Ruth 2 Rev. Bruce Stanley 17 th September 2017

Transcription

1 Ruth 2 Rev. Bruce Stanley 17 th September 2017 Work in the fields My first job was in a shoe shop. I was 16 years old. And it was horrible. What sort of shoe would you like? What colour would you like? Let me see if we have that in your size. I ll just lace this up for you. I lasted 3 days. As a 16 year old, I had enough trouble bothering to do up my own shoelaces without doing up someone else s. When you read chapter 2 of Ruth, you could think that is a bit of a nice love story. Ruth has arrived in Judah with her mother in law. They re finally home and Ruth goes out to get a job, meets a man and it s all very nice. But it s actually a pretty desperate situation. Ruth goes out to glean the fields so she and Naomi can survive. Israel had laws to look after foreigners and the poor. Leviticus 19:9-10 says: 9 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. 10Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. So this is what Ruth was doing she was looking for the leftovers in the harvest field. This was not a way to survive. If you worked the whole day, you d be lucky to find enough food just to survive that day. And Ruth had Naomi to look after as well. These were desperate times. On top of that, the fields were not a very safe place to work, especially for young women. She s like a homeless beggar living on the streets, hoping to find enough scraps to live on. This is the worst of times for Ruth and Naomi. They ve come back to harvest time, but they will still be struggling to survive. And then we hear this phrase in verse 3: As it turned out 3 As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek. As it turned out. What are the chances! The first field she goes to belongs to a member of her dead husband s family! She doesn t know this yet, of course. But now we re expecting something to happen. Boaz arrives in the fields. The Lord be with you! he says. The Lord bless you, the harvesters answer. 1

2 Imagine getting that greeting at work every day! What s the usual greeting? Hey Hey. How was your weekend? Yeh, alright. Yours? Not bad. Boaz arrives with The Lord be with you! God is here! God is in this field. This is a good sign. And then the romance begins. Boaz asks the guy overseeing his fields: Who does that young woman belong to? 6The overseer replied, She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. Ruth has captured his attention. And we learn a little bit more about Ruth. She doesn t just wander in to glean. She walks up to the harvesters and says: Let me glean among the sheaves behind the harvesters! That s pretty bold! She doesn t want the edges of the field. She wants to get right in there! She was bold. But she was desperate! She has to survive. And how does Boaz respond to her in verse 9? He says to her: Go for it! Harvest behind the women. I ve told the men to leave you alone. Help yourself to water whenever you need it. You see, the Israelites had laws to make sure they looked after the poor and the foreigners. But Boaz was much more generous than that. He wasn t just following the law like some people would. He was going beyond the law. He was following the heart of the law, not the letter of the law. He had the heart of God. The compassion of God. He didn t want to just provide something for Ruth. He wanted to provide abundantly for her. She wanted to make sure ALL her needs were met. Ruth says: Why are you being so generous to me? And Boaz says: Because I know who you are and what you ve done for Naomi. And I know your situation. Ruth had impressed Boaz. Listen to what he says to her in verse 12: 12May 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. Boaz recognises that Ruth has come under the shelter of God. And Boaz sees himself as God s agent. A poor refugee walks into his field. And he knows God loves the poor refugee. The same way God loved Israel when they were poor refugees coming out of Egypt. He looked after them. So Boaz does what God would do himself. He provides in abundance. 2

3 Ruth says thank you. And Boaz invites her to dinner. The romance continues! He invites her to sit with his workers. She eats all she wants and has some left over. Probably the first full meal she s had for a very long time! And then Boaz continues in his generosity verse 15 15As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, Let her gather among the sheaves and don t reprimand her. 16Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don t rebuke her. He tells his workers to even drop some extra stalks for her! 17So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. She picked up an ephah of barley! An ephah was equivalent to a small bath enough to hold a person. Some say about 40 litres. That s equivalent to about 3 weeks wages. Illustration that s about this much! Boaz provides more than the law requires. He s not fulfilling the measure of the law but the heart of the law. God gave them this law because God cares for the refugee and the poor. The law wasn t an obligation. It was a sign of love. How often do we have this generous heart for people? And how often do we follow the letter of the law? How often do we go above and beyond? And how often do we do just what is required When I was in high school, I hated homework. I did what was required. The worst thing was when the teacher forgot to give you homework, and then some kid calls out Sir! You forgot to give us homework! Sometimes we only want to do what is absolutely required. We re fulfilling God s laws and not God s heart. But our God is not a God of requirement. He is a God of abundance. Not abundance in the way we might think of it not abundance of worldly wealth. But an abundance of care. Sometimes that comes across in worldly measure like a ephah of barley. But what we see from God is what we see here from Boaz an 3

4 abundance of care. He goes above and beyond to protect her. To make sure she is safe. He has God s heart of love, and care, and abundance. And so Ruth goes home with her doggie bag from dinner, and an Ephah of barley. Imagine carrying that! 40litres of grain! Naomi is elated! All this barley and some takeaway! No cooking tonight! Verse 19: 19Her mother-in-law asked her, Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you! The words come rushing out of her mouth. She was hoping Ruth would glean enough to scrape together one meal. But this is HUGE! Then Naomi finds out the man caring for Ruth is Boaz. And she says in verse 20: He is one of our guardian-redeemers! A guardian redeemer is someone in the family line who has the legal right, even obligation, to marry a widow and take over the estate of the dead husband and basically keep the family line going. He is someone who can redeem Ruth and Naomi he can provide for them. And again, Naomi realises God is almighty. He is in control. Verse 20: 20 The Lord bless him! Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead. He has not stopped showing his kindness There s that word again from last chapter. Kindness. Hesed. It means Covenant love God has again showed his covenant kindness and love. And this is the story of Ruth. We have a covenant God. He shows us covenant love. In other words, when he enters into a relationship with you, he will never forget you. He will never stop caring for you. Sometimes we may not understand his plans. But we can always know that he is there. God does not break his covenant of love. And when he says he will provide for us, he will. Abundantly. Not always when or how we expect. But he will provide what we need. God wants us to see and know his heart of love and care. But he also wants us to reflect his love and kindness. Not by following his laws, but by following his heart. Prayer. Lord, thank you for your kindness to us in sending Jesus to die for us n the cross. Thank you for meeting our deepest need of forgiveness. And Lord, we also pray that you would help us to follow your heart of love and kindness. Amen. 4

5 Sermon outline God of opportunity? do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest... Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. Leviticus 19:9-10 God of Refuge 12May 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. God of generosity 17So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. God of abundance But our God is not a God of requirement. He is a God of abundance. God of Hesed Covenant love 5