Draw the Circle Wide -- Youth Sunday

This is our annual Youth Sunday when the youth in our church take on all the roles in the services, including preaching and being liturgists. They have studied the Book of Ruth, and from the first part of that story, when in a tragic situation Ruth declined to do what was perhaps better for herself and, instead, went with her widowed mother-in-law, Naomi, to Judah, Naomi’s native land, she was “drawing the circle wide” to adopt Naomi’s people, land, and God, and as such she is the symbol for today’s service. The two youth delivering the sermon today, Anna Bigelow and Trip Cook, give their experiences of their being included in a widened circle through their years in the youth group, and both also challenge us to widen the circle around us as a calling from God.