JUST AN ORDINARY MOM Ruth 4:13-17

Transcription

1 JUST AN ORDINARY MOM Ruth 4:13-17 I invite you to open your Bible this morning to Ruth 4: Ruth was an ordinary woman whose story God saw fit to include in the Bible. Ruth sort of floats into the Bible like a feather, with the faintest scent of a dainty perfume. But the Bible does have a number of strong women who sort of elbow their way into the pages of the Scripture. Women like Eve who decided the serpent, aka the devil, made sense enough that she took the one prohibited fruit in the Garden of Eden and ate of it while her husband looked over her shoulder. She gave him the fruit. He ate of it too. And humanity and the world are still reeling from that single act of disobedience in the Garden. A strong, if misguided, woman. Women like Rebekah who birthed Isaac s twin boys, Jacob and Esau. She played favorites with her mama s boy Jacob. She conspired against her husband and her son Esau to get a blind old Isaac to give Jacob the blessing Esau deserved. A strong woman for sure, working to bring about the vision God gave her concerning her son Jacob even if it took a little conniving and dishonesty to get it done. There s Rahab, the Gentile Madam of Jericho, who had to courage to risk her life to help Israel s spies as they were preparing to conquer the Promised Land. So strong and prominent was this woman that she ends up in Matthew s genealogy of Jesus and James cites her as an example of faith that works. There s Deborah, the only female judge of Israel a woman so strong and respected that Barak wouldn t lead the army against the Canaanites unless Deborah was with him. There s Jezebel, pagan queen of King Ahab of Israel. She provided for false prophets and had the nerve to threaten to murder Israel s greatest prophet, Elijah. There s Mary in the New Testament, handpicked by God to be the mother of Jesus a woman of great faith and courage still revered today.

2 There s Priscilla who, along with her husband Aquila, helped Paul plant the church in Corinth. Apparently, a good teacher, she discipled Apollos who became a leader in the early church. Priscilla was such a strong woman that whenever she and her husband are mentioned in Acts, her name is always first. Even in a male-dominated culture and a male-dominated Bible, we find some strong, difference-making women in the story women widely known for their exploits whether for good or, in Jezebel s case, for evil. These were rather extraordinary women. I And then there s Ruth ordinary Ruth. And her story is dropped like a breadcrumb of grace between the books of Judges and Samuel. Nothing special about Ruth on the surface. She was a foreigner, a Moabite girl who married an Israelite young man whose family had fled Bethlehem for Moab in hopes of finding food in a famine. Sad story too. Elimelech and his wife Naomi packed up their meager belongings and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, and headed east to Moab. Elimelech died not long after they arrived in Moab. The boys took Moabite wives, and not long after, the boys died too. Naomi decided to head back to Bethlehem and her extended family. We want to come with you, said her widowed daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth. Forget it, said Naomi. You think I can have two more sons for you to marry? Besides, God s hand is obviously against me. You stay with your people. I m going back to mine. Orpah kissed Naomi and went home. Ruth clung to Naomi and said, Don t ask 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 will be my people, and your God my God. So Ruth went to Bethlehem with Naomi. Being a couple of poor widow-women, they had to scrape for every scrap they could find. So Ruth went out into the fields of a relative to follow after the reapers and gather up any sheaves they left behind. That s how they got food on their table. But Boaz, the owner of the field, took notice of Ruth. Perhaps she was a pretty young thing, or maybe she had a mysterious air about her. But Boaz noticed her, and he made sure she was protected and got plenty of leftover produce from the fields.

3 Ruth told Naomi what was going on. Naomi put two and two together and figured Boaz had more interest in Ruth than just being her grocer. She gave Ruth some instructions concerning Boaz. Ruth followed them. Boaz, their kinsman-redeemer, took the steps he had to take to get the rights to marry Ruth. Do you? the priest asked Boaz. I do, he said. Do you? the priest asked Ruth. I do, she said. And they were hitched. It was something of a May-December marriage, but December still had enough virility to help May get pregnant. Naomi gave God glory and enjoyed Ruth s son, her grandson, a bouncing baby boy named Obed. It s a nice story. But why did God see fit to include this homey, ordinary story about an ordinary woman a Gentile woman, no less named Ruth? Our text tells us why. Hear the word of the Lord (read the text). So Ruth s claim to fame is not so much that she is ordinary Ruth but that she is the great-grandmother of extraordinary David. If you didn t know the Bible story and started reading in Genesis, the name David wouldn t mean anything to you at this point. In Ruth s day, Israel had no king. And even when Israel gets her first king, his name is Saul not David. So in literary terms, this is called fore-shadowing. When you re reading the story and you meet David in the next book, 1 Samuel, you ll think, Where did I read that name? Then you ll thumb back to Ruth 4 and find his name here. Ruth is a nice little book. It s a wonderful story. In Boaz s redemption of Ruth, we see an image of God s redemption of our lives which comes not from our own doing but from God s work in Jesus. And we also see a picture of God s missionary love which wraps His arms around the Gentile Ruth and folds her into His larger story. But on this Mother s Day, let s notice something else in this story let s notice the importance of being an ordinary mom. II Ruth had nothing to commend her as being anything other than ordinary. There were plenty of women just like her. Nothing uncommon about young widows in that day. Life was hard. Medical care was scarce. Young men and women died. Ruth became a young widow. Not that unusual.

4 Ruth took care of her mother-in-law. Again, not that unusual. Daughters often took care of aging parents. Still do today. Ruth was not born of privilege. The spoon in her mouth was made of wood not gold. She didn t have to worry about 401ks and investments and where to travel for her next exotic vacation. She didn t have to rent a storage unit to keep all her excess stuff. Like most everybody else in her day, she got by. She had to work hard in the field every day, but she got by and was able to scrape up enough grain for her mother-in-law too. It wasn t easy. It was work and sweat and labor just to get food on the table. Even though Jesus had yet to teach us the prayer, Give us this day our daily bread, I suspect that was Ruth s prayer each day. Her life was a common life. And we don t have any idea whether she was a beautiful woman or rather plain, whether she was thin or chubby, whether she was Miss Moab or the last place finisher in a regional pageant. The Bible doesn t say. It s probably safe to say that Boaz found her attractive. The day he first laid eyes on her, he certainly noticed her among the other young women who were gleaning behind his harvesters in the field. But the Bible doesn t comment on her looks. She likely looked like most every other young woman from Moab. She was ordinary. It s okay to be ordinary. God uses ordinary people all the time a shepherd who becomes a king, a farmer who becomes a prophet, a peasant girl who becomes the mother of God s only Son Jesus, a fisherman who becomes the leader of the early church, a Moabite woman who becomes greatgrandmother to a king and gets a shout-out in Matthew s genealogy of Jesus. It s okay to be ordinary. There s no shame in it. It s what most of us are. Obviously God likes ordinary or He wouldn t have made so many of us. It s okay to be ordinary. That goes for moms too. You don t have to be the star mom among your peers. You don t have to be the envy of the mothers of your children s friends. You don t have to be perfect. What s more ordinary than being tired now and then, losing your patience with your kids now and then, wanting to occasionally throw up your hands and run for your life? I read about a mom who worked hard to strip and wax her kitchen floor. She had it shining like the July sun. Her husband appreciated her hard work, pointed it out to the kids, and made an announcement: If anyone spills anything on this floor, you must immediately clean it up and go spend an hour alone in your room. No

5 sooner were the words out of his mouth, than mom dumped her tea on the floor, cleaned it up, and went to her room for an hour alone. Smart mom. It s okay to be an ordinary mom. III Ordinary moms need God. Ruth recognized her need for God. She grew up with the chief Moabite god Chemosh an often angry god with a taste for blood which required occasional human sacrifice. While this was not all that uncommon among the gods of people groups throughout this region, this is the kind of god Ruth s people worshiped. But somewhere along the line of living with Naomi and her family and of hearing of the one true God of Israel that they worshiped, Ruth was converted. Enough so anyway, that she could say to Naomi, your God will be my God. Ordinary moms need God. They need the one true God that we know through Jesus Christ. They don t need a god who requires human sacrifice. They need the God who sacrificed His Son for us so that our sins could be forgiven and we could have real life. This is the God ordinary mothers need. They don t need the god of sports. They don t need the god of money and things. They don t need the god of self. They don t need the ever-changing gods of pop culture. Those gods require a mother to sacrifice her kids on any number of unholy and unworthy altars. Ordinary mothers need the one true God. If they don t have the one true God, they have nothing of lasting value to pass along to their children. Rather than giving them a God they can lean on, a God who can save them and transform them, a God who has a purpose for their lives and can help them find it and live it, a God who can forgive their sins and give them eternal life, a God who can teach them what to value and how to live, a God who can give them strength and peace in this maddening, evil world rather than giving their kids the one true God, they are just giving their kids smoke a wispy, unsubstantial, nothing that will them confused, untethered to anything dependable, and never be there for them when they need God most. Ordinary moms need God. And it s not enough to mouth it, moms have to live it. Kids need to see God alive and vibrant in their mother s life. They need to see mom walk with God and talk with God. They don t need to hear of their mother s God as if he was just some old friend from high school, some

6 relic from the past, some picture in a yearbook, but rather the ever-present, always faithful, very much alive God in her day to day life. Thomas Carlisle once wrote, I tried to get away from the Christian faith, but my mother s life was too much for me. Mom, I hope your kids feel the same way. Ordinary moms need God. IV Because ordinary moms might be raising extraordinary children. Push! says the doctor. So you push and your baby is born. And when the doc cuts the umbilical cord and the nurse lays that newborn on your breast, you don t know what you have in your arms. There s a legend out of Hodgenville, Kentucky, that on February 12, 1809, someone asked at the general store, Anything going on around Hodgenville today? Not much, said the store-keeper, but I did hear that Tom and Nancy Lincoln had a baby boy. They re going to call him Abraham, I think. But you know how it is: nothing important ever happens in Hodgenville. Did Nancy Lincoln have clue one she was holding in her arms the 16 th President of the United States, the man that would one day help save the union? Did Lottie Moon s mom think for a second when she was nursing her little girl that she would one day be a missionary to China who would die of starvation so Chinese children could eat, a woman for whom a mission offering would be named that has raised billions of dollars for missionary work around the world? Did Ruth imagine that the baby she held in her arms would be the grandfather of the greatest king in the history of Israel, not to mention that this would make her the grandmother many times removed from the King of kings in the universe? I think it s safe to say, No, she did not. A Moabite immigrant, a Gentile proselyte, a nobody from nowhere, an ordinary, nothing special, no frills, everyday woman of her generation became a grandmother to King David and King Jesus. And it all started with a little boy named Obed. Never discount the ordinary mom. She might be raising extraordinary children. Moms, you might be raising a missionary, a research scientist who finds the cure for cancer, a school teacher who influences thousands of kids for good and for God, an inventor who comes up with a widget that makes life

7 better for others, a wise businessman who leverages his success for the kingdom of God, a doctor who helps people, a waitress who becomes known and loved by all her patrons because of the light she shines in their lives, a civic-minded citizen who makes his community a better place, a pastor who spends his or her life pointing people to Jesus, and better yet, you just may be raising another ordinary mom. The work can be trying and exhausting. You may not get much applause for all you do. But take heart! You may be an ordinary mom, but you may be raising an extraordinary child. So pour into that child the best you ve got. Pour in God, pour in faith, pour in church, pour in love and hope and humility and servanthood and all the values that look like Jesus. Mom, you don t know what you may be raising. V God bless ordinary moms all over the world! Christian professor, author and preacher Tony Campolo says that his wife Peggy is a brilliant woman. She has a Ph.D. and is capable of pursuing a very profitable career. But she elected to stay home with her children when they were young. Her decision didn t bother her at all except when other women would ask, What do you do? She would answer, I m a homemaker. I stay home and take care of my children and my husband. They would usually respond with, Oh, and then ignore her from then on. So Peggy Campolo came up with this response when she was asked what she did: "I am socializing two homo sapiens into the dominant values of the Judeo-Christian tradition in order that they might be instruments for the transformation of the social order into the kind of eschatological utopia that God willed from the beginning of creation." Then Peggy would ask the other person, "And what do you do, dear?" All of a sudden being a doctor or a lawyer or a CEO didn t sound so impressive after all. Those things are well and good. But there s no higher calling, nothing any more sacred in God s eyes and God s order than to be an ordinary mom. Mom, embrace your role. Cherish it. Enjoy it. Recognize its value. Raise your children to know and love the Lord. And even if the Obed you hold in your

8 arms doesn t seem all that extraordinary to you, he just might be a forerunner to a David. Preached: May 10, 2015 First Baptist Church, Hot Springs, AR John Scott McCallum II