True Friendship (Ruth 1.6-22)

Introduction

Last Sunday we began a series of six talks on the Book of Ruth that will take us through to the end of August.

If you weren’t here last Sunday you missed the start of the story which is set in the dark and difficult days when the Judges ruled, Israel had no king and everyone did as they saw fit. The story begins unpromisingly with a series of disasters; a famine, the death of Naomi’s husband Elimelek, the intermarriage with Moabite women (not God’s people) of her two sons, and then their death soon afterwards.

The Story Continues…

But now we get a series of events in which things start to turn for the better. Naomi hears that there’s bread again in her native land. Verse 6 says that Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them. So for the rest of chapter 1, with her life seemingly ruined beyond repair, Naomi prepares to go back home to Israel. Orpah and Ruth, her two daughters-in-law, widows too of course, plead with Naomi to stay with them in Moab, but her mind is made up.

Between v8 and v14 Naomi begs her daughters in law to stay in Moab, not two or three times, but five times.

Let’s count them; number 1 - v8; “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show kindness to you.”

Number 2 - v9; “May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”

They burst into tears. They can’t believe this is the end. “No, we’ll go with you” they say. They love each other.”

Number 3 - v11; “Go home my daughters. Why would you come with me? I’ve got nothing to give you. You’re better off without me.”

Number 4 - v12; “Return home my daughters! It’s over for me. I’ll just be a burden to you.”

Then number 5 - v13; “No, my daughters! The Lord’s hand has turned against me.”

Orpah and Ruth burst into tears again. They’ve been through so much together over the last ten years. They’ve hugged each other at their husbands’ funerals, they’ve wept themselves dry in each other’s arms as tragedy upon tragedy hit their lives.

But Orpah gets the hint. She stays in Moab, maybe to host a successful chat show and become an international superstar. Humanly speaking, Orpah makes the right choice. Minimise risk. Stick with what you know. She goes back to security.

But never put your trust in human wisdom. This is the last time Orpah’s name is mentioned in the Bible. From that minute onwards, she leaves the sphere of God’s blessing and God’s purposes - never to return.

Despite all appearances to the contrary, it’s Ruth who chooses wisely. She sticks with her crestfallen old, foreign mother-in-law Naomi. She may be penniless, homeless, joyless, childless and hopeless, but Ruth refuses to allow Naomi to leave friendless.

Naomi says, “Go back to your home.”

Ruth replies, “No, I want to back to your home.”

Naomi says, “Go back home, otherwise you’ll never be secure, you’ll always have to live off charity.”

Ruth replies, “I don’t care, I’m standing by you anyway.”

Naomi says, “Go back home. Go back to your gods.”

And Ruth says, “Look! I don’t want my gods anymore. I want your God.”

This is, in New Testament terms, the moment Ruth is born again. She becomes a child of God. The family of her birth becomes less important to her than her family of new birth.

Ruth shows more eloquently than anyone can say it that church is not an organisation that you join; it is a family where you belong.

There was a survey last year that was reported in all the national newspapers. It showed that the church is actually the most socially diverse group in the entire United Kingdom. In the church we are male and female. We are black and white. We are rich and poor. We are old and young. We are single and married. We are highly educated and unschooled.

Pete Greig from Prayer 24/7 said recently, “The whole point of church is being with people who are different to you. If you just want to hang out with left-handed butterfly collecting thrash metal enthusiasts, use the Internet! You will find them; there are probably five or six of them out there. But the church is not niche community; it is messy, broad, and diverse because in loving each other across our cultural differences, we show that Jesus is alive and that one day every tribe and every tongue will come together and confess that he is Lord.”

Ruth got that! She saw something special in Naomi, something else. She felt that there was something missing in her own heart that, even in her mother-in-law’s tragedy, somehow shone through and became compelling for her.

Never underestimate the awesome power of your witness in the way God sustains you through adversity.

So Ruth says, v16. “Please don’t urge me to leave you or turn back. Wherever you go, I’ll go too. Wherever you live, that’s where I’ll stay. Your people are going to be mine, and your God is now my God. I’m not going away. This is till death us do part, so help me God.”

These words are so simple yet so beautiful, so exquisite, that some people use them as their wedding vows. What amazing loyalty. What incredible faith. True friendship is two imperfect people who refuse to give up on each other.

What is it that makes Ruth say what she says?  Why would she change a more secure future, where she has every possibility of rebuilding her life, for uncertainty in a strange country, where, because she is a foreigner, she will most likely be disadvantaged until she dies? What clinches it for her?

I think the answer lies in what Naomi says to her beforehand in v8-13. She sends her daughters-in-law home. Why? Because she loves them.

Despite her dead-end decisions, her bad choices and her foolish running away, the God of Israel is still Naomi’s God. Naomi doesn’t believe in their idols, these Moabite gods. She says so in v8. “May the Lord show kindness to you” and in v9; “May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest.”

Naomi doesn’t think, “Oh well, all religions lead to God, it doesn’t really matter which god you pray to in the end.” She tells them that if they’re going to be blessed, the blessing is going to have to come from the Lord.

And yet she sends them back anyway. Why? Because she is more concerned for Orpah and Ruth's welfare than for her own. She’s got nothing. She’s broke. She has no security, no capital, no prospects. She needs help. But she is so full of love and compassion for her daughters-in-law that she is ready to reduce her own chances of survival for their good.

That’s why Ruth says, “I’m going with you!” She is saying, in effect, “If your God can give you a love so strong, so selfless, so sacrificial, so generous, when you’re in desperate straits yourself, then I want your God to be my God too.”

So they make their way to Bethlehem, Naomi’s home town, a journey of about 50 miles. When they arrive Naomi causes quite a stir.

Verse 19: “Can this be Naomi?” they say. I read that to mean that Naomi has aged badly. Well, you would wouldn’t you, if you’d been through what she went through. Naomi means “pleasant” or “sweet” but, in v20, she says call me Mara which means “bitter.” “I went away pretty and pleasant and sweet - and now I’ve got a face like I'm sucking a lemon.”

And I want you to notice this; Naomi doesn’t say “Oh, I’m fine” when she patently is not. She is real. She is honest. She doesn’t put on a mask and pretend. This is what church should be like. Authentic community where real friends can tell the truth to each other, masks down, walls down.

“How are you today?” How many times in church do you hear, “Honestly, my life is hell today. I am struggling with what’s going on around me and wondering if God is really good. I need support. Pray for me, help me.”

I love it that Naomi is not too proud to admit frankly that she’s in a dark place. She’s not the type who wouldn’t be seen dead asking for prayer ministry.

She is in a bad place. In v21 she shows how skewed her thinking has become. Who is ultimately responsible for her tragedy? She says “It’s God’s fault.”

Not hers? Not her husband’s? Not the ones who rebelled against God, who wandered off to Moab, who left God’s people without seeking guidance, without prayer, and without any sense of calling or leading from the Lord?

I know many people who have come to me in exactly the place where Naomi is here. They say, “OK, I made some terrible choices. I messed up. I wandered away from the Lord. I backslid. But why did God let it happen? Why didn’t God stop me? God could have stepped in but he didn’t. He has ruined my life.”

Is that where you are today? Today, like for Naomi here, could be the day when things start to turn. With God, there is no such thing as a hopeless case. Naomi is back in Bethlehem and what she’s about to discover is that good things come from Bethlehem…

Here, at the end of chapter 1 Naomi is bitter, disappointed, poor, homeless and wretched.

But look up! Ruth is there, by her side, and there’s food.The famine is over.  It’s the beginning of barley harvest. That’s a first ray of hope in this book. Things are starting to turn. What might God have in store?

By the end of chapter 2, Naomi is full of hope, she’s got food on her plate, and she’s got a roof over her head. And it’s going to get even better than that. We’ll see what happens to effect that transformation next week.

Ending

But, as I end, I want to share the very interesting and wonderful story of Michael Duncan that I heard last year at New Wine, because it shows two things; 1) that true, generous friendship is a gift of God to the church for the world and 2) that God still transforms the most hopeless lives imaginable.

Michael is a theologian and lecturer at Carey Theological College in Auckland, New Zealand. He has written some important books on mission and new forms of church.

In the early 1970s he got very involved with LSD. This was while he was at university and he did his exams with his mind completely bombed out on hallucinogenic drugs which produced some fairly weird outcomes and he was eventually kicked out before he finished his degree.

Then for several years his life just spiralled down into crime, more drugs, debts and depravity. He ended up living on the streets. He was homeless for two years and made his money for drugs by selling drugs to others and he became one of the biggest dealers on the southern island of New Zealand.

He says he has no memory of two whole years of his life, so stoned was he on LSD. Even now, 30-40 years on, he meets people from those days who fill in the blanks.

In the days when he was hanging round this park in Christchurch a man would come and preach in the park at lunchtime. Michael would just sit there and listen to him - and he was drawn to what he said. He couldn’t understand why he found him so compelling. Were the drugs that good that he enjoyed listening to an open-air preacher? To this day, he doesn’t really know, but the attraction to this man’s message was like a moth to a flame.

They got to know each other a bit and began to talk together and share life. And after some time the preacher said to him, “Follow me.” And he took Michael back to his own flat. He reached up to a shelf, took a bag, put a few clothes in it, and he said, “The room is yours and everything in it. I may see you sometime” and then walked out.

And here was Michael. His head messed up by LSD, homeless for two years, and now he’s been given a furnished room, a bed, a bath. And there on the table was a Bible and he began to read it. And as he read this Bible he was drawn irresistibly to Jesus – and as he did, his dependence on drugs steadily declined.

Finally, he came to a point where he believed that Jesus was the Son of God, who had indeed died for his sins, that Jesus really would forgive him, and turn his life around (like he did to practically everyone he met in the gospels), if only he would give his life to him – yet for nine months he hesitated to give his whole life to Jesus. Should I? Or shouldn’t I give everything to this Jesus?

Then one day in 1976 he came to a decision. This is how he puts it: “In that room that was given to me, I got down on my knees and said ‘I now pledge my loyalty to King Jesus, and my life will now be governed by an obedience that will come before all other obediences. There will now occur an allegiance shift at the very core of my being.”

At that point, a wind filled the room. The windows were shut. But the breath of God came and it came into him.

This is the saving encounter with God we pray for for Annabel. Her baptism today will do her no good on judgement day unless she makes a personal step of faith in Jesus Christ.

Are there people here today who need to settle their commitment to Jesus Christ as King and Saviour?

Let’s pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 31 July 2016