Sermon Tone Analysis

A few years ago I was walking on the Isle of Palms in the morning, not on the beach, but on the roads.

Develop the idea that the Lord is a God of refuge

I was walking and memorizing and preparing for my ordination exams.

all we should extend God’s sheltering provision

Proposition The Lord is a God of refuge

We can be fearful, if we step out to extend God’s refuge to others,

We can be too committed to a political philosophy and not show hospitality

Ordinary Faithfulness is costly

Proposition The Lord is a God of refuge

A few years ago I was walking on the Isle of Palms, not on the beach, but on the roads.

I was walking and memorizing and preparing for my ordination exams.

I did this almost every day for a few months.

But there was this one day I was walking down the road and I heard a loud squeak behind me.

I turned around and there just 15 or 20 feet in the air were two huge bald Eagles, the size of tereadactals, souring down down the road, and they were coming right for me, well maybe they weren't, but I sure acted like they were.

Although it really did not do any good I started running and just a few seconds later I was under their enormous wings.

And when they passed I was one relieved they did not sink their dinosaur talons into my shoulders, but I was also awe struck at the beauty of their size and power.

They were no sea gull, they ruled the air.

In the Bible God is often described as having wings, and specifically eagles wings, and under those powerful wings, God’s people experiencing refuge, rest, security, like a mother eagle and her young.

I imagine people saw eagles power and and size and maybe even saw an eagle protect her young from predators and thought, yes that is what God does for us.

Or more likely God made the eagle to display love, to remind his people that like the powerful eagle he takes them under the protection of his intimate fellowship, that under the shadow of his wings one finds the refreshing rest and safety of his love, from external and internal conflict.

Living protection

“God’s wings” are the spreadings out, i.e., the manifestations of His love, taking the creature under the protection of its intimate fellowship, and the “shadow” of these wings is the refreshing rest and security which the fellowship of this love affords to those, who hide themselves beneath it, from the heat of outward or inward conflict.

FCF: Because we live in a world where refuge is necessary.

And the church is meant to be a place of God’s refuge.

But many times that is not what you see.

You see the abuse of power by people in the church, where children are harmed, or women abused.

But many times it is not what we see.

You see the abuse of power by people in the church, where children are harmed, or women abused.

But not only is the church to be a place of God’s refuge for external threats, but for internal ones as well.

We need refuge from our own conscience’s that condem us for failing not only to live up to the kind of people we think we should be, but also for failing to live as the person God created us to be.

And not only that we need refuge from the tyranny of our on conscience, for failing not only to live up to the kind of people we think we should be, but also for failing to live as the person God created us to be.

Yet many times the church is not a refuge here either, either by adding more condemnation on to people and withholding refuge offered in God’s forgiveness and grace, or by withholding refuge by acting as if forgiveness is not needed, oh stop worrying about that, it is no big deal.

But in our passage we see that the Lord is a God of refuge.

So if that is who God is, what are the implications for his people?

What does that mean for his church?

So if that is who God is, what are the implications for his people?

all we should extend God’s sheltering provision

In our passage we see that if we want to be the kind of people experience God’s refuge and who extend God’s refuge it requires

courage, hospitality, and sacrifice

First extending God’s refuge requires

Courage

Ruth tells Naomi that she is going to go and glean in the field, she is going to gather food.

and then in verse 3 we get a summary statement that she did in fact glean.

But in verse 7 we get a flash back of how she started gleaning.

Through the words of one of Boaz’s servants we see that she is not simply ask to glean in the usually way a poor refugee might glean in the fields, picking up the grain that was forgotten or accidentally dropped.

Look with me at verse 7

By asking glean among the sheaves, that is small bundles of grain that had been lined up on the edge of a field.

She is being extraordinarily bold, maybe even presumptuous, but the only way for her to glean enough grain for not only herself but for Naomi was for her to glean among the sheaves.

For her to offer God’s refuge to Naomi and provide food for her she had to have courage to ask to gather more.

This was a risk for her, there is no police force, no lawyer to call upon, she is a vulnerable stranger, and the only thing that would compel someone to grant her request would be their compassion, something that was very few and far between during the time of the judges when everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

It took great courage on Ruth’s part to risk asking for more and then to stand there an wait, and wait and wait, not moving.

Waiting extend God’s refuge to Naomi and provide food for her.

The most likely scenario, given that she was a woman, a widow with no family, and a foreigner on top of that would be that she would be beaten and shamed simply for asking.

And this may have come even if she had not asked.

Rosa Parks reminds me a little of Ruth.

Who instead of standing, just sat and endured the shame so her brothers and sisters would be treated with equity under the law.

Application:

To risk

If we want to extend God’s refuge to our neighbors it will take courage, and maybe you might not face physical harm, but shame, being hushed, or pushed aside, that would probably come.

It might mean advocating for the elderly in nursing homes, so that they are treated with the dignity that they have as an image bearer of God, or advocating for the life of the unborn children, in a politically charged culture.

If we want to extend God’s refuge it takes courage.

It will take courage, if you catch wind of abuse taking place to stand and say something.

You think, oh I would speak up, oh but the temptation to think, well maybe I did not hear correctly, or I don’t have all the facts, well it was not that bad, or that man, no not him he is so Godly, no one would believe me if I said anything anyway.

What ever the situation, if we want to be the kind of people who extend God’s refuge to another it will take courage.

What is needed is courage Or if you are part of an organization and you catch wind that a leader is abusing his power and used his position to take advantage of women, you risk your reputation, the reputation of the organization, or institution so that God’s refuge is extended.

Ruth’s faithful courage

But not only that it will take

Hospitality

Boaz extends the refuge of God to Ruth by showing hospitality.

Boaz allows her to glean, but also grants her request to glean among the sheaves.

But that is not all he does.

In verse 9 we read

Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them.

Have I not charged the young men not to touch you?

He protects her, she is vulnerable, but he ensures she is physically safe.

he goes on to say

And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn

So instead of her going off and drawing water for herself which is what a foreigner and a gleaner would do, he did not treat her like foreigner but like one of his workers.

This would enable her to gather more food.

He is kind to her, not nice or polite, maybe he was, but kind.

He offers the sheltering wings of God to her.

Then when meal time comes, he calls her over to eat.

She is welcomed to the table and there she eats until she is satisfied, who knows how long it had been since she ate until she was satisfied.

She was treated as if she was one of his household.

And then before she goes back out to glean, Boaz says:

Before we see the significance of this lets look at the gleaning law in Leviticus

So God’s law required that the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow had a right to glean grain in your field, it is required by God.

Boaz, followed God’s law, but he did not simply check off the box, I fulfilled my requirement by allowing her to glean, he went to the heart of the law, that is to offer God’s refuge to those in need.

a gleaner would normally only pick up what was dropped by accident, and not around the sheaves, that is the bundles of gran tha

So he not only allowed Ruth to glean what was left by mistake, he granted her request to glean around the bundles of grain, and not only that he even went further.

He said pull some out of the bundles and leave that for her to glean as well.

And in verse 17 we see that Ruth gleaned about an ephah of barley.

Which would have been about 29 lbs.

This would have been equal to about half a months wage.

Illustration:

My parents renovated a garage in their back yard into a little house that my sister could live in when she needed a place to stay.

But then my sister got married and moved into her own home.

Then my mom, who apparently knows where Mexican workers hang out, drove there and paid a few of them to work on her driveway, well she is one of these people who’s always telling people about Jesus and so she is talking to this one Mexican and finds out that his family has just come here and they don’t have a place to stay.

So one thing leads to another and he and his family live in her back yard for about a year as they got adjusted to living in the US.

All the while he is doing work for my family, and my mom is helping with their kids and they became friends.