger casualties. Their
lives may feel like a derailed train. There may be a loss so great that their
whole life may feel like that valley of bones, like all hope has dried up, like
there’s nothing to look forward to. They may feel used up, useless. God asks,
“Mortal, can these bones live?”
Ezekiel’s
vision speaks of hope and redemption for a people drained of the very essence
of their being. Ezekiel is in Babylon where the elite of Judah--the king and
his family, the officials, the priests, the artisans, the warriors--had been
deported in 597 B.C. when Jerusalem was conquered. This “brain drain” from
Judah was the Babylonian strategy for subduing a conquered people.
For
a century and a half the Palestinian area had been fought over by Assyria,
Egypt and Babylonia, all struggling for control of the critical trade routes
going through that region. Both Israel--the northern half of the once united
Jewish kingdom--and Judah, the southern tribes, had tried strategies of
alliance with these competing powers--to no avail. Israel fell to Assyrian
domination over a hundred years before Judah fell to the Babylonians.
Now
the Judeans are exiled in a land and among a people very different from their
own. The Babylonians eat and talk and dress and act and worship differently.
The people of Judah don’t fit in. They are second class citizens in Babylon.
They don’t have a country anymore. They don’t have an identity. They don’t have
a future to build for. They feel they have no purpose or meaning left in their
lives. They simply exist and wonder if the existing is even worth it. There is
no end in sight. The years in captivity have broken the people. For them, for
their children, there is no future, no hope.
It
is at this point in their captivity that the prophet Ezekiel, in a vision, has
been carried to a valley filled with bones. It is not a vision of a battlefield
of bodies, but rather of dried out, dusty, sun bleached old bones. This
represented not a fresh casualty but a long-time deadness. The Spirit of the
Lord reminds Ezekiel of the people’s lament, “Our bones are dried up and our
hope is gone; we are cut off.” And then that leading question is asked,
“Mortal, can these bones live?” Ezekiel’s answer is evasive, “O Lord, only you
know.” God did, indeed, know.
As
the vision unfolds, there is a rattling noise in the air as the bones, scraping
and bumping against each other, come together, finding their proper order and
connection. Tendons appear, holding them in place. Muscle forms over the bones.
Even with the skin covering the flesh, a horror is all it would have been if
the action had stopped there, because there was no breath, no life in those
reconnected bones. The parts were all there, all the physical parts, but not
the spark of life.
It took the breath of God to infuse new life
into those reconnected bones. And with that came God’s promise, “I will put my
Spirit in you and you will live.” And they did. God brought the people of Judah
out of exile, back to their lands where they rebuilt their nation.
Move
the clock forward about 635 years and you find the followers of Jesus gathered
in Jerusalem at the Feast of Weeks, fifty days following Passover. Gathered
together, they are focused on events that have transpired. Jesus, their
teacher, their Lord, their hope, was arrested and executed. Though he died on
that cross, on the third day he came to life again and had appeared to a number
of the disciples. Then he was gone.
They
must have felt rather like the people of Judea in their Babylonian exile. From
their encounter with Jesus they were different. The ways of the people were no
longer their ways. They didn’t fit in.
Without Jesus to lead them, what did they have? Who were they? What were they
to do, to believe, to hope for? Where was their meaning and purpose?
That
is when their world changes once again. The noise comes first--not the
clattering of dead bones but the rushing sound of a furious wind--and then
tongues of fire dance down upon each person there. Wind and flame surge through
the room and no one is ever the same. The Spirit of the Lord has blown away the
ashes of despair and doubt, has breathed new life into the people and Christ’s
church is born.
The
world hasn’t been the same since. Over two thousand years later we find the
church splintered into many denominations and doctrines. We know the church has
struggled and continues to struggle. We’re not proud of all the church has
done. Yet the church survives.
Membership in this country declines yet world-wide the church continues
to grow. The Good News is still being spread. The fire that was ignited that
day in Jerusalem continues to burn. The message of hope in Jesus Christ
continues to be shared. The winds are still transforming.
If
God could pull together a people whose lives represented a pile of dry, brittle
bones and then breathe new life into them; if God could wrap a handful of
followers in wind and fire and build them into a worldwide following, what can
God do in our lives? “O Mortal, can these bones live?”
As
in Ezekiel’s vision, we, too, can find ourselves in the valley of bones. Any
number of things can take a person to the brink of that valley. Life change can
be so overwhelming that it can take from us our sense of purpose and meaning,
what we value most. It might be the loss of health to debilitating illness or
age. It might be prompted by the loss of a job and the financial crisis that
goes with it. Often one is pushed to the brink by the loss of a relationship--a
marriage that fails, the death of a spouse, parent, or child, the break in a
friendship. People hurt us: someone who was supposed to be there for us walks
out of our lives, turning their back on us, a friend or relative we trusted
lets us down. Disappointment will do it. Secrets can do it: addictions, abuse,
infidelity, the demons that pursue us. Sometimes it is the death of hopes and
dreams, even of who we thought we were.
And
then we, too, stand in the valley of bones wondering if this is it, if this is
all there is, all there will ever be. Our life energies are drained and we are
left feeling hollow and brittle and arid. We may feel we have no control over
the circumstances or direction of our lives and no hope for the future. We may
wonder if life will ever feel normal again and if joy and hope will ever
return.
Perhaps the major question we struggle with is,
“Where is God?” Yet in the darkest, driest times of life, the times most devoid
of hope, God is most able to change us.
Perhaps because it is then that we are most vulnerable and open. When
there is nothing left to hold on to; when we are hurting and scared and
confused; when we don’t know which way to turn or what to do next; when our
hearts long for connection with others and especially connection with God, the
Spirit comes. That fits with Jesus’ promise of the Spirit as Comforter and
Counselor and Guide.
It
may not be as dramatic as these stories of bones and wind and fire. In fact,
the Spirit may come to you in gentle ways, working in the people and events
around you. The Spirit may touch you and lift you up through the quiet words
and actions of people who care. The Spirit may breathe new life into you
through insights and understandings in words you read, music you hear, sights
you see. The Spirit may stir within you, awakening hopes and dreams you thought
long dead or lay upon your heart new possibilities and new directions. Whatever
way the Spirit breathes into you new life and new hope, your world will never
be the same. Can you deal with that?
Your opportunity, your invitation, is to open
yourself to the presence and power of the Spirit, to let go of what you think should have been and open yourself to
what can be. It’s a scary business. Your
world will change. You will change. Are you willing to take that risk?
Dare you open yourself to the Spirit’s transformation? Dare you accept the
Breath of Life?
God
offered that new life to the people of Israel and Judah. God makes that same
offer to us. God calls the dry, dusty bones of our unfulfilled lives to gather
back together. Yet we are not complete. Not until God has breathed into us
breath ... ruah ... the Holy Spirit.
No
matter what has happened in our lives, no matter the loss or disappointment or
tragedy, no matter even if we created the deadness in our lives through our own
wrong actions, God can redeem us and reclaim us. Just as the Spirit breathed
life into dry bones, just as God called forth the church, so God calls us back
to life, infusing us once again with the breath of the divine, with hope for
tomorrow. Let us pray:
Lord,
you are here among us. You know the hearts here right now who are hurting. You
know our fears. You know the dry emptiness of lives long dead. You know the
longing for new life. Breathe your Spirit upon us this moment--your healing,
life-giving Spirit. Call each of us forward to new life in you. Amen.
HYMN: “Breathe
on Me, Breath of God” Glory #286
PRAYERS OF THE
PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
Wonderful Creator, God of our lives,
create in us a clean heart and a clear head. Breathe into us the pure breath of
your Holy Spirit—the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of love. Mold us by the
mastery of your hands into an image that reflects your grace, your goodness,
your ‘good news.’ Shape us into your form of faithfulness, dedicated to your
word, destined to your way.
When we bruise and crack against the
hard surface of suffering, gather our shattered lives and mend our broken
parts. When we sit too long apart from your guidance and too long focused on
our own interests, remind us we were made to be useful, to be vessels that
carry water to thirsty souls, that pour out compassion and hope to the lonely
and desperate, to be voices and hands of healing, to be the love you call us to
be.
It is in that love now, God of Mercy that we
lift up to you our joys and concerns. We pray for Sandy Cargill … Elaine
LaChapelle … Larry Koskela … Linda and Bill Kaesemeyer … Lari Higgins … Somer
Bauer … Tasha Sizemore … Beverly Patterson …
Virginia … John Matthews … Margaret Dunbar … Darlene … Trisha … Dave …
Jacob … George and Joyce … Jennifer … Chuck … Courtney … Ethel. (Additional
prayers …………)
Search our hearts, O God. Ease the pain
you find there, touch those places that resist healing, forgive our resistance
to your action in our lives, shine light in the dark places of our lives, grant
us new hope and direction when we feel we’ve lost our way. Pull our lives
together and breathe into us new life.
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
All that we possess is a part of God’s
gift to the world. God’s gift in Jesus Christ reminds us that what is entrusted
to us is meant to be shared. May the joy we discover in God’s word be passed on
through our generous giving.
DOXOLOGY
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
How manifold are our works, amazing God! When there are
dry-bones times in our lives, we can look to you for new breath and hope and
renewal of life. Your Spirit comes, and we are lifted up and linked to one
another. We bring our offerings as an expression of thanksgiving for all your
gifts. May your glory be proclaimed in all we give and all we do. Amen.
CLOSING HYMN: “Spirit” Glory #291
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
Listen this week for the winds of the
Spirit. Allow the Spirit to rattle your bones, to breathe new life into you.
What would that look like for you? Ponder that as you are assured that 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 23 following worship Deacons
May 25 noon PPW
May 27 8:30 a.m. Men’s Prayer Group
June 1 10:30 a.m. Women’s Spirituality
June 8 6:00 p.m. Session
June 10 8:30 a.m. Men’s
Prayer Group
PRAYER
CARE:
Sandy Cargill
(breast cancer), Elaine LaChappelle (broken arm, anemia), Larry Koskela
(stomach and join issues), Linda and Bill Kaesemeyer (Bill’s heart/breathing
issues), Lari Higgins (breast cancer), Somer Bauer (breast cancer), Tasha
Sizemore (Crohn’s), 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 5/30/21
Isaiah 6:1-8;
Psalm 29; Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17
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