October 3, 2021 Worship

 

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