When is God... in the everyday life
Notes
Transcript
ME (INTRO)
Thank you Pastor Shu for the opportunity to speak to RHCCC DTM this morning. I have heard much about you as a congregation as you strive to be missional in Markham and I commend you for that lifestyle you have chosen. I bring you greetings from your fellow Markham neighbourhood church, Markham Chinese Baptist (MCBC).
I’d like to begin by saying I owe much to RHCCC, as I was born, or more precisely reborn in RH in the Cantonese congregation. That’s where I encountered Jesus through what was previously Timothy Fellowship, and what is now known as Nexis Community. I was baptized there, received training in ministry and got my calling there. RH supported some of my seminary expenses. The church also had the foresight to send me out to learn how to be a pastor in a new environment, and I will always be grateful for that decision. So anything related to RHCCC feels like family. My parents still belong to the main campus, John Fellowship, where some of your parents may also be at.
In Christian circles, you’ll often hear people say, when they try to console someone, “it’s God’s timing.” And although people mean well, sometimes it’s pretty frustrating to hear it.
WE (TENSION)
I mean what is God’s timing? Does it mean that God is arbitrary when he dispenses special moments and timings? Do some get it and others don’t? What if I miss his first timing? Will I get it again? Is it set in stone, how everything will unfold, or is his timing more flexible, more malleable? When it comes to your job search, your finding a significant other, your waiting for a baby, or a test result or prognosis, it can get downright depressing or anxiety-provoking. The questions we ask, such as “When is God going to say something, or do something?” as we go about our everyday lives is what we will explore today.
GOD
Today, we are continuing the series on the Book of Ruth, chapter 3. According to scholars, there are four possible purposes to the book : a) it acts as a link between Judges and 1 Samuel, b) it’s a tale of a foreigner in David's lineage, c) it demonstrates God's invisible hand in the lives of everyday people (which is also what this message series focuses on) and d) lastly, its’ the story of two women's solidarity in a patriarchal society.
And for those of you who have been following along. The events of the book of Ruth occur within the time of the book of Judges. A Bethlehemite family goes to Moab in search of a better future. The patriarch, Elimelech and his wife, Naomi have two sons who marry two Moabite women. As famine strikes, all the men die, leaving all three women widowed and without support. Naomi returns home, and one daughter-in-law, Ruth, who the book is named after, goes with her mother-in-law. As they settle, Ruth goes to work and glean in the field of Boaz, who is a distant relative of Elimelech. Boaz takes notice of Ruth and learns of her story, and that she embraces her late husband’s culture, people, and God. He blesses her with two weeks of crops in one day. Naomi, upon seeing the abundance Ruth gets and hearing the name Boaz, realizes he’s a kinsman or guardian redeemer to their clan. As Pastor Angela said last week, this means he is from the same tribe of Judah, the same clan. Therefore, he can redeem what Naomi lost. And here’s where we pick up the story:
Main Idea:
God’s “when” is somewhere between his plan and our action.
God’s “when” is somewhere between his plan and our action.
I. God uses one day to set his plan into motion. (1-5)
I. God uses one day to set his plan into motion. (1-5)
We begin in the last verse of chapter 2:
23 So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
This is a summary of all that transpired in chapter 2. It states two facts. One, Ruth is gleaning with the women of Boaz until the harvest is complete. Two, she is living with Naomi. So there’s some financial support from the harvest and Naomi and Ruth can survive. And had the story ended there, it’s nothing spectacular but it’s still better than their previous predicament of being widowed, fighting a famine, and returning home empty and without support.
But the story continues, because of two words: one day.
One day can be any day. One day can make all the difference in the world. One day can be a seed to promises yet to be fulfilled. The hope that they’ve been looking for. After all, Naomi spoke to her daughters-in-law a prayer even in the midst of her bitterness:
9 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
She may have spoken this at her lowest point in her life, widowed and bereaved of her sons, but the thought had never left her that God is a God of promise. So she proceeded to pray to God for her daughter-in-law to find rest.
1 One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for. 2 Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. 3 Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. 4 When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.”
If you look at your NIV bble next to the word “home” you may find a footnote, which points out that the original Hebrew word is rest. This can’t be a coincidence. It is to give us as readers a hint as to how God will set in motion the answer to the prayer that Noami spoke over Ruth. Naomi’s strategy is for Ruth to sneak into the threshing floor where Boaz is winnowing barley and wait for the opportune time to lie at Boaz’s feet. There are several things to note here. First, she’s to wash and put on perfume and dressed in her best clothes. This is to indicate that she is past her time of mourning for her late husband and is available to be married again. Where we get into a more grey area is the meaning of uncovering Boaz’s feet. It can be as simple as lifting up his garment so that his feet are exposed and the breeze at the cool of the night will wake him up. It can also mean a sexually charged action. Uncover is the hebrew verb meaning to expose or reveal and feet are a euphemism for male genitalia. The writer of Ruth intends for readers to be drawn in to this story with these ambiguities. Lastly, Naomi instructs Ruth then to listen to what Boaz will tell her (with the assumption that she will follow his instructions).
But let’s come back to the idea of one day. Everything changed on that one day. What is the one day you are looking for? The strategy of Naomi and Ruth seems to contradict our understanding of how God works. Are we not supposed to wait for God to reveal his will to us by his Spirit, and not get ahead of God when we want something? We should wait until a door is open for us. We should make double sure it’s God’s will so that we don’t ask God to bless what we want. See, I don’t think discerning and acting on God’s will is mutually exclusive, either you HAVE to hear clearly from him before you act, or you act and hope he’s blessing you as you go about it. Like all things, it requires discernment.
Did Naomi take things into her own hands? Is that wrong? One option for Naomi is the status quo, where Ruth and Boaz continue to be cordial at the gleaning field and Naomi and Ruth live as widows for the rest of their lives. But another option, from what Naomi can see, is that God has put possible signs of his invisible hand before her. Ruth just happened to glean in the right field at the right time which belong to the right person. Naomi can ignore Ruth’s report or she can respond to God’s action. Lest we think Naomi took the intiative, perhaps it is God who took the initative and Naomi is responding by cooperating with what God is doing?
20 “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.”
Are there huge risks involved with the plan? For sure! It takes faith on both Naomi’s and Ruth’s part.
My question to you is, what is that one day where things can change? Perhaps it is already here.
How many “one days” have passed and like Gideon you are still waiting for the right sign. You just want to be sure. But sometimes you don’t know whether you make the right choice until you take a step forward.
Back in 2005 I was deciding what my second internship would be, as my first one was spent serving at RHCCC. An opportunity which I would have never even thought about came about, to go to Dubai in the UAE for three months to minister to mainly Mandarin speaking workers and professionals. Everything about it is crazy and seems like something I should say no to. I’d never flown on my own at the tender age of 28. I had just broken up from a 4 year relationship, and I was battling depression. All while struggling with my seminary grades and courses. I did my due diligence to pray and seek God’s will, but heard nothing. The deadline was approaching, and I decided upon my mentor’s encouragement to go for it. That internship became one of the most transformative experiences I ever had. And looking back, God’s invisible hand has been there. It just so happens I can speak broken Mandarin as a result of my Karaoke days. It just also happens I for some strange reason can read some simplified Chinese, because I can read traditional Chinese and can guess the context. But more importantly, I remembered my calling from a revival meeting where the then senior pastor Rev. Sam spoke on the Isaiah 6 passage and his concluding words were: like Isaiah, whom will go forth? Whom shall I send, and I told God to send me. The seeds have been planted long ago and the prayer response had been made on that day. Sometimes God’s “one day” takes years, but in 2005, that was my “one day”.
Is 2021 your one day? Or 2022?
And what is Ruth’s response? Verse 5: I will do whatever you say.
Our next point:
II. God’s timing and our actions of kindness results in mutual blessings. 6-15
II. God’s timing and our actions of kindness results in mutual blessings. 6-15
6 So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.
7 When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. 8 In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned—and there was a woman lying at his feet!
Ruth did exactly as she was instructed, echoing verse 5 and proving once agaIn the character of Ruth as being an obedient daughter. Something to note in verse 7, which relates to the Book of Judges, is the term eating and drinking and in good spirits. This is a clear echo of Judge 19, about the heinous story of the Levite and his concubine who were also in good spirits (though NIV translates it as enjoying themselves). It was at that time that scoundrels came and demanded to sleep with the man. Here again, we have a man in good spirits, enjoying his labour after winnowing. Will he take the opportunity and sin as the pattern of Judges shows? Or will he chose a different path? He lies at the threshing floor so that he can guard his barley from being stolen, and also because his home can be quite a distance from work. He’s just tired and slightly inebriated. So Ruth did as Naomi instructed, and just as Naomi anticipated, Boaz was startled first by the cool air, then some woman lying at his feet. What is he going to do?
Ruth 3:9–10 (NIV)
9 “Who are you?” he asked.
“I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.”
10 “The Lord bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor.
Here we see Ruth taking initiative on her own. Naomi’s instruction was for her to just await instruction, but once Boaz asks who she was, she engages in a conversation, identifies who she is and asks him to spread the corner of his garment over her. What the NIV translates as garment in Hebrew is wings. As NIV translates for understanding, sometimes it may miss the nuance. This is not the first time we hear of the idea of wings between the two of them. In Ruth 2:12, Boaz says:
12 May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
There seems to be a pattern in chapter 3. Almost every time the LORD is mentioned in chapters 1 or 2, it is being fulfilled in some way here in chapter 3. When Boaz blesses Ruth’s kindness to Naomi with the hope that she would be in the LORD’s protection, he uses the metaphor of God being a bird whose wings provide shelter for Ruth. Now Ruth turns and say to the effect, “Boaz, could you not be the practical shelter God uses for my refuge, by marriage, my rich reward?”
So what does it mean when he say this kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier? Which kindness? The kindness to choose him and not a young rich or poor man to marry. Why is that kind? Because though Ruth is barren, she is still young and can find someone outside of the clan of Elimelech and marry. However, she chooses to remain faithfully loyal to Naomi, by insisting on marrying someone within her late husband’s ancestry. This assures that not only herself but Naomi would be also be cared for. The other thing to note is technically a kinsman redeemer needs only to redeem lost land or pay the debt, and a brother needed to provide an heir in the name of a deceased relative. There’s no precedence for a distant relative to marry a relative’s widow. Ruth wanted her blessing and future to be tied to Naomi’s, showing loving kindness, or loyalty which is what the word meant, and Boaz picks up on it. Echoing the obedience of Ruth to Naomi, Boaz says “I will do for you all you ask” to Ruth, sealing this loyalty. So everything should be settled now, right? But this story would not reach its climax without one more hurdle:
Boaz isn’t the closest redeemer, there’s another.
Now Boaz makes a sacrificial pledge, to take Ruth as his wife despite no legal requirement to either redeem the land or marry a non-brother’s widow.
13 Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to do his duty as your guardian-redeemer, good; let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning.”
He does all the speaking and instruction, which was what Naomi wanted in the first place. He wanted to make sure not to take advantage of a compromising situation of a man and a woman in the middle of the night. The situation in Judges does not repreat itself because Ruth is a woman of noble character, and Boaz also is a man of noble character. The sexual tension becomes a tender moment of two people showing mutual kindness to one another.
To make sure Ruth and Naomi’s bold, yet somewhat dangerous plan would not harm her reputation, or be threatened or harmed physically if she were to leave now, she stays the night. In the morning he will approach the redeemer and sort it out once and for all. Also, the early morning before dawn is safe to travel but not quite bright enough to see who is who. Ruth goes back to Naomi. And just before leaving, he gives her six measures of barley into her shawl to bring back. Boaz is as generous as he is noble. He is indeed a wing which Naomi and Ruth can shelter under in this partriarchal society.
I want to explore kindness, or loyalty/sacrifice a bit further. Have you ever experienced the type of loyalty between Naomi and Ruth, or Ruth and Boaz?
Maybe it’s a friend who you know would not hesitate to back you when you are in trouble? Or a spouse who has put a ring onto your finger with the promise for rich or for poor, for better or for worse, in sickness, and in health, till death do us part.
Who might God ask you to show kindness to today? Or continue to show kindness even when things get tough. Don’t wait any longer, there’s no time like the present to show kindness, in friendship, or marriage, even a stranger, to someone in need.
And lastly,
III. God provides for the here and now and the promise to come when we wait. 16-18
III. God provides for the here and now and the promise to come when we wait. 16-18
16 When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?”
Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her 17 and added, “He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, ‘Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’ ”
18 Then Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”
With a reverse proposal of marriage from the bride-to-be and the pledge to honour that marriage from the groom-to-be, Ruth returns to share what has transpired. Naomi did not scold Ruth for not following her plan, and instead encouraged her to wait. We see God through Boaz provide once more, perhaps for the last time, food, in preparation for his next great act. This great act is finding rest for both Naomi and Ruth and sharing with them his land and possessions. That’s the here and now, but Naomi now tells Ruth all that can be done on their part has been done. Now, she has to wait. But not for long, as Naomi picks up on Boaz’s eagerness to settle the matter today. Waiting for a day is not hard, but to hearts where kindness-loyalty-sacrifice are intertwined, it can feel like forever.
Waiting is really the question of when. A little more about myself which may shed some light on waiting. So as I said, my relationship ended in 2005. I knew I probably wouldn’t be ready for another one or two year, but who knew the wait would be 13 years long! And it’s not like I didn’t want to be in a relationship. It’s just finding the right one. Congregants, pastors all tried to introduce me to this person and that person. Nothing panned out. They say it’s easy to get to know someone at a wedding, especially catch the ones who are out catching the bouquet. But being an introvert, I was too shy and passive to initiate. And soon going to a wedding being the single guy became the most dreaded thing to do. I sometimes even wondered if it was because I was a pastor that made things so hard, and wish I wasn’t. I’ve even blame God numerous times for making me the way I am. Waiting can make you think very strangely.
My ‘today’ came somewhat unexpectedly when my high school youth counselors team decided to put me on a dating app. I’ve tried dating apps before but didn’t do too well initiating so I thought that route wasn’t going to work. That happened in November of 2017. Around December I spotted one time someone who was a Jesus follower and was Eurasian. That used to be a non-negotiable for me but I decided to try connecting. And just naturally one thing led to another and I am now happily married to my wife Shannon for 2 and 2/3 a year.
Now I can say those cliche things like, “oh God was preparing me to be a godly man before Shannon showed up to comfort me,” but really? Do I need 13 years? Does he? But this is as everyday life as it gets when you ask the when question.
WE (CONCLUSION)
If you are asking me when will God..., I’ve got no answers for you. He knows, but he may or may not let you know. I like to think it’s a mystery more than everything has already been arranged, though I could be wrong. But if there’s one thing we can count on, it’s that God is faithful and his promises are sure. Our ultimate hope rest in Him. Ruth found her rest when she least expected it, not in Moab but in Bethlehem. When Naomi regain her faith in God, she saw his hand, and grab onto Ruth’s hand as they journey in faith.
May God also reveal his hand and guide us today into that one day, as we walk carefully to follow in his footsteps, and marvel at his wondrous works someday when we look back.
Amen.
Let’s pray.