Worship at Home for Sunday June 7th 2020
The full material can be
found here: https://www.preachweb.org/books-and-diaries/bible-month-30-days-with-ruth-digital-copy
I can personally commend it to you since
the main notes are written by Dr Rachel Starr lecturer in Old Testament at
Queen’s Foundation and some of the other notes are written by Claire Knight of
the Berkshire Surrey Borders Circuit which was where I lived before I went to
Queen’s.
The first
service of the month has been produced by Brenda Ballantine who had been
planned to preach today at Beeston Methodist Church.
Opening words (Ruth
1: 1 -16)
Where you go.
I shall go. Where you stay I shall stay.
Your People will be my people.
Your God, my God.
HYMN StF 455 All my hope on God
is founded https://youtu.be/W3LCGh02Vew
Prayer of thanksgiving: (from Companion to
the lectionary volume 5)
Everlasting God, we come to you with grateful hearts
You created us and all things,
You love us and look after us,
Our life is one of blessing
From the bottom of our hearts: R:We thank you
Ever- loving God, we come to you with grateful hearts
You have placed us among other people,
You have set us within different relationships,
Our life is one of sharing.
From the bottom of our hearts: R: We thank you
Ever-caring God, we come to you with grateful hearts
You are the source of all our health,
You bring wholeness into every part of us,
Our life is one of healing.
From the bottom of our hearts: R: We thank you
Ever-listening God, we come to you with grateful hearts
Hear our prayers for these things
For which we are thankful:
Thank you, everlasting, ever-loving,
Ever-caring, ever-listening God
From the bottom of our hearts: R: We thank you Amen
This is the first Sunday in Bible Month and we are looking at the book of Ruth. Bible month is a good opportunity to focus on one book of the Bible in more detail than perhaps we would normally do. And in so doing it helps us to have a better understanding of its message and what it means for us as we listen to it over the next few weeks.
Bible reading Ruth 1: 1 – 15
Long ago, in the days before Israel had a king, there was a famine in the land. So a man named Elimelech who belonged to the clan of Ephrath and who lived in Bethlehem in Judah, went with his wife Naomi and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion to live for a while in the country of Moab. While they were living there Naomi’s husband Elimelech died and Naomi was left alone with her two sons who married Moabite girls, Orpah and Ruth.
About ten years later Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left all alone, without husband or sons. Sometime later Naomi heard that the Lord had blessed his people by giving them a good harvest, so she got ready to leave Moab with her daughters-in-law.
They started out together to go back to Judah, but on the way she said to them, “Go back, and stay with your mother’s. . May the Lord be as good to you as you have been to me and to those who have died. And may the Lord make it possible for each of you to marry again and have a home”
So Naomi kissed them goodbye. But they started crying and said to her, “ No, we will go with you to your people”
“You must go back, my daughters” Naomi answered, “Why do you want do you want to come with me? Do you think I could have sons again for you to marry? Go back home, for I am too old to get married again, Even if I thought there was still hope, and so got married tonight and had sons, would you wait until they had grown up? Would this keep you from marrying someone else? No. my daughters, you know that’s not possible. The Lord has turned against me, and I feel very sorry for you”.
Again they started crying. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye and went back home, but Ruth held on to her. So Naomi said to her “Ruth your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god, go back home with her”.
Poem: Ruth (by Marjorie Dobson – Twelve baskets)
Today, I look with love upon
this child –
The baby that I never
thought to bear
And, when he hears the story
of my life,
He’ll know he owes his being
to God’s care.
Those days in Moab seem so
long ago,
My family home a strange and
distant place,
For I have learned to live
in Bethlehem
And look with love into a
foreign face.
I well remember when Naomi
came.
Her husband and her sons
were fit and strong
And I, a child from Moab,
did not think
that I would be her daughter
before long.
But when her husband died,
her sons were grown,
Orpah and I were chosen as their
wives.
Ten happy years we had,
until their deaths,
Then we must make a choice
about our lives.
We knew Naomi wanted to go
back,
Her faith and home had roots
in Bethlehem
And we would travel with
her, so we thought,
But she urged us to go back
home again.
Orpah turned back, but I
would never leave;
My future now was at Naomi’s
side.
Although I could not know
that it would lead
To my becoming someone else’s
bride.
Those strange days when I
gleaned the barley fields
Were frightening, for I did
not know how,
It was the wise advice Naomi
gave
led me to Boaz, kinsman, and
husband now.
Because I followed in
Naomi’s faith
I was accepted, both by God
and man
And now, at last, I have a
cherished son;
Perhaps this always was part
of God’s plan.
So when I cradle Obed in my
arms,
Touch his warm cheek and
watch his sleeping face,
I thank God for the wisdom
of his ways
for surely he has led me to
this place.
HYMN StF 443 Come
let us sing of a wonderful love - https://youtu.be/3BZfXTCUbr8
Reflection:
We all love a good story and
the Book of Ruth is a great story because it has many things that we like in a
story it tells of a journey, there is fear, anxiety, tragedy, commitment and
there is also love and loyalty. It
begins with despair and hunger and ends with a harvest and love. And what is more it must have been a very good
story as it is recorded in Scripture so must have an important message for us.
As we read in chapter one
Naomi loses her husband and two sons the life that she’d hoped for was now gone,
she’d lost everything and her future looked bleak to say the least. She might
have remained a bitter woman because she couldn’t have known what plans God had
for her. God has plans for us too, when
we are in the middle of a crisis and things go wrong in our lives and we cannot
see a way out of it, God can and says to us be patient and wait and see how it
all turns out, have faith don’t lose hope, things will get better.
Naomi hears about God’s
promise of food in Judah and decides to go back home initially with her two
daughters-in-law. But somewhere along
the way Naomi changes her mind and suggests that Ruth and Orpah should go back
to their mother’s home and offers them hope by saying they could marry again
and have a home. Naomi is a kind woman
and shows this kindness to her daughters-in- law. And we read there are kisses and tears
between Orpah and Ruth.
Let us focus on Orpah for a
moment as this first Sunday of Bible month is about Orpah – I think Orpah must
have weighed up her options very carefully.
Orpah was not an Israelite and no one knew, not even Naomi what the
future held for them even in her own land. When you think about it there
was more chance of marrying in her own country of Moab, than if she continued
with Naomi.
Some might say Orpah was
selfish but I don’t think she was, she took the sensible option for her as a
widow, and marriage to someone in her own land was more a possibility than in a
strange land. Did she marry - well the
Bible doesn’t tell us, I like to think that she did go on to have a happy life
with a family of her own, and that she
never forgot Naomi and Ruth. Of course we do know the rest of the story, we
know that Ruth went on to have a happy life with Boaz and became one of the
forbears of the Messiah. Ruth was loyal
and we have an example of this by the words she spoke to her mother-in-law and which
were in the call to worship - words that we all know so well.
Often the sensible solution
to a problem is not God’s solution. He
might want us to take a risk, rise to a challenge which we might think is not
sensible at all.
Whenever we take a step or
indeed a leap out into faith we might question God, because we see it from a
human point of view. If we place
everything into his hands and trust in him completely our faith will help us
move forward in love and inspire others we may meet as we journey with God.
Amen
For your own reflection….
As the story continues over
the coming weeks
Which character do you see
yourself in the story?
Who are our companions,
those with whom we share bread, and with whom we find our way?
How do our own stories
begin? What are some of the twists and turns and how do we respond to them?
Prayers of intercessions based on kum Ba Ya (accompaniment can be found
here – NB the verses are in a different order - https://youtu.be/qlceFB055pk)
(from Companion to the
Lectionary volume 5)
All sing 1st verse Kum Ba Ya
Come by here Lord and listen
to our prayers
Come into the lives of all
who feel outsiders or rejected by society.
Accept them and us as part of your family
Come into our lives and
teach us acceptance too
All sing 2nd verse Someone’s crying Lord
Someone’s crying, Lord,
crying because they are hurt or
Depressed, angry or
frustrated, lonely or in pain
Wipe way their tears as you
surround them with your love.
Come into our lives and
teach us how to comfort
All sing 3rd verse Someone’s praying Lord
Someone’s praying, Lord,
praying in anguish and despair,
Because their lives seem
empty and pointless, and they don’t
know where to turn. Hear them and be close to them
Come into our lives, and
teach us to befriend.
All sing 4th verse Someone’s singing Lord
Someone’s singing, Lord,
singing their hearts out with joy and
hope, longing for freedom,
or celebrating a special time of happiness.
Sing with them, share their
joy and fulfill their hope.
Come into our lives, and
teach us to do the same.
All sing 1st verse again kum Ba Ya Amen
HYMN StF 550 Forth in thy name O Lord I go - https://youtu.be/-X-4HRj8llI
Blessing
Go with us now, stay with us
now. We will be your people. You are our
God. Amen
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