Sermon - James Duff: Ruth 4 [26/5/24]
Your true redeemer has come and you are in his family
5th and final part of our series on Ruth
Ruth Chapter 4
Full Transcript
Okay, this is the last sermon of Ruth. We've been doing it for five weeks and we've had different preachers. We've had me, Caroline, we had Colin and me. And now me. Again. And so this is the fifth one. Most of you know I've been moving house over the last few days. And I was packing some books like you do. And just, you know, when you stop, you start looking at things if you ever moved house, you know. So I just opened up this book and I hit one of the books. I think I should have it there on the slide. There we are. This is, this looks like the third most depressing cover of a book ever. Eugene Lowry, The Homo-Ledic Plot. The Sermon as Narrative Art Form. While I was doing the subject, Homo-Ledic's Preaching. This book had a huge impact on me. It's actually a really good read. But what I most remember about it is the next slide, which is that. Now this, this, this book who wrote it, Lowry, The Homo-Ledic Plot has been lovingly called Lowry's Loop. Lowry's Loop. And the theory goes like this. Every great story, and the Bible follows this as well, but any great story, neighbours, home and away, all the great TV shows, soapies actually are very, very good at doing this by the way. That's how they hook you in. Follow this, this loop. Something happens. Oops. Now we know that's Genesis 3, yeah? Ahhhhh! And we dive down into, it gets worse and worse and worse. So the Bible, this, this, this, this scene gets worse, those first 11 chapters of carnage. But we see things get worse and worse and worse until there's an aha moment. And it's like, ahhhh! This is, this makes sense now. We can work this out. Now usually in a soapy, that's what happens. Something happens, it's awful. Aha moment, next week on Neighbours, yeah? See, because you want to watch it, because you're down here and you want to see, "Yay!" "Wee!" "Yay!" Like, how does this resolve, how does this story resolve? So this book is, this book that I've got there, is about how to preach narrative. And basically every narrative follows that loop. And today's reading is the same actually. The book of Ruth is the same if you remember this. It's just carnage in the first chapter. Everyone dies, husband dies, sons die, left, like what are they going to do? This is awful, it's just getting worse and worse and worse. And then last week, it started to change. The book started to change. We read about, in the NIV, it's called Kingsman Redeemer. This, this bloke called Boaz, who's a relative. It's like, "Ah, go out Ruth, put on your best clothes, let's see if we can get you married." And she does and it looks fantastic and it looks like it's been resolved. This whole carnage of the stuff, it looks like we're into "we". But this author's so clever, we're actually thrown back into, "Ah, ah!" moment. Because in last week's reading, we don't know. The reader doesn't know whether Boaz is the man, whether he actually can become the Redeemer, because he says this in verse 12 and 13 to Ruth, "Although it is true that I am a guardian redeemer of our family, there's another who is more closely related than I. Stay here for the night and in the morning if he wants to do his duty as your guardian redeemer, good it, let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives, I will do it." It looks like maybe it's going to be spoiled, the party's going to be spoiled again. Maybe this isn't going to be Boaz's time. Maybe it's going to be someone else. Maybe it's going to be the other bloke. Spoiler alert, of course, because we just read it, Boaz does become the Kingsman Redeemer. But the way he does it is fascinating. The way he does it is fascinating, and I'd actually say it's some of the greatest salesmanship that I've ever seen. Now Tom Wedge, who is part of this church, is in Queensland this weekend. He's a very good salesman. He could sell just about anything. But I reckon Boaz is your man. I mean, he can sell. Firstly, Boaz, just before he does this selling, he meets this potential other bloke, this potential other redeemer, out the front of the city gates. City gates in the Old Testament were places where councils and elders of the city would meet. It'd be like a courtroom. He'd get us 10 elders here. And they act like a court, and Boaz uses this brilliant two-fold strategy to become the rightful Kingsman Redeemer. I'm not into boxing, but somehow I find myself sometimes watching some things about it, because I love the story of Muhammad Ali. I love the story. He's always more to what happens in the boxing ring. But some of the greatest boxes, I used to think it was just a slugfest. You're just punching people. But no, there's a real technique and a real skill in this. And Muhammad Ali was one of the best at this. He had a two-fold strategy. He would feign a punch, a pretend punch, on the South Pole. He would pretend to... What's that one? One of these punch like that? Jab. Okay, yeah. He would jab like this. I'm not even... How did you know? [Laughter] Anyway, there's this technique. Many people do it. Many people do this. Feign a jab like that, which moves your opponent in a particular way, and then comes in the big haymaker, or the uppercut, or whatever it happens to be, the real punch. Yeah? So here, this is Boaz, great salesman. He's feigning a punch. He's actually putting out... He's going like that. It's a false offer. And I'll show you how he does it. Verse 3. Naomi... This is from the NIV. Bit easier to understand, I reckon. Naomi, who had come back from Moab, is selling a piece of land. This is Boaz selling, that belonged to our relative, Eliminate. Our relative. We're related. We're mates. We might be brothers, I'm not sure. But we're closely related. Our mate. So I thought we should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of the sickers here, and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you were a redeemer, do so. But if you are not, tell me. So, I'll know. I'll be the next in line. Just in case you don't want it, it's me. And he says, "But no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line." This is a softball for this guy. He just said, "Yes, I will do it." He wants the land. I mean, who's not a... If you've been a farmer before, even if you're not a farmer, you're not anything. I mean, if you're offered land, you just say, "Yes." I mean, who wouldn't want it? He's offered land. I'll redeem it, he said. This is a non-brainer. The potential kinsman redeemer can now see how he would gain from having more land. And this is Sail Ship 101 from Boaz. This is the fame, the little false punch at the start. But then comes Boaz Real Punch, the second one. There's some fine print in this contract. I don't know if you've ever... Well, I've been caught a couple of times on the old fine print. You'll read it all. One time, I cost Jane and I about $800 because I didn't read the fine print. Remember that? Yeah, I thought you might. That was a booklet that you'd get cheap meals from and things. Remember those books? We never used it. Anyway, not once. No. But anyway, it cost us $800. So nothing like reading a contract and then not reading the fine print. Here's Boaz's fine print. "On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you will also acquire Ruth the Moabard, the dead man's widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property." Fine print. Now, what's the motive here? What's Boaz... What is his motive? I can see there might be more, but I can just see four potential motives of Boaz here. Number one, he just like this other Kingsman redeemer wants to land for himself, and he knows that this other Kingsman redeemer, potential one, would gag at the idea that a Moabard... He has to marry a Moabard. So it's like, "I'll have the property." So it could be just straightforward. That's what Boaz is after the land. Could be that. Number two, Boaz has genuinely fallen in love with a much younger Ruth, and this is actually a beautiful love story. He's actually fallen for her and he's going to really, really want her. And knows that the Moabard tag as we've gone through in this series is not one that the Israelites really like. That's the enemy of God's people in the Old Testament. Why would you want to marry her? He's fallen in love and love does crazy things. Yeah? Number two. Number three, he's committed to Naomi and wants a limolec, a dead husband's lineage to continue on. That's the third reason, maybe. Or the fourth is that Boaz is purely acting out of his love for Yahweh and is committed to seeing the tenants of the God of Israel come to fruition. What I mean by that is Yahweh is a God of justice. A God determined to save the landless and the land. He wants to save foreigners and he wants to as well the Israelites. He wants to save men as well as women, widows as well as married. He wants them to be provided for. And the fruit of Boaz's faith, even though he knows he's saved by grace, he said he wants to see justice in the land. And so he knows there's a big picture going on here. And he's a good Israelite and he's following God. The text doesn't tell us which one of those four it is. It's probably all of them. It's probably all of them. And I think God's sovereign over all of it because he's the main actor in this whole thing. And I think it's deliberately a good authorised, leaves things like this a little bit ambiguous and you can think about it yourself. I think that's what's going on here. But whatever the motive is, the haymaker works, the real punch works, the second punch works, and he lands, he becomes the kingdom redeemer and the deal is done. And so in the next few verses, 7-12, we see it become formal and this is weird. The takeoff is sandal. That's a weird thing. You take off, that's pretty feral. I mean, it would have been worse back in those days. And you hand it over, it's like signing a contract. There we are, they do that. Boaz gets the land and he gets the girl. That's how Boaz is the kingdom redeemer. Gets the land and gets the girl. And the second half of this passage is one of prosperity. It's one of prosperity. It's a brilliant picture. This is a brilliant picture. It's the culmination of all the wrongs of this whole story being made right. It has gone, 'oops, ah, ah, ah, we, we're going into yeah. We're going into this is good times. This is what was empty is now being filled up where there was nothing. Now it's been overflowing with blessings. Once it was the desert now streaming with the water of life. Scarcity is now abundance. Boaz, you can read it there, marries Ruth and they have a baby named Obed. And we read of these women, local women in verse 14 affirming and telling Naomi what God has done through her and through Boaz and through Ruth. And it was God doing it all the time. And he says how they say how God gave Naomi her adoring law who loves her more than seven sons. Wow, that's a huge blessing. Remember Naomi's lost two and she was given a roof who she couldn't even see in the first chapter really. She was just there. That person who was just there loved her more than seven sons. Isn't that beautiful? Seven times, seven is a number using the scripture that describes wholeness. It's God's number seven, seven, seven means totally complete and whole. She loves you wholly. It's just complete love. What a blessing. And now we have this beautiful amazing picture is complete. Naomi's a grandmother surrounded by a large family. It's the classic finish to a Hollywood story. It's like at the end, can you see grandma sitting there and it's frosted lens. She's got a whole big family around her and all the friends as well. They all love it. There's kids. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful picture. It's a classic finish. Naomi was with great loss. Husband and son have tragically died. But the God whose wings she took refuge under has taken her not just filled her up, but lavished blessing upon blessing upon blessing. And it's culminated in a family that honors her and loves her and she gets to love them with a little baby. Ruth gets a husband and a child where she looked like she was gone. Boaz, while he gets a wife and a son and more land, prosperity and abundance everywhere you look for the three main acts. And so it seems simple, doesn't it, that we just trust and have faith like Naomi and Ruth. If we have faith like her, what's empty in our life will be filled up if we just keep the faith. You might have empty parts of your own life and God will just fill it up because that's how he works. Well, how does that feel for many of you here today if we're really honest about it? More faith and God will prosper you. Some of you here have had family but lost it. Some of you have had family but it's never grown. Some of you have family but it's totally broken and dysfunctional. There's a lack of intimacy and fear in your relationships. Some of you have never had any family. And so how do you feel when you read a passage like this and the person who had nothing is given everything and you've still got nothing? I think for some of you you're totally crushed by this, actually. You're debilitated. Sure, it's a great story. It's a beautiful story. We all love Hollywood stories, don't we? Sure, God can feel and give prosperity but maybe it doesn't feel like it for you. It's good for Naomi or Ruth or Boaz but maybe you feel like the character in the book of Judges with this book is set in. Which you're actually supposed to read this, Ruth, with Judges before so you get the contrast. Maybe you feel like those characters are more in Judges or it's Desi. It's pretty barren for you around family. Maybe no children, no husband, no wives, no extended family. Maybe a broken family. Maybe a marriage that lacks intimacy. Maybe you're younger and you want a girlfriend or a boyfriend. Maybe you just want friends. Maybe you're far more like Naomi and Ruth in chapter one and that seems to be a lot. Maybe it feels hopeless. I'm telling you, there is hope in these verses, 8/22. Because I think these verses take it from being a wonderful story and they catapult it into a story that's in another stratosphere. I think this is a story that goes from being awesome to something amazing, amazing that you could never imagine. Last year, Jane and I went and heard Handel's Messiah together. It was beautiful listening to it. From a bloke who grew up listening to the great man Meatloaf and the album Bad Out Of Hell. This was a contrast to say the least for me. This was beautiful. This was absolutely beautiful. Every part of this was beautiful. It goes through the themes of Isaiah and the Gospels. But when it comes to the last piece, the Armen Chorus, it catapults this masterpiece into a whole other stratosphere. The orchestra goes bananas. They go bananas. The combination of the orchestra, the choir, the conductor is waving his arms and his body is contorting in ways you've never seen. There's awesome ringing out of just 'Amen, Amen!' Just singing beautifully and playing beautifully coming out. The lead cello player, I remember her and the front there just biting her lip. There's tears of pouring down her face. She was from England. She's like the third best cello player in the world or something. He was out here for it. She's crying. There were laps of atheists everywhere. You couldn't help but be caught up in this. The Armen's were singing out and I sat there fighting emotion like I am now because I was moved by the glory of it all. I was moved by it. I got a glimpse of what it'll be like when the son of David returns to bring justice to the world. Where loneliness will be no longer. Where all yearnings for family and intimacy are filled to overflowing. For you who feel deserty and barren today, have a listen to how this story finishes. Boaz, the father of Obed, Obed the father of Jesse and Jesse the father of David. Jesse the father of David and Jesus, the son of David. Jesus, the son of David. Jesus, the son of David. No orphans. No separation. No longing for a partner in the son of David's family. No sadness. No despair of missing out. No lossness in the son of David's family. No broken relationships. No what ifs. No loneliness and isolation in the son of David's family. 17 times in the New Testament he's called the son of David. Have mercy on me. Can you remember the blind man? Have mercy on me son of David. But this title of Jesus culminates in the final chapter of all of history, the real year. And he says these words, "I Jesus and the root and the offspring of David and the bright morning star and the spirit and the bright say come. And let the one who hears say come. Let the one who's thirsty come. And let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life." This little story, thousands of years before Jesus came, this was all about him. Come those who are desody and parched whose families are broken. Come and be filled to overflowing with the free gift of water from the son of David. Come those who are sad and orphaned and longing for a family. And be filled with the overflowing with the free gift of water from the son of David. Come those who are mourning no partner, no children and no community. Your Redeemer has arrived. The son of David has come. And you precious child are in his family. Your Redeemer has arrived. The son of David has come. And you precious child are in his family forever. Amen. Amen. I want to pray your kids going to get up and leave us. Lord, and I thank you. That's what you do. You promised that you will bring prosperity to your people. And that you have come already son of David and defeated sin on the cross. You've risen to new life. And you've promised that you're coming back for your bride. Son of David, have mercy on us. Son of David, we worship you. Son of David, we love you. And fill us now with your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen. - Amen.
