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 “It is no secret that Christ’s Church is not at all in good health in many places in the world. She has been languishing because she has been fed, as the current line has it, “junk food”; all kinds of artificial preservatives and all sorts of unnatural substitutes have been served up to her. As a result, theological and Biblical malnutrition has afflicted the very generation that has taken such giant steps to make sure its physical health is not damaged by using foods or products that are carcinogenic or otherwise harmful to their physical bodies. Simultaneously, a worldwide spiritual famine resulting from the absence of any genuine publication of the Word of God (Amos 8:11) continues to run wild and almost unabated in most quarters of the Church.”
Walter C. Kaiser, Toward an Exegetical Theology, pp. 7, 8 of the Preface
Saturday, April 30, 9:30-Noon (breakfast at 8:30 if you’re already registered)
Sunday, May 1, 9:30 Sunday school; 10:30 Worship Service Schedule
All are welcome!
 Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.
They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”
Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). –John 20:11-16
Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb on Sunday morning to find the gravestone rolled away. Scripture tells us that she ran back to tell Simon Peter who raced with John all the way back to the tomb. They find Mary’s report accurate, the stone was indeed rolled away; and not only that, but the body of Jesus had disappeared. John and Simon Peter, seeing there’s nothing to be done at the grave, went home. Mary Magdalene, however, overcome with grief and shock stood outside the tomb weeping.
When she finally has braced herself for seeing the empty tomb, she ducks her head to peak in, and behold: The tomb is not empty! Angels! One where Jesus’s head would have lain and one where his feet would have been. Instead of something profound and comforting, they border on ridiculous with their question, “Woman, why are you crying?”
Her reply embodies the crushing sorrow she felt, “They’ve taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”
If this were being filmed, the cameras would switch from the side angle capturing the angels and Mary in profile and would swing around where we would see what Mary must have felt: someone standing behind her. She turns and assumes the gardener has arrived.
We find that strange, don’t we? How could she not have recognized him? She spent had spent thousands of hours with him, how is this possible?
Some commentators suggest her tear-filled eyes obstructed her vision. Other hypothesize that instead of turning around bodily, she merely turned her head to look over her shoulder and so she didn’t get a good look at him. Or maybe, they guess, his resurrected body was so altered from who she knew him to be that He was beyond recognition.
I think it is very likely that Mary looked right at Him and still didn’t know Him. This illustrates the fact that runs as a steady current throughout Scripture: no one recognizes Jesus unless Jesus reveals himself to them. Jesus mediates himself to us. His imminence is always on His terms; we cannot program, assume, or even use natural law to predict Him. If Jesus chooses not to reveal himself to you, you will not find him no matter how hard or how long you look. Contrarily, when Jesus chooses to reveal himself to you, then you can’t help but see him everywhere.
This truth probably collides with all your modern notions about belief. We link belief with evidence. We see the tree branches move, thus we believe in the wind. Here we see that Mary Magdalene had all the evidence she needed: the ponderous gravestone moved, the missing body, the copious amounts of wound grave clothes abandoned, two angels. Nonetheless, Mary still could not see. What made the difference?
Love. Love made the difference. Not hers for Jesus, but Jesus’s for her. It was his love for this sinner and his giving her eyes to see that brought her to faith. This is all unearned. This is all gift. And it’s the same gift that has been extended to us so that we may believe that Jesus has been raised from the dead. It’s the same gift that assures us of our own resurrection and eternal life.
Resurrection is a shocking concept. I want to suggest to you that Christ’s resurrection while surprisingly and gloriously true has another dimension that we celebrate and reenact at this season. Death has brought dominion. He is risen, and we, the graced recipients of the gift of faith, are risen with him.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Christ the Lord is Risen Today
Up from the Grave He Arose
Crown Him with Many Crowns
SPRING BIBLE CONFERENCE
Register now for our Spring Bible Conference with Dr. Walter Kaiser, April 30-May 1 (Saturday and Sunday). Saturday morning will be breakfast and teaching 8:30-noon, and Sunday morning will be the usual schedule with Dr. Kaiser teaching Sunday school and preaching. Note, the Men’s Prayer Breakfast will not meet the first Saturday of May because of the conference being the weekend prior.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (in 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”—Mark 11:9-10
I’m sure you’ve heard the word “hosanna” before. Do you know what it means? In Hebrew Hosanna means, “give salvation now” or “save us now.” All the Jewish people would have known that the word originated in Psalm 118. At the time of the Feasts (Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Dedication, Passover, etc.), the morning began with the choir singing the Hallel. The Hallel refers to the Psalms numbered 113-118. In addition, all the men and boys carried willow and myrtle shoots bound with palm (a lulab). When the singers reached the Hosanna in Psalm 118, all the men would wave the lulabs.
Now we see this happening in our passage in Mark. They’re lining the way crying out, “Save us now!” To us, it looks like they’ve finally gotten it. They finally understand who Christ is. I’m sorry to inform you that that is not what is happening in Mark 11 on that infamous Palm Sunday. They cry, “Save us now” in a nationalistic way; they want salvation from Roman oppression. They have little or no concern for salvation from sin. They’re not assembled as the people of God begging for salvation from the evil of this present age, they’re crying, “Make us victors over all the nations!”
They also yell, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Many evangelicals interpret this as an indicative description of what happens to someone who comes to salvation in Christ. Actually, this statement means, “May Jesus, who comes in the name of the Lord, be blessed.”
The qualifying statement they add shows that these Israelites showed up for a political parade. “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.” There it is. They’ve showed their hand. There can be no doubt that they think of Jesus as the king of the nation of Israel. They have hoped and waited in great expectation for David’s descendant to usher in The Kingdom. This is it, they think. After all, Jesus is the son of David, the King of Israel, right?
But their problem is in their application of what they knew. What is the nature of God’s kingdom? What does it mean that God would establish the throne of David forever? They applied all of the promised truths to the nation of Israel and hoped in a national reign of a Jewish king enthroned in the city of Jerusalem.
And there’s great warning for us in this. The promises of God are not mainly for this world. When we cry out to Jesus, “Save me,” what are we really doing? Are we just jumping on the bandwagon at the political parade? Have you weighed the other options and think Christianity might be a good lifestyle choice? Do you think that if you cry out to Jesus, He’ll make you a winner?
That’s exactly what the Israelites did on Palm Sunday. But may it never be said of us. May our cry of “Save me,” come from hearts that abandon hope in our efforts to quit sinning. May our hosannas be charged with despair over our best efforts to earn God’s acceptance. May we cast ourselves wholly on the hope of Jesus Christ saving us lest we be doomed.
Those who do this are the true sons and daughters of the kingdom. These are the ones who will find themselves lining the pathway when Jesus Christ triumphantly rides in on a great white steed. These are the ones who are saved by His blood and join in unending chorus of Hallel in the highest.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Hosanna, Loud Hosanna
Jesus Paid it All
All Glory, Laud, and Honor
PALM SUNDAY COMMUNITY LUNCH
Our Community Lunch is this Sunday, April 17. To request more information, click here. All are welcome!
SPRING BIBLE CONFERENCE
Register now for our Spring Bible Conference with Dr. Walter Kaiser, April 30-May 1 (Saturday and Sunday). Saturday morning will be breakfast and teaching 8:30-noon, and Sunday morning will be the usual schedule with Dr. Kaiser teaching Sunday school and preaching. Note, the Men’s Prayer Breakfast will not meet the first Saturday of May because of the conference being the weekend prior.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (in 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” –John 11:21-26
Our prayers and our lives are full of such laments, “Lord, if you had provided a cure for cancer…”, “If you had stopped that fire from crossing the stream…”, “If you had given me a job…”, or “If you had given me loving parents…”, and Martha’s, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Her eyes filled with tears of grief and anguish as the words sneak out. Did she really just say that to the Son of God? She paused and tacked on what she thought she should say to Jesus, “But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” The grief within her swelled up and she begs, “Give him back!” Not too subtle of a hint, is it?
Jesus replied that her brother would rise again, and Martha took that as the small comfort offered every grieving believer, “He’s not really dead. You’ll see him again.” And for Martha the “last day” of Lazarus’s resurrection could not have been more remote, unhelpful, and unreassuring.
Yet Jesus doesn’t chastise her for not finding comfort in the promise that she’ll see her beloved brother again, he turns the focus from her suffering to the reality standing before her. Here stands Martha grieving the past, the what if’s, and her altered reality. She’s trying so hard to goad herself into a false joy that “it’ll all work out”, but Jesus jars her into a far more satisfying reality, the person before her: the I am, the I am the Resurrection and the Life. Jesus is not the “I will be the resurrection and the life.” Jesus doesn’t present himself as the one who will give her resurrection and life someday, but as the actual resurrection and life.
He looks her in the eyes, pauses, and says, “Do you believe this?”
Christ has taken all her disappointment and disillusionment and heaped it together with who she knows him to be. Martha, do you believe? Yes, disappointment is real in this world. Yes, grief and suffering exist, but here is a more powerful truth. Do you believe this?
W.H. Auden wrote,
We would rather be ruined than changed;
We would rather die in our dread than let our illusions die.
Not Martha, she chooses to let her illusions die as she responds, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
Christ, the resurrection, and the life, the one she’d been waiting on is here. He is not a some day in the sweet by and by unrealistic hope. The life-giving power of Jesus means that everyone who believes like Martha becomes like Lazarus, raised from the dead by Jesus himself, for He is the resurrection and the life.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above
O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus!
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
PALM SUNDAY COMMUNITY LUNCH
Our next Community Lunch is Palm Sunday, April 17. Don’t miss it!
SPRING BIBLE CONFERENCE
Start planning now for our Spring Bible Conference with Dr. Walter Kaiser, April 30-May 1 (Saturday and Sunday). Saturday morning will be breakfast and teaching 8:30-noon, and Sunday morning will be the usual schedule with Dr. Kaiser teaching Sunday school and preaching. Note, the Men’s Prayer Breakfast will not meet the first Saturday of May because of the conference being the weekend prior.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (in 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Then the women said to Naomi,
“Blessed be the Lord,
who has not left you this day without a redeemer,
and may his name be renowned in Israel!
He shall be to you a restorer of life
and a nourisher of your old age,
for your daughter-in-law who loves you,
who is more to you than seven sons,
has given birth to him.” –Ruth 4:14-15
In Ruth 4:13 we read two words that betoken a glorious transformation: his wife. Ruth formerly known as “Ruth, Naomi’s daughter-in-law” or “Ruth, the Moabitess,” has been transformed into “Ruth, Boaz’s wife.” Take a minute to revel in that.
Then, the author skips the intervening nine months that transpired between verses thirteen and fourteen (perhaps he never experienced pregnancy!) because in verse fourteen a chorus of women arrive to celebrate and serenade Naomi. And indeed Yahweh has provided Naomi with great cause to rejoice, for He did exceedingly more than provide a child for Ruth and Boaz. He did far more than restore Israel’s hope for her much-needed king; the Lord has provided Naomi with a redeemer.
The last time we saw this chorus of women (1:19), they heard Naomi chide them to not call her by her name Naomi (meaning sweetness) but Mara (bitter).
“So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”
Now the village has gathered around Naomi and abandoned the heavy, dark minor tunes for this anthem of joyful redemption. They even go so far as to say “may his name be renowned in Israel,” equivalent to “may he become famous.” Does that sound too grandiose for this world? Too gratuitous for a newborn baby? But what greater hope can we have for each other (especially babies or new Christians) than that they become heroes and heroines in God’s drama of redemption? Yet the blessing of these women has more prophetic weight than they probably understood at the time. This child’s name will not only be renowned in Israel; but ultimately his name, Obed, servant of God, points to the only name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
What Wondrous Love is This
Amazing Grace
MEN’S PRAYER BREAKFAST
Men’s Prayer Breakfast is this Saturday, April 2 at 8:30. Don’t miss it!
SPRING BIBLE CONFERENCE
Start planning now for our Spring Bible Conference with Dr. Walter Kaiser, April 30-May 1 (Saturday and Sunday). Saturday morning will be breakfast and teaching 8:30-noon, and Sunday morning will be the usual schedule with Dr. Kaiser teaching Sunday school and preaching. Note, the Men’s Prayer Breakfast will not meet the first Saturday of May because of the conference being the weekend prior.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (in 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, “Turn aside, friend; sit down here.” And he turned aside and sat down. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, “Sit down here.” So they sat down. Then he said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of it and say, ‘Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.’ If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me, that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.” And he said, “I will redeem it.” Then Boaz said, “The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.” Then the redeemer said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.” –Ruth 4:1-6
When Boaz presents the case to the closest kinsman redeemer, he calls him Paloni-Almoni which, at a loss for a better idea, the translators rendered “friend.” Unfortunately, “friend” doesn’t give us the proper color or register of this term. It would have been translated more accurately: Joe Blow, John Doe, or What’s His Face. Of course, Boaz knew his name. Of course, Boaz didn’t address him as What’s Your Face at the time, but the author wants to convey to us that this guy whose selfishness prevented him from memorializing the name of Mahlon is now a nobody to us. Go ahead and read it, “Turn aside, Joe Blow,” and see if you can mistake that the author has just introduced us to the antagonist of this story.
After Boaz gets Joe B. to nibble on the bait proffered (Naomi’s land), he plays his trump card and mentions that Ruth, the Moabitess, is part of the package. Joe Blow probably didn’t flinch at that news, she’d probably be more of an economic asset than liability. What makes him show his hand follows in the phrase: “in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.” Even though neither Mosaic law nor the Kinsman-Redeemer law required this application in this situation, Boaz presents the protection of Elimelech’s name as the central issue.
Joe Blow’s eyes widen in surprise and his mind reels as the realization dawns on him, “Oh no! By buying the land I would have to have a child with Ruth! Woah, woah back up. He’d have claim to my land!” He tries to muster some dignity as he replies with an affected calmness, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”
Are you familiar with the word “backpedaling”? And just like that Joe B shows his hand. He’s not a true redeemer; he’s a businessman. He saw all of this as a business deal. A simple transaction meant for self-aggrandizement and extension of his property. He looked at it and knew that if he made this deal, he’d lose something.
Redemption always involves loss on the part of the lover for the benefit of the loved. Love is what redemption is all about. Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” We call this the covenant of redemption: The lover, God, gave up his own son for us, the loved, to buy us back from our bondage and oppression to sin. And it’s always been this way. How were the Israelites redeemed out of the Egypt, the house of slavery? By the blood of first-born sons. How were we redeemed out of slavery to sin? By the blood of God’s firstborn son of all creation.
So the meeting adjourns. Bozo and his family join Orpah in never being heard of again, while Ruth and Boaz enter annals of history as “parents” of King David and King Jesus. Imagine Boaz knocking on Naomi’s door. The women stagger around the heaps of barley still crowding the small house to answer the door. “Coming! Coming!” they yell. The door opens, and there stands Boaz dangling What’s His Face’s sandal before their face. Redemption. Sweet redemption.
What a total reversal of fortune! The poor became rich. The weak became strong. The empty became full. The rejected became accepted. But how? How did this all happen? Give me the formula so I can follow it, right?
You know, it’s because they did such good works that God paid them back according to their righteousness, right?
You better have answered, “No! No way!” Of course that’s not how. We know that no human besides Jesus Christ kept his behavior excellent. We know that all redemption comes to us because of the hesed (steadfast love) of God. God, our covenant God, keeps his promises even to broken, weak, and poor promise-breakers like you and me
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Praise Ye the Lord, the Almighty
O Sacred Head Now Wounded
Jesus Shall Reign
SPRING BIBLE CONFERENCE
Start planning now for our Spring Bible Conference with Dr. Walter Kaiser, April 30-May 1 (Saturday and Sunday). Saturday morning will be breakfast and teaching 8:30-noon, and Sunday morning will be the usual schedule with Dr. Kaiser teaching Sunday school and preaching. Note, the Men’s Prayer Breakfast will not meet the first Saturday of May because of the conference being the weekend prior.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (in 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” –Ruth 4:13-15
A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of preaching at some friends’ church. Obviously when you pastor a church, you don’t often get to visit other churches. So, it is something of a luxury for a pastor to pull out his favorite sermon, go in preach it, and then leave. Get this! They think you’re as good a preacher as your favorite sermon! On top of that, they don’t have time to find out what a depraved sinner you are. It’s a great deal, if you ask me! Since I had been reading Ruth at that time, I decided to preach from it.
I found it strange that a few people raised their eyebrows at the fact that I would preach from the book of Ruth. A man said to me following the service, “I didn’t think you were supposed to preach books like that. I thought they were just for reading.”
I replied, “You mean books like the NT Epistles preach better?”
“Yeah,” he said, “you know, those books tell you what to do.”
And in a rare moment of quick wit, I replied, “And do you do it?”
A puzzled look clouded his face and he paused before replying, “Well, you know I don’t, now that I think about it.”
“That is,” I said, “why you need Ruth. This is a story for sinners. It shows us that God uses us in spite of ourselves to bring redemption and his kingdom of righteousness upon this world.”
The guy laughed, opened his bulletin and asked, “Did you happen to see the title of next week’s guest speaker?” I followed his finger and read, ‘Join us next week for: “Keeping Our Behavior Excellent.’”
Hey, I’m not against excellent behavior. In fact, I’m all for it, but I’ve also lived with myself long enough to know that if there is any behavioral excellence to be found, it will be found in Jesus Christ, who, I would argue, is the only human being ever who kept his behavior excellent. You know what behavior God regards as excellent? A broken spirit, a contrite heart, humility, forgiveness, and mercy.
The book of Ruth is a great place to find that God loves us enough to give us Christ, the Last Adam come to crush the head of the serpent and make us alive through a sinful, poor, and pitiful Moabite widow.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
Baptized in Water
To God be the Glory
SPRING BIBLE CONFERENCE
Start planning now for our Spring Bible Conference with Dr. Walter Kaiser, April 30-May 1 (Saturday and Sunday). Saturday morning will be breakfast and teaching 8:30-noon, and Sunday morning will be the usual schedule with Dr. Kaiser teaching Sunday school and preaching. Note, the Men’s Prayer Breakfast will not meet the first Saturday of May because of the conference being the weekend prior.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (in 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 So Ruth went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” And he said, “May you be blessed by the LORD, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. –Ruth 3:6-11
Do you remember what Boaz said to Ruth? He told her to stay and glean there, to not fear for her safety, and to drink from the jugs of water that were provided for his workers. When Ruth fell on her face and questioned this alarming kindness, he praised her for having taken “refuge under the wings of the Almighty, the God of Israel.” And then, he loaded her up with thirty pounds of barley just in case the words weren’t clear enough.
But they were crystal clear to Naomi. She recognized the covenantal language Boaz used with Ruth and understood that these words describe the marriage of YHWH and Israel. She knew that Boaz not only had seen and heard of Ruth, he had liked what he saw and heard.
And while our modern senses are numb from excessive exposure to an overly romanticized conception of love, we should not dismiss the beautifully subtle interchange of genuine affection and care being received and offered. Naomi knows that Ruth has caught Boaz’s eye, and she counsels her daughter-in-law to go to Boaz and enact the very thing he mentioned: how the woman takes refuge under the wings of her husband in the covenant of marriage.
Now it’s one thing to stand in the kitchen with your mother-in-law and plot the future, but to actually go out after dark, find the right man, locate his feet, uncover them, and lie there would be a heart-pounding, mind racing ordeal. Around midnight, he stirred. He sensed a presence. A woman. “Who are you?” he asked, suddenly fully awake. And you have to know that suspenseful moment as it dawned on Boaz that Ruth has returned his gesture. He’s nearly overcome with gratitude. He had expected her to go after someone closer to her age, the oft mentioned “younger men”, but instead here she was asking him to do for her as God had done for Israel.
So many misread moralism into this story. They claim it’s about remaining chaste and pure, but, please remember: biblical narratives do not exist in order to prove that grumpy, bitter people don’t get blessed or that pure people have good marriages or that if you smile when it rains, God will love you more. The Bible is not a book of morals, it’s a book of redemption; it’s not about how God’s people pull it off, but how Christ has pulled it off by redeeming us with his precious blood. The story we find in Ruth is our story; the story of a loving God taking helpless foreigners under his wing and giving them refuge forever by the power of the goel of goels, the descendant of a Moabite widow, Jesus Christ.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder
Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed
The Church’s One Foundation
DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME BEGINS THIS SUNDAY
Don’t forget to set your clocks forward one hour before going to bed this Saturday night or you’ll miss Sunday School!
SPRING BIBLE CONFERENCE
Start planning now for our Spring Bible Conference with Dr. Walter Kaiser, April 30-May 1 (Saturday and Sunday). Saturday morning will be breakfast and teaching 8:30-noon, and Sunday morning will be the usual schedule with Dr. Kaiser teaching Sunday school and preaching. Note, the Men’s Prayer Breakfast will not meet the first Saturday of May because of the conference being the weekend prior.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (in 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
Once upon a time. It’s how all good stories start, and though this one didn’t get translated that way, the book of Ruth has all the marks of great literature. Once upon a time a foreigner named Ruth rose early to go scrounge for leftovers in a barley field. As she bent and scooped and sweated trying to scavenge enough to feed herself and her mother, she stopped when she heard a man’s greeting ring through the field. The master had arrived, the man who owned the field. She saw him and the workers looking her direction. She couldn’t hear their words, but she knew they talked of her. The man looked at her, he approached. Her heart raced in fear. Would she be sent away?
 And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.” –Ruth 2:18-20
First, the kinsman redeemer could step in and buy back property that his relative had been forced to sell.
Second, the kinsman redeemer could purchase the freedom of a relative forced into slavery when debt threatened to overwhelm him.
Third, if death came at the hands of another man, the redeemer acted as the avenger of blood to pursue the killer.
Lastly, if a family member died heirless, the kinsman redeemer could marry the widow to produce an heir to keep the family name alive.
Now look again at Naomi’s response. Does anything stand out to you? Had Naomi lost her land? Had she been sold into slavery? Had a murder been committed that needed to be avenged? No. None of those facets of a kinsman redeemer’s role were what popped into Naomi’s mind and caused her to tell Ruth that he was a goel for them. In essence, what happens is that Ruth casually drops Boaz’s name, and Naomi whips around, eyes wide in shock, and blurts out, “He can give us a baby!” Does that strike you as a bit indelicate? It should, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Ruth blushed in response. Yet Naomi knows that Boaz is the one who can give them a baby. A future. A hope.
But before she starts spinning the wool to knit the baby booties, the shadow of a problem might have presented itself, for while the law makes it possible for the goel to fulfill this fourth function, it’s not demanded. The footnote after that fourth function read: optional, not required.
What! What are you saying? Are you inferring that the law can’t save Ruth and Naomi? Exactly. I’m saying that they are dependent on grace.
The remainder of Ruth tells the story of the redeemer’s grace. Not a facile grace that merely produces a child, but an unfathomable grace that provides a child who is the one, true redeemer, Jesus Christ who redeemed the Paradise of Eden that we forfeited because of our sin-ravished poverty (the first provision of the goel), who ransomed us from our slavery to sin at the price of His own life (the second provision of the goel), who pursues our great enemy, the devil, until he is cast into the lake of fire (the third provision of the goel), and offers himself, the heir, the promised offspring of the woman who will crush the head of the seed of the serpent. Jesus Christ. He’s not “just one of our redeemers”; he’s the only one.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Crown Him with Many Crowns
The King of Love My Shepherd Is (Psalm 23)
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
MEN’S PRAYER BREAKFAST
Men’s Prayer Breakfast is this Saturday, March 5 at 8:30. Don’t miss it!
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (in 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
Did you notice Naomi’s referring to Boaz as “one of our redeemers”? Some older versions translate the Hebrew word goel “kinsman redeemer”. The cultural concept of a kinsman-redeemer is very foreign to us here today. At face value the word means to redeem, receive or buy back, but beyond the simple definition of the word, the Law of Moses (Lev. 25 & 35, and Deut. 19 & 25) specified the fourfold function of the goel.
 Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied. And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.” –Ruth 2:18-20Confession: I have, as of this very moment, never heard God’s audible voice. I have never witnessed the sun standing still, a man walk on water, or a dead man resurrected. I have never seen a sign in the heavens, water turned to wine, or had a vision from God. I will tell you what I have seen: hundreds of other evangelicals on TV and in the news boasting of the medical miracles they’ve experienced. Certainly God has suspended ordinary laws of nature for his people in the past, and if you insist you have experienced such a thing, I won’t argue with you or doubt your integrity. I tend to believe these so called miracles occur with the same frequency to unbelievers as they do to believers. In reality, however, most Christians the world over live their whole lives and die never having experienced anything extraordinary or supernatural.
Despite the seeming absence of God’s intervention, I know my ongoing, every day faith in Christ springs from two miracles: one, hearing his voice in the preached word and two, participating in the new life Christ gives in baptism and the Lord ’s Supper. Too boring for you? Too mundane?
I dare you to survey the New Testament. By themselves, miracles never made a true believer out of anyone. The wilderness Israelites saw the most astounding miracles (the plagues on Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven), but the book of Hebrews says they died in the wilderness because of unbelief. I have traveled in Israel and stood among the ruins of Chorazin and heard the words Christ spoke echo in my mind, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes,” (Luke 10:13). Was I looking at the exact same spot where Jesus had performed miracles that could fill stadiums yet left the people unchanged in their beliefs?
My life resembles the book of Ruth. Ordinary. My life teems with opportunities for God to open the heavens and pour out fire, but He doesn’t. Just like in Ruth. Three husbands die, zero are resurrected. Women are barren, zero miraculous conceptions. Famine ravages the country, no manna falls from heaven. Bushes do not burn, angels do not appear, and prophets do not speak. In fact, God’s voice is never even heard in this story. Silent from beginning to end. Or is he?
Although Ruth’s, Naomi’s, and my life seem to abound in boring, unexceptional days and nights, God is very present. Despite the fact that God’s name is mentioned only twenty times (both to blame and to praise Him), His involvement and intervention in the life of His people are undeniable. For Ruth, Naomi, Boaz, and Israel, God grew one step closer to fulfilling the promise that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the seed of the serpent…without fanfare, or hoopla, or anything that would sell on TV. This, Friends, is how God most often deals with us, his people. No spectacular displays, no spiritual extravagance, just his unfailing love and placid providence quietly superintending circumstances and people to bring about his most holy will.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!
Breathe on Me Breath of God
And Can it be That I Should Gain
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (in 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
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