PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Worship
via Blog 1st Sunday of Advent November
28, 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.
Now allow yourself a brief time of silence
as you open your hearts and feel God’s presence with you, right where you are.
-
PPW
Christmas brunch Saturday Dec 11 @ 10:00 a.m. with a $10-15 consumable gift
exchange
-
Bring
men’s socks for Shepherd’s House in Bend. Box in Fireside Room.
-
Bring
Christmas wrapping paper and Christmas gift bags for Christmas Joy
- Decorating the Church
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BAPTISM: Friends, remember your baptism … and be thankful.
CHOIR INTROIT
LIGHTING OF THE ADVENT CANDLE
First
Week of Advent - Hope
Isaiah 9:2, 6-7
The people walking
in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow
of death a light has dawned.
For to us a child
is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And
he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince
of Peace. Of the increase of his
government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and
over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish
this.
The
first candle of the Advent Wreath (purple) is lit.
“We light this first Advent candle as a sign
of the promise of Christ’s coming. We
remember that people looked forward to the coming of Christ. The first Candle is the candle of hope.”
CALL TO WORSHIP
The days are surely coming, says our God,
when justice and righteousness will
appear.
God’s
promises will be made known to us
and
we will declare God’s goodness and salvation.
Lift up your souls in trust and praise;
open your hearts and minds to God’s
teaching.
God’s
ways will be demonstrated to us,
and
we will seek to walk in them all our days.
Render thanksgiving to God for all life’s
benefits.
Watch and pray, in holiness and abiding
faith.
God’s
mercy and steadfast love will surround us,
and
we will abound in love for one another.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
In obedience and trust, we approach you,
Holy God. Day by day, your promises are fulfilled among us. Our redemption is
drawing near. Help us to prepare ourselves and our communities for Christ’s
coming. Equip us now to worship you with all the saints, past and present,
nearby and far away. Amen.
OPENING
HYMN: “Gentle Shepherd, Come and Lead Us” LU#102
CALL TO CONFESSION
A new church year is dawning. An air of
anticipation challenges us to fresh beginnings. Are we weighed down by the
cares of life? Are we silent when we should speak? Have our actions and
inactions contradicted the teachings of Jesus? Now is a good time to rid
ourselves of old ways and embrace the newness God offers.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
God
of promises and possibilities, we admit that we color the world according to
our own limited vision. Hear us as we entrust our failures to your forgiving
care. Help us to let go of our transgressions, to renew our covenant with you,
and to live constructively with one another. In the spirit of Jesus Chrst,
whose coming among us we await with great expectation. (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: Jeremiah
33:14-16
"Behold, the
days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the
house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will
cause a righteous Branch to spring forth for David; and he shall execute justice
and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem
will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: `The Lord
is our righteousness.'
SCRIPTURE 2: Luke 21:25-36
"And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars,
and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea
and the waves, men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on
the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see
the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these
things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your
redemption is drawing near." And he told them a parable: "Look at the
fig tree, and all the trees; as soon as they come out in leaf, you see for
yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see
these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I
say to you, this generation will not pass away till all has taken place. Heaven
and earth will pass away, but my words will
not pass away. "But take heed to yourselves lest
your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this
life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare; for it will come upon
all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. But watch at all times, praying
that you may have strength to escape all these things that will take place, and
to stand before the Son of man."
SERMON “What Are You Waiting For?” Rev.
Jean Hurst
The end is coming. The Muslims have
predicted it. The Jews have predicted it. The Christians have predicted it. New
Agers have predicted it. Astronomists, mathematicians, and physicists have
predicted it. In 1889, Wovoka, a Paiute who founded the second episode of the
Ghost Dance movement, claimed that the Millennium would start in 1890. Even
Christopher Columbus in 1501 and the Connecticut General Assembly of 1780
joined the chorus. Wikipedia posts a chart of assorted predictions since the
time of Christ—pages and pages and pages!
They go back to the first millennia
following Jesus’ death and resurrection when a sect of the Essenes, a Jewish
group believed to have written the Dead Sea Scrolls, predicted the end based on
the Jewish uprising against Rome which led to the destruction of the
Temple.
Some of the predictions were tied to
significant dates—like the year 1,000 or the year 2,000. Some were connected
with specific timelines or events like Jesus’ birth, his resurrection, the
start of the Muslim faith, the Council of Nicea, the 1948 date of the
re-founding of Israel, the bubonic plague (also known as the Black Death) in
1346, and the 1666 Fire of London. The book of Revelations was used as well the
dimensions of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Astronomers based their theories on the
alignment of planets, star formations, comets, and asteroids. As the
predictions moved into modern times the triggers for the end included
immorality, information channeled through aliens, earthquakes, expected nuclear
attacks, and of course the expiration of the Mayan calendar on December 21,
2012.
Some predictions carried specific
details. In 1934, Walter Marks, an Australian lawyer and politician told their
House of Representatives that Armageddon would occur that year and that the
Royal Navy would bring Christ’s chosen to Jerusalem. Chen, leader of a
Taiwanese cult, claimed that God was going to come to earth in a flying saucer
at 10:00 a.m. on March 31, 1998.
Others are playing it safe, predicting
the end to be anywhere from 300,000 to 22 billion years away. Science has
already predicted that in about 7.5 billion years the earth will be swallowed
by the sun which will have become a red giant in its death throes. That would
certainly be the end.
When the earlier predictions proved
inaccurate, the consequences varied. One Christian, Thiota, declared the world
would end in 847, then later recanted and was publically flogged. A couple of
others were beheaded—though, granted, that was also tied to attempted political
overthrows. Another was ultimately committed to an insane asylum.
In England in 1806 hens began laying eggs
with the phrase “Christ is coming.” Turns out Mary Bateman, known as the
Yorkshire Witch, wrote the phrase on eggs in corrosive ink that etched the
message onto the shell, then reinserted the eggs into the chickens. Mary was
later tried and executed for murder.
Many of those who made failed predictions
simply changed the date to a future time, some of them over and over again.
Jonas Wendell who, when his predictions didn’t come true, claimed that Jesus
had in fact returned in 1874, but that he was invisible.1 Evidenced
by the fact that you’re still sitting here listening to me (or reading, for
those on the BLOG) the end hasn’t come.
Why are we so intrigued by the idea of
the end of the world? Apparently, people have been intrigued by the notion of
apocalypse for a long, long time. In the times of the Old Testament major and
minor prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, Joel, Amos—just
about all of them got in their plug for what those end times would look like.
Reading those—and the ones up through
modern times—it’s never a gentle fading into the sunset, not a sweet lullaby
that lulls us to sleep only to awaken in a heavenly paradise. No, it’s fire and flood and war and disease
and earthquakes and famines. Actually, when you think about it, it’s nothing
different than what has happened every year down through history. We’ve always
had fire and flood and war and disease and earthquakes and famines.
The severity of them varies year to year,
as does the mix of them. Admittedly, there are times when they are so
frightening, so devastating that we read into them a portending of worse things
to come. And really, isn’t that very like human nature to anticipate worse
times coming as opposed to better times?
Today begins the season of Advent. It is a
season of waiting, of anticipation—awaiting the coming of Jesus. In the
Christian faith we hold it as a time of awaiting the birth of Christ as well as
waiting for and anticipating the return of Christ. Our first scripture reading
was about the coming of the Messiah. The Luke passage is about those ends times
of which the disciples inquired of Jesus, following Jesus’ statement about the
destruction of the temple. Jesus said many will be claiming, “The time is near”
but do not follow them. He said there would be wars and revolutions, nation
rising against nation, earthquakes, famines and pestilences, and fearful signs
in the heavens. A pestilence, by the
way, is a deadly and overwhelming disease like the bubonic plague.
Why do you think Jesus spoke of those
times? It was not so that we would live in fear. It was just the opposite.
Though others will be in anguish and perplexity because of what is happening,
will faint in terror and be apprehensive of what is coming on the world, he
tells his followers, “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift
up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
We are puzzled, then, when he said, “I
tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all
these things have happened.” Obviously, that generation did pass away and so
have up to 80 generations since then if you allow 25 years per generation. But
perhaps Jesus meant the generation that was experiencing those apocalyptic
times. In other words, when the end comes, it will come quickly.
As I’ve already illustrated, throughout
history we have had events that were claimed to presage the end times. Some of
them were very credible. Look at the world wars with so many nations pitting
their power against each other. The bubonic plague that killed 1/3 of Europe
surely must have looked like it. What do you think the people of Pompeii felt?
Without scientific knowledge about eclipses or meteor showers or comets, it’s
not surprising that strange events in the sky seemed like the end of the world.
The natural order of things had been upset.
When we’re contending with one bad
situation, and another, and then another occurs, it’s a reasonable leap to see
omens. And sometimes there’s just so much awry with the world that we can’t
believe that life can go on as normal. Sometimes, we’re just ready for the end.
Back to that earlier question: Why would
Jesus make such predictions? And why would these passages of horror and
destruction come at the beginning of the time we want to anticipate angels and
shepherds and a baby in a manger?
Because that Bethlehem night was the beginning, not the end.
Jesus made it very clear that he would
return. We’re counting on that—we’re just not necessarily ready for it. Jesus
wants us to be ready—not to live in fear, but to live in hope. Jesus wants us
to know that for all the evil that befalls this planet, people of faith will
not be overcome by it. It is that assurance that good will overcome evil. Jesus
will return and what began that night in a stable long, long ago, will be
fulfilled.
Over and over, in this passage and in
other gospel passages, Jesus insists that we be ready. Wait. Watch. Be
prepared. You don’t know when it will happen—despite all those who have wrongly
tried to make predictions. You don’t wait until the last minute and then get
your life and faith together because you don’t know when that minute will be.
But it will be. Living faithfully
between times, it will not be a time of terror, but a time of victory. The
living in between won’t be a time of despair but a time of hope. Our redemption
is drawing near.
Those who do not believe, who do not have
a faith to hold onto will have cause to fear. They will not be able to
understand Jesus’ words, “When these things begin to take place, stand up and
lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
Lift up your heads. Trust. Hope. As Joel
Green put it, “For those who trust God and whose trust of God is mirrored in
their own faithfulness, the coming of the end is not a calamity to be feared
but redemption to be welcomed.”2
We are not to be idle in the waiting.
Jesus instructs us to be faithful servants awaiting the return of the master.
We are to be continuing the tasks that Jesus has set before us; foremost is the
task of love. We have begun the time of Advent. We live in that in-between
time—the time between the coming of the Christ child and the coming of the
King. We live in the ‘then’ and ‘now’. It is a time for faith and faithfulness.
It is a time of hope. Amen.
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events
2Joel Green, Connections, Year C, Volume 1, p 14,
Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, 2018
HYMN: “Come
Thou Long Expected Jesus” Glory #82
PRAYERS OF THE
PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
O God, it is the Season of Advent and
we are waiting … waiting for love to rekindle its flame in the hollow of our
hearts; waiting for that peace which is beyond comprehension to quiet our
troubled thoughts; waiting for justice to become a word that is constantly on
our lips and faithfully in our actions; waiting for the Light of Life to
brighten our steps in the dark winter nights.
Come quickly, Jesus and lift the
shadow of our vision. Come quickly, Lord, and coax us out of our hiding places.
Keep us hopeful, O Lord, even when wars and rumors of wars threaten to undo us.
Give us courage to live out your message of reconciliation and kindness. May
the love which we seek be the love which we share. May the forgiveness we need
be the forgiveness we offer to others. May we not only believe in your love but
live it every day in everything we say or do.
In love we lift up those of our families,
church, and community who need your healing touch and comforting presence: We
pray for Ron Schirm and family in the death of Jennifer. For Dave Clark … Tina
Bossuot … Verna’s sisters … Mary and Ray Swarthout … Sandy Cargill … Elaine
LaChapelle … Somer Bauer … Tasha Sizemore … Beverly Patterson … Margaret Dunbar
…Virginia … Darlene … Trisha … Jacob …
George and Joyce … Chuck … Courtney … Ethel … and Pastor Jean. (Additional
prayers …………)
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
As our love for one another increases, so
does our generosity. The circle of our concern widens. Our passion for justice
expands. Our desire to join in Christ’s redeeming work extends to the whole
human family. What a privilege to have so much to share!
DOXOLOGY
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Thank you, God, for this family of faith, which
enriches our lives and enables us to share. We are grateful that you show us
ways to lift the burdens of our sisters and brothers. May our offerings further
this ministry among us and beyond our community. Amen.
CLOSING HYMN: “Soon
and Very Soon” LU #142
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
Jesus is coming! We just don’t know
when. He said be prepared. What would that look like for you? Put it to the
test this week. Observe your own words and actions and see if you feel you’re
ready.
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.
~~~~~~~~~~
LOOKING
AHEAD
-
Bring
men’s socks for Shepherd’s House in Bend. A box for them will be in Fireside
Room.
-
Bring
Christmas wrapping paper and Christmas gift bags for Christmas Joy. A box for
them will be in the entry.
-
NO
Deacons meeting in November
- Decorating the Church Wednesday, December 1
-
PPW
Christmas brunch Saturday Dec 11 @ 10:00 a.m. with a $10-15 consumable gift
exchange
-
Women’s
Spirituality @ 10:30 a.m. on December 7
-
Men’s
Prayer Group @ 8:30 a.m. on December 9
-
Pledges
for 2022 will be dedicated on December 12
-
Congregational
meeting for election of 2022 officers will be held following worship on
December 12
-
M&M
meets following worship on December 12
-
Worship
& Music meets following worship on December 19
-
Prayer
Shawl Ministry meets @ 1:00 p.m. on December 19
-
Women’s
Spirituality meets @ 10:30 a.m. on December 21
-
Men’s
Prayer Group meets @ 8:30 a.m. on December 23
-
Christmas
Eve Service is @ 7:00 p.m. on December 24
-
Deacons
meet following worship on December 26
PRAYER
CARE:
Ron Schirm and family (Jennifer’s passing), Tina
Bossuot (Alzheimer’s), Verna’s sisters (Covid recovery), Mary and Ray
Swarthout, Sandy Cargill (breast cancer), 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 (Ashley Manor), George and Joyce Sahlberg (health issues),
Chuck VanHise (leg/walking rehab), Darlene Wingfield (pulmonary fibrosis,
breast cancer), Courtney Ziegler (Huntington’s), and Pastor Jean Hurst (kidney
cancer).
LECTIONARY
FOR 12/5/21
Malachi 3:1-4; Luke 1:68-79; Philippians 1:3-11; Luke
3:1-6
