PIONEER
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Worship
via Blog Baptism of the Lord January 10, 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.
-
Un-hanging
of the Greens will follow worship as the Christmas decorations are taken down
-
M&M
and Worship & Music committees meet following worship
-
Session
meets Tuesday night at 6:00 p.m.
-
Annual
Congregational Meeting following worship on the 24th
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 powerful voice of God created all
worlds.
That same voice calls; us to worship.
Ascribe
to our God glory and strength.
Come
before God’s glorious majesty.
God’s strength shakes the wilderness.
That same strength is offered to people of
faith.
God,
who called all worlds into being,
Calls
forth new life in us today.
Glory be to God, in whose creative purpose
we are claimed and empowered.
Come
together to remember your baptism.
Gather
to celebrate the Spirit’s gifts.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
In the beginning, O God, you fashioned a
universe. Each star and planet had its beginning in you. Out of the void, you
brought light and life. Through eons of creativity, you have acted, and today
we are here, inheritors of an amazing process, tiny specks in the limitless
reaches of time and space. And you are here, waiting to greet us. As you acted
in our baptism, you are acting still to make all things new within us and among
us. Let your light awaken us and your Spirit empower us for faithful living.
Amen.
OPENING
SONG: “Spirit Song” LU#13
CALL TO CONFESSION
John the Baptizer appeared in the
wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
We, who have received the gift of baptism, recognize the need to confess our
sins to remind ourselves of our finitude and of God’s amazing grace.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Creator
God, you have created us, but we have chosen to go our own way. You have
reclaimed us, but we have, by our arrogant attitudes and actions, rejected that
claim. We know we need to return to you. We are ready now, ready to admit that
our ways are full of dangerous byways. Our mistakes and failures have often
come because, in our false pride, we have not listened to you. Save us again by
your forgiving love.
(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
TIME WITH CHILDREN
Good
morning. This morning we’re going to talk about nothing. Nothing at all. What
do you have to say about nothing? Can you even imagine nothing? Picture it in
your mind. What do you see? It’s hard to imagine nothing, isn’t it? Because something always pops into our minds.
But
nothing is what God started with.
Before there was a church or grasshoppers or rainbows or cows, before there was
a mama and a daddy, before there were stars in the sky—there was nothing.
And
then, can you guess what happened? God closed his eyes and didn’t see nothing.
God saw all kinds of wonderful things and so God created. God created all that
is. That means God made everything: light for in the darkness, oceans and land,
sun and stars, sagebrush and junipers, mosquitos and snakes and quail and deer.
For some things we wonder why God made them, but I guess God had a reason.
After
all that, God created people and God told the people to take care of the earth
and all that was on it. The earth is God’s and we are caretakers. That means we
need to be good to our planet and protect it. We can help do that by keeping
the water and air clean and picking up litter and keeping God’s earth
beautiful. Let’s pray:
God,
thank you for creating the earth and all the things that grow and live on it.
You did a good job. Help us to take care of it for you. Amen.
HYMN: “Jesus
Loves Me”
Jesus loves me,
this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him
belong, they are weak but he is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves
me. Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves
me. The Bible tells me so.
SCRIPTURE 1: Genesis 1:1-5
In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and
darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over
the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light"; and there
was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light
from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
SCRIPTURE 2: Mark 1:4-11
John the baptizer
appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins. And there went out to him all the country of Judea, and
all the people of Jerusalem; and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan,
confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair, and had a
leather girdle around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey. And he
preached, saying, "After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of
whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with
water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." In those days Jesus
came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when
he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the
Spirit descending upon him like a dove; and a voice came from heaven,
"Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased."
SERMON: “The
Power of Water” Rev. Jean Hurst
In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void. No shape,
nothing. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Let’s pause
there. God’s Spirit hovered over the waters. We’d hear more about the waters if
we continued reading that first chapter of Genesis.
We’d read how God separated the waters
by creating a space, or expanse, to separate the waters between our world and
that beyond. Genesis goes on to say that God then separated the waters within
our world so that there were seas and there was dry earth. And God called it
good.
In ancient times, in many cultures,
water represented chaos. In the act of creation, God is calming the waters or
overcoming chaos. There is a theme through the Bible of God acting on the
waters—creation, the great flood, the parting of the waters of the Red Sea,
Jonah’s storm, and Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee. These are
things that humans had no control over. God did.
There is theological significance in
the fact that God is able to accomplish great things through the power of
water. Water became life. Life cannot be sustained without water. All living
things require water in order to survive. From water comes growth and
fruitfulness. Water is a means of cleansing and purification. Through water
comes new life. The birthing waters are an example. Our very bodies are in the
range of 60% water.
When God conquered the chaos of the
primeval waters, God made it so that the clouds carried water and dropped it on
the earth and watered the earth. And those waters percolated through the soil
and formed underground reservoirs and ran on the surface and found their way
back to the sea where they evaporated into clouds in repeating cycles.
Water is powerful. Look at the
devastation of floods. Consider the Grand Canyon, sculpted by water. Look at
the erosion of seacoasts by the force of the ocean. Over the years Niagra Falls
has cut the earth back over seven miles. There is power in the water--even more
so in the waters of baptism.
John the Baptist baptized people for
the forgiveness of sins. They repented, turning away from the old life, turning
back to God. They found new life, free from the burden of their past deeds and
failings. And Jesus himself came to the water, insisting that John baptize him
as well. So we have Jesus’ own example to show us the way. Baptism is a
sacrament—a sacred act which is the means of divine grace. We experience God’s
grace in baptism.
Baptism holds great meaning. It makes
us members of God’s family, initiates us into Christ’s church. Baptism assures
us that God forgives our sins—it’s that cleansing aspect of water. In baptism,
we die to sin and rise anew with Christ. It is a reminder of Jesus’ victory
over death which was foreshadowed by his immersion into the water and rising
from it. Since Jesus conquered death, his victory over death is our victory as
well. We find new birth in baptism, just as with the birthing waters, we enter
a new life, a life of faith. Through the action of the Holy Spirit, baptism
brings us God’s promise of love and nourishes us in the faith.
In the Presbyterian Church, we baptize
at all ages whether newborn, child or adult. Over the years we witnessed the
baptism of two of our members, both now deceased, when they were in their
80s—Dick Ingraham and Pearl Sahlberg. They died, confident in the promise of
their baptism. They knew whose they were. They knew where they were going.
For an infant or child, the parents or
guardians make a commitment on their behalf, that they will be raised in the
faith. They grow up knowing that they are marked by the Holy Spirit and claimed
as Christ’s own forever. They may not understand the full meaning at first, but
they grow into it, knowing that God’s love claims and holds them.
The congregation, this community of
faith, also makes a commitment. Whether for child or adult, they promise they
will pray for, love, support, guide and encourage that individual in their
faith journey. Baptism is not a solitary act. We believe it is an act of God—an
outward expression of an inward grace. We don’t go it alone. We are always
supported by a community of believers and always, always, God is with us.
God is with us, indeed. Consider what
we are: God-marked, God-claimed, God-companioned throughout our lives. No
matter what may come. No matter what we have to face. No matter the struggling
or loss or pain we encounter during our lives, God is still with us. No matter,
even, the times of doubting, or stumbling, or failing, God is still with us, helping us to move
forward. Knowing you are baptized helps get you through some of those rough
spots.
Martin Luther, the German monk, was
the father of the Protestant branch of faith—the word comes from protest. He
went through a lot of adversity after he nailed that list of protests to the
church door in the 16th century and launched the Reformation. He
went through a lot of soul-searching struggles in deciding to take that action.
He was excommunicated from the church—then the universal catholic church with a
small ‘c’. He was labeled a heretic, condemned by the church, ostracized by his
colleagues. Under an arrest warrant, he had to hide out while he continued his
theology work.
Coming out of seclusion, he started
the Lutheran Church. In response to an appeal for aid from some progressive
nuns wanting to be free of the convent, he had them smuggled out at night
hidden in herring barrels. Apparently this was an offence punishable by death.
He married one of these former nuns.1
Luther did a lot of good in his life.
But some of his misdeeds follow him as well, like his writings against the
Jews. Through it all, with all the struggles he went through, during the times
he was discouraged or despaired, he got through by reminding himself, “I am
baptized.”
We can hold to that anchor as well. I
am baptized. I am God-touched. I know whose I am. I know where I am going. God
has a hold on my life and God isn’t going to let go.
I offer you the opportunity now, as a
congregation, to renew your baptismal vows.
1
https://www.biography.com/religious-figure/martin-luther
RENEWAL OF BAPTISMAL VOWS
Sunday, January 10th is the day
designated to remember the baptism of Jesus. As we do that, in the live and
Zoom services, we will be doing a congregational renewal of baptismal vows.
Though not present at the services, you still have the opportunity to think
about the vows you made at your own baptism and to renew that commitment. The
start of a new year is a good time to look back on what your faith has meant to
you, look forward and consider how your faith will carry you into the future,
and recommit to the vows you made or that were made on your behalf when you
were baptized. (If you have not been baptized and would like to be, please talk
with the pastor.)
Scripture
Hear these words
from Holy Scripture: Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have
been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one
another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:1-3) and
God has told you what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to
do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
Prayer
Open the heavens,
O God, and pour out your Spirit upon us, that all who have been raised to new
life with Christ in baptism may, by word and deed, show forth the risen life of
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Profession of
Faith
Sisters and
brothers in Christ, our baptism is the sign and seal of our cleansing from sin,
and of our being grafted into Christ. Through the birth, life, death, and
resurrection of Christ, the power of sin was broken and God’s kingdom entered
our world. Through our baptism we were made citizens of God’s kingdom, and
freed from the bondage of sin. Let us
celebrate that freedom and redemption through the renewal of the promises made
at our baptism.
I ask you,
therefore, once again to reject sin, to profess your faith in Christ Jesus, and
to confess the faith of the church, the faith in which we were baptized.
Renunciation
Trusting in the
gracious mercy of God, do you turn from the ways of sin and renounce evil and
its power in the world?
I do.
Do you turn to
Jesus Christ and accept him as your Lord and Savior, trusting in his grace and
love? I do.
With
God’s help, will you be Christ’s faithful disciple, obeying his word and
showing his love? I will
Congregational
Profession of Faith
With the whole
church, let us confess our faith:
I believe in God,
the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus
Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of
the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was
buried; he descended to the dead. On the
third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right
hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I
believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church*, the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life
everlasting. Amen.
Thanksgiving Over
the Water
The Lord be with you. And also with you.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Eternal and
gracious God, we give you thanks. In
countless ways you have revealed yourself in ages past, and have blessed us
with signs of your grace. We praise you
that through the waters of the sea, you led your people Israel out of bondage,
into freedom in the land of your promise.
We praise you for
sending Jesus your Son, who for us was baptized in the waters of the Jordan,
and was anointed as the Christ by your Holy Spirit. Through the baptism of his death and
resurrection, you set us free from the bondage of sin and death, and give us
cleansing and rebirth.
We praise you for
your Holy Spirit, who teaches us and leads us into all truth, filling us with a
variety of gifts, that we might proclaim the gospel to all nations and serve
you as a royal priesthood.
We
rejoice that you claimed us in our baptism, and that by your grace we are born
anew. By your Holy Spirit renew us, that
we may be empowered to do your will and continue forever in the life of the risen
Christ, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be all glory and honor, now and
forever. Amen.
Congregational Commitment
Do
you, as members of the church of Jesus Christ, promise to guide and nurture
each other by word and deed, with love and prayer, encouraging each other to know
and follow Christ and to be faithful members of his church? We do.
The Charge
Lead
a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility
and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every
effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
HYMN: “Out
of Deep, Unordered Water” Glory #484
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 life becomes a struggle, when our faith is
tested, when we feel broken, reach out and lift us up, touch us and heal us,
fill us anew with your Spirit so that we might reach out in healing to those
around us.
We pray for your children here and
around the world—those who live in the shadow of fear and violence and hunger
and loneliness, those impacted by Covid. We pray for those close to us,
for Phyllis Bauer … Beverly Patterson … Darlene
Wingfield … Lois White … John Matthews …
Virginia … Cherry … Margaret Dunbar … Trisha … Dave … Jacob … Joyce and George
… Jennifer … Chuck … Courtney … Ethel … Helen. (Additional prayers …………)
We pray for those of your children,
here and around the globe, who are lonely and disheartened, who are afraid and
rejected, those who feel unloved and without hope. We pray for an end to Covid.
We pray for healing in our country.
God
who guides our lives, we entrust to you these prayers and those that remain yet
in our hearts as we pray the prayer Jesus taught: 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
We have nothing apart from God’s gifts. We
have everything when we allow God’s Spirit to work through us. This offering
demonstrates the depth of our awareness. Consider for a moment what you bring
to God as an offering.
DOXOLOGY
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Mighty God you have given us everything we have. You
have granted us life. You have poured out abiding love on our behalf. We bring
our offerings to you in gratitude and obedience that the offerings of our
resources and our very lives might help spread the news of your grace and love.
Amen
CLOSING HYMN: “Spirit
of the Living God” Glory #288
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
Your charge this week is to be
intentional in remembering each morning as you get up and each night as you go
to bed what your baptism means to you and to consider what new life God is
creating in you.
As you do 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
January 10 following
worship taking down/putting away
Christmas
decorations
January 10 following worship M&M and Worship & Music
January 12 6:00 p.m. Session
January 19 10:30 a.m. Women’s Spirituality
January 24 following worship Annual Congregational Meeting
January 26 noon PPW
lunch meeting
January 31 following worship Deacons
PRAYER
CARE:
Phyllis Bauer
(aging issues), Sheila Cunningham’s mother Beverly Patterson (aging issues), Lois
White (lymphoma), Virginia DesIlets (broken hip), Darlene Wingfield (heart
valve, pulmonary fibrosis, breast cancer), Margaret Dunbar (fall/broken
tailbone), John Matthews (cancer), Trisha Cagley (health problems), Dave Clark
(kidney cancer), Jacob Cunningham, Joyce Sahlberg (health issues), George
Sahlberg (surgery recovery, infection), Jennifer Schirm (Parkinson’s), Chuck
VanHise (leg/walking rehab), and Courtney Ziegler (Huntington’s).
LECTIONARY
FOR 1/17/21
1 Samuel 3:1-10
(11-20); Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20;
John 1:43-51
