August 12, 2007 Sermon

God Knew All Along
Ruth 2

Today we join the story of Ruth after she has followed her mother-in-law, Naomi, to Israel. Naomi was a Jewess whose husband and sons had died, leaving her destitute in a foreign land. She decided to go home, where God’s law required the people to feed and shelter Jewish widows. But Ruth was a Moabite, not a Jew. It made no sense for her to follow her mother-in-law. But Ruth loved Naomi so much she left home and walked to a place she had never seen populated by people she had never met.

Chapter two of Ruth introduces her (and us) to Boaz. Boaz and Naomi’s late husband were relatives. Boaz takes great interest in Ruth. He appears to have two motivations: through her relationship with Naomi, Ruth is family to Boaz. He therefore has the obligation to provide for her. Plus, she is a young woman who (I believe) he finds attractive. He has no wife. He wants to marry and start a family. Both reasons have to do with family. The importance of family saturates Ruth’s entire story.

We camped with my extended family early last week. We have reached the years when we silently ask ourselves whether each gathering of this sort might be the last we all attend. My parents are in good health but have reached their mid-seventies. One of my brothers lives with his wife and daughters in England.

In the evenings at the campsite my youngest brother, Matt, got out a football and started games of catch. How many boyhood hours did my three brothers and I spend playing catch, often with our dad? And we boys played kickball, whiffleball, tackle football and driveway basketball. Last year at Thanksgiving dad gave us all plaques. The wood on them came from the walnut that supported our childhood tree house and also supplied the material for the rocking cribs dad made for our children. The plaques have bolts from the basketball goal over our garage, which had finally rotted apart. My plaque now occupies a place of honor in my office.

As soon as Matt got out the football all four Riggins boys (now in their 30s and 40s) immediately got into the act. We said hardly a word (only things like “Go deep” and “That had to hurt” when somebody stubbed a finger), but what a sweet time it was. And then our children came over, boys and girls alike. We spread out along a campground road, tossing a football around. Three-year-old Connor, the next-to-youngest of the cousins, joined the fun. Even my dad ambled over and threw a couple of passes. Being guys, we did not talk about it, but I know we all felt the same: this thread from our childhood, coming from our father, now woven through our children, carried memories and renewed our connections. “Thread” is one of the best things about family.

God wove a thick thread of family throughout Ruth’s story. That thread entered the human family long before her birth and it worked its way, centuries later, through her direct descendant, Jesus of Nazareth. But we get ahead of our story. Today we focus on our new acquaintance, Boaz. He meets Ruth when she gleans his fields. God’s Law required of the Israelites that farmers not pick their crops too carefully. The law stipulated that they leave some grain so widows and orphans could clean, or glean, the remainder and live off of it. Boaz arrives on the scene and asks his workers about this new girl. When he learns she was married to a now dead relative of his he approaches her directly and tells her to stick with his own people. Other female relatives of his are also gleaning, and as he explains to Ruth, he has ordered his young men not to bother them. He offers her protection—and water—two necessities.

After lunch Boaz tells his workers to let Ruth glean among the standing grain. She can literally have the pick of the field. He likes her. The way human beings work, no doubt everybody in the neighborhood will hear about this before sundown. Boaz surely knows this and does not care. Ruth takes home so much grain Naomi immediately knows the score. “Blessed be the man who took notice of you,” the wise old mother-in-law says. Ruth tells her it was Boaz. Now Naomi fully understands. Now she sees the hand of God in the whole episode. Now she sees that God has been weaving this story together for a very long time.

Seeing God at work in our own stories can be difficult. When do good events represent blessings from God? When do setbacks represent God’s punishment? Often we do not know until after the fact. Often we never learn. Seldom do we see as clearly, as quickly, as Naomi does when God is at work in our lives. But as the Apostle Paul would point out in his first letter to the Corinthians, our confusion comes from our blindness, not from some lack of God’s work. “Now I see dimly, as if through smoked glass,” Paul wrote, “but then” (after I die to this world and enter into the presence of Christ) “I will see as if face to face.” Seeing God at work as though we were looking God in the face is one of the greatest spiritual powers. Cultivate it. Learn to see God at work.

The second chapter of Ruth advances her story by introducing one its main characters: Boaz. But it also introduces one of its main themes: that God works actively in the lives of those who love with a human reflection of godly love. How can we learn to see God at work? First we need to work on loving as God loves. Ruth caught Boaz’ eye because she worked in his fields. She worked in his fields because she had followed her mother-in-law to his town. She followed her mother-in-law because she loved her. Pray, therefore, for the patience to wait on the Lord. Pray for the faith that helps you wait. Pray that you might love with at least a pale reflection of the love of Christ.

Loving in a godly way is the message of Ruth 1. Ruth 2 shows how Ruth and Naomi used love to understand God’s purposes. In order to see God at work at any specific time and place, we must first become open to the proposition that God does work in our lives. I know loving people who do not believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I believe in Christ; therefore I believe that love comes from Him; therefore I believe that even unbelievers can love in a godly way. But they cannot recognize God in that love. Seek to recognize God at work in the love you give and receive. I can see God at work in my family, even though to my sorrow not all my family can. Does that make the love of God less real?

Pray to live lovingly, and pray to see God in the love you give and receive. In a moment we will receive communion. We will receive the gift of the reminder the Jesus, Ruth’s descendant, loved the world so much that He gave his life for it. Pray for the eyes to, as He put it, see that.