31st. October. 2021. Service.
Service of Worship 31st October 2021
23rd Sunday after Pentecost
Prelude: Great is the Lord – Gadol Adonai
Bible Introit 772 “Father God I wonder”
Collect
Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Hymn 175 “Praise, I will praise you Lord”
Call to Prayer
Praise the Lord, all you saints!
Praise God, all you heavenly hosts!
Let us praise the name of the Lord:
For the name of God is above all names!
Let us praise the Lord as long as we live.
We will sing praises to God now and evermore.
Prayers of Adoration and Confession
God of goodness and purpose, in you we live and move and have our being.
You are the Fountain of Life, refreshing our souls and sustaining our life.
You are the Light of the world, and call us to live in the light and to carry that light with us to illuminate the dark places of the world
You are the Spirit of life who adds your power and strength to our weakness when we encounter difficulties, temptations or obstacles in our pilgrimage with you.
We join our voices with the angels and archangels,
With all your saints and disciples on earth as well as in heaven
to worship you as Creator, Healer, and Source of our hope and our joy.
Praise be to you, God most holy, ever Three and ever One,
world without end. Amen.
Through your law you provided a way of forgiveness,
and when we lost our way,
you came to us in your Son, Jesus Christ.
Embodying the law of love,
he shed his own blood to obtain our redemption, and
raised by you to new life,
he has entered your holy presence, once for all,
freeing us from works of futility
to worship you by living the ways of love.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Jesus Christ shed his own blood to win freedom for us.
As our high priest, he has gone into the presence of God
and obtained for us eternal redemption,
purifying us from all guilt,
and freeing us to worship the living God. May we as your children know your forgiveness and your peace in Jesus Christ our Lord in whom we pray,
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in 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, The power, and the glory, For ever. Amen.
Intimations
The Inverkeithing Kirk Session will meet on Thursday 5th November at y:00 pm in the Church.
National Giving Day
Invitation to the Offering
On this Sunday, we give thanks for the lives of saints throughout the centuries who have shown in many ways what it costs to follow Jesus. Our offering is one way in which we share in the costs of serving him in this generation. May the example of others, who shared their faith in Christ so that we may believe, inspire our generosity today.
Prayer of Dedication
God of all generations, past, present and future, we offer our gifts in gratitude for the inheritance of faithfulness we have received as followers of Jesus. Bless these gifts so that today’s ministries may flourish and provide an inheritance for those who come after us, as you guide them into a future only you can see.
All Age Talk
Each Sunday in our worship service we take an offering. Raise your hand if you think Jesus likes it when we put a lot of money in the offering plate. Do you think Jesus likes it when you put a little bit of money in the offering plate?
The Bible says, one day Jesus went to the temple and sat down near the place where the offerings were given. He sat and watched the people as they came by and put in their offerings. Many rich people, dressed in fine robes, came by and put in a lot of money. Then a poor widow came by and put in just two small coins.
Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “This woman has given more than anyone. The others gave out of their wealth, but this woman gave all that she had.”
You see, Jesus is more interested in what is in the heart of the giver than He is in the size of their gift.
I have a small coin purse. That isn’t very much money is it? But it can remind us of a little girl named Hattie and how her gift of 57 cents helped to build a great church.
One Sunday morning, the pastor of a church went outside to find a group of children who were unable to get inside for Sunday school because the building was too crowded. One of those children was six-year-old Hattie. When the pastor saw Hattie, he picked her up and carried her into the Sunday school class where he found her a seat. He told Hattie he hoped that someday the church would be able to build a building large enough for all the children.
Two years later, Hattie died, and the pastor preached at her funeral service. After the service, Hattie’s mother handed the pastor a small purse containing 57 cents. She said Hattie had been saving her pennies to help the church build a new Sunday school building. The pastor took the 57 cents back to his church and told the people about Hattie. The people were so inspired by Hattie’s gift that they gave faithfully until they built a wonderful, new building — big enough for all the children who wanted to attend.
I’m sure Jesus would say that Hattie gave more than anyone to build this great church. Her heart was pure, and she gave all that she had.
Dear Father, everything we have is a gift from You. Help us to remember to give back to You with a cheerful heart. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Here is a video about this story
Hymn 142 “A small thing like a hazelnut”
Reading Ruth 1:1-10
1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.
3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.’
Then she kissed them goodbye, and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, ‘We will go back with you to your people.’ Amen.
Hymn 257 “Singing we gladly worship the Lord”
Reading Ruth 1:11-18
11 But Naomi said, ‘Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me – even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons – 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!’
14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
15 ‘Look,’ said Naomi, ‘your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.’
16 But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.’ 18 When Naomi realised that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. Amen.
Luke 6:37-38
37 ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’ Amen, this is the Word of the Lord to Him be all glory and praise..’
Amen, this is the Word of the Lord, to him be all glory and praise.
Hymn 180 “Give thanks with a grateful heart”
Sermon
Today come with me into an Old Testament story which features some of the genes that ended up in the man we know as Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary and Joseph.
This is the story of Ruth and Naomi. It takes place long ago; in fact it is this Ruth who was a great-grandmother of King David who takes central stage in the Old Testament. This woman, Ruth was not even a Jew; she was a Gentile, a foreigner, someone who could have been made to feel unwelcome but who was incorporated into the family of Jesus Christ, the Saviour.
First, a brief reminder of the story.
At a time of famine in the highlands of Judea, a man of the Bethlehem region, named Elimelech, took his wife and two sons out of the Holy Land, across the Jordan into the land of Moab. They settled there. Sadly the man died. In time his two sons entered into mixed marriages. They married foreign women, Moabites named Orpah and Ruth. After about ten years of childless marriage, both husbands died.
Naomi was a compassionate and practical woman. The only sensible thing for her daughters-in-law to do was to marry again from among their own men. After all, these wives may only have been about 26 years of age.
For herself, she would be better off back in her home country where she still had relatives. Back in her homeland she might find some measure of security. Also she would be “out of the hair” of Orpah and Ruth who, as young widows, deserved a new start.
When Naomi told the young women of her impending return to Judea, they said they would accompany her. Naomi did not want that. She kissed them farewell and urged them to stay in their native land. The girls wept and refused to forsake their mother-in-law. Naomi pleaded and pleaded. Orpah saw the wisdom of it and complied. But not Ruth who, we are told, “clung to her.”
Don’t you get a vivid picture of Ruth literally hanging on to Naomi refusing to let go as the older woman tried to take to the road. She had become absolutely committed to Naomi.
Then follow some of the most memorable verses in the Old Testament; Ruth said:
Please do not beg me to leave you, or to stop following you. For wherever you go I will go, and wherever you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I too will be buried. May the Lord strike me if even death shall separate me from you.
The Book of Ruth is thought by many scholars to be a parable. Jewish writers did not think of it as history but classified it like the book of Job as a “writing” a story designed to tell a moral, though possibly based on an historical event. Initially it was a political parable from the 4th Century BCE when the Jewish people were resettling in their land after the Babylonian Captivity. In the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah there is a stark section about purifying the people of God when men who had stayed behind in Judah during the exile were required to divorce Moabite women whom they had married. This was a humane parable which argued for the inclusion of people who choose to be faithful to the Jewish faith. The story is set in the century before King David at some point before the year 1010 BCE. For us the parable is as much about commitment as it is about
It’s message is about our need to stay committed to the house of God. Commitment brings blessings. However, in the story of Ruth we see that Elimelech, decides to move his family out of Bethlehem- ‘The house of bread’ because of the famine that came upon the land. We live in a society today in which commitment is more about whether or not it is yielding us benefit. If not the commitment may be withdrawn. There are many who can be defined as ‘situational believers’, shifting their focus, culture and lifestyle into a sensual culture away from the house of God.
Christian faith is more about what God can do for me, rather than what I can do for God. If the church is not pleasing me, entertaining me, holding my interest as much as other things I like to do, then it is not that important to me.
This is illustrated by the character of Elimelech. Now, every character in this story has a name which is meant to symbolise a virtue. Elimelech-means “God is my King”. Elimelech’s purpose in life was to live up to his name. That was his calling. All of us have a calling and sometimes our names reflect that calling. However the story tells us that Elimelech forgot what God desired of his ancestors Abraham and Isaac when they faced the challenges of their lives. He forgot that the Lord is faithful, and during a famine in Bethlehem, the House of Bread, speaking of God’s provision, he took the knee jerk decision to go to abroad. He decided to look for greener pastures across the Dead Sea in the land of Moab, where none worshipped God. Now we know that in time God would visit Bethlehem and would not abandon it. Even in hard times God defends his people and will stand by them. In removing to Moab there may have been temporary respite for Elimelech, but he and his sons would never return to Bethlehem. How often, when people decide to move on from the faith or the Church do they ever come back?
The point of this is that we should never have less commitment to the place where God has planted us.
Instead of allowing God’s rule in every realm of his life, Elimelech led his family away from the house of bread to Moab -t he land of sin. Instead of waiting out the famine and exercising faith in the providence of God, he took a very drastic step. Clearly we have to be careful here to remember that this story is a parable. What would we say about people who are forced to move on in times of famine, say from Ireland in the 19th Century or parts of Africa in recent decades. Sometimes God does move us on under the pressure of circumstances.
This however is a spiritual parable, because in leaving his homeland Elimelech was abandoning the faith of his people and despite the affirmation of his name, God ceases to be his king in Moab. The danger is of abandoning faith in time of crisis.
We as Christian are people whom God has called us by His name. We are in Christ and the challenge is to hold on to Christ in time of crisis. This is the whole point of faith. It is when we double down on faith, not when we loosen it. It is when we reaffirm our faith not when we look for any solution. We are called to be the servants of the King of kings and as such we are not the victims of circumstances.
During the pandemic and with respect to the world situation today we ask ourselves “How shall we live in our calling today? How are we reflecting the kingship of God in our personal and corporate lives? What must we change, what must we restore. How do we express our faith and our commitment?
There are answers to guide us in the rest of this parable. We consider Naomi.
Life had not turned out so well for Elimelech. He died and within ten years his two sons, Mahlon and Kilion who had married Moabite women also died. Naomi thereby lost all her status and support; she had no male protectors. It was then that she heard that the famine in Bethlehem was over and like the prodigal resolved to return to her home and heritage.
The meaning of Naomi is “pleasant one”. When unpleasant situations came her way, she was mindful of her daughters in law. She heard that God had visited Bethlehem and irrespective of the tragedies that came in her life, she decided to get back. There was a difference in the God of Naomi and the Gods of Moab. Naomi stayed true to her character. As a woman she had no choice except to follow her husband. We may speculate that she had not approved of the move to Moab. But now she was free to make her own choice. She chose not to be bitter with her daughters in law. She reflected a sound character irrespective of the tragedy of her situations.
Following the clues in the parable Orpah means “stiff necked,” or stubborn. and she chose to leave Naomi. Ruth however clung to Naomi. Ruth in Hebrew means “beauty” and she was committed to her character. As someone remarked, it’s our character that determines our beauty. Who we are will come out.
Here are Ruth’s famous words of commitment from the King James Version: “And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God”
Ruth was determined to stay with Naomi and thereby made a covenant. This solemn promise the reason for the existence of this book; and the subsequent sequence of events revolve around this covenant. Ruth made Naomi’s God her God and the heavens heard her. She said nothing would separate her from the God in Naomi’s household except her death and therefore pleads with Naomi not to send her back. Ruth’s statement gives us a strong sense of commitment to think about. Naomi had shown Ruth and Orpah her strong covenant with God and been convinced by it
Naomi also saw and heard the determination of Ruth and stopped convincing her to go back to Moab. This chapter starts with a tragedy but ends with a harvest as Naomi gets back to Bethlehem. Naomi becomes the talk of the town and she attributed it all to Shaddai God, – God Almighty.
In every situation of our life we should never forget His sovereignty. He is behind every season of our life, and we should be close to Him through them all.
We have been presented with a crisis in the form of a dangerous epidemic coming at a time when the weakness of our Church both national and local has become increasingly evident. A pandemic and a famine together. We are challenged in the dearth of our resources at a time when many are fearful of their safety. It is thus a time when the call to faith and commitment has to ring out strongly.
Our commitment lies in staying where we are, continuing to support one another and the work of the Gospel as we did before, and to make up for the loss of normal opportunities to give what we can in faith and to hold on until the way forward and its provision becomes evident. Naomi’s journey with Ruth was just beginning when they made their decisions of repentance in Naomi’s case and commitment in Ruth’s case. We all know the outcome as Bethlehem, the House of Bread was ultimately restored, and their lives moved on to a glorious conclusion.
In these perilous times when everything is masked by falsehood, let us be beacons of the Lord committed to His house, to our calling staying rooted to our character in faith to the everlasting covenant. Ruth is an image of the gentile church being strong in faith and entering into the covenant with God. As New Testament believers let’s stay strongly committed to the Lord. He will usher in a harvest. The One who calls you is faithful; He will do it.
Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
God our eternal Father, on this Reformation Sunday, we thank you for your constant faithfulness toward us and to the tradition that has shaped us as disciples of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Thank you for your living Word which still reveals him to each new generation of your people, and for the gift of your Holy Spirit who help us to understand your grace and wisdom especially as we live in challenging times.
God of guidance, speak into our lives today.
Eternal God, today we also remember the saints who have gone before us who lived with faith and hope as we do and who persevered in attaining your Kingdom and passing on the Gospel of Eternal Life
We thank you for the example and witness of people in our own lives who have shown us your loving kindness by their witness to Christ Jesus in our day and generation. May their example inspire us to know how we, too, can live out our faith today as we live in a world so different from the past, with new and sometimes frightening challenges.
God of guidance,
Speak into our lives today.
Loving God,
You keep on calling us to care for those in need and to show kindness and hospitality to strangers in our community.
As you persist in love with us, we thank you and pray that we may rise to the task of persisting in doing good and seeking to comfort and encourage our brothers and sisters. God of guidance,
Speak into our lives today.
Living God,
Yours is the gift of new life and fresh opportunity to people who are discouraged or facing difficulties in their lives. For some it is about having enough to meet their needs, for others, failure of health and vitality, yet more face loss of home and security danger and others are entering the last days of their life on earth.
Thank you for every sign of hope that you send through your people. As the pandemic continues here and abroad, spread your love among us that we may deal rightly and compassionately with each other as our society fights back against this scourge through leaders in politics, medicine and public health.
God of guidance, speak into our lives today.
Creating God,
we praise you for the beauty of this world and the rhythms of nature which sustain us.
Give us courage to act on behalf of your earthly creation where it is stressed or broken and bolster our commitment to be as your stewards. We pray for the COP 26 conference opening in Glasgow and pray that the delegates may be inspired to find solutions as we seek to repent of foolish or greedy choices.
God of guidance,
Speak into our lives today.
Wise God, hear us in this time of silence as name people and situations for which we have particular concerns and prayers
With joy we join our voices with all your saints in every time and place praising and glorifying your Holy Name in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hymn 740 “For all the saints”
Sending out and Benediction
Hear this: the Lord our God is the one and only Lord.
Therefore go out into the world
and love the Lord your God
with all your heart, soul, mind and strength,
and love others as you love yourself.
And may God give you justice and freedom.
May Christ Jesus set you free for love,
and may the Holy Spirit go where you go
and protect you on your way. Amen.
“May God’s blessing surround you each day”
Postlude: “We are an offering”