A worship service was held at 10.30am in the church on Sunday 6 September.  The service was simultaneously broadcast on the Church Facebook page.  For the next four weeks, you can catch up here.

The Bible passages are  Ephesians 6:10-18; Isaiah 43:1-5 and John 15:1-5, 16-17 and Duncan led the service, which  was a joint service with our friends at St Columba Church.

We were delighted to welcome three young women – Alice Sillars, Erica Cload,  Hazel Cload into membership of Hilton Church.  Each chose one of the Bible passages read this morning.

Alice, Erica and Hazel’s baptisms as babies were, said Duncan, a public declaration from God that they belonged to his family.  Now, taking their vows of membership they were each making a public declaration that they belonged to God and to God’s family.

It was a joy to see these young people joining the church, and to be reminded that the Church is a family of people resolved to follow Jesus. It was encouraging to hear Alice, Erica and Hazel share their very moving and honest stories of coming to faith. It was quite clear from what they said that these young women were declaring that the are God’s children not through any adult coercion, but as a result of questioning and struggles in which they were supported by friends, family and folk in church and which led to a definite personal decision to follow Jesus.

Each of them spoke of seeing their futures as rather uncertain and scary (Alice and Hazel head off to university later this week) and of coming to realise that Jesus would be with them, supporting them, leading them forward whatever lies ahead.

The Road Less Travelled

At the end of the service, Duncan preached.  Here’s what he said:

This is a very special day for Alice Erica and Hazel and their families.

And it’s a great day for us as a congregation to be able to celebrate their faith and their profession of it together. I so enjoyed listening to their faith stories, and as I did so, the words of a famous poem by Robert Frost came to mind. Here are its final lines:

I shall be telling this with a sigh,
Somewhere ages and ages hence;
Two [roads] diverged in a wood and I…
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The poem is centred on the idea of the choices we make in life, and looking back, we can see how our lives were impacted and changed by the choices we made.

I took the road less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

To use the ideas presented in this poem, of standing at a crossroads and making a choice as to which path to follow, today has been all about a making a public declaration that you have chosen the way of Jesus.

Jesus said ‘I am the way’ and you have chosen to follow the way of Jesus. As the song goes:

I have decided to follow Jesus,
No turning back, no turning back.

But it’s important to notice both in the poem and in the professions of faith that you have made today, exercising your choice to follow Jesus, that what you are in effect doing is taking the first steps beyond the crossroads on the road less travelled.

Today is all about this new journey of faith and discipleship beginning. Your stories today have been all about the journey to the crossroads and the choices you have made. But lying ahead of you, and indeed lying ahead of all of us here today, is the road of life and discipleship.

The story is only really beginning today, and like the poet, there will be many more stories to tell, and there will be moments along the way when you will stop, you will look back, and you will perhaps wonder and maybe even question the choices that you have made.

Standing here today, I can say that I also made the choice to follow Jesus at about the same age as you have, and I can say with absolute conviction, that in deciding to follow Jesus,

I took the road less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I honestly can’t imagine a better way of life and  living than being part of the way of Jesus and his family. For me, it is the good and beautiful life.But as we reflect on the stories of life and faith that we all share as part of the family of God it may be the good and beautiful life but it’s definitely not an easy life! We can plan as best we can in life, but no matter how good the plans, testing and challenging times will come.

It brought to mind the quote of a famous boxing champion who once said:

Everyone has a plan until they get hit.

And it’s when we find ourselves hit by unexpected and unplanned for challenges in life that the testing of our faith will come,  and indeed the reassurance of faith.

This is the story at play in the reading Hazel chose from Isaiah 43.  Implicit in the passage is the reality of challenges and trials in life:

When you pass through the waters….

when you pass through the rivers….

when you pass through the fire….

The promise of God in each challenge of our life is not that we will avoid the difficulties, but rather that he will be with us, and he will lead us through.   (Again the quotations are from Isaiah 43)

We will pass through….

and

we will walk through….

and God promises

I will be with you….

This is the last Sunday for both Alice and Erica as they head south on the next step of their journey in life.

We pray that you will both find a spiritual home over the coming months as you settle into your new life. We pray that all three of you wherever God may lead you, in the words of John 15:16,

….may go out and bear fruit –  fruit that will last

and in words of Robert Frost in time you will look back and see that the choice you declared today has made all the difference.

.I took the road less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

PHOTOS BELOW:

Photo 1: (Left to right) Erica Cload, Hazel Cload and Alice Sillars

Photo 2:  Duncan hears Alice, Erica and Hazel’s vows

Photo 3: Each received bouquets, and Elaine had made a cake, decorated with the young women’s names, and footsteps symbolising their following of Jesus