"Hesed" - Ruth and Naomi

Sermon Scripture: Ruth 1:6-18

When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.

Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”

Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”

But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons—would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”

At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

So, we continued this week in church with our current theme: the unexpected.  We've talked about bit about Balaam and Jacob, it's time for a lady.  If you look at a table of contents listing out the books of the Bible, there are two books named after women: Esther and Ruth.  Today we are going to focus on Ruth.

Let's look at her context, why she was so unexpected, and what that means for us.

CONTEXT

The first few verses of Ruth tell us that “in the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land” of Israel.  A man from Bethlehem went with his wife, Naomi, and his two sons to the land of Moab in order to find food.  The man died, and left Naomi with two sons, who went on to marry Moabite women.  Ten years later, both of the sons died and all three women were left as widows. 

So who was Ruth?

·         WIDOW: she had been married to one of Naomi's sons, but was then left a widow after his death. Being a widow in that time meant she had no man providing for her, she was free – and even expected – to return to her family.

·         MOABITE – Naomi's Israelite husband had moved her and her two sons to the country of Moab to escape a famine in Israel, and one of those sons married Ruth - a Moabite woman.  Israelites and Moabites were sworn enemies!  Remember that we talked a couple of weeks ago about how Moabite women were prompted by Balaam to seduce Israelite men.  24,000 Israelites then died from a plague. Then the Israelites conquered Moab.  People from these two nations did not get along.  Moab was considered an accursed nation.  Moabite women were treated by the Israelites as though they were all sexually impure.  They were not trusted.  (There are even verses in Deuteronomy that instruct Israelites to have nothing to do with Moabites - they are not to enter into the assembly of the Lord even until the 10th generation, etc.)

THE UNEXPECTED

So let's return to the Scripture passage for today.  Here we have Naomi returning to her people after hearing about how God has provided food for them.  She and her daughters-in-law set out on the road leading to Judah (have you noticed how many Bible stories happen on the road...).  After they've traveled for a bit, she urges them to go back!  Go back to their mothers' houses – go back and may the Lord show them kindness just as they had shown kindness to her and her sons.  Go back and find rest in another husband's house. 

Both daughters-in-law say they'll return with her.  She insists again that they go back to their homes because she has nothing left to offer them.  She is too old to bear more sons for them to marry.  She has nothing to offer them. 

Here is where the unexpected happens. Orpah turns and goes home....crying, but she goes home as Naomi insisted.  Ruth?  She does not.  She stays put.  Naomi says that she follow Orpah & go home to her people and her gods.  Ruth's response is this:

                        Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.

                                    Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.

                                                Your people will be my people and your God my God.

                                    Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.

                        May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.

Why was this such a big deal?  For a few reasons. 

·         Moabite!! - Remember that she is a Moabite, a member of a nation considered accursed by the Israelites...and she has just agreed to go back to Israel.  Vikings fan in a Packer's stadium, anyone?  Next, she has just sworn her fidelity to the God of Naomi – not the god of the Moabites.  This is a big deal!!

·         Woman!! -  Remember that in this time a woman was nothing without a man.  Without a man, a woman had no assurance of material, financial, or personal security.

Yet here we have a woman pledging her loyalty to another woman, but also to that woman's people and her GOD. 

SO WHAT?

In the Bible, the word used to refer to Ruth is “hesed”.  This word roughly translates to “loving-faithfulness”.  Ruth had just given up everything that made sense – her nation, her people, her identity, her gods – in order to do the thing that did not make sense, which was to remain loyal to someone who the culture of the time would have said did not require her loyalty.  The culture of the time would have said that Ruth should have returned to her family, to her mother.

We don't know why she refuses to go back to her home.  It was less socially acceptable for her to go with Naomi....so why?  The text doesn't really say.  Perhaps she had a negative homelife.  Let's face it – just because someone births a child does not automatically mean they are a good mother.  Today some people will be honoring their emotional or spiritual mothers, or those who acted more as a mother to them than their own biological mother.  Sad, but a fact.  But back to Ruth – perhaps the famine that had apparently spread to Moab (remember that Naomi was going back to Judah because food was there) had not spared Ruth's family and she had no one to return to.

We don't know for sure.  What we know is that Ruth shows hesed, she shows loving-faithfulness to Naomi.  “Where you go I will go.  Your God will be my God.  Where you are buried, also let me be buried.  Don't tell me to go away from you again.”  

There is another context in which the word hesed shows up in the Bible.  It is often used as a defining quality to describe God.  God is hesed.  God is loving-faithfulness. 

God demonstrates loving-faithfulness to each and every one of us on a daily basis, especially when it does not make sense.  Ruth saw Naomi at the lowest time in her life, during a time when she was likely not very approachable, and indeed was even actively trying to push Ruth away.  She was well aware that being faithful to Naomi was to go against the grain, to go against the culture that was telling her it was more appropriate to go home to her own family and not make herself a stranger in a strange land for Naomi's sake.  Yet she persisted in showing Naomi loving-faithfulness.  She refused to leave.  She knit her story together with Naomi's story, even though doing so did not make sense.  (Ruth → Naomi)

God sees each of us every day struggling in this life.  He has seen each and every single one of us in our lowest times, the times when we are not approachable, the times when we are lamenting and even actively trying to push God away.  God sees us when we are hurting and lashing out, or secluding ourselves and being self-destructive.  Yet he persists in showing us loving-faithfulness.  He did the thing that did not make sense and sent Jesus Christ to live and die for us that we might know a new way of living, that we might know a new way of being loved. (God → us)

That we might know how to show loving-faithfulness to one another.  There is a gentleman whom I've known for 16 years.  I count him as a member of what I call my “heart family”. I tell people that once you've become a member of my heart family, you are there forever, and I mean it.  You see, this man has spent the last 10 years of his life behind bars in a maximum security prison in Alaska.  I wish I could say he isn't guilty of the crime they've accused him of, but he is.  He is justly in prison right now.  I write to this man regularly, updating him on what's going on in my life, telling him all about Drexel, including him as a part of my family as much as I can seeing as we are separated by half a continent and some bars that won't go away for years yet.  He writes me back sometimes.  Recently he thanked me for not giving up on him.  He thanked me for showing him loving-faithfulness in a way that others have not.  The culture surrounding me would tell me that it makes sense to give up on him, to just quit.  I cannot.  He's a member of my heart-family. (Us → One another)

In the New Testament, we are consistently told to do the things that don't always make sense and to love one another no matter what.  Love one another whether we are Jew or Gentile, man or woman, young or old.  We are to demonstrate loving-faithfulness to one another no matter what, just as God does with us, just as Ruth did with Naomi.  And we are to help one another do so.  In the end, it will lead to good things. Ruth eventually did find a new husband – Boaz. 

In Matthew 1 we find a lineage of Christ – Boaz and Ruth are mentioned.  It specifically mentions that part of Jesus' lineage includes unexpected devotion despite what culture might say.  How prophetic!

  

Donkey!!

1 Corinthians 1:26-31:

“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.””

Numbers 22:21-35:
“Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials. But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, it turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat it to get it back on the road.

Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path through the vineyards, with walls on both sides. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot against it. So he beat the donkey again.

Then the angel of the Lord moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat it with his staff. Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”
Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.”

The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?”

“No,” he said.

Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell face down.

The angel of the Lord asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared it.”

Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned. I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you are displeased, I will go back.”

The angel of the Lord said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but speak only what I tell you.” So Balaam went with Balak’s officials.”

____

So Dahmon and I are starting a new sermon series at our church titled “The Unexpected”. This church recently went though an unexpected pastoral change. We as people go through unexpected things all of the time. The Bible is full of unexpected things.

I've often heard people say they don't read the Bible because it is a “musty old book full of old rules & regulations that are hardly relevant to today”. Few things could be further from the truth! The Bible is full of weirdos & their interesting stories. Weird people. Weird events. Weird miracles. Weird stories. Since we've heard some of these stories so much, it is easy to forget how weird they sound: Jonah in the belly of a whale, a baby born of a virgin, that same baby eventually dying & resurrecting, etc.

Today we are going to look at one such weird story. We are going to consider its context, what happened, why what happened mattered then, and one way it applies to us.

I'm talking about the talking donkey. As we just heard, there is a talking donkey in the Bible. In understanding the donkey, however, we must look at its rider. To do so, we must consider the passage we just read in context. Yanking this particular story out of context does a complete injustice to everything that is happening here.

The Israelites were coming! The Isrealites were coming! At this point in history, the Israelites, were nearing the end of their long voyage in the wilderness. They had been brought out of Egypt and were finally coming near the Promised Land that God had prepared for them. In order to do so, however, they had to go through a few other countries first. They tried to travel across some of these countries peacefully, but the Bible tells how rulers of other countries had this nasty habit of trying to conquer them. Well, God had a habit of being on the Israelites' side, and so countries that dared make war on the Israelites were the ones conquered. The Israelites developed a reputation. They were God's favorite. They were the ones that no one could defeat.

At this point, their path was about to take them across the country of Moab. Balak was king of Moab at the time, and he and his officials were freaked. The Israelites' reputation had preceded them, and Balak feared his country and his rule was in danger. But he was crafty. He had heard how might and war did not win against these people. God was on their side. So he decided to try something else.

Enter Balaam, stage left. Now, Balaam is one of those rather ambiguous fellows in the Bible. Given what we know from the text, it isn't real clear if he is a good guy or a bad guy. He is noted in one verse as being one of God's prophets, but Numbers 24 also notes that he practiced divination...not a practice of the Lord, and in fact something that God specifically told the people not to do. Balak apparently knew of Balaam's history with divination and such, and sent his officials to fetch Balaam to curse the Israelites. Maybe a curse would weaken the Israelites enough that Moab would not be conquered.

When the officials first reach Balaam, he consults with the Lord, who tells him he cannot curse the Israelite people because they are blessed. Balaam sends the officials away, heeding the word of the Lord. Then Numbers 22 says that Balak then sent officials of even higher standing with promises of great rewards if Balaam would come back with them and curse the Israelites.

When the officials ask for the second time to hire Balaam, he says he can't do it, not for all of the gold and silver in the world. But despite this, and despite knowing God has already said the Israelite people cannot be cursed because they are blessed, he goes back and asks God again. Maybe God will change his mind and Balaam can get the riches the officials have promised. It is important to note here that Balaam was not an Israelite himself, so it wasn't like he would be cursing his own people.

Sound familiar? How many times do we do this? How many times are we not happy with an answer we may have received to a prayer, and we go back to God again and demand a different answer, the answer we want?

Anyway, God this time says that Balaam can go with the men back to Balak, but Balaam must do only what God tells him to do. And now we have arrived at our Scripture for today.

Balaam is on his way back to Balak with Balak's officials. Scripture says that God was very angry when Balaam went, and so an angel went to stand in his path to oppose him.

Why? Why was God angry at Balaam for apparently doing exactly what he had just said that he could do? I'll be honest with you – when I read these verses, my brain immediately went “nope, I'm not preaching on this. It doesn't make sense, I can't do it.” Then I sought the Lord through prayer to see what he might say.

It seems that Balaam's history and his desire for worldly riches were causing a problem. You see, God as the God who knows everything knew all about Balaam's past practicing divination, and probably other things that grieved the Lord. He also knew what was in Balaam's heart. This was a man, after all, who at the prospect of getting great riches went back to see if God would change his mind about letting him curse the Israelites.

When Balaam was sitting on the donkey riding with Balak's officials, we know from what Scripture says that he had heard God warn him to say exactly what God told him to say...but here's a fact – we do not know what was going on in Balaam's heart. Only God knows that. Perhaps that morning when he was saddling up the donkey, Balaam was figuring out ways in his heart of hearts to keep doing whatever he could to get those riches, to do whatever he could to figure out a way to curse the Israelites. Scripture would seem to give some support to this theory. In fact, Numbers 31:16 blames Balaam for bringing a plague upon the Israelites. Here Moses is mad that after his warriors did later conquer Moab, they left the women alive. After all:

“They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the Lord's people.”

Here Moses is apparently referencing that after the donkey incident, Balaam suggested to Balak that the women of Moab should seduce the Israelite men to get them to stray from Yahweh. Numbers 25 states that in doing so, the women and men who slept with them caused a plague that killed over 24,000 people. It would make some sense that God would be angry with Balaam if he knew that Balaam was still trying to figure out a way to have his cake by technically doing what God told him to do, but have that cake iced with riches from finding a sneaky way to give Balak what he wanted.

Hence an angel in the middle of the road ready to oppose Balaam. Balaam's donkey becomes rebellious. First turns off into a field. Then it crushes Balaam's foot against a wall. Then it lays down in the middle of the road. After each of these incidents, Balaam beats it to get it to behave. Finally, Scripture says that the Lord opened the donkey's mouth and it asked him in human language why Balaam was beating him. And Balaam talks back as if he were talking to a person!

I am floored by this! Not sure about you, but if I were riding a horse and it started talking to me, I'd either start looking for cameras or I'd freak out and run the opposite direction! But Balaam talks back to the donkey! Once he acknowledges that the donkey is not usually in the habit of being such a pain, the Lord opened Balam's eyes so he could see the angel.

The angel tells Balaam that the donkey has saved his life. It tells Balaam that his path is reckless. Balaam acknowledges that he has sinned, and is told to continue with the officials back to Balak, but to only speak what God tells him to speak. The God who just made the donkey speak. Balaam does so, and speaks blessing upon the Israelites instead of curse. In fact, he speaks a curse upon Moab!

Let's change gears for a moment. When I was a kid, we had a dog named Sheba and I'm 100% convinced she was an angel in dog form. She saved all of our lives several times over...especially mine. You see, when my family was first living in Alaska, we lived in a tiny little shack at the bottom of a hill. The rule was that I could explore as much as I wanted to outside, but I had was not allowed to go over the hill by myself. Over the hill meant that I would no longer be in sight of the cabin, and that was a no-no. Well, Sheba understood this rule better than I did. Often I would wait until my parents went into the cabin and then I'd toddle my way up the hill...I just had to see what was on the other side! When I was two and doing this, Sheba would run up the hill behind me, bite my diaper, and drag me back down the hill, where my parents would scoop my screaming self up and bring me back inside. 

Well, the next summer I was three years old. Just like I had the previous summer, I would wait until my parents had gone back inside, and then I'd turn and haul butt trying to get over the hill. When Sheba came to get me, I was ready for her! I'd turn around and kick and flail my little arms at her. She'd act all dejected and turn with her tail tucked to go back down the hill. Once she'd started to go back towards the cabin, I'd get all triumphant and start to go back over the hill. Sheba would wait long enough so that I was facing the other way, then she'd run back, body slam the back of my legs so I'd fall over, and then sit on me, effectively pinning me to the ground while she barked her head off until my parents came out and got me. It didn't take me long to learn that Sheba was not going to let me over that hill. It was a good thing she didn't. When I was a little older, my parents showed me the bear trail that was on the other side of the hill. They told me that sometimes they'd find impressions on the ground on the far side of the hill where the bears had been laying watching us. Sheba could smell the bears. I couldn't. She was protecting me, but I didn't understand that.

The donkey was protecting Balaam, but he didn't understand that at first. The donkey could see the angel that was ready to kill Balaam, but he couldn't see it at first. Balaam beat his donkey just as I kicked and flailed at Sheba, neither of us realizing that we were verbally and physically berating those who were just trying to protect us.

We do this all of the time. Verbally and/or physically berate the donkeys in our lives who are trying to protect us and are only after our good, in whatever form they take (parents, doctors, pastors) simply because we do not understand – we do not see the dangers that they see. Conversely, sometimes we are the donkey. The trick is remembering this question in the midst of situations like this: are our actions, are our behavioral corrections, are our responses to one another coming from a place of anger and control, or of love and understanding? God is in the middle of it all. He knows what is in each of our hearts, what motivates us whether we are Balaam or the donkey. Through it all I believe he desires that we communicate effectively. He opened the donkey's mouth so it could actually communicate with Balaam. There are still donkeys everywhere. We are the donkey for some people. God still speaks through donkey's to us. Are we listening? Are we truly obeying God, or are we going to go the way of Balaam, finding a loophole to fulfill our worldly desires, but in the end losing our life. Balaam, after all, was killed along with the Moabites when the Israelites conquered them.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

Humans make plans, life says....

Man makes plans.....

Reader Scripture – Jeremiah 29:11-13

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Sermon Scripture – John 15:1-11

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

The Vine

The section for today talks about how Jesus is the vine and we, his followers are the branches. I've seen a million and two ways to approach this passage. I'm sure that many of you have likely heard it preached on before. I know that I have. Most of the messages I've heard about it have focused on the fruit that the vine and branches bear together, or on the fact that it says there is pruning. Those messages are wonderful and awesome, but I want to go a slightly different route today.

First, let's pick apart this scene. We have Jesus likening himself to a vine while we are the branches. There is the Father, who is called a gardener, who walks along the vine and tends the plant.

I have a good friend who became a Christian when we were both teenagers. Shortly afterwards, she was having a hard time, and said to me “I thought everything was going to get easier.” There is this idea that life as a Christian should be two things: Predictable and Easy, and somehow if life isn't that, then you are doing something wrong. Let's look at the first assumption:

PREDICTABLE

Somehow we've got it into our heads that life should be predictable. We should do specific things at specific times in our life, and if we get the order off, well then there is something wrong with us, or we don't have enough faith, or whatever.

Baloney.

Jesus here says that he is the vine and we are the branches. Never in my entire life, in all of the places that I have been have I ever seen a vine growing in a straight, predictable line. As the vine grows, it turns in unexpected directions. Branches go in unexpected directions. People who cultivate vines put them up on racks to help them grow predictably, and they still end up with plants that are a bit squirrley.

Human beings like predictable things. Predictability equals less anxiety. There's an animated movie about cavemen that came out recently called “The Croods”. In this movie, they treat anything new and unpredictable as if it is going to end their lives. Their motto is “never not be afraid” and “new is bad”. If they encounter something new, they are going to DIE!

We laugh at this exaggeration, but how many of us live our lives like this? As though deviation from the predictable path means we will financially, emotionally, socially, or physically die? We like predictability. The problem is that reading the Bible shows us a Jesus who refuses to do the predictable thing. He ate with the socially excluded. He defied religious pompousness in favor of showing true love. He was constantly pushing people to grow in their faith, to grow in community, to grow in service to one another. Growth is unpredictable. The vine grew, and continues to grow, in unexpected ways. So do the branches.

EASY

Let's talk for a moment about the other idea, that somehow living as a Christian is easy, that somehow we will be spared the devastation that life throws our way simply because we are God's children.

There are a whole slew of Biblical figures who would laugh at this idea. Moses – a man born in Egypt as a Hebrew slave, grew up as a Egyptian prince, led the Hebrew people out of Egypt in the face of much adversity. Or let's think about Jonah (eaten by a whale), or King David (hunted most of his life by people who wanted to kill him), or Paul (poisoned, bitten by snake, beaten, thrown in prison, shipwrecked). These were not easy things! And all of these men are lifted up as heroes of the Bible.

We have this lie in our culture that if bad things happen to us as Christians, then we did something wrong. There is something wrong with us, God is mad at us, we don't have enough faith, we didn't pray hard enough, we can never measure up to the Biblical heroes, etc.

Baloney.

These are major and devastating lies. A major danger of this way of thinking is that it dumps shame on having hard times, when having hard times are part of living. It means that people are shamed or afraid of reaching out for community, for help, in fear of being condemned rather than loved. In Ecclesiastes it says “for time and chance happen to them all.”

This is hard stuff! But we cannot forget the Gardener. I've often found that when the image of the vine and branches is discussed, the Gardener rarely comes up. Jesus says plainly that the Father is the gardener, walking alongside the vine and helping it to grow and bear fruit. The promise is not that we will have a predictable and easy path, but that the Gardener will always be present, always walking with us, helping us to grow, being present in the difficulty, tending us through droughts, storms, fierce weather, snow in April. : )

Human beings make plans. Life, time, and chance happen to us all and change those plans. God says, “I will be with you in the midst of the chaos.”

WALKING WITH

As people, we want God walking alongside us to be big and dramatic. I want a seven foot buff guy walking with me to protect me from bullies. I want God's voice to ring out in lightening and thunderclaps when my voice is too small. We want these things, but we serve a God who often walks alongside of us in unexpected ways. We hear him in unexpected, unpredictable ways. A kind word from a stranger. A friend's hug. Money showing up when we most need it. Someone inviting us over for a meal when food is hard to come by. A comforting word from a friend when life is going to pot. God does not have to be huge and dramatic to let us know that he is walking with us.

This past week, Dahmon and I received a call from someone here in Lake City who has had life kick in their teeth despite the fact that they are doing absolutely everything right. Dahmon has spent some time with this family, which includes small children, & heard their stories, listened to everything they are doing to make things right, heard everything that has gone wrong. He heard from this family because they need help with their rent. Either their rent is paid tomorrow, or they are evicted from their home despite the fact that there are small children involved. They have nowhere to go.

I was with Drexel playing with him on the slide in our backyard when Dahmon came up to me and explained the situation. He asked if we could afford to help this family with rent. My next question? “How much do they need?” The amount he gave me made me inhale sharply. It is not a small amount. Immediately my need for predictability and a straight path came in and I said “no, they have to find another way.” They I looked at Drexel in all of his cuteness sitting on top of the slide, trying to work up the gumption to go down the slide by himself. For him, that slide is a scary thing. From his perspective, it is big and scary, and he's not quite sure what is going to happen when he reaches the bottom, if he reaches the bottom intact. He will hem and haw at the top of the slide about how he's going to go down, oh wait – he won't, its too scary. Eventually he will reach out to me and say “hold Momma's hands” and he'll zoom down the slide so quickly you would never think he'd ever hesitated.

In that moment, I felt myself at the top of this slide, hemming and hawing about all the reasons that we couldn't afford to help this family. In my mind's eye, I could almost see the slide. And then I remembered that they have several small children, one of them around Drexel's age. Those children having a home on Tuesday is more important to me than my desire for financial predictability. And I held my hands out to God and said “hold Abba's hands”.

Dahmon and I have committed to this family that their rent will be covered. We are working with them to figure out programs and such, but no matter what, either programs or Dahmon and I will cover their rent this month. If you are interested in coming alongside us & helping this family, come & talk to me.

Being a branch on the vine does not mean that we have a predictable, easy path. It does not mean that we get to choose where and how we grow. As the vine grows, as we grow in our faith and our journey with God, heck – as we live, our lives will go in unexpected directions and we will take unexpected journeys – some of them easy, some of them hard. The promise is that the Gardener is right there, tending us in the midst of it all, and he will never, ever leave us.

Sticks and stones, and all that

Sticks and Stones and all that

Reader Scripture: Ephesians 4:29 – 32

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Sermon Scripture: James 3:2-6

“We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.  When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.  Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.  Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.  The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”

 

As I typically do before a sermon on a topic, I spent some time digging into the Bible and poking around on Google.  I found that when you search out the word “gentle” or “gentleness” in the Bible, two major patterns emerge.   The first is that in the Old Testament, gentleness has a habit of popping up when we are receiving instruction about how we talk:

·         1 Kings 19:12 - “After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.  And after the fire came a gentle whisper.”

·         Proverbs 15:1 - “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

·         Proverbs 25:15 - “Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone.”

In the New Testament it often pops up alongside humility

·         Matthew 11:29 - “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

·         2 Corinthians 10:1 - “By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you – I, Paul, who am 'timid' when face to face with you, but 'bold' toward you when away!”

·         Ephesians 4:2 - “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

Keep in mind that Paul in Galatians was speaking Greek, and the Old Testament is written in Hebrew.  Paul's usage of the word differs from how the writers of the Old Testament were using the word “gentle”, but the ideas of gentleness and words along with gentleness and humility do have common ground.

Let's look at how Paul is using the word.  The word for “gentleness” in Greek that Paul uses, especially where used elsewhere in the New Testament, carries with it implications related to power dichotomies.  When Paul is using this word in Galatians, he brings up this idea of gentleness as a fruit of the Spirit being siding with the underdogs, someone acting towards another with humility instead of the power they may have in the relationship.

Every relationship carries with it an element of power.  Parents have power over their children.  Doctors have power over their patients.  Teachers have power over their students, etc.  In Paul's time, citizens of Rome had power over everyone.  He should know – many scholars believe that he was a Roman citizen before declaring his faith in Christ and tossing his hat in the same ring as early Christians.  They base this belief in Acts 22, where we see a story of Paul about to get a beating from Roman officials after telling his conversion story to a crowd.  They said he was not fit to live and were hauling him off to be flogged when he asked if it was legal to do so to a Roman citizen.  Well, it wasn't.  In fact, it says that after Paul said he was born a Roman citizen, "those who were about to interrogate him withdrew immediately.  The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.” (Acts 22:29).  Paul knew well how much power Romans had in that area at that time. 

Paul also knew that the church to which he was speaking was a mix of Roman citizens and Jews, men, women, children, etc.  There were all kinds of power relationships at work here!  Men over women, adults over children, Romans over non-Romans.  This was a breeding ground for discontent and strife if everyone acted upon the power that their culture granted each person.  In fact, we see elsewhere in Acts a story where there were two groups of widows within the church, and one group was getting special treatment based on their ethnicity.  They had to appoint deacons in order to settle the dispute and ensure all were treated fairly. 

Into this situation Paul declared that gentleness is a fruit of the spirit.  Despite the fact that culture may grant people a position of power does not mean that we have to act upon it.  Jesus is consistently on the side of the underdog.

Jesus himself was God's very son, and he did not act upon that power in a way that we might expect.  The son of God rode into Jerusalem upon the back of a donkey.  He washed his disciples' feet.  He ate with beggars, tax collectors, and prostitutes.  He taught on hillsides.  He did the humble thing constantly and consistently.  He did not lord it over anyone that he was the son of God and because of this he was the bee's knees or the cat's meow.  He instead put himself in the position of a humble servant serving those who were considered the least and the lost.

But what has this to do with us?

A few weeks ago I was driving in downtown Red Wing.  One of my favorite musical artists is Josh Wilson and one of his CDs was playing in the car.  As I started praying about this sermon, Josh's song “Forest Fire” came on.  Now, let me share with you some of the lyrics:

                                    She's not half as strong, no/ As she'd like to let on
                                    She smiles, but she knows/ She can't take one more blow
                                    From the hate that she's heard for so long

                                    Our tongues are like matches/ Our ears are like trees
                                    Our words are like sparks/ On dry summer leaves
                                    It doesn't take much/ For the flames to rise/ And turn a soul/ Into a forest fire

I think that Wilson was basing these lyrics on our passage from James today.  Here James was speaking to “the twelve tribes scattered among the nations” (ch. 1, v. 1).  He tells them, and now us, that we all stumble many times, and that...

“the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.  The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body,sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” (James 1:1)

My brother and I used to go at it.  We were at each others throats constantly, bickering, arguing.  I wanted his toys, he wanted my crayons, I wanted to sit there, he hit me!, she hit me!, he ate the donuts I wanted.......just constantly bickering at one another.  It was so bad that at one point John, the gentleman I spoke about last week who lived with my family for awhile, took me aside and said that he was going to move out if Daniel and I didn't cool it. 

One day Daniel and I were arguing....again.  We were calling each other nasty names that at the time we were too young to really understand, and saying things that hurt.  My dad came storming up to us, and we got quiet.  Oh boy, we were in for it!  I was sure we were going to be grounded for a week, not allowed to watch TV until we were 50, something like that.  Dad simply got out a Bible, sat us down, and turned to our passage from James.  He had Daniel and I read it aloud and then ask how it applied to our argument.  Well, that argument was over!  Not to say that we didn't argue anymore, James in this passage says that “we all stumble many times”, but in that moment we were humbled by that passage.

I don't think it is a coincidence that gentleness in the New Testament often comes up alongside how we talk with one another.  We've all heard the song “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”  I used to sing it as a kid when my brother was teasing me.  But is it true?  Heck no!  Words can hurt more than anything and be more insidious than any other form of abuse because words travel with you, even when those voicing terrible things are no where close by. 

James says that our tongues are like the bits put in horses mouths, like rudders that steer a boat – where the tongue leads, the body will follow.  Our actions will follow.  The actions of others may follow (especially our children who look to us to learn how to interact with others). 

When the New Testament was penned, God knew human beings would always struggle with power dichotomies.  He also knew that these dichotomies would pop up in how we talk with one another.  Regardless of who is involved in the exchange, when we use negative words or gossip about another person, or slander them behind their back, or bully them, or swear at one another we are forming a power relationship where one may not have yet existed.  We are saying “you are less of a human than me for THIS REASON”.  With our words, we try to make ourselves stronger than another, better than another, in front of another. 

But Jesus is always on the side of the underdog.  He said “the last shall be first and the first shall be last.”  Jesus is always on the side of the one who is being maligned, accused falsely, sworn at, verbally abused, etc.  His example of humility calls us to something else, something that turns power structures on their heads.  We are called to be different, to be set apart and different.  Power structures will always be with us.  There will always be one set of people set in front of another, in power over another.  People will always be involved in multiple power relationships. 

But we are called to be gentle.  Paul and James together exhort us to use our power for the benefit of the one who is downtrodden, the least and the lost....not to get ourselves ahead, to put ourselves first!

Beth Moore said that “gentleness is responsibility with power,” and she is right.  What if we use our words in a way that shows we see all people as equals?  What if we use our words for the sake of the downtrodden, advocating for their rights as human beings?  What if we truly recognize Christ in each other person we meet in a way that means we cannot help but to serve rather than to boast in our stance of power?

What if we truly press into a form of gentleness being the act of recognizing how we exercise power dichotomies with our language?  Let's consider this: if we truly see Jesus in the face of the “other”, can we really say that to or about him?  God does not love us because we may perhaps be at the top of some power ladder.  He loves us simply because we are.  He loves us despite the power ladders we may top.  He loves us so much that he sent his son, who not only died for us, but showed us a way to live where everyone is equal, where being truly gentle means using your power for the benefit of others.  He loves us so much that he daily teaches us how to be love, how to be gentle with one another.

It's all God's anyways.

For the least of these....

Scripture reader – Luke 10:25-29

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”
But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”



Sermon Scripture - Luke 10: 30-37

Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Many of us have heard the story of the Good Samaritan. A man on a trip was waylaid by robbers who left him for dead, presumably stealing anything he was carrying of value. He lay on the side of the road and was avoided by a priest and a Levite. Then another stranger happened along, and he “was moved with pity”, bandaged the man's wounds, put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn and tended him, then paid for his care.

There are a huge number of things that could be said about this parable, a huge array of angles at which to view how Jesus answered the question “who is my neighbor?” I want to focus on the “why”. WHY would the good Samaritan go out of his way to help this stranger who was busted and bleeding on the road? Asking why might seem a little silly to us – but we do not live in those times. In those times, someone who was on the side of the road may have been luring a gentle hearted person into a trap so that HE could be waylaid by robbers. In those times, contact with a dead body was considered to be defiling, so the priest and the Levite may have assumed the man was dead and avoided him in order to not be defiled.

WHY did he help this man? Jesus says “But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.”

“When he saw him, he was moved with pity.” Jesus tells the story of a Samaritan helping a man on the road not because the Samaritan expected something in return, but because he was moved with pity at seeing the broken man's plight. He didn't expect anything in return....he simply helped the man because it was the right thing to do.

If patience is persistent love in the face of adversity...

If kindness is seeing ourselves in others and responding accordingly...

Then generosity is giving persistent love to everyone without expecting anything in return.

Generosity is about attitude.

Let's go back to the Good Samaritan. Presumably he was on his way to something as well if he was traveling on the road. Presumably he had a number of things he'd rather do, a number of other ways he'd rather use his resources. Yet he stopped and helped without expecting a return.

This is just what God does with us! He sees us broken and on the side of the road, wounded, bleeding, being passed over by others who can't trouble themselves with our plight. He bathes our wounds, sets us up on his ride, and brings us to healing. As he does, so he wants us to do.

But why is this story in Luke? A scholar named Mark Allan Powell put together a book about the Gospels. In one of his chapters on Luke, he states that:

“Luke wants to show his readers what God accomplishes through the lives of ordinary people to heighten their expectations of what God might accomplish through them. Luke wants his readers to believe that the possibility of God's will being accomplished in their lives an in the world is greater than they imagine.”

God works generosity through ordinary people. He shows his persistent, abundant love to people through ordinary people just like you and me.

This is me and my parents. Most of you know that I grew up in a cabin in the middle of the Alaskan forest, surrounded by trees and bears. Now, I mean “cabin”....Lincoln log style, one-room structure that flexed during earthquakes and kept us snug as bugs in rugs during the winter. Unfortunately, logs are rather flammable. When I was 9 years old, our cabin went up in flames in the middle of the night...of course in the middle of winter! Thankfully, we had some other structures on the property and we spent the night in one of those other structures. The next morning, my dad had to spend some time getting our snow machine working again because it had been parked close enough to the cabin that the side melted in a little bit. Once it was working, he went to town to let people know what had happened and to get help.

He came back with some food and supplies, the mail, and John.

Now, John is a man whom Dad had just met when he went to town for help. John was a man whom Dad had heard people whispering about, about what a “no good” he was, how no one trusted him, etc. People avoided him. Dad saw him, took pity on him, and took him to our house so that we could help him.

Wait a minute Dad, we just had a house fire...we lost everything....and you come home with someone who needs our help? Surely someone else can help him!

I think it was my Mom who pointed out to Dad that we had just lost everything, how could we help someone? Dad said we had another structure on the property where John could stay, and he gave the same answer he gave every time he helped someone and others asked why - “it's all God's anyways.”

My Dad often has the attitude of true generosity. It is all God's anyways. He saw John in an hour of John's desperate need, and he put him on our snow machine and brought him home with us that we might tend him and help him, without expecting a single thing from him in return. I now call John “brother”.

That is true generosity. True generosity is seeing Jesus in the reflection and responding with compassion, using “our resources” to tend the cares of those in need freely and abundantly without expecting anything in return.

Imagine you are homeless and being served at a soup kitchen. There are three dishes: peas, potatoes, and chicken. The peas are being served by a middle aged woman who is well to-do, who is there because she wants another feather in her social cap. The potatoes are being served by another middle aged woman, but she is there because she got in trouble with the law and has to be there to serve community service, or her parole officer is going to report her and she will likely be incarcerated again. The chicken is being served by a woman who wants to be there, who truly loves people who are homeless and wants to help. Where does true generosity live? Which station would be your favorite?

BUT HOW? WHAT DO WE DO??

Be truly generous – help anyone in need without expecting anything in return. Dahmon and I have often helped out our friends financially. We used to say that our tithing was in the form of helping friends when they were in need. Recently a friend whom we helped out came into some financial stability, and talked about “paying us back”, and was totally shocked when I said “you don't owe us anything.”

We are to be generous because it is simply the right thing to do, not because we will get something in return. If we are expecting anything in return, we are doing it for the wrong reasons, with the wrong attitude. The expected return doesn't have to come from the person whom we have aided. Sometimes we expect returns from those around that person, or from society for being “such a good person”.

But we are to do good things such that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing (Matthew 6:3). Such that we are storing up treasure in Heaven, not here on Earth.

This is not to say that acknowledging the good someone has done is a bad thing. Certainly, that is not what I'm saying at all. In a world where darkness would squelch whatever light shines, it is not bad to acknowledge good things. By all means, extend thanks and support when you see someone or an organization that is being generous.

The point is that our generosity must not come from a place of “look at me, I did XYZ”, hence getting our reward here on Earth. It must come from a place of recognizing ourselves and Jesus in our neighbors and persisting in tending their needs, using our resources to love and help our neighbors as God has loved and helped us – freely and abundantly and without an expectation of returns. Just as the good Samaritan did with the man he saw on the road. Just as God does with us.