PIONEER
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Worship
via Blog 19th Sunday after Pentecost October 3, 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.
-
M&M
meets following worship next Sunday
-
Pastor
gone to Bend for radiation 9/27 thru 10/1 final week!
-
Tuesday
noon, PPW lunch meeting
-
Wednesday
5:30 choir practice
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
God, by whom all things exist,
brings many to glory.
Blessed
is everyone who fears God
and
walks in God’s ways.
God spoke in many ways to our ancestors,
by prophets, apostles, and martyrs.
God
has spoken most clearly in Jesus Christ,
the
pioneer of our salvation.
Jesus welcomed persons of all ages
and gave special recognition to children.
We
come expectantly to learn of God’s realm
and
to know the love of God poured out in Christ.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
We have trusted in you, eternal God, and
that trust brings us to this time of worship. In this place, your steadfast
love becomes evident again as we sing our songs of thanksgiving and tell of
your wondrous deeds. We are grateful for the life and witness of Jesus, whom
you sent among people to make possible our reconciliation and healing. For the
saving grace available wherever you reign, we give thanks. Help us to be
childlike, to receive your blessing, and to welcome your embrace. Take us into
your arms, we pray. Amen.
OPENING
SONG: “God the Creator” LU#27
CALL TO CONFESSION
At our best, we seek to be upright and
blameless, people of integrity who live with unwavering trust in God. We aspire
to live as brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, faithful and responsive to our
Creator. But, in truth, we forget God in our hectic busyness, and we turn from
the way of love in our relationships with others. There is much for us to
confess.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
O
God, you have made us for human companionship, but we have chosen our own
lonely way. You have called us to make commitments and to live by them, but we
have violated our promises and made excuses for ourselves. You have created us
to reflect your glory, but we have turned away from the example and sacrifice
of Christ to seek our own way. Turn us back from our limited vision and
hardness of heart to become the people you call us to be. (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: Genesis 2:18-24
Then the Lord God
said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a
helper fit for him." So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast
of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what
he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was
its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to
every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for
him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he
slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib
which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her
to the man. Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh
of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and
they become one flesh.
SCRIPTURE 2: Psalm 8
O Lord, our
Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory
above the heavens. Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a
bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger. When I look
at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have
established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that
you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned
them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your
hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also
the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Sovereign, how
majestic is your name in all the earth!
SERMON: “What
Is the Chief Aim of Man?” Rev.
Jean Hurst
What
is the chief end of man? And woman, I might add. People are often seeking
to know the meaning of life and their particular purpose in being alive. For
Presbyterians, the answer to that question comes through the Westminster Shorter Catechism written in
1646 and 1647 by the Westminster Assembly, a synod of English and Scottish
theologians and laymen. The catechism is a teaching tool in question and answer
format. Their conclusion to the question what
is the chief end of man is that Man’s
chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
For all the angst that people go
through in trying to understand why they are here on this earth, isn’t that a
simple answer? We always try to make things so hard. Why do we resist the
simple? We tend to think there’s got to be more to it than that. Nothing that
important can be that simple. So we view the Bible as a rule book instead of
the story of God’s relationship with creation. And we develop all these
doctrines and confessions and polity to supplement it in order to make it more
plausible. If you can’t buy into it being so simple, then just for this
morning, lighten up. Glorify God. Enjoy God forever. Or at least during this
worship hour.
Some of us might proclaim that of course we glorify God. But do we
really? Don’t we too often give God a token nod for the wonders of creation and
then take for granted all the things that make our lives good and pleasant and
livable? What does it really mean to
glorify God? Words. Thoughts. Emotions. Voice. Actions.
Let’s explore why we should glorify God. Genesis 1 and 2 are good places to
start: in the beginning. The very first verse in the Bible: In the beginning
God created. That first chapter goes on to list all the things God created and
the order of that creation. For each component of creation it says and God saw and it was good.
Light: good. Land and seas: good.
Plants and trees bearing seed to reproduce themselves: good. Sun, moon, stars,
day and night, seasons, days and years: good. Fish and birds: good. Animals of
every sort, every creeping thing: good. That’s a lot of good to squeeze into
five days.
That
sixth day was a bit different. That’s when Genesis 1 says we humans were
created. There are a number of doctrines in the western world that claim that
humans were created in sin. I think we’d all agree that sin is bad. That’s why
we have a word for all the ugliness that happens in the world. Scripture tells
us that God looked on that creation of humans and this time didn’t say that it
was good.
God
said, “Let us make man in our own image,
according to our own likeness.” So God
created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him, male and
female created he them. And you know something? God saw it as very good. Does that very productive
week and God’s reaction to it give us reason to glorify God? You bet it does.
The
second chapter of Genesis tells the creation story again, in a little different
order. The earth and the heavens come first, then the gender male is created.
After that come the trees and plants, the rivers and the rules. It was then
that Adam was told not to eat the forbidden fruit. After that all the animals
and birds were created. And lastly woman was created from the rib of Adam
because none of the rest of creation met Adam’s need for companionship.
I’m
not going into the origin of sin or the debate of who in the garden was
responsible for the fall. Frankly, if it wasn’t by way of a snake and forbidden
fruit, we humans—male and
female—would have found other ways to
resist the goodness of God and to think we could do it better ourselves. After
all, God gave us that free will. By the way, how are we doing with it?
I
don’t know why there are multiple creation stories in the Bible. But we don’t
need to worry about it. They’re not meant to be scientific narrations. It is
the beginning of the story of God’s relationship with us. Both of these Genesis
stories carry the very important truth that God created. Out of nothing—ex nihilo—God created all that is, all
that ever will be. And what a wonder it is.
Psalm
8 is a testimony to that. The psalmist couldn’t keep bottled within him, or
her, the wonder and awe and praise for a God of such magnitude and power and
imagination. He’s got to sing out and glorify God. The psalmist is unable to
fathom that aspect of creation where God decides to make these human creatures
in God’s own image, in God’s own likeness, according to God’s own nature. What
is man that you even notice him? Who are we that you would come to our
children? You’ve made us just a little lower than the angels of heaven. We are
so small and insignificant why would you do
such a thing? Why, in the name of all creation, would you care that much about us? You not only created all that is, but you
put it into our hands to care for and to be stewards of this vast and
magnificent world you created. Why would you trust us with all this? Wow! God
you truly are amazing! And to do that, you must think we are amazing, too.
Like the psalmist, we can glorify God
on the cosmic scale, considering the vastness of the universe. Our Milky Way is
52,850 light years across. We are only a speck in that galaxy. There are 200
billion to 2 trillion galaxies in the known universe. That’s big. We’re little.
We
can glorify God for the brilliance of the design of life. Think about the
intricacies of your body, how that system of bones and muscles and blood and
nerves all work together, how the brain works, how the eye lets us see all that
is around us in color and 3-D. Think about how we are designed so that we can
think and rationalize and create and feel. Have you ever considered what a
miracle it is that we can feel the emotion of love? Psalm 137 says we are
wonderfully and fearfully made. Indeed.
One aspect of God’s creation that
leaves me in awe is regeneration. Each time a child is born a miracle occurs.
The giant sequoias produce cones that must endure fire in order to release the
seeds within that produce new sequoias. When an old tree falls by storm or
disease or age, it becomes a nursery bed not just for new sequoias but for all
manner of insect and plant life. The old enables the new.
The earth itself performs a constant
regeneration, usually moving so slowly that we don’t even notice it. The
continents heave and shift as the tectonic plates move, the churn of the earth
brings new materials to the surface to form new land, new soil. The Hawaiian
Islands are an example as the Pacific Plate moves and the magma rises to form
new islands.
The universe itself regenerates. When
a star, like our sun, uses up its fuel source of hydrogen and helium, it will
begin expanding and contracting and finally explodes, forming a nebula. The
remaining dust and gases from that explosion becomes a nursery where new stars
are born.
When asked what touches us in God’s
creation, we often point to nature and are awed by the beauty of it—sunrises
and sunsets, fall colors, flowering springs and fruitful summers and even the
stark beauty of winter snows. Go to a museum and you will see that beauty
copied by artists. But God created
that beauty which we can only copy. God made those mountains as I’ve just
described. God created the cycle of water from ocean to clouds to rain to lakes
and rivers and back to ocean. God made the sun and moon and seasons to give us
the variety of color and life we so love.
For you bird watchers, consider the
variety of the birds—over 9,000 species. Think about the distinct colors of
their feathers, the delightful variety of their song. Most of them feed on
insects and they’ve got ample choice for the table as there are over 900,000
varieties of insects. Is God amazing?
Gratitude is one way we glorify God.
We have so very much for which to be thankful. A couple Sundays ago we sang the
hymn Count Your Blessings, name them one by one. When we do that we tend to
lump them together. I’m thankful for my family, my home, my freedoms, etc. I
challenge you to be specific as our gratitude leads us to glorify God. For
example, close your eyes and imagine a strawberry in your hand. See the deep
red of it, the little pits of the seeds. Smell its ripeness, its readiness.
Bite into that juicy ripe strawberry warm from the sun’s rays. Feel the juice
of it in your mouth. Taste the lushness of that ripe strawberry flavor. Feel
the crunch of the tiny seeds. Can you glorify God for that?
I’ve described the wonders of the
natural world. But let’s go back to the words of the psalmist. Who is man that
you are mindful of him? Why do you even take notice of him? We were created in
God’s image, created in the likeness of God, made according to the nature of
God, created out of love. God loved the humans God created. God loved us so
much that even when we rebelled, even when we thought ourselves equal to God,
even when we turned away from God, even when we broke God’s rules and God’s
desires for us, God didn’t stop loving us.
God persisted. God pursued us. God
came to us in the person of Jesus the Christ to help us find our way home.
Jesus showed us the face of God, hoping that we would remember who we are,
whose we are. Jesus showed us the extent of God’s love for us, suffering on our
behalf, dying on that cross, and then rising from death to give us life. All of
that because God sees each one of us as worthy. Is God worthy of our praise?
What does your heart tell you?
One of the gifts of creation is
forgiveness. Through Jesus, we can find forgiveness for every ignoble act we’ve
ever committed. We can find new beginnings, a fresh start, as if the old had
never happened. Through the grace of Jesus, the love of God, the power of the
Holy Spirit we can find our way through this world that has gone so wrong. When
our world crumbles because of our failings, because of things others have
caused, or just because of the realities of life, God takes the shambles of our lives and
builds new tomorrows and gives us hope.
We
can have peace in the midst of all the turmoil, all the hatred, all the
violence of the world. We can choose to live our lives according to who we are,
children of God, created in God’s image, formed according to God’s nature. And
we can have hope for tomorrow—for us, for those we love, for all of creation.
For that we glorify God. Amen.
HYMN: “All
Things Bright and Beautiful” Glory #20
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Tender and compassionate God, creator of
life, creator of love, we come before you today as imperfect people. We want to
do it right, we want to love you and each other and ourselves as you mean for
us to, but we struggle with relationships. We forget, Lord, that others have
just as much difficulty in loving, in forgiving, in living up to our
expectations as we do of them and of ourselves. Help us, gracious God, to let
go. Help us to be thankful for what we have. Help us to believe and accept that
others may be doing the best they can. Give us hearts of gratitude for who they
are, for how they have shaped us.
You know all things, Lord. You know
the things we have done that shame us. You know the times we have remained
silent when we should have spoken, when we failed to take action. Give us
courage and boldness to do what we should do; to be the one to reach out and
heal relationships, to begin anew, to risk loving. In all of this help us to
forgive ourselves, to love ourselves.
It is in love that we lift up to you our
families, our friends, our church … We pray for Margaret and Red Dunbar and
family in the death of their grandson Tucker … for Dave Clark … Tina Bossuot …
for Verna’s sister and family with Covid … Mary and Ray Swarthout … Sandy
Cargill … Elaine LaChapelle … Larry Koskela … Linda and Bill Kaesemeyer … Somer
Bauer … Tasha Sizemore … Beverly Patterson … Virginia … Margaret Dunbar …
Darlene … Trisha … Jacob … George and Joyce … Jennifer … Chuck … Courtney …
Ethel … and Pastor Jean. (Additional prayers …………)
We pray for our friends and neighbors
here in Harney where the Covid virus runs rampant. We pray for our brothers and
sisters around the world. Comfort them, provide for them, fill them with your
peace, surround them with your love and give them hope. And Lord, grant us the
courage to mean it when we pray that you would use us as instruments of your
kingdom work and guide us in carrying out those acts of love and grace. 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 of us, and all we own, come from God.
Our offerings are a measure of our gratitude. Let us give thanks as we dedicate
our offerings and ourselves to God’s service.
DOXOLOGY
PRAYER
OF DEDICATION
In
grateful appreciation of the gift of life and all that adds to our enjoyment of
that gift, we dedicate these offerings to proclaim your good news. May these
offerings help to unite us in your service. Amen.
THE LORD’S SUPPER
Song of Preparation: “You Satisfy the Hungry Heart” Glory 523
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: “How Great Thou Art” Glory
#625
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
Your charge this week is to look
around you and truly see the glory of this world that God has created. Look for
the vastness of it all. Look for the ways God has put regeneration into
creation. Look for God’s hand in the tiny things. Then give praise.
As you do, know 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.
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LOOKING AHEAD
-
Women’s
Spirituality October 5, 10:30
-
October
6 choir practice at 5:30
-
Next
Sunday M&M meets following worship
PRAYER CARE:
Margaret and Red
Dunbar and family (death of Tucker), Tina Bossuot (Alzheimer’s), Verna’s sister
and family (Covid), Mary and Ray Swarthout, Sandy Cargill (breast cancer),
Larry Koskela (stomach and joint issues), Linda and Bill Kaesemeyer (Bill’s
heart/breathing issues), Somer Bauer (breast cancer), Tasha Sizemore
(Crohn’s), Jacob Cunningham, Trisha Cagley (health problems), Dave Clark (recovery
from brain surgery, kidney cancer), Virginia DesIlets (age 99!), Margaret
Dunbar (home now), George and Joyce Sahlberg (health issues), Jennifer Schirm
(Parkinson’s), Chuck VanHise (leg/walking rehab), Darlene Wingfield (pulmonary
fibrosis, breast cancer), Courtney Ziegler (Huntington’s), and Pastor Jean
Hurst (kidney cancer).
LECTIONARY
FOR 10/10/21
Amos 5:6-7, 10-15;
Psalm 90:12-17; Hebrews 4:12-16 and 2:5-12;
Mark 10:17-31
