Uncommon; Generosity

Uncommon Week Two:

Uncommon Generosity

Jeff Jones, Senior Pastor

February 29/March 2, 2008

Now that was cool; Pink Floyd in church is a little uncommon. Cool, but uncommon. No more turning away. And even cooler than hearing it would be to fully live it out, to be people of the no more turning away. That isn’t their idea, that is God’s idea. That is part of the uncommon life that God calls us to, to be people who don’t simply turn away but who turn toward the need, toward the poor, and actually do what God’s heart demands that we do. That would be uncommon. Today in our series in the book of Ruth, Uncommon, we are talking about uncommon compassion/generosity, about being the people of the no more turning away, and what we are going to see is that this is a really big deal to God, not small, big.

Yet, this is a part of God’s heart that is easy to miss. In fact, over the years, many Bible scholars and rabbis hundreds of years ago wondered why the book of Ruth was even in the Bible. Many over the years questioned if Ruth should even be in the Bible, because it is essentially this story about God taking care of two poor widows. Their thinking was, “Big deal, so God takes cares of two widows.” But as we will see today, they completely missed the heart of God, a heart that identifies with the poor and that commands those of us who are rich to do something uncommon, to join the ranks of the no more turning away, to see the responsibility that the haves have to care for the have-nots.

And, yes, you are rich. Think this through with me a minute (use flipchart). Let’s take the world’s population of around 6 billion people and reduce it to 100 for the sake of this illustration. If the world’s population today was 100 people, here is what would be true of those 100 people: 70 do not know Christ. 30 are white. 51 are men, which means only 49 are women—which also means some women are kind of out of luck on finding a man. 80 live in substandard housing, meaning that they are either homeless or live in inadequate shelter. 50 are malnourished. 70 cannot read. 1 of them is a child under 10 who will die today because he or she does not have enough to eat. And 6 of them have over ½ of the world’s wealth, those of us who live in the USA.

Now for those six people, us, who have been given 50% of the world’s wealth, do you think that God might want to say something to us? Do you think we might want to think more deeply about our responsibility, especially when we understand the heart of God? Today, let’s open up our hearts to understand God’s heart. Let’s turn to this little book in the Bible, Ruth, and be open to what God might say to us about uncommon compassion.

Before we turn to Ruth chapter two, let me give a quick recap of Ruth 1 for those who weren’t here. The story starts with Naomi enjoying a wonderful life with her husband and two boys, but all that changes when famine hits. They got to a neighboring country, where Naomi’s husband and eventually two grown sons die. This leaves Naomi and her two daughters-in-law in a bad spot, because in that culture being widows with no one to care for you was about as bad as it got. Women had no rights of ownership, no way to make a living, and if you had no one to take care of you, then you were out on the street with nothing. Naomi was too old to remarry, her parents were dead, and she had no grown children. Ruth was a foreigner with no family in the region of Bethlehem, so these two women were penniless and destitute. They were the lowest of the low in that culture, and had no good prospects apart from the grace of God. You might remember that they return to Bethlehem “just as the harvest is beginning,” which is a note of hope, signaling that something good might be about to happen. Today is a story of God’s heart for not only these two women, but for the billions that they represent. Let’s pick up the story again in Ruth 2:

Slide: _____________ ) Ruth 2:1-3

Now Naomi had a relative on her husband's side, from the clan of Elimelech, a man of standing, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor." Naomi said to her, "Go ahead, my daughter." 3 So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.

Already we see God taking care of these ladies. The narrator lets us know about this relative named Boaz, whom Naomi has discounted as too distant or too typical of people in her day to even care and Ruth has never even heard of. Naomi is paralyzed with anxiety and depression and isn’t even trying to survive, but Ruth is not so paralyzed. Ruth decides to try to go out and join the harvesters and try to talk them in to letting her have some of the grain, so that Ruth and Naomi will have food…more about that in a minute, but the narrator lets us know that the field she picks isn’t just any field, but one belonging to Boaz, who is going to become very important in the story. And here we see God at work on behalf of these two ladies. It seems coincidental that she picks that field, because she just picked a field, but it isn’t. It is God at work. The narrator of Ruth makes this obvious, especially in the Hebrew. The phrase in the NIV “as it turned out,” literally in Hebrew says, “Her happening just so happened to happen in Boaz’ field.” In other words, this is no accident. God is at work. Had she gone to another field, she would have come up empty, but she goes to this particular field.

In the Old Testament law, God had made provision for people like Ruth to be able to join the harvest and get food from any farmer’s field. Most farmers just blew that off and didn’t allow people like Ruth on their land, so Ruth was taking a big chance. God was very strong and very specific about the responsibility of landowners to care for the poor, the widow, and the alien. The haves were to care for the have-nots. There were two big provisions in the Old Testament law to make sure that happened.

The first provision was that at every harvest, the farmers were instructed to leave part of the grain for the poor to come and get it.

Slide: _____________ ) Leviticus 23:22

says, “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.”

Slide: _____________ ) Deuteronomy 24:19-22

says, When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the Lord your God will bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from the trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless, and the widow. When you harvest your grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless, and the widow. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.

So, every harvest, they were to leave sections of their field and leave behind part of their crops for the poor to be able to gather food. The second provision was established through an every 3 year tithe.

Slide: _____________ ) Deuteronomy 14:28-29

At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites…and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows, who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. Every three years, they were to collect 10% of their grain, and give it to the poor, so that they could store it, sell it, and use it for food.

The idea with both of these provisions for the poor was this: those who had land were not to live on 100% of their income, but instead to reserve a portion of their income for those who had no way to sustain themselves. From God’s perspective, if the haves acted like they had no responsibility for the have-nots, if they just consumed 100% of their income and made no provision for the poor, they were not people worthy of his blessing. They were people who just ticked him off.

And in the time when Ruth lived, in the time of the Judges, most Israelites just chose to tick God off by blowing off these two provisions for the poor. In fact, for most of Israel’s history, most people blew it off, because it was a lot of income. To annualize it, they were basically saying goodbye to about 15% of their income every year if they did what God wanted them to do to care for the poor, and that wasn’t even including the tithes that went to the temple. That was a lot of money, more than most were willing to part with to care for a bunch of poor widows, orphans, and aliens.

Because it was so rare that an Israelite actually practiced God’s instructions on this, this is why the passage says that Ruth “just so happened” to pick this one particular field, because Boaz, as we will see, was a godly person, which was very uncommon. He was not the kind of person to blow off God’s heart for the poor, in a culture where almost everybody did blow off God’s heart and instructions. So you could say that Ruth lucks out by picking this one person’s field, but we of course know that this was no dumb luck. God was at work. Let’s return to the story, as Ruth has gone to this field in hopes of being able to glean. The workers let her follow behind them without chasing her off, because this is Boaz’ field. Soon, Boaz shows up to check out how the work is going:

Slide: _____________ ) Ruth 2:4a-c

Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, ‘The Lord be with you!’ Already we see Boaz as uncommon, even by his greeting, “The Lord be with you!” This was a time when almost nobody gave a flip about God, but Boaz was uncommon.

Boaz then notices Ruth:

Slide: _____________ ) Ruth 2: 5

Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, ‘Whose young woman is that? Notice how he asks the question, “Whose young woman is that?” Who does she belong to? All the other harvesters were either males or attached females, but he doesn’t recognize Ruth. So, he asks, “Who does she belong to?” As we will see in the story, there might well be some romantic interest here. He is a single guy and sees this unattached girl and inquires about her. It is like when I saw Christy a couple of years after high school at the beach in Panama City, Florida. She definitely caught my eye, this beautiful brown-eyed girl, and I still even remember what she was wearing: a red sleeveless sweater-type shirt and kaki shorts. I was interested, but I almost gave up before I even tried, because I assumed she was probably already attached to someone, that she was already dating somebody. I’m glad that I didn’t go with that assumption. In fact, I caught her at the perfect time. A lot of people wonder how a goober like me wound up with somebody as beautiful and sweet as Christy. You know how? Ever hear about “senior panic?” I was a sophomore in college, and she was a senior. Senior panic is where they start thinking they are going to graduate from college without meeting somebody, and they start lowering their standards, more willing to look toward the bottom of the barrel.

Boaz is interested in Ruth, perhaps a little romantic curiosity, or maybe at this point none at all. We don’t fully know. But he is concnered about her care, so he says, “Whose young woman is this?” Vs 6:

Slide: _____________ ) Ruth 2:6-7

The foreman replied, “She is the Moabitess who came back from Moab with Naomi. She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.’ Boaz is impressed. He’s heard about this loyal daughter-in-law attached to Naomi, and now he has the opportunity to meet her. So, he goes to where Ruth is and says,

Slide: _____________ ) Ruth 2: 8-9

“My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”

Boaz is going way above and beyond what the Old Testament law required him to do. He is saying, “Join my other female workers, and enjoy my protection…and take whatever you need.” Ruth is blown away by this, because she is not just a widow but a foreigner as well. She is an alien widow, not the green kind of alien, but you know what I mean. So, she falls down on the ground before him and asks, “Why have I, a poor widow and a foreigner, found such favor in your eyes? Why are you doing this for me?”

Boaz responds,

Slide: _____________ ) Ruth 2: 11-12

“I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” Ruth responds in unbelief, and says,

Slide: _____________ ) Ruth 2: 13 b-d

“You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servant girls.” When she says comfort, the Hebrew expression is literally, “You have allowed me to breathe again,” meaning that all the anxiety and stress she had as a poor, no prospect widow, has lifted. She can now breathe again. It’s like if you have lost a job and then get one again, the pressure lifts. But it gets even better for Ruth. Next verse:

Slide: _____________ ) Ruth 2:14

At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.” When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. Shat ate all she wanted and had some left over. This is significant, because Boaz is not only including her in with all of his workers, but he actually serves her food, which was a big deal in that culture. He isn’t just treating her like a servant or a worker, but he is serving her. It keeps getting better though. When she gets up to get back to work, he tells the men who are harvesting to do the hard work of getting the grain out and keep leaving bunches of it behind for her to find and take with her. He tells them to make it easy for her, and then again tells them not to harass or embarrass her. He basically tells his men to work for her without her knowing it.

At the end of the day, Ruth gathers all the barley she has gleaned that day and is amazed, because it says she has a whole ephah full, which was a lot. That would be enough grain to feed her and Naomi for a whole month.

She then goes back to where Naomi is, and Naomi asked how the day went. Now, wives, when you ask your husband how his day went, what does he say? “Fine.” Ruth is a girl, and she gives a lot more info than that, she shares with Naomi the whole story, eventually sharing the name of this man who was so incredibly generous to her, Boaz.

When Naomi hears the name Boaz, she can hardly believe it. She knew about Boaz, who was a relative of her husbands, but she assumed that he would be like everybody else, that he would be common, that he wouldn’t care about a poor widow. She didn’t realize how uncommon Boaz was. So, Naomi exclaims,

Slide: _____________ ) Ruth 2: 20

“The Lord bless him!...He has not stopped showing kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers.”

The idea of kinsman-redeemer is a huge idea in this book, and it was another responsibility that God gave the Israelites that most of them blew off. Do you want to know what a kinsman redeemer is? Ask me. I’m not going to tell you, that’s for a future week. You have to come back. Ruth then shared how Boaz told her she could be like one of his workers under his care, but just take whatever grain she can take so that she could store it, sell it, or use it for food. Verse 23 tells us,

Slide: _____________ ) Ruth 2:23

“So Ruth stayed close the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.” Ruth stays on what would have been about two months, gathering all she can, and in the process we learn a lot about God’s heart and about our responsibility. Because this story is not just a story about how God cared for Ruth, but much bigger than that, it is a story of God’s heart for the poor and what he expects out of us who are rich, who have more than we need. It is a story for the haves to understand his heart and our responsibility for the have-nots. For the 6% of us who have 50% of the world’s resources, when half the world is malnourished, we really do need to listen to what God is teaching in this story.

Here is what we who are rich, all of us in this room, need to take away from this great little story:

Slide: _____________ )

• God cares for the poor.

Don’t yawn at that, don’t think this is a small, trite little statement. This is a big deal to God. He identifies with the poor, and throughout the Bible God makes that as obvious as he can. In fact, he devotes this book in the Bible to this story of how he cares for two poor widows. It is a story of how he works behind the scenes to make sure they are cared for. On your outline, you see a statement that says “answered prayers” with verses next to them. That’s there, because we see these ladies praying and asking God for things, and every request God answers. Not only does God care for the poor, but he does so through rich people like you and me, which brings me to my next point:

Slide: _____________ )

• God expresses His care through His people.

God cares for the poor by giving some extra so that they can share with those who do not have enough. He gives to haves so that they in turn can give to the have-nots. It’s what God told the nation of Israel, that they are blessed to be a blessing, not just to enjoy the blessing, but to be a blessing. He gives a little more to some, not so that we can have too much, but so that we can express his care to those who don’t have enough.

When you came in today, some of you got little gifts of chocolate. Wasn’t that nice! Sorry we didn’t have enough for everybody, but actually we did. Those of you who got hershey’s kisses, you were given more than enough, though others were not given anything. Those who weren’t given any, how did you feel? Ripped off, right? Those who were given more than enough, how did you feel? Probably pretty fortunate, blessed, maybe you even felt special.

Some of you probably asked somebody you knew who was blessed with kisses for some love. Did you get any? Others of you actually did offer your more than enough to others who didn’t have any, and still others are holding on, even right now, pretty tight to your bag of kisses.

Here’s the deal. We in this culture are blessed. No question about that. We have been given more than enough. I am aware that some in the room have more than others, but all of us in this room, by virtue of where we live, have been blessed with more than we need in a world where most people have much less than they need…in a world where every few seconds a child dies of hunger or unnecessary disease (do the second thing again?).

Those of us who have been blessed are not blessed to just enjoy the blessing. That is true, and we can and thank God for it. But we also have huge responsibility; because we are blessed as the Bible says to “be a blessing,” not just enjoy the blessing. We have been given more than we need not to expand our lifestyle but to be that much more generous to those who are in dire need.

God gives more to the haves so that they can share with the have-nots, but if the haves don’t share, then everything breaks down, and you don’t have to read much of the Bible to know how mad God gets at the haves when they don’t fulfill their responsibility to the have nots. Just as in Israel they weren’t supposed to live on all their income, but reserve a percentage for the temple and a percentage for the poor, God expects us to do the same thing…to not just consume all we have, to consume the more than enough, but to share it with those who have too little. We’ll talk about some ways to do that in a moment, but to motivate us one step further, the 3rd principle we need to walk away with:

Slide: _____________ )

• God’s blessing comes to those who give.

Do you remember the verses we read earlier, about how Israel was to set aside grain for the poor? In each case he says, do this, “so that the Lord God may bless you in all the work of your hands.” Do you want God’s blessing in your life? The way to get it may not be by praying for it, but by being generous yourself. If you are not being generous, you can pray for God’s blessing until you are blue in the face, and I honestly wouldn’t expect much. God says that we should be generous to the poor not only because it thrills his heart but also because it frees up his blessing in our lives.

We will certainly see that in the rest of the Ruth story, how God blesses Boaz way beyond what he did for this widow named Ruth. I won’t give away the story, but God way out-gives Boaz in response to Boaz’s generosity.

The picture is that God is waiting with all this blessing for our lives, not just financial blessings, all kinds of blessings, but he waits to see what we are going to do with what he has already given. The New Testament tells us that giving to the poor and giving to his kingdom work is like planting seeds. If we want God to bless us a lot, then we need to be generous a lot. If want him to bless us only little, then we need to be generous only little. That’s the way God works. This is a big deal to him.

I can see that blessing happening in our church right now. God is blessing us in a thousand ways around here right now, with his power and his presence. I firmly believe one of the reasons why is because this is a church who takes seriously our responsibility to the poor, both in our own area and around the world. I see all that the LifeGroups are doing for the local poor, and I can’t help but think that God’s heart is thrilled. I think of what is going on in places like Mexico, Cuba, and Ethiopia as a result of the generosity of this church, and I know it thrills Gods’ heart.

Last year, we launched a major initiative as a church to care for the needs of thousands of people in Northern Ethiopia, one of the poorest places on the planet. At the time, we were right in the middle of the Imagine campaign and people were giving financially to all kinds of local initiatives, and as elders we talked about whether or not it was wise to start such a big iniaitive at a time when our church’s financial needs were significant. We are also already doing a lot. And yet, we also realize that we have been blessed as a church, too. As is typical with our elders, they concluded that our responsibility is clear and that we needed to call people to this project. God gave us the opportunity, and we have more than enough if people are faithful. When we shared the opportunity with the church, for the first year of this 5 year project, this church gave 200,000 dollars on that day that is now being used to care for countless people through the Ethiopian churches and Christians distributing that care. In April, I along with a team of people will return and we will bring back a full report, but let me just say that what is happening there is beyond cool. And I am positive that God is blessing our church and I trust blessing your lives as a result. Begin to pray now about what it would look like for you to be generous as we will in April collect another offering for year two of the 5 year project.

Those of you who buy your coffee here at Chase Oaks, La Mai coffee, have not only found it to be great coffee, but also a means of blessing the global poor. Pray for that effort. We as a church are looking to administrate this project to expand La Mai in the US in order to help alleviate poverty and child prostitution in Thailand. The group we work with helps convert farmers who grow opium poppies used later for heroin to growing coffee. We pay them significantly more than fair trade prices so that they can make a living, and not sell their children into sexual slavery. The proceeds go to another group who specializes in rescuing the children from the sex industries in those cultures, which is a very dangerous thing…but it gives these children a future, and they also find out about the love of Jesus Christ. Every time you buy La Mai coffee you are meeting a huge need.

And that way of living is the way of Christ, the uncommon life of compassion and generosity that God calls us to. We live in a culture of high consumption, not radical generosity. We are all consumers, but what if we became known here at Chase Oaks as a place of radical generosity, who recognize that our more than enough means that we share with those who don’t have enough…not just consume that much more. What if we really listened to God’s call to a life of radical generosity and compassion?

For those of us in the 6% of the world’s population who have 50% of the world’s wealth, in a world where ½ of the people are malnourished and children die every couple of seconds to hunger, we certainly have to think hard about our responsibility. But let’s not just think about it. Let’s choose to be people of uncommon generosity, both here through our local bridges and elsewhere globally. We who are the haves have been given a huge responsibility in relation to the have-nots. Let’s commit to being a community of believers who join the “no more turning away” commitment in a world that by and large just turns its head from the needs.

If we do? Not only will the world be different and needs be met, but we thrill the heart of God and gain the blessing only reserved for the uncommonly generous. Let’s be uncommon.

Let’s pray.