Ruth: Shape of Grace (11 Dec. 2005)

Ruth M3 The Shape of Grace December 11, 2005

(The sermon can be heard online at:
http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)

Last Sunday, one of our staff members Julie Linden shared about the opportunities and needs of our out of the cold ministry that feeds and houses the homeless here.

She was overwhelmed by the grace and generosity of the community here. She got over 200 pairs of socks, 150 underwear… $1,500 over and above the benevolent offering.

She said in her previous church in a different city, was wealthy but no-one seemed interest in giving to the homeless, I don’t believe in giving to that, she community has been over the top in generosity. Thank you for excelling in the grace of giving…

Philip Yancey in his book What’s So Amazing About Grace describes a person being in a bus, reading the M Scott Peck’s bestseller the Road Less Traveled. The person next to her said, what you are reading? The person said well I haven’t gotten very far… it’s some of life guide book and she started to flip through the chapters: discipline, love, grace… the person who asked about the book said, what’s grace? The reader said, I don’t know, I haven’t gotten to grace yet.

Grace refers to the kindness God or human being shows to another, that is not merited or undeserved.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, what we sometimes call the Older Testament, the word Hesed is similar to the New Testament word grace and Hesed refers to God’s covenant love, his loyal love, his compassion. This morning as we come to the final message in the book of Ruth series I want us to explore the shape of Hesed.

To recap briefly for those new to the book of Ruth, the story begins with a famine in Bethlehem. Naomi and her family move out of Bethlehem, out of land where God has led them into Moab to seek better fortunes. But things becomes become very dark for them in Moab. Naomi’s husband Elimelech dies. Her sons marry Moabite and then they die. Naomi returns to Bethlehem totally impoverished with her Moabite daughter in law Ruth (the other daughter in law has gone back home to her parents in Moab). Naomi is fragile and too old to work, so Ruth goes to work in the barley fields, to scrounge up the dropped stalks of wheat. But she “chance chances” upon the field of Boaz a wealthy, respected relative of her mother in laws deceased husband who, as person considered close enough to be what was called a kinsman (or family) redeemer IF he chose to could buy back the land that Naomi’s family had to sell when moving to Moab and can choose to marry Ruth so their family will have an heir to inherit the land.

Amazingly Ruth agrees to propose to Boaz and even more amazingly Boaz agrees to marry her and redeem the land if he can… But he says to Ruth there is one relative technically closer to your family than me and so he is line before me to redeem the land and marry you, let’s find out what he says.

Please turn to Ruth 4.
Boaz Marries Ruth
1 Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat there. When the kinsman-redeemer he had mentioned came along, Boaz said, "Come over here, my friend, and sit down." So he went over and sat down.
2 Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, "Sit here," and they did so. 3 Then he said to the kinsman-redeemer, "Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. (explain this surrendering the right to you) 4 I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line."
"I will redeem it," he said.
5 Then Boaz said, "On the day you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire the dead man's widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property."
6 At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, "Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it."
7 (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)
8 So the kinsman-redeemer said to Boaz, "Buy it yourself." And he removed his sandal.
9 Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, "Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion and Mahlon. 10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon's widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from the town records. Today you are witnesses!"
11 Then the elders and all those at the gate said, "We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12 Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah."
The Genealogy of David
13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 The women said to Naomi: "Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth."
16 Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, "Naomi has a son." And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
18 This, then, is the family line of Perez:
Perez was the father of Hezron,
19 Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab,
20 Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon, [c]
21 Salmon the father of Boaz,
Boaz the father of Obed,
22 Obed the father of Jesse,
and Jesse the father of David.
In the passage, we see that Boaz is willing to act as a kinsman (or family) redeemer for Ruth and Naomi and that he is willing to buy back their land for them. But as we saw there is a relative in the clan who is actually technically closer to Naomi’s dead husband Elimelech than Boaz is and that he has the right prior to Boaz to buy back the land.

So, Boaz tells this “brother” of Elimelech that Naomi is surrendering the right to use the land.

The NIV states that Naomi has come back from Moab to sell the land.

Given the Hebrew context and language, the way the NIV translates this seems to be somewhat misleading.

How so? It appears that Elimelech Naomi’s now dead husband has in effect “sold” the land to someone else before leaving for Moab, but according to Hebrew law Elimelech still maintains the actual “right” and “title deed” to since this land was part of his family inheritance and so even he had sold the “right to use the land” to another person before leaving for Moab, if some one in the family could come up with the money to buy back the use of the land it would return to the family.

Not long after my wife and I were married we noticed that there were homes near UBC and in the Southlands which to our surprise by Vancouver standards seemed quite reasonably priced, especially for the location, but we discovered these house were on land that you were not went so much buying outright as you were leasing from the city.

It seems to be the case that the Elimelech and his family left Bethlehem to go to Moab they sold the right to use their land, but Naomi has no money to buy back the right to use the land, but she as Elimelech’s widow still holds the title deed to the land so if a close a relative like Boaz could come buy back the right to use the land back from the person leasing the land, he could do so and the person leasing the land would have to sell back the right to use the land, whether he wanted to or not.

But as we mentioned there is a relative in the clan who is actually positionally closer to Elimelech, Noami’s dead husband, so Boaz gives him the first opportunity to redeem the land.

In the NIV Boaz refers to this other clan member as “my friend” but in the Hebrew, he’s actually referred to as Mr. so and so, or what someone we might describe as Mr. x. He described as totally anonymously because what’s he about to do is not considered very noble.

When Boaz says you are closer to Elimelech than I am, you have first the right to buy back the use of the land. It seems Mr. so and so wants to buy because he knows that Elimelech the dead husband does not have an heir, no son, and if he buys the land when his widow Naomi dies, the land will eventually become part of his own inheritance.

So he does a quick calculations and says, I’ll buy it.

Then Boaz says when you “buy back” Elimelech’s land for this family you also have the obligation to marry his dead son’s widow Ruth the Moabites, so Elimelech will have an heir…

At this point, Mr so and so backs off and says I can’t do that because I might endanger my own estate. He knows that if he marries Ruth and they have a son that son will not be considered his, but Ruth’s dead husband’s and that the child will inherit the property and so he won’t gain anything from buying the land and in fact if his own children die, then Elimelech’s son might get his estate.

So, out of self-interest Mr. so and so declines the option to buy the land since it also means he’ll have to marry Ruth, the Moabities.

Mr and so and so’s calculations of self-interest, highlights Boaz’s generosity in buying back the family’s right to use the land and marrying Ruth, the Moabities because if Ruth has a son it will be considered the dead husband’s and he will one day inherit the land.

What does this teaches us about Hesed? What does this teach us about loyal love, and God’s grace? One of the things that it teaches us is that Hesed and grace are costly for the ones giving it.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his classic book the Cost of Discipleship warns against what he calls “cheap grace,” which he means “offering” people forgiveness without commitment to God or discipleship.

We could use the expression of “cheap grace” as a way of taking the gift of God’s love for granted as if cost God nothing.

Boaz in buying back the right of Elimelech’s surving family members, Naomi and Ruth to use the land and in marrying Ruth knowing that if they had a son together that son would not be considered Boaz’s but her dead husband’s and as Ruth’s deceased husband’s son, Boaz would like the surrogate father… in effect donating his seed, would inherit the land were a been a great sacrifices and voluntary sacrifices. Boaz after as a family redeemer had the right to buy back the family land and marry the widow, BUT was not obligated legally to do.

Hesed and gace always involves some kind of cost, some kind sacrifice

If someone comes to your house, stumbles and smashes a very expensive vase, and you say oh don’t worry about it and forgive the person… it not like that “debt” goes in the thin air… you absorb the cost of that.

If you’re waiting for somewhat for 45 minutes because they forget about your meeting, and you them forgive, it’s you who pays the price with the time.

Hesed is always costly to the giver…but Hesed may inspire Hesed in them.

In the book of Ruth we see this cycle of grace… After Naomi the mother in law and her daughter’s in law Orpah and Ruth have lost all lost their husbands and become widows, Naomi selflessly says to her daughters in law, go home to your families and your people where you can find another husband… and this kind of character in Naomi, seems to inspire Ruth to say, no where you go, I will go… you’re people will become my people….

The Boaz sees Ruth’s Hesed toward Naomi and is inspired to demonstrate Hesed toward to Ruth…

The Christmas story is about God in Christ demonstrating his Hesed, his loyal love to us in a way that is foreshadowed in Naomi, Ruth and Boaz, but far surpasses them. We didn’t do anything to inspire God’s love, but God became a human being in Christ and laid down his life on cross absorbing our sins in his body so our moral debts before God could be paid for, so we could be bought back to God… As we are exposed to that kind of love we are ourselves can become people of Hesed, people who love even when it costs us something, to use Mother Teresa’s expression we can love till it hurts…

A second thing we learn about God’s grace is that it reaches out to the outsider… to the alien…

Boaz demonstrates incredible grace… by marrying someone who not only is destitute, buys her family land back, absorbs her family debts, but also is a woman of a despised race…

This is not Vancouver in 2005 this is Israel in about the 12 century B.C., a time when Hebrews married Hebrews and Moabities who had been bitter enemies of the people of Israel, were considered a despised minority in a place like Bethlehem.

So this marriage is a huge step for a Hebrew…

Why Boaz able to do it? As mentioned before he sees Ruth in the field… He discovers that she has sacrificed for Naomi, laid down her life so that Naomi, and he’s impressed by her…

But as my wife pointed out to me, who was Boaz’s mother according to Matthew? Rahab. Who was Rahab?

When the Israelites first entered the promised land the first city they were going to take was Jericho…. during this invasion, a Jericho woman, a Canaanite named Rahab, who was an sex trade worker, helped the people of God so she and her family were spared.

And this Hebrew named Salmon marries this sex trade worker and worse a Canaanite… My sister was secretly dating a Greek guy when our family was living in Montreal. His parents had the attitude I’d rather have my son marry a Greek prostitute, than a Mother Teresa or Lady Di or anyone else who is not Greek…

And Hebrews parents in Boaz’s culture would have want their kids to marry a person of their race and preferably not a sex trade worker…

But Salmon marries her… we don’t any details about their marriage, but I think we can surmise that Salmon love Rahab, he marries her voluntarily (that marriage is likely not arranged) and out of being loved, Rahab apparently becomes a woman of noble character, and she becomes part of the family line of Jesus.

Consider she is one of 4 women who are identified in the genealogy of Jesus by Matthew, one of the few women honored in Hebrews chapter 11, Hall of Faith chapter in the Bible…. How does she become this kind of woman? I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that because of the Hesed of a Hebrew man name Salmon who was willing to marry her and love her as total outsider….maybe seeing that that Boaz was willing to step out… and take a risk to love way outside the mainstream…

Perhaps as much as anything seeing the grace of his father to his mother (or likely one of his great grandfathers to his one of great grand grandmothers as Matthew’s genealogy seems to at times skip generations and family history was important and remembered in this culture, in a way it’s not in ours), who was a despised minority, enabled him to show Hesed to a despised minority.

We see in Scripture God’s Hesed extends to the foreigner to the outsider, to Rahab sex trade worker, to a woman like Ruth a Moabities, and in so far as the line of Jesus is concerned to the second born who considered in the culture as inferior to the first born, to the sister who was not graced with super model looks of her sister, but physically unattractive, to a teenager a peasant who would become the bearer of his son…

We know God’s grace, Christmas grace is generous to the outsider…

If we get the Christmas story, if we receive the Christ of the Christmas, part of what that means is that is we love the outsider whether the culture, racial, or economic or moral outsider… Sociologists have pointed people aspire to connect to people of their social or standing or people slightly above them, but that’s not true of true Christian, we related who are considered by “world standards” beside us, above, but also with below us…

Christmas is a family time, for some families Christmas this is one day you of the year you can spend time with people in your immediate family and circle of blood relatives (I don’t way lay a heave on you), but if don’t have such a tradition or if possible to change that tradition, perhaps Christmas could become a time to include people outside your family…

The Hesed of God reaches is costly grace that reaches the marginalized and finally Hesed is usually not what we expect.

When the grace of God is working in our lives, we don’t always get the life we would choose, we don’t necessarily get an easy life, but we get a great life.

Naomi never expected to be a widow so young. Never expected her sons to marry women who were part of a despised culture. Never expected be completely impoverished… At the end of chapter 1 she says I have been emptied by God. The rest of the book is how she is filled by God. But she’s not filled in the way she expects.

As a young wife of two sons, she never envisions the day when her family will be an unconventional until of two poor widows: herself and a Moabite daughter in law who becomes the “barley winner” for the family.

She doesn’t expect as a young woman of two boys that she will be sonless and to have a Moab woman who married her de facto “son.”

In the Movie As Good as it Gets at one point waitress played Helen Hunt who is dating Jack Nicholson, this bigoted, obsessive compulsive author, and Helen cries why can’t I have a normal boyfriend?! I wonder if Naomi cried, Why Can’t I have a normal family!


At the end of the book of Ruth, women say to Naomi, Ruth is better to you than seven sons. Some of you have two young boys and say they have the attention of about 1/2 a nanosecond, and the last thing I would want is 7 sons! Well in this culture 7 was the perfect number and sons were considered highly prized and so 7 sons means the perfect family. Not what Naomi expected for a son, a minority widow, but better than a son, better than 7 son!

Then she kind of has a son through Ruth of course is not Naomi’s actual, biological son, but others say now Naomi has a son. According to the author, the son sustains her in her old age and a “son” who will be one a son who be part the family from whom the Messiah, Jesus Christ eventually one day comes.

Now, think ahead along that family line to Mary of mother of Jesus. She’s peasant girl, virgin, who miraculously conceives a child through the Holy Spirit who become the baby Jesus. It’s a miracle. When she’s 9 month’s pregnant she and Joseph are looking for an Inn. She’s a peasant, but she going to give birth to God’s son likely thinks that God open us an amazing place for her… Maybe the nicest motel she’s ever stayed in was a youth hostel and maybe thinking God will get them a room the Four Seasons or the Pan Pacific, Ocean view.

But none of the inns have any vacancy. They end up in a stable of animals, it’s not what she hoped for, but it’s greater than what she had hoped for…. Because, if God could show up in a stable, he could also show up here right now in Mount Pleasant and he could show up at our heart’s door and if we opened the door of our lives to Christ and say come in, become of my life, we may not get the life we’ve always expected, it will life of costly sacrifice and it be a life loving the outsider, but it will be a greater life, an eternal life that connects to the eternal story of God.
Prayer… perhaps to turn or re-turn your life over to God and pray O holy Child of Bethlehem,
descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
be born in us today.