THE STORY WEEK 9 The Faith Of A Foreign Woman

THE STORY WEEK 9

The Faith Of A Foreign Woman

1. Do you believe in coincidences? It would appear that there are a number in the short book of Ruth.

                                                               i.      Let’s start in Chapter 1 verse 1  Do you suppose it is a coincidence that when the people started worshipping idols, there was a famine in the land. It isn’t the first time God has used famine to move people is it? Remember Joseph?

                                                             ii.      Do you suppose it was a random coincidence that Elemelech and his wife and two sons went to Moab. You have to understand that Israel and Moab were long standing enemies. There was no love lost either direction. Of all the places they could have gone they “happened” to go to Moab.  

                                                            iii.      Do you suppose it is a coincidence that a daughter-in-law named Ruth is too stubborn to do what she is told, and she insists on coming with Naomi to Bethlehem.

                                                          iv.      Do you think it is a coincidence that Ruth and Naomi just so “happen” to arrive in Bethlehem during harvest time so they can glean. That’s just the first chapter. Are you beginning to see a pattern?

                                                             v.      In chapter 2 the Bible says “As it turned out” they were gleaning in Boaz’s field.  Do you really believe that was a coincidence?

                                                          vi.      Or in verse 4 when the Bible says simply “Just then Boaz arrived.”  As though it was a totally random conincidence.  Do you believe that?

                                                        vii.       Even more amazing is verse 20 when we discover that just so happens to be a relative, what they call a Kinsman Redeemer. A kinsman redeemer is a man who would buy a close relative back from trouble. It might be debt, or jail, or slavery, or in this case poverty.  

                                                        viii.      Do you suppose it is just a coincidence that the other Kinsman redeemer cannot fulfill his responsibility so Boaz and Ruth can marry?

2. Does that all sound like a coincidence to you? It doesn’t sound right to me.

                                                               i.      It sounds more like a “God incidence.”

                                                             ii.      It has been said that a coincidence is when God chooses to work anonymously. That seems about right to me in this case.

3. The first lesson we have to learn from Ruth, is that in the Bible there are no coincidences. And  our lower story is never just a lower story.

                                                               i.      Ruth’s lower story is not just the lower story.

1.      Those aren’t coincidences. Those are places where God is working anonymously to bring salvation to his people.

2.      They might seem like random events, but they are not random at all  They are God working out the details of how our lower story can become more like God’s upper story.

3.      Like the magnet drawing the nuts across that sheet of plastic, God’s will and God’s upper story invisibly move and shape our lower stories, drawing us closer and closer to God’s upper story. Sometimes the lower and upper stories touch and we glimpse a vision of paradise.  Many times we have a long ways to go.

4.      Or you can compare it to molding clay, Naomi and Elemilech, Ruth and Boaz are being shaped and formed in just the image God has chosen for them.

5.      God’s upper story hand is working on them, in them, through them, and in spite of them,  to realize the upper story.

                                                             ii.      Your lower story is never just a lower story either. 

1.      As we move through life, work, school, family, church, and neighbors God‘s upper story is at work in the ordinary circumstances of our lives.

2.      You don’t see it?  Slow down and look for God’s finger prints on you and the people and events around you. What would happen if your favorite detective (Mine happens to be the NCIS crew)  moved through a crime scene with the same reckless abandon with which  we live our lives? They’d miss important evidence wouldn’t they.  Instead they go in slowly and carefully, picking up every fiber, every fingerprint, every sign that might tell them something about what happened there.

3.      That’s the way we should live always looking, always studying to see if we can see God’s fingerprints on our lives.  Always searching for the smallest clue that God has been here.  I guarantee if you slow down and look more carefully you will see God working in all the ordinary circumstances of your life.  And many of the coincidences will turn out to be  God incidences. 

4.      If we slow down and watch for God we will realize that our lower story is never just a lower story.

2. Which brings us to the other lesson for today.  No one is excluded from God’s upper story.
1. We have been reading about God’s command to stay away from foreign Gods. Stay away from other nations.  Don’t mary foreign wives. Don’t have anything to do with THOSE PEOPLE. 
2. But what does God do in Ruth?

                                                               i.      God chooses to use a family who lived in a foreign nation.

                                                             ii.      Their sons married foreign women.

                                                            iii.      An d It is through one of those Moabite widows that God decides to work. 

3. Surely, you might think, God wouldn’t work through this foreigner, but you would be wrong.  You forget that God has a habit of choosing to work through the least likely person in the picture. In this case that would be a poor, immigrant, widow named Ruth.

                                                               i.      How would it feel to be a young widow walking into a foreign land, worshipping a new God, learning new customs and a new language, knowing that your looks immediately give you away as a foreigner who has no human or civil rights, no job, and no one you can ask for help. 

                                                             ii.      That is exactly how Ruth felt when she entered Bethlehem.  At least that was her lower story.  But is the lower story the end of the story?  NO.

                                                            iii.      It is not the end of the story because

1.      even this foreign woman has a place in God’s upper story. 

2.      Even this former pagan idol worshipper has a place in God’s upper story.

3.      Even this stranger with strange customs and a strange language have a place in God’s upper story.

4.      Even though she looked different and had no rights and no one to help her Ruth had a place in God’s upper story. She would Mary Boaz one of the wealthiest men in Bethlehem. She would have a son to inherit her husband’s land and support her in her old age. She would turn out to be the great grandmother of the greatest King of Israel, and eventually she would play a key role in God’s upper story because from her family would come the messiah who would save all people.

3. You need to understand that these are not coincidences. These are God incidents.  They are examples of God’s upper story reaching into the lower story and

                                                               i.      including the excluded

                                                             ii.      accepting the unacceptable

                                                            iii.      using the unusable

                                                           iv.      loving the unlovable

2. Maybe you even feel like an outsider sometimes; Maybe you feel e

                                                               i.      excluded,

                                                             ii.      unacceptable,

                                                            iii.      unusable and

                                                           iv.      unlovable.  but you aren’t in God’s eyes.

4. In God’s eyes Ruth was not only acceptable and lovable. In God’s eyes Ruth was essential.
1. In God’s eyes the foreigner was the only person in the right position to save Israel.
2. In God’s eyes the powerless widow was the only one in the right position to be the great grandmother of the great giant slayer.
3. In God’s eyes the former pagan idol worshipper was the only person in exactly the right position to carry on Israel’s the hope for a savior.
4. In God’s eyes Ruth’s sordid lower story was exactly what was needed to move his upper story plan forward.
5. Let me give you the kicker. Boaz is Rahab’s boy.  Do you remember Rahab? She was the Jericho prostitute who hid Joshua’s spies from the  soldiers in our reading two weeks ago.
1. God in all his wisdom, paired up a pagan, foreign, impoverished, widow and the son of a pagan prostitute to bear a child who’s family line will include Israel’s greatest king and our lord and our king Jesus Christ.
2. Coincidence?  I don’t think so.
6. I think it goes to show.  No one is outside God’s upper story reach.  Not even me.  Not even you.  AMEN

  Good morning.  I have a question for you.  Do you think I can move these nuts around on this sheet of plastic without touching them or the plastic?  I think I can.

See? I told you I could do it.  Actually I didn’t do it. An invisible force called magnetism did it. We can’t see it, we can’t feel it, but we know magnetism exists don’t we?

What other things are invisible, but we know they are there.  Wind? Heat? 

What about love.  Your parents love you.  But can you see love?  Can you measure it? Can you point to it?  NO. You feel it and you know it is there.

What about God?  Can we see God? Measure God? Photograph God?  NO.  But we can feel God working in our lives helping us to be the best people we can be.

As you go this week I want you to watch for signs of God.  Watch for God working in your life.  Watch for God … or should I say watch for signs of what God is doing around you and in you.

Facing the obstacles 11/10/13

Chapter 7

It’s hard to read that scripture isn’t it?

Is is hard to hear it too.  Let’s see if we can understand why it is here.

600 years ago God made a promise to Abraham that his family would become a great nation and be given this land west of the Jordan.

In those 600 years, other people have moved into the Promised Land. They were called the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Perizites, the Hivites, the Jebsusites and others. They are wicked people. They worship other gods. They practice human sacrifice. They use sex as a means of worshipping their gods. They would sooner cut your head off than shake your hand. This is the way they are portrayed in the Bible. Because they are a wicked and sinful people God has judged them.  God’s judgment is that they will lose their land. 

Deuteronomy 9:4 (page 86 in THE STORY) says “4 After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. 5 It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on

account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

Did you hear that? God’s judgment on their wickedness and sin.  God will not stand such wickedness. You see, we might say it is not so much that God is fighting for the Israelites, as much as God is judging the wicked Amorites, and Perizites, and Hivites, and Jebsusites. God is not so much giving the land to the Israelites as he is using them to take it away from the sinful Canaanites.

Looking at it from the upper story, God still wants to live with his people. God still wants to do life with his people, but he cannot do that surrounded by sin.

The second reason for the war is very simple. God promised this land to the Israelites so the Canaanites have to go. War is the way that one people takes land from another people.

Looking at is from an upper story perspective this is an issue of God’s faithfulness. Does a faithful God make a promise and then say, “Sorry, someone else got it first, no land for you.” It is a matter of God being true to God’s word. It is a matter of fulfilling God’s promises.

This passage then, reflects two realities.

·        In the lower story, wicked people are living in the land that God promised to the Israelites.

·        From an upper story, God has to eliminate the sin in order to do life with his people.

We don’t have to like the violence. We don’t have to enjoy it. We don’t even have to understand it completely. We do have to accept that it is part of the Bible.  We do have to accept that even though we no longer experience God working through violence. That is the way God worked through those people in that time. It is part of our history and tradition and I think it is best understood as an act of judgment and an assurance that God’s promises are going to be fulfilled, no matter what.

Does that help you a little bit to understand the violence and bloodshed we see in the Bible? I do not know of a better way to explain it, but I do not want us to get hung up on it either.

Setting that aside, then, let’s focus on the rest of the story and see what it has to say to us.

The Israelites came to the promise land. Their spies told them that it is indeed a great land, but there is one problem. Someone already lives there. Not just anyone… they are giants. The spies felt like grasshoppers next to them. They are huge.

There is only one thing bigger than the people who already live in that land. That is the Israelites fear of them. Because of that fear, they spend 40 years wondering in the wilderness. Now a new generation comes to the border of the promised land. The Canaanites are no smaller, but the Israelites faith is a little stronger. Well, it must be a lot stronger because they don’t run away when Joshua tells them what is going to happen.

You have to imagine your response I told you this. “Folks, were going to cross that raging river over there without any boats or bridges. Once we get across, I want all the men to meet me in that big tent. Bring your knives and a band-aid. We have some minor surgery to perform. When we are all done there, we are going to all line up and parade around that huge walled city over there. They are waiting for us, but no one needs any weapons except for 7 trumpets. When I give the word, you will scream as loud as you can and the walls will come tumbling down-- I think. Are you with me?”

From the lower story perspective, this is crazy. It is like watching Wyle E. Coyote go after a gigantic roadrunner.

From an upper story perspective, it is essential.

Faced with such huge obstacles, God provides three things to make sure his plan is successful.

First God says be courageous.

Moses tells Joshua on page 87 of THE STORY. “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them.”

In the first chapter of Joshua God repeats it 4 times to Joshua. “Be strong and courageous.” // “Be strong and courageous.” // “Be strong and courageous.” // “Be strong and courageous.” which is followed in chapter 2 by the story of Rahab.

Rahab was a prostitute of the Canaanite city of Jericho. When the spies went to stay at her house, she hid them from the soldiers under the flax on the roof and sent the soldiers on a wild goose chase. She saves the lives of the spies and makes a deal to save her family. In the process, she had a revelation and believed in God. Her beautiful confession is recorded on page 90 of THE STORY. “FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD IS GOD IN HEAVEN ABOVE AND ON THE EARTH BELOW.”

What courage it took for a Canaanite to say that! What courage it took a prostitute to receive that revelation. Remember the temple prostitution is one of the things God has condemned. Rahab is one of the reasons for the judgment on the Canaanites.

 What faith it took for her to make that confession! She had such a courageous faith that Rahab is even mentioned in the books of Hebrews and James as an example of courageous faith.

Rahab’s faith becomes a model for the courageous faith for the Israelites and us. The first key to facing insurmountable obstacles is to have a courageous faith.

Courageous faith is the first key to facing obstacles. The second is an obedient faith.

On page 89 of the story, God tells Joshua, “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. _{(Joshua 1:6-8)} Be strong, be courageous, and be obedient. Obey the law. God says you know what is right, so do it.

Achan becomes the example of failing to be obedient.

Achan was one of the soldiers of Israel when Israel was routed by the Army of A’i.

It was a humiliating defeat. They only sent three thousand men because A’i was not that well guarded. They were beaten and chased, running like little girls from the city. What happened? Well, the Lord was not with them that day because someone had disobeyed during the battle of Jericho.

God said that everything they found in Jericho was to be devoted to him. All the plunder was to be either given as a burnt offering to him, or given to his treasury. Achan saw a beautiful robe, 4 pounds of silver and 1 pound of gold. Achan took it and buried it in his tent. He violated God’s order that everything be devoted to him. He broke the 10^th commandment and coveted. Then he broke the 8^th commandment and stole from God.

When the army went out to A’I,  therefore, the sinner went with them and God didn’t. Remember God cannot stand sin. God let them be defeated in order to teach them that they have to be obedient.

An obedient faith is the second requirement for facing obstacles.

A courageous faith, an obedient faith, and staying close to God.

We have to remember why God gave the law.  In the upper story God gave the law so that people would get along with each other in community, and it would be the kind of community where God could live with his people. The whole goal of the law was so that God could live among the people. The whole goal of the saw was so that God could say, “I AM WITH YOU. “

That same passage we have been citing in full reads like this, God says, “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Wherever you go! Isn’t that t great promise?

Go into the wilderness He is there.

Go into the Jordan, He is there.

Go into battle, He is there.

Go into the promised land, he is there.

Have a courageous faith, have an obedient faith, and stay close to God. Those were Joshua’s instructions. Now listen to the outcome.

“So Joshua took the entire land, just as the Lord had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war.” _{Joshua 11:23}

And the land had a rest from war! How good does that sound. The land had a rest from war. We could use a rest too couldn’t we?

We could use a rest from the giants of a lousy economy.

We could use a rest from the giants of a corrupt and inept federal government.

We could use a rest from the giants of personal setbacks

We could use a rest from the giants of conflict with family and at work.

We could use a rest from the giants of the consequences of our own bad decisions.

We could use a rest from the giants of addiction, and depression, and pain.

We could use a rest from the giants of parenting and life choices

We could use a rest from the giants of disappointment and discouragement.

We could use a rest from all of the obstacles of our lives.

We can find that rest in God.

We can find that rest in a courageous faith.

We can find that rest in an obedient faith

We can find that rest knowing that God is with us.

We find that rest in God.

We find that peace in God.

We find that hope in God.

Be brave, be obedient and may God be with you. AMEN.

THE STORY #6 CHOSE A PATH

THE STORY #6

CHOSE A PATH

Road trips. Like Randy Frazee, we all have our memories of trips. My memories of childhood trips and my children’s childhood trips is not that much different from Randy’s and that is probably true for many of you.

Even though our memories are similar, our roles were all different. My brother’s role was to do something. Just a little something that at first didn’t bother me, and in truth didn’t hurt anything at all, like scoot over just t little bit in the seat. My job was to  ignore it as long as I could until whatever he was doing just drove me to explode for what I am sure seemed to my parents  like no reason at all.

My kids had different roles too. Richie was pretty easy to travel with except for always being hungry.  Amber’s job was to complain and blame Richie for everything. My job was the same as when I was a kid, put up with it as long as I could before exploding in the classic “Do you want me to turn this car around.” Robyn’s job was to keep me from turning the car around.

Was your family something like that?

Family systems theory tells us that each person has his or her own niche in the system that cannot be filled by anyone else. That is our role. It also says that if we step out of our role we change the balance of the whole system either for good or for bad. But it is important to know that we can choose to play our role or step out of our role in the system. It is important for us to know that we have the power to perpetuate the system or change the system by our own individual choice.

(Slide 2) Let’s look at the Israelite’s journey through the desert as a family road trip.  Moses is driving. Aaron and Miriam are in the front seat with him, and everyone else… Like all 1-3 million of them were kids in the back seat picking at each other, driving each other crazy, and complaining all the way. They complained about the water. They complained that they didn’t have any food and then they complained about the food they did have. They complained that they wanted a God they could see. They complained about Moses. You name it and they complained about it. 

They complained all the way from (Slide 3) Goshen to Sinai. Up to Hazeroth and Kaedesh. They complained all the way around a 40 year circle. They complained as they went around Moab, through the battles with the Amorites and up to Mt Nebo.

Eventually by the grace of God and the leadership of Moses, they arrived near their destination. The Promised Land was in sight. They could almost taste the milk and honey.

You have to understand that this was a whole different group from those who left Mt Sinai.  Remember they were punished… you guessed it for complaining.  They complained at Kaedesh, “Why bring us here to die by the sword in battle.  You should have left us to die in Egypt.”  God was just about to turn the car around and destroy them, when Moses talked him out of it saying, “Lord, you don’t want the Egyptians say. ‘Look the Lord took them into the desert to kill them.’?” So the Lord relented and declared that not one of them would cross into the Promised Land.  That was the reason for the 40-year detour, so they would all die of natural causes rather than cross into that land flowing with milk and honey.

So this is a completely new crew- the children of the complainers… but nothing has really changed.  They were still complaining, they were still running after other Gods, they were still the annoying children in the back seat of God’s station wagon

So Moses sits them down for a talk. This is Moses farewell speech and it is beautiful.  I suggest you read it in its entirety in Deuteronomy 29-30.

He starts out in chapter 29- (page 84 of the story) reminding them of all they have seen in Egypt and in the desert, as they were lead to this place. There are several things here that hearken back to earlier speeches.  This reminds us of a speech in chapter 4 where Moses asks, “Has anything so great as this ever happened? “ Read along with me

Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? Has any God ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other.

It is as if Moses is saying, “Look what God did, and look how you complained. Look what God did and look how you disobeyed, Look what God did and look how you betrayed him. But it is up to you how you respond to God.”

Moses points out all that they have seen in contrast with their faithlessness in order to illustrate that they have a choice of paths in life.  They can continue on the path they have followed so far, complaining, disobeying, and betraying God.  Or they can choose a very different path.

The other path is reflected in verse 15 of chapter 30 on page 85.

Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

You recognize that end of that passage from Jesus, but it is one he would have learned in Sabbath school, because every Jewish boy did. It is called the Shema, “Love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.”

Then he just lays it out for them He says there are two paths.  The path you have been on complaining, disobeying, and betraying God; and the right path.  Take your pick.

The path of life, and the path of death; take your pick

The path of blessing, or the path of destruction.

The path of right, and the path of wrong, take your pick.

The path of God, and the path of wondering aimlessly; take your pick.

He says you decide before you cross into the Promised Land.

Before I drive this car one more mile, you have to decide if you are going to stop fighting and get along.

Before I drive this car one more foot, you have to decide if you are going to stop complaining and be thankful.

Before I drive this car one more inch, you have to decide if you are going to choose God, or choose death.

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.”  You have to choose a path.  Right here and right now.

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you” a choice.

You can be for God, or you can be against him.

You can speak up for what is good and right, or you can sit back and let evil take root.

You can share your faith with a friend or a neighbor, or you can, by your silence, abandon them.

You can live a life of service or you can be satisfied with living for yourself.

You can be the church, or you can be a social club.

You can be the body of Christ or you can simply be along for the ride picking at each other in the back seat.

You can choose to claim the ministry of this church, hold an office, come to the meetings, and take responsibility, or you can abandon the ministry that could be here and let nature take its course of decay and death.

It is up to you.  I can’t be any clearer than that. 

You have the same choice before you that the Israelites had before them… that each of the disciples had before them…that each of the saints had before them… that your grandparents and parents and teachers and preachers have always had before them.  You have that same choice today. And only you can decide.  God or self.  Life or death.

AMEN