Sunday service for 2 October 2022

Sunday 2 October 2022, youth enrolment service
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music

Welcome/Announcements

Call to Worship (Junior Section)
One: From many places, God calls us one people.
All: From perfect family trees and journeys that took several detours,
God calls us one people.
One: God’s generosity inspires ours—
All: in welcome,
in helping each other,
in laying aside assumptions,
in commitment to serve.
One: Come hear again God’s truth that defines what greatness is.
All: We come to worship God together.

Online Hymn: I Will Follow (Chris Tomlin)

Sanctuary Processional Hymn 171: Take Up the Song (tune: Highland Cathedral)

Prayer (Brownies)
Providing God,
we come with thanks for how amazing you are.
Your care for us goes beyond our expectations,
even though all of us fall short of your glory.
You are faithful to all, forever—
from the beginning of time,
you have called all kinds of characters to be your people.
When we forget that their story is our story, forgive us.
When we admire them from afar
while insisting that kind of faith isn’t practical for us, forgive us.

We confess that our commitment is often to our own best interest instead of yours,
and that when your path becomes difficult we will leave it un-traveled.
Teach us your ways again, and help us to be faithful.
Remind us today of your call to care for one another,
to bear one another’s burdens,
to offer ourselves in service,
and to build up the community of your people,
wherever we have come from and whoever we are.
Bind our hearts and hands to you,
for you are our God and we are your people.
Amen.

Sanctuary Children’s Time— Song: We will walk with God (Sizohamba Naye)

Sanctuary: Guides and Brownies Promise

Reading: Ruth (Common English Bible) (Company Section)
(Teri to tell the story of Ruth 1.1-14)
Ruth 1.15-19a
Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is returning to her people and to her gods. Turn back after your sister-in-law.”
But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to abandon you, to turn back from following after you. Wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do this to me and more so if even death separates me from you.” When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her about it.
So both of them went along until they arrived at Bethlehem.

(Teri to tell the story up to 2.13)
Ruth 2.14-18, 23
At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here, eat some of the bread, and dip your piece in the vinegar.” She sat alongside the harvesters, and he served roasted grain to her. She ate, was satisfied, and had leftovers. Then she got up to glean.
Boaz ordered his young men, “Let her glean between the bundles, and don’t humiliate her. Also, pull out some from the bales for her and leave them behind for her to glean. And don’t scold her.”
So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed what she had gleaned; it was about an ephah of barley. She picked it up and went into town. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She brought out what she had left over after eating her fill and gave it to her.
Thus Ruth stayed with Boaz’s young women, gleaning until the completion of the barley and wheat harvests.

(Teri to tell the story up to 4.12)
Ruth 4.13-17
So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife…and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi, “May the Lord be blessed, who today hasn’t left you without a redeemer. May his name be proclaimed in Israel. He will restore your life and sustain you in your old age. Your daughter-in-law who loves you has given birth to him. She’s better for you than seven sons.” Naomi took the child and held him to her breast, and she became his guardian. The neighbourhood women gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They called his name Obed. He became Jesse’s father and David’s grandfather.

For the word of God in scripture
For the word of God all around us
For the word of God within us
Thanks be to God.

Sermon: Life Changing Choices

I really love a story with a happy ending. Sometimes stories just seem to end without actually finishing, you know? And sometimes they end with everyone dying or something terrible. But in the story of Ruth and Naomi, all the really terrible stuff happens right at the beginning, literally in the first few sentences. And after that, it’s a story of people working together to try to figure out what to do in this complicated world we live in. Every choice they make is a choice that could go horribly wrong, or it could be the thing that saves the day. And when everyone’s choices all add up together, it leads to a happy ending, pointing toward a bright future for God’s people, as this turns out to be the family of King David.

It might not feel like the choices we make every day are quite as important as the ones Ruth and Naomi and Boaz and all the others in this story were making. But the truth is that Ruth was just…living her life. She had no idea what the future would hold for her. She only knew that in each situation, she had to make a choice. And that’s true for us too. We don’t know what the future will hold. We don’t know whether the choices we make today will become the foundations of something incredible in years to come, or if the story we are living right now will turn out to be a story people are still telling hundreds of years from now. All we know is that in each situation, we have to make a choice.

Ruth made the choice, in the middle of terrible grief, to leave behind everything she had ever known in order to stick by Naomi. Her life was falling apart, but instead of going back to her old ways, to the place where she might have been comfortable, she chose to go with Naomi. Remember Ruth had never been to Bethlehem before, and she only knew four people from there and three of them had died. She would be going to a brand new place, in a foreign country, where she would stick out as a stranger. But her loyalty to Naomi was greater than her fear of the unknown. She chose to go to a new home, and to turn to a new God, and to take up a whole new way of life, because she loved Naomi and she was committed to being family with her.

Naomi didn’t really know what to do with that, so she just…stopped talking. She had lost her husband and both her sons, and now she was going home after a long time away, but she’d be accompanied by this foreign woman who was a reminder of everything that had gone wrong. Her sadness got the better of her. Even when they got to Bethlehem, Naomi just went into the house and stayed there. She was in a very dark place, and it almost seems as if she couldn’t really bring herself to get up and take care of things. She just sat there in her despair.

But Ruth had made a promise. So she decided to get to work keeping it. When she went out to try to pick up some of the grain that the harvesters had missed or left behind, she caught the eye of a man who had also made a choice: a choice to follow God’s way very carefully. There are rules in the Bible about how to harvest a field, and those rules say that you should always leave the edges for people who don’t have any land to come harvest a bit for themselves. Boaz was loyal to God and he wanted to do what God asked, so he not only left the edges but even told his workers to pull some extra out and drop it, and to keep an eye on this young woman to make sure she was okay. And then he asked her to his dinner table, too! He chose to invite her in, even though she was different, even though she was an immigrant, even though her life story kind of seemed like bad luck. He welcomed her as if she was one of them — which is also what the Bible teaches us to do. And his choice to welcome her and help her meant that it was a bit easier for Ruth to keep her promise to Naomi.

Both Ruth and Boaz made their choices…just everyday choices, in the middle of all the complicated life stuff that was going on. Ruth was grieving and sad and worried about Naomi. The two of them were hungry and there was no one to take care of them. She was different from everyone else, a newcomer, and people might even have been suspicious of her. She’d had a hard time in life so far. Boaz was pretty well-off, he had land and he could afford to pay his workers, and to give some charity too. He was busy, and important in his community. Boaz and Ruth were very different people, with different life experiences, different backgrounds, different everything. But in one way they were the same: they made choices that were based on their values, on what was important to them.

Ruth was loyal to Naomi, and to God. She valued love and family and faithfulness and compassion for people who are struggling, and she was willing to put in hard work to follow through on her choices. She stayed right beside Naomi when Naomi didn’t even know how to love herself, and she did everything she could to be sure Naomi was taken care of through the difficult times, and surrounded with celebration and friends in the good times.

Boaz was loyal to God. He valued hospitality, welcoming, caring for others, helping the poor, supporting his community, and following God’s instructions. He was willing to choose to use his wealth and his influence in the community to watch out for the person who was marginalised and at risk, and he made sure everyone had enough to eat and a family to be a part of.

The choices we make every day are also based on our values. Thinking about what is important to us will help us be more clear about what we should do when a new situation comes up. It might still mean that the choices are difficult, or might lead to really hard work or to scary unknown paths. But at least we will know that we did what is right.

As Christians, our first and most important value is God’s love — because God loves us, and asks us to love both God and other people as our number one priority. Jesus said it was the first and greatest commandment, and without love everything else falls apart. Imagine if Ruth or Boaz tried to make their choices without love! Who knows what they would have done, but I bet it would have been a different story! Sometimes it might feel really difficult to love God, when things are tough. And sometimes it might feel really difficult to love other people, when they’re annoying or when they’re out of sight out of mind…or when we’re too busy or too important or too sad. But here’s the thing: God chose us first, and God always loves us. God is faithful, loyal, and true. God never leaves us to figure everything out alone. Which means that we can also choose to be faithful, loyal, and true. We can choose to follow God’s way, like Boaz and like Ruth — and that will affect all our choices in this life. Being loyal to God will show up in our behaviour toward other people, toward the environment, toward our community, and even toward ourselves. Even though our everyday choices might not feel like a big deal or like they’ll make a difference, each and every choice, from how we speak to each other – to what we choose to eat – to what kind of work we do – to how we spend our money and our time…all of it is part of building a life on our values — starting from love and following God.

If you’re wondering how you’re supposed to decide what values will guide your choices, I always suggest starting with Jesus. Knowing his story, and the other stories about God’s people in the Bible, can help us think about what it means to follow his way. That was how Boaz knew what to do! Then pray and ask God to help — don’t forget to listen as well as talk, because God has a lot to say if we’re listening carefully! I think that’s how Ruth knew what to do. And then after that, look to people in the community who do the right thing and help make the world better, and who seem to have some peace and confidence doing it. All of us need people around us who will support us like Ruth supported Naomi, who will celebrate with us like the neighbourhood women did, who will sometimes give instructions like Boaz gave his workers, and sometimes just feed us a meal and give us a safe place to rest like Boaz gave Ruth, people who will be an example and also a mentor. Those people can be a guide as we learn and grow — at any age, not just when we’re kids! Part of God’s gift to us is the gift of community to challenge and support us to follow Jesus closer each day.

(SANCTUARY: commissioning youth leaders and parents)

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God. Each day is made up of so many choices, so many chances to live according to our values, so many opportunities to show God’s love to the world God loves so much.

May it be so. Amen.

Online Hymn 536: May the Mind of Christ My Saviour (tune: St Leonard’s)

Sanctuary Hymn: I Will Follow (Chris Tomlin; Praise Band)

Sanctuary: BB enrolment questions and prayer

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Thank you, Lord, for Ruth’s persistence and for Boaz’s generosity.
Thank you for revealing your tenacity and faithfulness through them.
Thank you for all who have embodied your persistent, generous grace,
and taught us to do the same.

You invite us to bring the cares of our hearts to you,
trusting that there is no burden your Spirit cannot carry.
We heave heard your word of love and justice,
your promise to reveal your kingdom.
So in the midst of this world,
longing for peace, for hope, for truth, for justice, we bring our prayers:
For those who grieve,
whose tears are their constant companion,
who feel the bitter bite of loss.
For those without enough to eat,
As the safety net unravels.
For those marked as an outsider,
described by how they are different.
For those who are vulnerable —
for women, for the young, for immigrants and refugees —
always on high alert.
For those caught in power systems they cannot change,
working to exhaustion yet forced to thank their boss for the privilege.
For those who care for others,
both meeting needs and investing in their well-being.
For those making new connections,
for communities growing through friendship and commitment,
for networks of care that hold us fast.
May your persistent generous grace encircle all your people,
that wherever we look we see your goodness in the land of the living.

We ask these and all things in the name of Jesus the Christ
who taught us to pray together:
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.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.
Amen.

Sanctuary Hymn 737: Will Your Anchor Hold

Sanctuary Hymn 703: National Anthem

Benediction
And as you go, may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you. May the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion. May the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone. And may the Spirit of God go within you, to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

Sung Benediction Response (John L Bell, tune Gourock St John’s)
Now may the Lord of all be blessed,
Now may Christ’s gospel be confessed,
Now may the Spirit when we meet
Bless sanctuary and street.

Postlude Music

Announcements
* You are invited to join in reading the Bible in a year for 2022 — immersing ourselves in God’s word throughout the year. We get together to discuss each week on Wednesday at 7:30pm in the manse at 6 Barrhill Road. All are welcome, no experience necessary! Feel free to invite a friend, too! Anyone who has ever wondered just what the Bible actually says and what it has to do with us is welcome.

* On Sunday 16 October, in the evening, we’ll be hosting a BIG SING, with the Connect+ singing group! The group will lead us in short songs from around the world, including songs from Iona, Taize, various countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, and will guide us in harmonies and rhythms we didn’t know we could do. It will be a wonderful evening of making a joyful noise. No experience necessary, no need to read music, just the willingness to join in! 

* We are hosting an October holiday club for Primary aged children, 18-20 October, on the theme “Life in Plastic, NOT Fantastic: Caring for God’s Good Earth.” More information and registration is available at our website. If you are interested in volunteering in any way — whether helping shepherd groups, cooking lunch, providing leadership, or a little light decorating, please contact Teri!

* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in the sanctuary at 11am. If you are able, please enter by the front door in Bath street, and only those who need step-free access should use the back door. If you feel unwell, please worship online, to protect both yourself and others in our community.

* The Kirk now has online giving! If you have not already set up a standing order in order to facilitate your spiritual discipline of giving, or if you would like to make an extra gift to support the ministry St. John’s does in our parish, you can give online by clicking here. If you would like to set up a standing order, please contact Peter Bennett, our treasurer, or Teri and she can give you his details. You can also send your envelopes to the church or the manse by post and we will ensure they are received. Remember: no one is coming to your door to collect your envelopes, so please stay safe!

* Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Youtube, and to sign up for our email devotions! Midweek you can watch Wine and the Word on Youtube, pray with video devotions on Facebook, and consider a new angle on something with a devotional email. Feel free to share with your friends, too!

* Youth Organisations have begun! If you or anyone you know is interested in the Boys Brigade (P1 – S6), please contact Alan Aitken or 2ndgourock (at) inverclydebb.org.uk. If you or anyone you know is interested in the Brownies or Girl Guides, please visit the website to register. For the Smurfs, our youngest girls, please contact Teri and ask to be put in touch with the leader.

*Young Adult Bible Study meets in the manse on the 2nd and 4th Sundays — at 7pm for a meal and a study of the gospel according to John. If you’d like more information, for yourself, a family member, a friend, or neighbour who is in their 20s, please contact Teri for the dates/times and other information.

*Philip is organising a choir for any interested singer to come and have fun, learn some of the new hymns, and sing sometimes in worship. Please contact Philip for more information: philipnor617@gmail.com

*TOMORROW 3 October, is the next Bowl and Blether — come along for a bowl of soup and a chat with friends and neighbours! if you’re interested in volunteering either in the kitchen or in welcoming/hospitality/serving, please speak to Teri.