(All our songs this morning are from Singing the Faith (StF) & Hymns & Psalms (H&P) numbers will be given where available)
Welcome to our Sunday Service, today shared on paper across our circuit and with the congregation at Thornton Methodist Church led by Rev Nick Blundell one of our Circuit Ministers.
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
Call to worship (Psalm 146:6-10)
He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— he remains faithful forever.
He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord.
Song – StF 116 – Sing for God’s glory that colours the dawn of creation
Gathering Prayer
Lord, as we gather here today, we thank you for your companionship in the journeys we have made bringing us to this place. For some of us the journey has been relatively short and easy, for others long and difficult. We carry stories and memories, injuries and disappointments. In all these things you have been with us, whether we have recognised you or not.
Open our eyes, ears and hearts as we meet today, that we might see you in our neighbour, hear you in their stories, and love you as we serve one another. In the name of Jesus Christ, whose arms are always open. Amen.
Introduction to reading:
In our scripture today we meet a refugee family, forced by famine and circumstance to travel, displaced. Not unlike countless families in Palestine, Israel, Lebanon today. The family is Elimelech, a man from Judah, his wife Naomi and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. Famine forces them to flee to Moab. The sons marry local women but then they and Elimelech die, leaving Naomi and her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, as widows in precarious situations. Naomi decides to return to Judah, urging Orpah and Ruth to find new husbands and security. Ruth, however, refuses, vowing to stay with Naomi and to follow her God.
Reading
Ruth 1:1-18
Song – H&P 758 or StF – 685 – In Christ there is no east or west, in him no south or north
Reading
Reflection
In her book Everyday God, biblical scholar Paula Gooder suggests that ‘The book of Ruth is the ultimate love story. Love in the Old and New Testaments is much more about what you do than how you feel. Ruth has hesed (steadfast love) not because she talks about her emotion of love towards Naomi but because the whole of her life is lived out in expression of that love’.
It is also an unusual love story, set in the violent times of the Book of Judges. The stories of Judges show the disaster that came about when God’s people turned away from God.
By contrast, Ruth shows the blessing that came to a foreigner who turned to Israel’s God, and so became part of God’s faithful people. It also shows how those of different ethnicities and cultures can live together harmoniously. It has a lot to say to the times we live in. The land of Moab was to the south-west of Israel. The two fought often and Moab also raided and looted Israel when she had been defeated by other enemies. A Moabite woman would have been regarded as the lowest of the low (a bit like the Samaritans at the time of the Gospels). Knowing that life could be hard for her as a widow and even harder still for Orpah and Ruth as both widows and foreigners, Naomi urges her daughters-in-law to return to their homes. Orpah and Ruth make different choices. While Ruth becomes the central figure of the book and celebrated for her choice, it is interesting to note that there is no criticism of the choice that Orpah makes – a reminder perhaps that when it comes to big family decisions, it is often a case of different choices rather than right or wrong ones.
There are many ‘aspects of love’ to explore in the Book of Ruth. It begins in a place in which love is often most felt most viscerally and painfully – the place of grief. We then experience the complexity of love when big decisions have to be made. In different ways Naomi, Orpah and Ruth are all presented as acting lovingly. Will and emotion are both powerfully present. And then we have the willingness of Ruth to enter into a different culture for the sake of Naomi. On one level it is a simple story of love within a family. But it is also a particular expression of self-giving, sacrificial, Christ-like love.
In both Psalm 146 (in verses which we heard at the start of our service) and the Book of Ruth, God’s particular care for the most vulnerable is very apparent – for the hungry, strangers, orphans and widows; for those returning home or seeking safety in another land. In the discussion of the great commandments between Jesus and the enlightened teacher of the law we hard in our gospel reading, it is clear that love is for all. There is no ‘charity begins at home’ mentality or Britain or any other nation first. If there is any bias at all it is one in favour of the ‘other’.
To paraphrase Jesus, those in need will always be with us, and we are charged to love those in need and remember that both the hesed love that is at the heart of the story of Ruth, and the agape love that washes through the pages of the New Testament, are fundamentally about the choices we make in the interests of others.
Song – H&P 267 or StF 503 – Love divine, all loves excelling
Prayers
Love divine, who comes to us in Jesus, we praise you for all you have made, and we acknowledge that we have failed to properly value and care for the earth and each other.
Forgive us, fix us, forge in us the image of your love May our words and actions reveal your grace.
We pray for those around us, both here and now and day by day. For those we have known all our lives, and for those whose names we do not know. We acknowledge the difficulties and differences which can get in the way of the blessings you would give us through one another.
Forgive us, fix us, forge in us the image of your love May our words and actions reveal your grace.
We pray for those dwelling in the lands of the Bible. Especially those who, like Ruth and her family, are displaced by famine of war. Help us to look beyond the labels and easy judgements, to see the people, and help them to see each other as your children.
Forgive us, fix us, forge in us the image of your love May our words and actions reveal your grace.
We pray for those carrying heavy responsibilities, professionally and personally. For politicians and civic leaders, managers in the workplace, teachers in our schools and colleges. For foster parents and kinship carers, and those living with loved ones diminished by illness and infirmity.
Forgive us, fix us, forge in us the image of your love May our words and actions reveal your grace.
We pray for people of faith and goodwill who find themselves is situations of stress, conflict, dilemma, through which their principles and practices are challenged or tested. Grant them guidance and strength, but also openness and charity, that they may come to the heart of the matter, which is your love.
Forgive us, fix us, forge in us the image of your love May our words and actions reveal your grace.
We pray for ourselves, and those with whom we journey. Help us with hard choices and grant us wisdom in difficult circumstance. Help us to recognise your blessings and share them with others. Deal with our hypocrisies and obsessions and grant us a balanced and gentle spirit.
Forgive us, fix us, forge in us the image of your love May our words and actions reveal your grace.
Love divine, who comes to us in Jesus, come now. Visit us anew with your compassion and salvation. Open our eyes, hands, hearts to our sisters and brothers, that both in giving and receiving we might witness to the glory of your perfect love.
Forgive us, fix us, forge in us the image of your love May our words and actions reveal your grace.
Amen.
We share together in praying the Lord’s Prayer.
Song – H&P 691or StF 443 – Come let us sing of a wonderful love
Sending and blessing
Whether you go around the corner or across the world, go in the confidence that God goes with you, And will guide and bless you through the people you meet and the beauty of creation. Go in a spirit of hospitality and openness, ready to give and to receive.
And the blessing of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, remain with us, and all those we love, now and always. Amen.
(CCLI 496228. Service prepared by Rev’d Nick Blundell)
