Children’s Sermon
Freight trains cannot climb very steep hills. In fact, 4% would be near the absolute limit of any freight train. (Show as 4 cm lift on meter ruler.)
Steepest road in the United States? Canton Avenue, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a grade of 37%, meaning that for every meter of horizontal distance traveled, the elevation changes by 37 cm. (Show with Amazon box and meter ruler.) May not look steep, but must be paved with concrete because asphalt would flow down on hot days! If you tried to climb this hill, you would see quickly how steep it really is.
When I went with the boy scouts to Colorado, we climbed some steep hills. One of the ways we did so was with trails that formed a zig-zag pattern instead of going straight up the mountain. The zig-zag trail (sometimes called a switchback) protects the hill and trail from excessive erosion. Switchbacks also make it easier to climb steep hills.
Sometimes people want to climb straight up instead of walking the longer distance of the trails weaving road. Is this type of “short-cutting” a good idea? Why not? It kills vegetation and loosens soil creating terrible erosion. Hikers have a motto: Leave No Trace, and part of that requires they stay on the designated trail.
So too with God. We may want to short-cut the path he makes us walk. But Proverbs 3 says, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and he will direct your paths. They will end at the top, where we should be, with great joy. If we only trust and stay the path.
Introduction
Charles Dickens well-described the mixed feelings created by the French Revolution when he began A Tale of Two Cities, with these memorable words: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
We feel similarly when reading the book of Ruth. This splendid short story certainly drags us through the emotions of the best and worst of times.
Events open with the simple phrase, “In the days,” a warm, inviting line, like “Once upon a time,” sure to make us sink into our comfy chairs in preparation for a great tale. Our hearts say, “Surely the best of times.”
But the next words frighten us: “when the judges ruled.” That is not good – the judges ruled in a time of lawlessness, everyone did what was right in his own eyes. It was the worst of times for the people of Israel – this is bad.
But the story is set in Bethlehem, in Judea, a favored placed, blessed of the Lord. The name Bethlehem means, House of Bread – a town of satisfaction and contentment – that is good!
But there is a famine – the house of bread is bare – and the family of Elimelech is forced to flee to Moab, where the true is God not worshipped. There Elimelech, the husband of Naomi and father of Mahlon and Chilion… dies. This is bad!
No, it’s good – the death of the father prompts Naomi to marry her two sons off to fine women: Ruth and Orpah, and they live there 10 years. Yes, this is good.
No, it’s bad – Mahlon and Chilion die. Naomi is left without her two sons and her husband. Oh, that’s bad.
No, it’s good – it forces her back to Bethlehem, where the Lord has visited and given the people food. That’s good.
No, it’s bad – Orpah wants nothing to do with a God who cannot be trusted to make the lives of his people comfortable and easy. She stays in her country, with the hopes of creature comforts and present day success. That’s bad.
No, it’s good – because Ruth makes a true and radical commitment to follow God and to be part of the covenant community with Naomi: “Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 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.” Wow, that’s good.
No, that’s bad, because Ruth and Naomi are now widows without means of support. In fact, Naomi is so upset over the circumstances that she rejects her own name (which means pleasant), and tells her friends from now on to call her Mara, bitter. Oh, that’s bad.
No, it’s good, because God provided for widows and the poor through the law of gleaning, which Naomi intends to take full advantage of. It’s good?
No, bad: it was not safe for a beautiful young woman to wander the fields alone during these days. In fact, Naomi worries that Ruth may be assaulted by farm workers. That’s bad!
No, it’s good! Ruth, new to town, knows not where she is or where she is going. She wanders out, unprotected and at great risk, trusting God to lead – and he directs her to the field of Boaz, a relative of Naomi’s family. Yea! That’s good.
No, that’s bad. Boaz mother was a prostitute, so the community marginalizes him – therefore, the rare single man at middle-age. He has money and is worthy, but no father offers his daughter to this one of disreputable parentage. That’s bad.
No, that’s good: he is attracted to Ruth, and she to him, and he is a kinsmen who can marry and keep the inheritance in the family. That’s good!
No, it’s bad because Ruth and Boaz do not know how to get together. They have talked, butt Boaz is older and unsure of Ruth’s interest. And Ruth is cautious about overstepping her bounds. They seem like ships passing in the night. Oh, that’s bad.
No, it’s good, for Naomi devises a plan to allow Ruth to tell Boaz of her interest and desire for him, with the language of lovers: subtle and powerful. Oh, yes, that’s good.
No, it’s not. Ruth and Boaz feel the passion and long to join in love. But the law insists that another has the right to marry Ruth first. There is a nearer redeemer – a relative who must first reject this beauty before Boaz can marry her. The intrigue and twists and turns of the plot grip our hearts with hope and anxiety.
We paused the story there last week. Ruth with language more powerful because of its subtlety and allusions, tells Boaz of her hope for his love. Boaz, thrilled by his fortune in receiving the affections of woman young and beautiful, promises to marry her… but… just when you thought the happy ending arrived, just when you felt your emotions drawn to the highest pitch, just when you hoped that the man and woman would fall in love and marry, Boaz says (and I am reading Ruth 3.12-13): “And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the LORD lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.”
I feel like the grandson in the movie, Princess Bride, when Westley dies in the pit of despair.
Grandson: Grandpa, grandpa, wait. Wait, what did Fezzik mean “He’s dead”? I mean, he didn’t mean dead. Westley’s only faking, right?
Grandfather: You want me to read this or not?
Grandson: Who gets Humperdinck?
Grandfather: I don’t understand.
Grandson: Who kills Prince Humperdinck? At the end. Somebody’s got to do it. Is it Inigo, who?
Grandfather: Nobody. Nobody kills him. He lives.
Grandson: You mean he wins…? What did you read me this thing for?
Nor does it get any better in chapter 4.
Read Ruth 4.1-4.
Wait, Grandpa! What does he mean, “I will redeem it”? We do not want him to redeem; we want Boaz to do it. Stop the story! Don’t let this other fellow take Ruth!
This is a story of setbacks (or switchbacks as I am calling them today). Just like in our lives, with Ruth on the right road, God seems to throw up a roadblock.
What really frustrates us in this situation is that Boaz’ faithfulness causes the setback! He knows the other man has first right to the redemption of the land, so he refuses to steal what does not belong to him. If he cannot have it righteously, he will not have it. Many stumble precisely here – “I will have what I want,” we say to God, “and if I cannot have it your way, then I will have it mine.” Boaz trusts the ways of God to give the best, so he is able to do what is right.
Fortunately, the story continues.
Read Ruth 4.5-10.
The nearer relative fears his own children will lose their inheritance, so he declines to redeem. Finally, Boaz travels every switchback and arrives at the top of Mount Marriage with Ruth on his arm.
The author of this book writes masterfully, and I do not want the morals we take from it to lessen in any way the pleasure of reading this as a great short story. God includes this book in his library because it is true, exciting, and well-told. He wants us to enjoy telling it over and over.
But there are lessons. Please note three.
First, the life of the godly is not a straight line to glory. I began the sermon with the “It’s good, no it’s bad, no it’s good” way of telling the story so that you would feel the curves which the characters traveled through. You do not know what challenge awaits around the next switchback, or setback, your lives take. Maybe today you wonder why God allowed some difficulty or disappointment in your life. Ruth did, and counted it all joy. Naomi, on the other hand, let it make her bitter.
God wants us to know that the end is good and glory, no matter how circuitous the road. His path leads to a future and a hope. Those who would shortcut his way and his will destroy their own lives and others. Those who trust him for his grace, find the way sometimes slow and confusing, but the end is always good. This book was written to show us the signs of grace and to help us trust him even when the clouds are so thick that we cannot see the road ahead. God turns bitter providences into glorious good.
The second lesson is that God stops at nothing for those he determines to bless. Ruth could not feel God’s favor while she trudged through her many trials: her sorrow at the death of her husband, her disappointment with her mother-in-law’s attitude, her fear of survival as a widow in a strange land, and her confusion when Boaz said that he would marry her but another had first dibs. The path was hard; God’s promise and blessing to her was grand!
He does the same for you. Faith trusts him for the end, while holding to hope in the journey.
The third lesson is that marriage is a wonderful and honorable condition. We live in a time when people marry less often and later, women have more children without marriage, and more marriages end in divorce. Love and relationships are hard, and people are hurting. The church does not have a message of condemnation for those who struggle and have problems; we have a message of hope for those who are willing to fight for what is good. Marriage is not an end in itself, but it is a good gift of God to lead us to a deeper understanding of his love and desire for intimacy with his people. Let us determine to honor and promote marriage and marriage improvement.
One last thing to notice.
Read Ruth 4.11-12.
What a strange toast to the newly engaged couple. May Ruth be like Rachel, who was barren and in her resentment over the shattered dream of having children, insisted that her husband have kids through the servant girl. And may Ruth be like Leah, the unloved wife, whose shattered dream was that if she had enough children, she would finally win her husband’s affection. And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah. Tamar who dressed as a prostitute to seduce her father-in-law and bear a son by him.
Larry Crabb writes that the congregation would rise in protest if he were to pray at the dedication of his grandson: “Lord, allow this child’s life to be messed up so you can do the good that can only be done through hard times.” And there would be cries of “No, No” rather than “Here, Here” if he offers this toast at his granddaughter’s wedding: “Lord, may difficulties plague her life so that she discovers a goodness that only difficulties reveal.”
That is what the elders say to Boaz.
Crabb speculates what Naomi would say to a friend who complained about these strange toasts: “In the next life, a different toast will be offered. For this life, the toast was loving and necessary. I heard the elder wishing that Boaz and Ruth would develop the wisdom to know that neither human selfishness nor frailty can thwart God’s grand and eternal purposes. He wants them to experience whatever hardships will compel them to abandon themselves to God for good things they can neither see nor provide. And I wish the same for them. I now know that shattered dreams free us to value what is best; they help us see God’s invisible hand moving us toward our deepest joy and moving everything, including our lives, toward Shaddai’s greatest glory.”
God cannot be trusted to arrange our lives in ways that always bring comfort and ease.
God can be trusted to take you down the path to enjoyment of him. On our way, sometimes the greatest obstacle is dreams of success and ease and feeling better and our own preferences and comfort. The insistent urge to feel now as good as we want to feel keeps us from making much of enjoying God. Enjoying God is the fullness of joy, and God is after your joy. So the dream must shatter.
Then the choice is bitterness or brokenness. Bitterness brings darkness of soul, defeat, and eventually sin and rebellion. Brokenness brings the willingness to trust God in every circumstance, to rejoice always, even in suffering, for then we know the power and peace of God, which is perfected in weakness.
