BOOK OF RUTH WEEK Four ACT III Continued, 3:10 People have suffered often and almost always have this sense of calling. When people lose a child, say, they don t say, Well, I had two years where I had low pleasure. I should compensate by going to a lot of parties so I can get high pleasure and balance off my hedonic account. * They do not say that. They want to turn the suffering into holiness, so they create a foundation. Or they transform their lives. People don t heal from suffering. They come out changed. So it s the same u-shaped curve. David Brooks We live in a time when everyone s goal is to be perpetually healthy and constantly happy If any one of us fails to live up to the standards that are advertised as normative, we are labeled as a problem to be solved, and a host of well-intentioned people rush to try out various cures on us The gospel offers a different view of suffering: in suffering we enter the depths; we are at the heart of things; we are near to where Christ was on the cross. Eugene Peterson In a world of unbelievably able bodies, where new diets are fashioned every day to keep my brand of story away, it is hard to realize you may be living in the middle of the best story ever told. That the story of breast cancer could possibly be a good story? A great story even? It would be easier to shake my fist at the test results and scream that this isn t the right story, but to receive humbly receive the story no one would ever want, and know there is goodness in the midst of its horror, is not something I could ever do in my own strength. I simply cannot. That receiving comes from the One who received His own suffering for a much greater purpose than my own. Kara Tippetts in The Hardest Peace.
V. RIGHTLY ORDERED LOVE: 3:10-13 A. RUTH RIGHTLY ORDERS LOVE Ian and Larissa story - Ian and I had planned to get married as soon as we graduated from college in December of 2006. But instead, everything was halted with his brain injury, which he received on September 30 of that year in a car accident. And so instead of getting married when we were young and healthy and naive, we waited four years and got married when he was sick and disabled and we were still grieving. Marrying Ian meant that I was signing on to things that I donʼt think I ever wouldʼve chosen for myself working my whole life, having a husband who canʼt be left alone, managing his caregivers, remembering to get the oil changed, advocating for medical care, balancing checkbooks, and on. The practical costs felt huge, and those didnʼt even touch on the emotional and spiritual battles that I would face. The judge who approved our marriage license said, You two exemplify what love is all about. I believe that marriage will not only benefit you both but our community, and hope that everyone in this city could see your love for one another.
B. BOAZ RIGHTLY ORDERING LOVE Verse 12-13. Another redeemer has first rights a twist
We know that a good thing has become a counterfeit god when its demand on you exceed proper boundaries An Idolatrous attachment can lead you to break any promise, rationalize any indiscretion, or betray any other allegiance, in order to hold on to it. It may drive you to violate all good and proper boundaries. Tim Keller When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased. C. S. Lewis VI. THE DETERMINATION OF REDEMPTIVE LOVE: Ruth 3:14-15 THE GRAIN Q. Why does Boaz give her grain? Ruth 3:16-18: Boaz told Ruth, you must not go empty-handed to your mother-in-law. Seed as a Symbol of Life.
ACT IV I. WISDOM IN THE PURSUIT OF LOVE Read chapter 4 Ruth 4:1-6 And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. What is the narrator communicating with the words and behold? Mr. So-and-So Boaz s Brilliance Q. Why does Boaz not tell the man about Ruth? Q. Was Boaz dishonest by not telling him about Ruth?