Sermon for HCBC (7 June 2020). To listen use the audio player below or click here. Also available on your favorite podcast app (“Hunting Creek Baptist Church”).
Introduction
One of the more difficult tasks of pastoring is sitting with people who have been dealt horrible hands in life. They’ve lost spouses and children. Their entire world has crashed down around them. These moments are gut-wrenching, and there’s no quote or word of wisdom to take away such pain.
And it’s so easy to get cynical isn’t it? It’s easy to look at our world and say, “Well it’s all going to come burning down.” Or, we sing songs like “I’ll Fly Away,” which should be rejected on a number of theological grounds but one of the reasons is that such a perspective blinds us to God’s incredible grace in our world. It blinds us to the glory of the gospel, which is God reconciling all things to himself through Christ.
Grief
Look at all the grief in Ruth 1. Verse 1: “In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land.” The days of the judges are not exactly the best days. The key line that is repeated throughout the book of Judges is: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” It was basically the Wild West, and when we read the book, we read some absolutely horrendous stories. In fact, many interpreters suggest that Ruth should be read against the final two stories in Judges.
Then there’s the famine. We don’t really know anything about famines in our context, though they are still a reality around the world. Can you imagine being so starved that you felt grateful to pick up a half-rotten ear of corn?
So that’s the setting but notice what happens next. Because of the famine a man takes his family away from Bethlehem. Now there is great irony here. Bethlehem means “the house of bread.” He takes his family to the country of Moab. His name is Elimelech. He has a wife named Naomi. And they have two sons Mahlon and Chilion. The names are significant. Elimelech means “my God is king.” The whole book of Ruth is a reminder that God is in control. Naomi means “pleasant.” We will say more about that in a moment.
But grief strikes again. Verse 3: “But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.” Notice how the author highlights Naomi’s grief by calling Elimelech “the husband of Naomi.”
Her two sons marry two Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth. But after ten years, grief strikes again. Verse 5: “And both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman (i.e. Naomi) was left without her two sons and her husband.” This is heartbreaking isn’t it?
Life is full of grief. Living inevitably involves grief. There are so many losses. Death is such an unwelcome guest. There are fractured relationships—people we never speak to again. There are sudden tragedies and broken hearts and sleepless nights and aching bodies and scary thoughts. Can we all just take a breath and say, “Life is hard”?
The word Ruth 1 uses is “bitter.” Notice what Naomi says at the end of v. 13: “It is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.” And these three ladies lifted their voices and wept. Two times we read those words. Then there’s v. 20. Ruth and Naomi return to Bethlehem after the famine has ended. Look what she says to these people who know her: “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.” Mara is the Hebrew word for bitter. Don’t call me pleasant. Call me bitter because my life is bitter.
Grace
What do we do with this? Do we throw our hands up in despair? Do we pull the covers over our heads? Maybe at first. There’s nothing wrong with taking some time for lament. As we’ve seen over our series in the last few months, Scripture instructs us to do this. Lament is necessary and healing. J. K. Rowling has a great line when she speaks of “a stricken lament of terrible beauty.” Our tears are important. Our anguish is meaningful. The Psalms and the book of Lamentations illustrate that fact.
But when the tears begin to dry, we must look through tear-blurred eyes for the subtle ways of God’s grace. Here we have Ruth 1 that is so full of grief but is also so full of God’s grace. We might say the same about our world. Here we have a world that is so full of grief but is also so full of God’s grace. It’s only a matter of paying attention.
Notice v. 6. Yes, there’s a famine, but there is also a gracious God who is in control. Verse 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.” So we have God’s sovereignty, and we also have the gracious relief of returning home.
And God’s grace comes in unexpected ways. Verses 8–9: “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. The LORD grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.” Naomi has received some measure of comfort from her daughters-in-law. That’s why she says, “May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.”
Then there’s this key moment in v. 14 after Naomi has instructed her daughters-in-law to return to their families and find a new life. Verse 14: “Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.” But Ruth clung to her. Ruth would not leave Naomi.
And that brings us to what is really the heart of this chapter in vv. 15–18.
And [Naomi] said, ‘See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’ 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. 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.’ And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.
Look how God’s grace shows up for the grieving Naomi. Ruth abandons all to stay with Naomi. Ruth gives up on her dreams and binds herself to Naomi.
Mission and Grace
One more piece of God’s grace is seen in this passage. Moab is mentioned seven times in this chapter. Ruth is identified as a Moabite in both vv. 4 and 22. A Moabite is a foreigner. They are not from Israel. They are Gentiles. They are not part of the covenant people. The LORD made a covenant with Israel. But notice that God’s amazing grace cuts across ethnic and national lines. When Ruth says, “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God,” she’s setting off a theological explosion. A Moabite becomes part of the covenant people—part of God’s people. This is clear when she invokes the name of the LORD in v. 17—remember all caps means the underlying Hebrew is YHWH.
This is remarkable. God does not bind himself only to a specific people or nation. He calls Israel so that he might bring all people to himself. This was his plan all along. That’s why he tells Abraham all the way back in Genesis 12 that I will make you a blessing to all the families of the earth. God is on a mission to reconcile the world to himself, and the book of Ruth shows us that that happens in unexpected ways. That is how God’s grace works. It works in unexpected ways. Marilynne Robinson writes “The grace of God works as it will, even gradually, patiently, quietly.”
Opening Our Eyes to Grace
In a world of grief, we must continue to look for God’s subtle movements of grace. What would it look like for us to believe that God’s grace is powerful and present in our world in spite of what we see on the news? To take a line from St. Paul, what would it look like for us to believe that where sin abounds, grace abounds more?
It seems imperative for Christians to look for truth, goodness, beauty, wholeness, and bring it forward every chance we get. Think of the beauty of the cross. On the surface, it’s full of shame and horror, but when we have eyes to see, we can see God drawing the world to himself. Consider your life for a moment. Can you identify God’s subtle grace? Maybe you see it in this moment. Perhaps when your child laughs. Some of you take pictures of sunsets and flowers. The whole world is a theater of God’s glory.
Conclusion
I think I’ll ruin one of my favorite novels for you now (if you haven’t read it). Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead tells the story of a dying minister who has one final interaction with his best friend’s wayward son. These two men share a name. The minister is John Ames and the prodigal is John Ames Boughton, known as Jack throughout. The whole novel explores how God’s grace can show up in the most unlikely places, but it’s the final scene that is so powerful. Following a confession from the prodigal Jack to the terminal pastor, they walk to a train station. When they arrive, the minister John Ames says, “Jack, what I’d really like to do is bless you.” Jack accepts, and John places his hands on Jack’s head, saying, “Lord, bless John Ames Boughton, this beloved son and brother and husband and father.” It’s a beautiful moment of grace in the most unlikely place. Later, this dying minister reflects on that moment, saying, “I’d have gone through seminary and ordination and all the years intervening for that one moment.” Think about the unlikely places in your life—the places of tension and pain and sorrow and guilt. Can you find God’s grace there?
May we keep our eyes open for God’s grace in this world. May we not become so jaded by the suffering, pain, and fear that we miss these marvelous moments of mesmerizing grace. Keeping alert for God’s grace in this world, and then uncovering it, that is what we must do. We must do it for God’s glory. We must do it because it’s the gospel. In this bitter world, God is reconciling all things to himself through Christ.