Ruth 4:13-17 (Common English Bible)
So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife.
He was intimate with her, the Lord let her become pregnant, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi, “May the Lord be blessed, who today hasn’t left you without a redeemer. May his name be proclaimed in Israel. He will restore your life and sustain you in your old age. Your daughter-in-law who loves you has given birth to him. She’s better for you than seven sons.” Naomi took the child and held him to her breast, and she became his guardian. The neighborhood women gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They called his name Obed. He became Jesse’s father and David’s grandfather.
For the past month we have been looking at what one should do, when they don’t know what to do.
We have talked about learning to wait, how to listen;
we wrestled with what to do when you don’t like where God is leading you ---
and last week we talked about accepting the reality that things don’t always go as planned.
Richard Rohr, and many others, love to talk about Redemptive Suffering.
I struggle with that concept ---
Anything with the word suffering in it --- just doesn’t appeal to me.
I don’t know about you --- but suffering is not my goal in life.
The God I follow is like a parent whose heart breaks when any child suffers.
In a Roman Catholic blog, Jen Arnold writes:
In Catholicism we have a concept called “redemptive suffering.” What this means is that, in actively and willfully joining our sufferings to the Cross, we cooperate with Jesus in our own (and others’) redemption, effectively making us co-redeemers.
She goes on:
As fallen beings, we humans cannot escape suffering because it is an effect of sin. Since suffering is inevitable, we can, and should, use it to our advantage. We can take our suffering and yoke it to the cross and offer it up as reparation for our sins. Since we are all connected members of the Body of Christ, we can also offer up our sufferings for our loved ones, or for anyone else we may be called to help. This sacrificial offering of our suffering is elevated through Jesus’ perfect suffering on Calvary which was the ultimate reparation for sin. By subordinately cooperating with Jesus in suffering, we are acknowledging His sacrifice for us and expressing our gratitude by agreeing to carry some of the burden ourselves alongside of Him. The result of reparation helps to cleanse our souls from the stain of our sin, making us clean so that we may one day enter heaven. That is how our suffering becomes redemptive.
I am still not sold.
The idea that God needs me to offer reparations for my sins makes no sense . . .
I thought Jesus took care of that.
This sounds way too much like the theological fake news that Pastor Matt and I preached on almost three years ago.
The ideas that God won’t give you more than you can handle.
Or even worse
That everything happens for a reason.
As I shared in both of those sermons --- I do not believe God tries to see how much we can handle and stresses us almost to the point of breaking.
Nor do I believe that God ordains bad things to happen.
I do not believe that Maris Hastings died because God wanted her in heaven.
Or that Dayshawn Bills needed to be shot in the head by a stray bullet on the Northeast side of our city while playing video games in his grandmothers living room
Or that my father’s dementia is to . . .
--- gosh I have no idea what God would want to cause such pain in any of these examples.
Neither concepts figures into my hermeneutic (my interpretation of the bible)
But I do think there can be a redemptive nature to suffering.
Richard Rohr’s daily meditation has led me back to one of the most influential books in my life.
If you have never read Viktor Frankl’s book “Man’s Search For Meaning” --- you need to.
In 1946, after surviving four different Nazi concentration camps while losing his wife, father, mother and brother Frankl wrote “Man’s Search for Meaning”.
In it, Frankl chronicles his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps.
During his imprisonment, he noticed that some prisoners did better than others in surviving the horrors of the holocaust.
He posits that those prisoners who can identify a purpose in life --- something to feel positive about, and then immersivity imagining that outcome --- that it greatly affected their longevity.
He argues that the way one imagines their future greatly impacts that future.
It is the same basic premise that Rick Warren developed in his Purpose Driven Life, but Warren twists it by suggesting that God causes the good and bad to happen in our lives.
I don’t accept that part.
I am not a Calvinist.
Nowhere does Frankl suggest that God caused the holocaust.
What Frankl challenges us with is:
what are we going to do with what happens in our lives?
Rohr quoted Edith Eva Eger from her book, The Choice in his devotion:
[Frankl] is speaking to me. He is speaking for me. . . . I read this, which is at the very heart of Frankl’s teaching: Everything can be taken from a man [person] but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. Each moment is a choice. No matter how frustrating or boring or constraining or painful or oppressive our experience, we can always choose how we respond. And I finally begin to understand that I, too, have a choice. This realization will change my life.
So, the question for me is --- does God want me to be glorified in my suffering, or even glorify God in my suffering --- or does God want me to choose to take that suffering and use it to make me a better person?
When I think of redemptive suffering it is not
taking our suffering and yoking it to the cross and offer it up as reparation for our sins
--- As the Roman Catholic theologian Jen Arnold suggests
Rather it is finding in our suffering some redeeming quality,
some redeeming purpose in it.
What has all of this got to do with Ruth?
Last week we ended with Naomi heading back to Bethlehem because her husband and sons have died.
Her sons had married Moabite woman and Naomi encourages them to return to their homes with the hope that they will be accepted back and able to find new husbands.
Orpah chooses to go home ---
But Ruth proclaims:
“Where you go, I go; and where you live, I’ll live. Your people are my people, your God is my god; where you die, I’ll die, and that’s where I’ll be buried, so help me God—not even death itself is going to come between us!”
When they arrived at Bethlehem and Naomi is greeted by the townspeople she declares:
“Don’t call me Naomi, but call me Mara, for the Almighty has made me very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has returned me empty.”
I hope you read the middle two chapters --- because in them you find two strong and resourceful women who do everything they can to not only survive --- but thrive.
I told you last week that I often have a hard time seeing God when I am in the middle of a painful stretch of life --- but afterwards, once the experience is in the rearview mirror I can often reflect and see the presence of God.
I think the same was true for Ruth and Naomi.
During this ordeal, from losing their husbands --- to being forced to return to Bethlehem --- the failed to see the presence of God.
But the story wants us to know that God was there in the midst of it all.
Moabites were considered to be the enemies of the people of Israel.
Repeatedly we are told that they are not a part of the chosen people of God.
Yet our story centers around a Moabite woman
A foreigner
An immigrant
She was one of the “others”
A WOMAN
How often is a woman a central character in a biblical story?
A foreign woman
--- from a hated country
--- who lives a remarkable story
Pushing past the pressures of society, Ruth, a Moabite woman, makes a bold choice and takes control of her life.
The text shows us how God is present through human agency and human action.
After her husband’s death, Ruth chooses to remain faithful to her mother-in-law Naomi,
an uncomfortable choice as it requires her to live apart from her family of origin and native land ---
and risk moving to a place she very well might not be welcome.
Naomi tells Ruth to glean in the fields in order to harvest enough grain to feed both of them.
Ruth happens to find herself in the field of a relative of Naomi’s.
This relative witnesses the drive, the bravery, the tenacity and faithfulness of Ruth.
After a --- not ready for family time story, found in the 3rd chapter --- Boaz, this distant relative of Naomi’s decides to redeem her and take her for a wife.
Again --- there are great problems with this story to our 21 century ears.
No woman should be bought and sold.
But that is basically what happened here.
Ruth envisions a better future --- and then does everything in her power to make it happen.
She doesn’t take the attitude of Naomi/Mari who became bitter because of her lot.
Ruth, takes the attitude that Frankl would later write about --- she chose a determined attitude in the circumstances that she found herself in and she ultimately choose her own way.
It wasn’t God’s plan that the husbands of Ruth and Naomi die --- but by choosing a better way --- Ruth sets the stage for great things to come.
Through Ruth, Naomi’s steadfast companion, Naomi was “nourished in her old age” by her care for the baby son of Ruth and Boaz --- Obed.
While Naomi suffered the loss of her husband and sons,
She also potentially lost the security and meaning that family structure carried with it in her society.
Yet, because of grace --- Naomi found new joy and meaning in her relationship with Ruth and Ruth’s family.
I don’t know if you caught the end of the story --- Ruth and Boaz have a child by the name of Obed
Obed has a son named Jesse
Jesse has a son named David
As in King David
As in the family of Jesus
Ruth --- a foreign woman from a despised country becomes the great, great, great, great grandmother of Jesus.
Crazy things can happen --- if we look for the light instead of focusing on the darkness.
I don’t know what redemption can happen from the tragedy of Dayshawn Bills’ being shot in the head and killed while playing video games in his grandmothers living room.
Maybe he will be the tipping point?
and we will understand that we need sensible gun laws.
that systemic poverty tends to lead to violence, and we will work to change our societies values.
maybe we will see Dayshawn as our child, our brother --- and care.
I know that the worst tragedies of my life --- in hindsight --- were some of my greatest opportunities for growth.
I would never want to put anyone through the loss of a child --- or sibling.
But I stand here today because God lead me through that wilderness.
.
How can you reframe your focus when you are in those dark places in your life --- So that you can see God’s light shining on a path forward?
I know it doesn’t take away the pain --- but for me --- it can make it redemptive.
Naomi’s life, in the height of darkness and bitterness, took a major turn because Ruth walked alongside her and supported her.
Stop and reflect for a moment on someone who has journeyed with you in a difficult time --- can you picture them?
So many of you, and other friends have reached out to me this past week after I shared about my father’s challenges. And I thank you!
Take some time this week and reach out to those who have been there for you and thank them for being a light in the midst of your dark moments in life.
But one more question:
Who is God inviting you to be a “Ruth” to?
Who can you walk alongside and offer support?
Take some time and offer a life-line to someone who is struggling.
David --- Ruth’s grandson --- at the death of his son Absalom, wrote one of the most beautiful and beloved Psalm of all time.
These are words of redemption for each of us --- and a reminder that we NEVER walk alone.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Walk with someone or allow someone to walk with you. Amen.
-------------
Benediction
May the road rise up to meet you
May you always feel the wind at your back
May the sun shine warmly upon your face
May the rain fall gently on your fields
And until we gather together again
May you know that you are safe
In the gentle loving arms of God.
Go and be Ruth to someone in need!
Amen.
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