Well Worn Threads

Announcements

Nursery, Sunday School, and Children’s church help in the new year

No potluck the next two Wednesdays, and no Sunday school (next or both?)

Christmas eve service, 6 pm

Christmas morning service, and new years day service at 10:30 like normal

cookling videos and pictures share Please!

Kids dismissal

Sermon

We have been using the idea of threads over the past few months to describe our lives, and the way God intended for them to be woven. Woven into His story, woven into the body, and then woven into the world.

As we have taken that idea into the Christmas season, we have been pulling on some specific threads connected to the birth of Christ.

All the threads of those with no room to get woven into God’s story and the story of a family in need.

Herod, who’s pride not only kept him out of the story, but had him afraid of the very story that could bring him life.

There’s an expression used to talk about telling a good story that applies nicely to our metaphor. You can spin a “yarn”, and I’ve got some.

Something I’ve noticed is that every story is actually a series of stories that come together.

Just thinking about how I started here 5 and a half years ago.

I found out about HCC when my friend Rich who pastors in Washougal mentioned it because he got confused about what I was doing with youth for Christ and thought there was a connection.

I ended up doing youth for Christ ministry in Clark county because my sister married a guy from up here and over several visits over a couple years, we felt God calling us to move.

But I was already with youth for Christ, because during my church youth ministry days one of their staff in the Eugene area asked me to come help one night and I saw the wonderful ministry...

not knowing that a year later, the church would lay me off as they shifted strategy.

I ended up at that church in the first place because Monica happened to run into the pastors wife at an appointment, they had gone to church camp together in high school, and our daughters shared a birthday…one thing led to another...

Do you see how connected the story is?

I’m here because Monica made a friend at church camp

Could go even farther, I only exist because German farmers in the late 1700’s moved to Russia for religious freedom…then many including my mom’s grand parents moved to Kansas for the same reason around 1900.

Then after my grandparents met and married, they happened to visit Eugene and wondered why anyone would live in Kansas when that was a thing...

Every yarn…is connected to so many.

Today we are pulling on a long thread that is deeply important to the Christmas story, even if we don’t normally connect them. A yarn that is the flip side of the

people without room, who wouldn’t pay the price of caring for someone who could give nothing back and

the flip side of herod who had the humility to trade fear for love

It’s a story that starts in a little town of Bethlehem…and it ends with a baby...

1000 years before the Christmas story, A man named Elimelech and his wife Naomi took their two sons from their home in Bethlehem and moved to the nation of Moab to get away from a famine.

Both boys married Moabite women, life was going on, and then dad died. Then the sons died.

And in a culture where a widowed woman was about the desperate position a person could hold, they were now a family of three of them, with no blood relation.

Naomi told her daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth to go back to their familles where they could find husbands. In the end, Orpah did, but Ruth “Clung” to her. And you can’t bear her words:

Ruth 1:16-17 “But Ruth replied: Don’t plead with me to abandon you or to return and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”

In the end, Ruth goes with Naomi back to Bethlehem,

She works hard to provide for them

She gets noticed by an extended family member of Naomi who sees her character and loves her.

They get married, and to wrap up the book we get a little foreshadowing

Ruth 4:18-22 “Now these are the family records of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.”

Which is echoed in Matthew 1:5-6 “Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered King David. David fathered Solomon by Uriah’s wife,”

And that passage finishes off this way:

Matthew 1:16 “and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah.”

Look at the connection between two scared women who made radical commitments of faith, who traveled to Bethlehem, and gave birth to babies who would change the world…

What we see in Ruth and in Mary, that we missed in our last two yarns, is the power of Love. The power of one loving thread to change all the stories around them.

This morning, I want to take a good look at the shared experience of Ruth and Mary and the power of:

A Loving Thread

Let’s look closer at a few keys. First of all...

Ruth had options

Ruth 1:8 “Naomi said to them, “Each of you go back to your mother’s home. May the Lord show kindness to you as you have shown to the dead and to me.”

Ruth was given a choice. So was Mary. Notice in Luke 1, the angel announces the will of God, that Mary carry the Messiah and give birth to him. The angel makes the proclamation, let’s Mary ask questions, gives answers, and then waits… until Mary replies:

Luke 1:38 ““See, I am the Lord’s servant,” said Mary. “May it happen to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.”

Love is never our only option.

Love is rarely the easy option

Love always costs

Love is the act, not the feeling, of putting God first, by putting others first.

And acts of love are always choices.

Ruth could have gone home.

Reasonable.

She could have found another husband, had a family. Orpah did, not an evil choice.

She chose to accompany another widow back to a country…that was at constant conflict with her people. Israel and Moab have a strange shared beginning, and a long and conflicted history.

All this knowing she would then be the bread-winner for the small family. She would have to go to the fields and work so the two of them could eat.

What does love cost you?

It can be a financial or resource cost.

When we give to a need, when we help someone with bills or gas, when we share a meal.

It can be time.

When we trade what our plans are to walk with someone else in a time when they need someone. Ruth traded away all of hers. Moms, you know the time Mary gave up. Their plans were changed forever.

It can be plans, priorities, hopes

It can be pride, it can be letting an argument with your spouse, child or anyone else go, because you see there’s hurt. (our family practices this one all the time)

But love always has a cost and so always comes with a choice.

The question for you? Will you pay it?

This is the point of departure between Ruth, Mary, and our last two characters. Herod and the unwelcoming wouldn’t or couldn’t bring themselves to choose love.

Love always has a cost…And God is calling you to pay it in every moment.

Colossians 3:14 “Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.”

To follow Jesus, means to choose love. Even when it costs.

Here’s the next thought in that thread:

Ruth resolved herself

Ruth knew the cost. She chose it. And then she accepted that she had chosen it. Let me read again her words with a little before:

Ruth 1:15-17 “Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow your sister-in-law.” But Ruth replied: Don’t plead with me to abandon you or to return and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”

A group of guys just went through the book, The Men We Need by Brant Hansen. Brant paints a picture of what biblical manhood looks like and I highly recommend it to any man who has room to grow (all y’all…and I’m reading it again).

He spends a chapter on being resolved.

That if you are married, guess what…you chose it and you’re in it, and you’re going to be in it tomorrow and on to the future. So embrace it.

Ruth made her decision, and Naomi tried to get her out of it.

But Ruth made a decision in love and she was RESOLVED to it.

Don’t even ask me to walk away.

I am with you, where you go, where you live, who your people are...

Your God, is my God and where you die, I’ll be buried there.

She’s not making this move, waiting for Naomi to die so that way she can go back. She only looks forward.

Think back to Mary’s words, “May it happen” She was in.

How’s your resolution?

Like on tv sets, the greater the resolution, the greater the clarity.

If I am resolved to be married, when I’m frustrated, I’m not going to think about how not to be married. My focus is on how to make it right.

If I am resolved to be a parent, during the tough times, I’m not just waiting for them to grow up and get out…I’m working on loving them well…so they can grow up and get out…and want to come back to visit.

If I am resolved to love, it changes the way we handle conflicts with friends, work matters, and all of life.

Key application here. This starts with a resolution to be woven into God’s story. I can say with certainty, that I can not do this in my own strength and neither can you.

The apostle Paul in philippians is sharing his motivation and he says this in verse 8 and then skipping to 13 and 14

Philippians 3:8a “More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord...

Philippians 3:13-14 “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.”

Paul did an awful lot of powerful things. He demonstrated love, and courage, and a willingness to walk through everything…but he started here.

Are you resolved in your love? For Christ? For those here in the church? For the lost?

But what if they don’t want to be loved…what if they don’t care? Glad you asked...

Ruth wasn’t asked…or appreciated

I caught something I have missed in other studies on Ruth. After Ruth’s little speech, this was Naomi’s response:

“Oh thank you! I’m so glad you are coming and I won’t be alone!” Nope.

Ruth 1:18 “When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped talking to her.”

I did some digging to try to make that verse not sound so harsh. But it’s clear. In the hebrew, Naomi saw what Ruth was going to do and ceased speaking to her.

I have often found the silent treatment to be an awesome way to show gratitude…said no one ever.

My love language is being ignored

Ruth knew the loving thing to do and did it.

Aside from the price paid by not going home where she would have a chance to start over, now it’s one of those silent road trips.

They get to Bethlehem, the people see Naomi and welcome her, “Can this be Naomi?”

Here’s her response:

Ruth 1:20-21 ““Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” she answered, “for the Almighty has made me very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has opposed me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?””

It’s like when you sit with someone whose hurting and they cry out that no one cares.

I’m bitter and I am empty…I have nothing…ignoring the girl who gave up everything to come with and care for you.

The temptation is strong to react in those moments. Ruth didn’t.

She didn’t come because she was asked, she came because she loved.

A couple weeks ago we talked about how Mary’s family would have reacted to the unwed couple with a baby on the way, the fact that it was highly likely that it was family members, not random innkeepers that didn’t have room for them to stay in Bethlehem.

To be a loving thread, you have to understand that you don’t need to wait to be asked, and you shouldn’t expect to be appreciated. Bitterness is easy here, but then it’s not loving anymore.

But here’s the deal

Ruth changed the world

Loving threads do that.

It’s not just Ruth whose actions would lead to the birth of King David and then on to Jesus the Messiah

It’s not just Mary whose actions would bring the Messiah to be born probably within a mile or so (Bethlehem is small) of the place where Naomi told everyone there was nothing left for her.

Every loving thread, every story that chooses to live in love, to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Jesus into love for those around them will bring a piece of the kingdom to life here on earth. Those who love despite the cost.

Jesus would follow in the footsteps of his mom and great great to the whatever power grandmother by paying the price for the sins that hurt him…himself at the cross.

That is the impossible truth of the gospel!

That though all our sin was an attack and affront to God.

That no one has greater reason to take offense to my actions, to your actions than God.

He came and dwelt among us, then instead of asking us to pay for our sin against him…he went to the cross and received it. He paid.

He set us free…and then calls us to do the same for others.

Let’s have the worship team come back up...

Chris Rice sings a song called Sometimes Love. one of my favorites. A few of you are probably thinking, hey, Shaun mentioned that song to me this week. Yeah…I like it.

In the verse he sings about the pain and sorrow in this world and then the chorus goes like this:

Sometimes love has to drive a nail into its own hand Sometimes love has to drive a nail into its own hand, into its own hand

A little later

'Cause He knew the price that love requires

And He laid down His own desires

He stretched out His hands to save His friends

And said 'no other love is higher'

So listen to me now singin'

Sometimes love has to drive a nail into its own hand, into its own hand

Sometimes love has to drive a nail into its own hand, into its own hand

Love always cost something. No one paid a higher price than Jesus.

Without Ruth demonstrating this kind of costly love, the Christmas story as we know it doesn’t happen.

Without Mary following her example, the Christmas story as we know it doesn’t happen.

What stories of love aren’t being told right now because you have feared to pay the price?

Where could you choose to take a step in following Jesus into his radical love and grace?

Love will cost you. it did Ruth, it did Mary, it did Jesus.

But this is what it means to follow Jesus. To go after him means to do what he did.

Not multiply loaves of bread or walk on water…those are small miracles compared to paying the price for love.

So as we look at a week to go until Christmas, what is one costly, loving step you can take?

Prayer teams, invitation

Let’s pray