5.1.33 7.9.2023 The Challenging Choices of Ruth Ruth 1.1-18

Start:

Series Overview:

This year has been about beginnings. With Ruth we will consider the beginning of Faith.

The story is well known. I preached a Mother’s Day sermon from this very text the year before last.

Often overlooked is the fact that Ruth was an Outsider. An alien. An immigrant. An other. Following Naomi from Moab to Bethlehem was, for her, both pilgrimage of faith, and a migration abroad. Her brokenness and alienation were the context for her faith.

Ruth is one of the literary gems in the whole Bible. A historical short story written with artistry, emotion, and power. It begins in bereavement and ends in celebration.

Entice: They were two aliens, Ruth and Naomi. Two exiles on the road together, clinging to one another for consolation. One was returning home. The other was migrating. They hoped that in Bethlehem they could stop their wandering.

Engage: The thread that most connected Naomi and Ruth was

Loyalty.

Against her own self-interest Ruth refused to abandon her mother-in-law, remained with her and came to embrace the God of Israel, becoming a part of the chosen people and an integral part of the story of the central character in the Hebrew Bible. She stayed with Naomi because of loyalty “hesed”. We will hear this term often during this series. It is notoriously hard to translate largely because the term is so rich. Ruth had no way of knowing when she left Moab behind, that she would be the ancestor of a yet unborn king of Israel.

She did not yet know Boaz, the redeemer. She had not yet felt his kindness whilst shucking excess grain in his fields. She had not come to expect protection beneath the wings of YHWH. She was just an undocumented alien loving and caring for Naomi.

Expand: The story of Ruth, Naomi and Boaz is unique in the canon of scripture in that its placement in the Canon is an important ingredient to its interpretation by both Jews and Christians. The Jews read the book liturgically and topically. A celebration of harvest or a celebration of “the praiseworthy woman.” As Christians we read it as the historical bridge between the anarchy of the time of the Judges and the Messianic promise of the Davidic Kingdom. Yet, as powerful as those resonances are, the true power is the found in the relationship between the Moabite girl and the widow from Bethlehem.

Excite: One memorable and often used quote from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is

“Not all who wander are lost.”

Ruth and Naomi were not lost in the traditional sense, but as homeless widows they were wanderers looking for a place to end their exile. It happens in Bethlehem where Ruth loses here immigrant status and Naomi overcomes the bitterness of loss.

Explore:

Wandering is reality, being lost a choice.

Expand: This story reminds us of how faith can overcome circumstances

Body of Sermon: It begins with

1 Crisis.

Ruth 1:1–5 ESV

1 In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, 5 and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

1.1 Drought.

1.2 Death.

1.3 Despair

The Crisis births the next circumstance which is

2 Challenge.

Ruth 1:6–13 ESV

6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. 7 So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. 8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9 The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. 10 And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” 11 But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? 12 Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, 13 would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.”

2.1 Responsibility.

2.2 Resources.

2.3 Reality.

We each respond to the challenges we face by exercising

3 Choice

Ruth 1:14–15 ESV

14 Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15 And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”

3.1 What is known.

3.2 What is unknown.

Our ultimate choice is to reject the circumstances of our birth for

4 Conversion

Ruth 1:16–18 ESV

16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” 18 And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

4.1 Not a conventional conversion experience.

4.2 But it is a comprehensive conversion experience.

4.2.1 New Faith.

4.2.2 New Focus.

4.2.3 New Family.

4.2.4 New Hope.

Shut Down

At the heart of the most memorable stories are artistically rendered characters. The author of Ruth is exceptional is this regard.

We can feel the tears of Naomi.

We can hear the breaking voice of Orpah,

And we can sense,

we can feel

we can almost touch

the

steely determination of Ruth

as she makes her Choice.

As she chooses to come beneath the wings of the God of Israel.

People are not defined by their challenges,

but by how they respond. Ruth truly is an “excellent woman.”

Covenant Loyalty brings us to the threshold of grace where we find shelter beneath the wings of God.