PIONEER
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Worship
via Blog Third Sunday after Epiphany January
24, 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.
-
Annual
meeting following worship
-
Potato
Feed to go following annual meeting
-
Deacons
meets next Sunday following worship
-
PPW
lunch meeting in noon on Tuesday
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
For God alone our souls wait in silence.
Our hope is from God, our fortress.
God
is our rock and our salvation.
God
is our refuge and our deliverance.
Trust in God at all times, in all places.
Pour out your hearts to the One who hears.
All
people are valuable in God’s sight.
No
one is more important than another.
Worship God, who is ready to speak to us.
Open your lives to God’s steadfast love.
All
power in the universe belongs to God.
Yet
God depends on our faithful service.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
We await your message, God of all places and
times. Sometimes we do not like what we hear, but we know we need to listen.
Your message is inclusive and fair, while we like to make distinctions that
favor us and our friends. You call us out of our comfort zones to do new things
and try better ways. You direct us to reach out to people with whom we seem to
have little in common. Speak your truth to us in this service so we can carry
it to the places where you want us to go, to the people you are eager to reach.
Amen.
OPENING
SONG: “God the Creator” LU#27
CALL TO CONFESSION
We, who have often turned away from God’s
direction and purpose, have come together to confront our disobedience and
willfulness. Despite good intentions, we have broken trust with God and with
one another. Let us acknowledge our sin, that we may be open to God’s healing
and the restoration of right relationships with our neighbors.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Ever-present
God, we confess that we have trusted our narrow understandings rather than seek
your will. We have taken our direction from the world rather than question the
way things are ordered here. We have put our confidence in riches and worldly
status. We have closed our ears to your call. Forgive us and lead us in your
way.
(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 Fiona and Zoey. Do you like to go to the lake or the ocean? Is it fun
walking in the edge of the water? Apparently, Jesus liked it, too. One day he
was walking along the edge of the Sea of Galilee. It’s not really a sea. It’s a
great big lake.
As
Jesus is walking there, enjoying the day, he sees some fishermen throwing nets
out in the water. That was one way they fished. They also used lines and hooks.
Jesus is watching Peter and his brother Andrew and then calls out to them,
“Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”
Wasn’t
that was a strange thing to say? How can you fish for people? Would you throw a
net over them? But that isn’t the kind of fishing Jesus meant. He meant for
them to follow him and learn how to teach others about Jesus and how to love.
Do
you think maybe Jesus wants us to do that, too? That is something we can do. We
can love Jesus and follow him and follow what he teaches. And we can also tell
others about Jesus and about love. Let’s pray.
Jesus,
you called Peter and Andrew and others to follow you and you call us, too. Help
us to follow the things you teach and especially teach us how to love. 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: Psalm 62:5-12 (New Living Translation)
Let all that I am
wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my
salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My victory and honor come
from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. O my
people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our
refuge. Common people are as worthless as a puff of wind, and the powerful are
not what they appear to be. If you weigh them on the scales, together they are
lighter than a breath of air. Don't make your living by extortion or put your
hope in stealing. And if your wealth increases, don't make it the center of
your life. God has spoken plainly, and I have heard it many times: Power, O God,
belongs to you; unfailing love, O Lord, is yours. Surely you repay all people
according to what they have done.
SCRIPTURE 2: Mark 1:14-20
Now after John was
arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying,
"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and
believe in the gospel." And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw
Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were
fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you become
fishers of men." And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his
brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called
them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants,
and followed him.
SERMON: “Following
or Left in the Boat?” Rev. Jean Hurst
Last
Sunday we read two call stories. The second reading was the one on which we
focused. It was about God’s call to Samuel as a child. Samuel had to grow into
that call, literally growing up and in the process learning what he needed in
order to live into his call. The story about Samuel showed that age is not a
determinant in God’s call. God calls the young. God calls the old. The call may
start immediately or there may be a passage of time and God uses that passage
of time to prepare us.
The
other story we heard last week was about Philip and his friend Nathaniel. As we
read about the calling of the disciples we will notice that the gospels vary in
how and in what order the disciples are called and even by the name they’re
called. Last week was from the gospel of John and in it, Jesus finds Philip
first and calls him. Philip tells Nathaniel who responds with that memorable
line, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” He finds out when he encounters
Jesus and he too, becomes a follower.
Today,
we read from the Gospel of Mark that following the beheading of John the
Baptizer, Jesus went to Galilee and walking along the lakeshore sees Simon,
later to be called Peter and his brother Andrew fishing and calls them,
promising to make them fishers of men. Next he sees James and John in their
boat mending nets and calls them.
But
James and John were not the only ones in the boat mending nets. Their father
was there. Hired workers were there also. So what was going on? I see at least
three possible scenarios. One is that Jesus was calling only James and John.
Two is that Jesus was calling them all and all of them heard him but only James
and John responded to the call while the others didn’t. Three is that Jesus
calls each in their own time as they are ready to respond.
It’s
common to think that the first scenario is the intended one. Jesus was
specifically calling James and John and they were the ones to ‘drop everything’
and follow him while the others sat on the sidelines and watched. Jesus knew
who he wanted for his disciples and called accordingly. Levi was at his booth
collecting taxes. Jesus says follow me. Matthew just gets up and follows. No
safeguarding Rome’s money. No handing in two weeks’ notice. He just walks away
from it all.
So
was it just limited to twelve apparently special individuals? No. After Levi
accepts the call and follows Jesus, he hosts Jesus at his home—along with a
motley collection of tax collectors and sinners. Scripture says, “… for there
were many who followed him.” By the way,
the religious authorities condemned Jesus for that riff raff he hung out with.
In
the very next chapter, Jesus goes up on a mountain to pray and then, from among
those many followers, names twelve of them as apostles—the close group who
would follow him through his ministries. We know now that Jesus wasn’t limiting
his call to just a few people or to just particular people or just a certain
age person. We can’t even say that Jesus limited his call to just men, because
we have other stories in the gospels about women in his group, some helping to
finance his ministry.
Back
to the boat. There were a minimum of five people in the boat—James, John, their
father Zebedee, and the hired men, pural. Jesus calls but only James and John
respond. What was going on in the minds
of the others?
There
sat Zebedee, clinging to his nets, sitting tight, watching as his sons walk
away from him without even asking his leave, watching as they walk away from
the family business, a business he’d worked hard to build, a business they were
to take over when he was too old to do it anymore. Maybe Zebedee was older and wiser and too
practical to run after this young rebel named Jesus. Or maybe he had been
snoozing in the warm sun or was hard of hearing and just hadn’t heard Jesus call.
What
do you think? Do you think he was angry that his sons abandoned him? Would he have felt betrayed? Or do you think
he looked longingly after them, wishing he, too, could follow this soft spoken
rabbi, but feeling he’d invested too much of his life in the boat beneath him
and the nets scattered around his feet?
Or
did he perhaps hear Jesus call, but was not willing to turn away from the life
that had become comfortable and secure? It was the known. We're not comfortable
with the unknown. Might the workers feel the same? Jobs were hard to come by.
How could they just walk away? Maybe they, too, had families to support. Or
maybe they felt there were things they’d done in their lives that disqualified
them from following a religious man, secrets in their closets that, if
revealed, might cause this rabbi to scorn and reject them.
Or
... maybe that third scenario came into play. Maybe the call on their lives was
not the same as that of James and John. I believe we are all called in
different ways, at different times, and to different things. We are all, of
course, called to believe in Jesus, to acknowledge him as Lord and Savior. We
are all called to live out his teachings, to obey his commands—especially the
command to love. Our calls differ in exactly how we live out our faith, even in
how we demonstrate that love. As we hear that call, as we respond, we are
touched and changed.
The
lives of the disciples were never the same.
I’m suspecting that though Zebedee and his hired hands did not follow Jesus
at that time, their lives were still changed. We cannot have even that brief
encounter with the Redeemer without being changed. Jesus has a way of turning
our world upside down. We can’t help but hear the call. The choice comes in
what we do when we hear it. And what we do impacts those around us.
Jesus
didn’t call just one disciple. He didn’t even call one disciple at a time. He
called a group of them. He called a community. And he told them exactly what
was going to happen. I’m going to make you fishers of people. In other words,
there’s going to be even more of you.
God
is breaking into your world. This is too big to keep to yourselves. You’re
going to want to share this. Light has come into the world. People were in
darkness, facing death. There is now hope, there is life. This is the gospel.
This is great news. Why do we keep it to ourselves or try to do it by
ourselves?
I
can’t tell you how many times I have had people tell me they don’t need
church--that they can worship God at home. Problem is, they usually don’t. But
even if they did faithfully read their Bibles and pray, that isn’t what Jesus
called us to do. He called us to share the good news, to live it in the world,
to extend God’s love and grace to others. And how can we not?
When
we answer Jesus’ call, it’s not because we’re hoping it will make a difference.
As one commentator put it, “When we repent, we do it not hoping that someday God may come near. We repent because in Jesus
Christ, God has come near. We
believe, not hoping that one day God
will come among us. We believe because in Jesus Christ God is among us.”1 (emphasis mine). We are invited to become
part of what God has already done, is already doing in the world. We are
invited as we are, where we are in life, even if we’re sitting in a fishing
boat. We’re invited because we are
part of the kingdom. And we’re invited to live it now.
As
Mark lays out the story, there is an urgency. Time is of the essence. That’s
based, not so much on chronology of time, but rather kairos--the time of
opportunity. God has acted, let’s get in on the action. Jesus called and immediately his followers dropped
everything and came. They came before Jesus had ‘proved’ himself through his
miracles. They followed without Jesus even giving explanation.
Jesus
didn’t offer promises, not to them, nor to us. He didn’t say, follow me and I
will make you loved or rich or successful or give you a life of ease. He didn’t
invite them ... or us ... to simply follow his teachings or be his buddy.
Instead, he called them into the trenches.
He
called them to rub elbows with the least loved, least wanted, most needy. He
called them to do things that were against their training and against their
nature--to love their enemies, to go beyond their comfort zones, to challenge
authority and systems that oppress people, to look beyond their own religious
system, to not just tolerate but to accept and include those who were different
from them, who were outside their normal cultural acceptance. He called them to
get their hands dirty and to engage their hearts.
He
called them to the radical, to step away from their old lives and into a new
life. He called them to leave behind the old--to leave behind old ways of
thinking and being, to leave behind old wounds and resentments, to leave behind
old failings and disappointments.
When
Jesus called the disciples, when he calls us, it is not simply to a task. It
was to a whole new identity. No longer were they fishermen in the traditional
sense they knew. They were followers of Jesus. For us, what is the difference
between task and identity, between just doing
something and instead being
something? We are followers of Jesus. We are Christians. That is our identity.
That is who we are now.
Discipleship
is not just a ‘me and Jesus’ sort of thing. We are called to be in community. It
was demonstrated in Jesus calling all those who followed him and it was
demonstrated in the start of the early church after his death and resurrection.
We
need each other. In community, we strengthen and encourage and hold each other
accountable. Together we continue to carry out Jesus’ mission and ministry, the
building of God’s kingdom. Together we change the world—even if by just one
person at a time. We should not keep the good news to ourselves. Each of us is
called not just to experience the redemptive light of Jesus but to go out into
the world and bring others to the light so that they, too, might know God’s
saving grace and love.
1Gary W. Charles, Feasting on the Gospels: Mark, p. 27
HYMN: “The
Summons” Glory #726
PRAYERS OF THE
PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
O Lord, you have called us to be your
disciples and to come to you even without credentials, complete commitment, or
a full understanding of who you are and what your commission requires of us.
You speak, and the words, “Follow me,” stop us in our tracks. Everything is
changed!
We so often feel unwilling, unworthy,
without courage, too full of doubts. Still, you seek us out, you bring us
close, and you take us along with the simple invitation whispered to our
hearts: “Come, and follow me!”
We want to answer ‘yes’ to your call.
Help us overcome our doubts and hesitation. Help us believe that you prepare us
and will work by our side. Point the way, Lord, and show us how to love those
to whom you send us.
In that love, 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, by wildfires, by
economics. We pray for those close to us, for
Stephen Meinzinger Phyllis Bauer … Beverly Patterson … Lois White … Dena Hovey following back surgery ... Virginia … Cherry … John Matthews … Margaret
Dunbar … Trisha … Dave … Jacob … George … Joyce … Jennifer … Chuck … Courtney …
Ethel … Helen. (Additional prayers …………)
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
Abundance and wealth have come to us, that
we might experience the privilege of sharing. As we share what we have
received, our lives are opened to appreciate and enjoy more of God’s blessings.
Let us consider what we bring of our resources and lives.
DOXOLOGY
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
O God, from whom comes all the good things we enjoy.
We give in response to your generosity. Bless, we pray, the gifts of our
resources and the gifts of our lives.
CLOSING HYMN: “Will
You Let Me Be Your Servant” Glory #727
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
Your charge this week is to clean out
your ears. God is calling you. Can you hear? Will you respond.
As you consider that, 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
January 24 following worship Annual Congregational Meeting
January 26 noon PPW
lunch meeting
January 31 following worship Deacons
PRAYER
CARE:
Stephen Meinzinger
(Covid), Phyllis Bauer (aging issues), Beverly Patterson (aging issues), Lois
White (lymphoma), Dena Hovey (back surgery), Virginia (now 99!), Darlene (heart valve, pulmonary fibrosis,
breast cancer), Margaret Dunbar (fall/broken tailbone), John Matthews (cancer),
Trisha Cagley (health problems), Dave Clark (kidney cancer), Jacob Cunningham, George
and Joyce Sahlberg (health issues), Jennifer Schirm (Parkinson’s), Chuck
VanHise (leg/walking rehab), and Courtney Ziegler (Huntington’s).
LECTIONARY
FOR 1/31/21
Deuteronomy
18:15-20, 10; Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13;
Mark 1:21-28
