March 13, 2022 Worship

PIONEER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Worship via Blog                                         2^nd Sunday in Lent                                         March 13, 2022

 PRELUDE

WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

-          M&M meets following worship

-          PNC meets Monday at 8:00 a.m.

-          Women’s Spirituality meets Tuesday at 10:30

-          Great Figures of the New Testament meets Tuesday at 7:00

-          2^nd Lenten Meditation Services Soup Supper Thursday at 5:30. We also need individuals to sign up in the Fireside

                         room for the rest of the soup suppers.

 

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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CHOIR INTROIT

 

*CALL TO WORSHIP            Psalm 27:1-6

         

         The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold

         of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

                         

                        When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh—my adversaries and foes—they 

                         shall stumble and fall.

        

         Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise up

         against me,  yet I will be confident.

                          

                  One thing I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the  

                  Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in

                  his temple.

        

          For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover

          of his tent; he will set me high on a rock. 

                         

                 Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his    

                 tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

 

*PRAYER OF THE DAY

            Loving God, you save all who seek refuge in you. Grant that we who know your salvation may walk always in your light, take courage in your faithfulness, and rejoice in your astounding goodness to us. Through Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen.

 

*OPENING HYMN: :       “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven”                           Glory #620

                                            

                                                         

CALL TO CONFESSION

            The Lord is our light and our salvation; whom shall we fear? With humble hearts,

            let us confess our sins to God and one another.

 

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Merciful God, your grace has made us citizens of heaven, but we confess that we have set our minds on earthly things. Our desire for security squeezes out our commitment to justice for the poor. Our aversion to risk causes us to ignore your command to love and pray for our enemies. Our love of worldly possessions dulls our generosity to needy people. Our craving for status causes us to hide our secret sins. Yet to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit, that we may be shaped more and more into the likeness of Jesus and may become his body for the sake of the world. Amen.  (continue with personal prayers………..) Amen.

 

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

            God our light and salvation does not forsake us or leave us with our sin.

                         Through our Savior Jesus, God forgives us and offers us the gift of healing repentance.

            Friends, believe the Good News!

                        In Jesus Christ we are forgiven!

 

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                                                                                                  Glory #580

 

                        Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

 

TIME WITH CHILDREN

                                               

CHOIR ANTHEM

GOSPEL LESSON:    Luke 9:28:43a

 

MESSAGE:                                       “The View From the Bottom”                       Pastor Daryl R. Wilson

 

Near where my wife Cathy and I live in Southeast Boise are signs advertising a new hilltop

neighborhood called Harris North. To build up there, the developer cut off the top of the mountain, like

the coal barons do in Appalachia. And now his signs boast of “The View from the Top.” But at what

cost? The top is gone! Today, Jesus is high up on a mountain. But he’s not contemplating the view from

the top. He’s counting the cost of The View from the Bottom. 

Let’s set this event in context. All three Gospel accounts of the transfiguration

(in Matthew, Mark, and Luke) take place just after Peter’s great confession of Jesus as God’s Messiah. “Who do you say I am?” Jesus asks. And Peter replies, “The Messiah of God.” Wow. That’s amazing; that’s very big news. But right away Jesus turns their expectations upside down. He says there’s no victory parade in their future. Instead, he says that rejection, suffering and death are on the horizon (followed by resurrection) because giving his life for others is the Messiah’s mission and the task of his followers (9:18-27). And then Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up the mountain to pray.  

 As Jesus prays, a sudden, miraculous change comes over him. His face and clothes begin to glow with a dazzling brightness. Shaking off their sleep, the disciples see Jesus shining like the sun. They also see two men—Moses the great lawgiver, and Elijah the great end-times prophet—talking with Jesus. Now they know that Jesus is indeed the Chosen One of Israel, the fulfillment of the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah). The veil dividing heaven and earth is lifted for a few moments, and the three disciples see Jesus, shining in the light of his glory. The sight fills them with awe, wonder, and holy fear. 

Peter blurts out, “Master, this is great; Moses, Elijah and you—that’s pretty good company. What do you say we build a monument for each of you right here at the summit?” It’s human nature to seek mountaintop experiences and to try to hold onto the good feelings we have up there. We don’t want to leave those places of high excitement or peak experience to face life (or death) in the valley. But Jesus knows he can’t stay on top savoring the view. He and Moses and Elijah talk, but not about the good life high up in the mountains close to God. No, their focus points downward. And then, even as Peter is speaking, a thick cloud envelops the mountain, obscuring his view. Then out of the cloud a voice speaks; a voice as clear as the light that had filled the mountaintop just moments before; a voice as awesome as the thunder that shook Mt. Sinai when Moses went up to receive God’s commandments: “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” 

And then there’s silence. The cloud lifts and the darkness gives way to light. The sun shines. The birds sing. Jesus stands alone, close by. They can see again into the valley below, where the other disciples are waiting for them. Some experiences are really hard to explain, so Peter, James and John tell no one what they’ve seen and heard—until later. But the memory of this shining moment, this divine stamp of approval on Jesus as the Suffering Messiah, stayed with them and shaped their lives. In Second Peter, the apostle wrote 

We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain (2 Peter 1:16-18).

In the prologue to his Gospel, John points back to this same event:  

The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth (1:14).

“We were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

“We have seen his glory.”

The majesty is that Jesus looked down from the mountain. And when he looked down, he saw us. The glory is that he didn’t stay up there, beyond our reach. He led Peter, James and John down from the mountain and into the life of the world. Remember when you were a small child, and you lived in a land of giants? All the action took place above you. Important decisions as well as desirable things, like the cookie jar, were beyond your reach. Adults would stare down at you, and even if they were smiling they looked kind of scary because they were so big. But every once in a while a grownup would get down on your level and look you in the eye. They didn’t seem so scary then, down at eye level, and it made you feel important like maybe they were really listening to you.

Jesus came down to our level. He comes down the mountain and into the valley to teach, to help and to heal, and so that he may climb a hill outside Jerusalem to keep an appointment with death. He comes down from the throne of the majesty on high and enters the depths and darkness of human sorrow and alienation and pain. By going all the way to the cross he shows his complete identification with us in our struggles, our suffering, and our sin. He doesn’t play it safe. He doesn’t sit in a shiny headquarters somewhere over the rainbow. He doesn’t maintain an aloof detachment. He doesn’t stay on the mountain, he comes down to where we are so that we can reach him and he can reach us. 

And so whenever we reach out to touch another person in the midst of their pain, when we risk ourselves, our comfort, or our reputations on behalf of another, there is the Lord. Whenever you do this, you’re becoming like Jesus. And that’s what really counts, isn’t it? Dr. Joanna Seibert is a Pediatric Radiologist in Little Rock. She has spent forty-five years caring for young cancer patients. Here is something she wrote recently: 

Today I visited an eight-year-old girl dying of cancer. Her body was disfigured by her disease and its treatment. She was in almost constant pain. As I entered her room, I was overcome almost immediately by her suffering—so unjust, unfair, unreasonable. Even more overpowering [however] was the presence of her grandmother lying in bed beside her with her large, warm body embracing this precious, inhuman suffering.

I stood in awe, for I knew I was on holy ground…The suffering of innocent children is horrifying beyond words. I will never forget the great, gentle arms and body of this grandmother. She never spoke [a word] while I was there. She was holding and participating in suffering that she could not relieve, and somehow her silent presence was relieving it. No words could express the magnitude of her love. 

Some people make the Christian life more complicated than God intends. Some folks say you must believe the right things, and they have the list. Others claim that you must do the right things, worship this way and not that way, follow the rules, keep your nose clean. In the end both these approaches fall short, because our true calling is to be like Jesus. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Give up the quest for power and prestige and find real life on the path of self-giving love. This is much harder than acing a theology test and far more demanding than mere rule-keeping. It goes against our grain to forgive those who hurt us, to love the unlovely, to wash people’s feet, to seek the lost, to welcome the prodigal, to carry the cross. But it’s the Jesus Way. To be like Jesus is to get down in the dirt and dust of real human life in its brokenness, sin and pain—not to avoid those things but to embrace them in the grace, mercy and love of God.

In Jesus, God comes right down to where we live, in the valley of the shadow of death, where we struggle with pain and doubt and loneliness, where we battle with depression and worry about our kids and grandkids, about our future and our health, and where we grapple with questions we can’t answer. He comes down to our level with our wounded hearts, broken relationships, and faltering dreams, down to where all of us must finally die. Here, in the midst of our struggles and our defeats as well as our hopes and our victories, Jesus offers us himself, his own body, as God’s embrace of our frail humanity. Jesus comes down. He’s here today. In the power of his Word spoken, he reaches out to seek you, to find you, to embrace you. 

The view from the top is lovely—and safe. High up on the mountain, shining like lightning, shrouded by a cloud of the glory of God, Jesus is Lord. Down in the valley, surrounded by ordinary, needy, struggling people who he reaches out to touch, to heal, and at last to save, he becomes our Savior. A blazing light keeps people at a distance. But love gets close. Love comes down. Then it climbs a hill called Calvary. On the mountain, only a few may draw near. On the cross the whole world may approach. 

We adore

you, Lord

Jesus Christ,

in all your churches throughout

the world, and we bless you, for

by your

holy cross

you have

redeemed

the world.

Amen.

 

HYMN:                                     “Swiftly Pass the Clouds of Glory”                                        Glory #190

                                                   (to the tune of “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”)

 

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER

 

          Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done,  on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from the evil one. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.         

 

CALL TO OFFERING

 

*DOXOLOGY                                                                                                           Glory #606    

  

            Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; praise God all creatures here below;

            praise God above, ye heavenly host; praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

 

PRAYER OF DEDICATION

 

CLOSING HYMN:                         “Lord, Dismiss Us With Your Blessing”                           Glory #546

 

CHARGE AND BENEDICTION

 

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

                    2^nd Lenten Meditation Services Soup Supper Thursday at 5:30. We also need individuals

                      to sign up in the Fireside                        

                         PNC meets Monday the 21^st at 8:00 a.m.

                        Great Figures of the New Testament meets the 22^nd at 7:00 p.m.

                        3^rd Lenten Soup Supper next Thursday at 5:30

                        Worship and Music meets next Sunday following the morning service

                        Prayer Shawl meets next Sunday at 1:00

           Jean’s Memorial Service April 9^th at 1:00 p.m. Westminster Presbyterian Church,

           777 Coburg Road, Eugene, OR  (541) 343-3140

 

PRAYER CARE:

Our thoughts and prayers are with our friends and family near and far as we continue to hold them in prayer. For the people of Ukraine, Sandra Borden dealing with infection in her lymph system, Summer Bauer undergoing cancer treatments. For Darlene Wingfield, Mary and Ray Swarthout, George and Joyce Sahlberg, Margaret Dunbar who are dealing with declining health issues. And for continued prayers for those in our congregation dealing with chronic conditions.

 

LECTIONARY FOR 3/20/22:

 

Isaiah 55:1-9; Psalm 63:1-8; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:1-9

 

 

*please stand