Ruth 3:1-11 “Ruth’s Love”

Anybody remember that song on the radio by the modern artist Sheryl Crow that has the line in it “It is not that you get what you want, but that you want what you got.” In spite of the poor grammar, there is real meaning in this for us today. Yes, some modern music does have meaning! And is not even profane!

I think about the person of Ruth about whom we read from the Bible this morning, and I see how these words apply to her. She could have wanted what most young women would have wanted in her situation; however, she instead sees the value of the loving relationship that she has with her mother-in-law and makes the decision that she wants that relationship to continue. She wants what she has already.

It is perhaps a strange thing to think about, but we develop a kind of love- loyalty towards things. I still read the Bible that was given to me at my confirmation. Over twenty years ago my wife Helen sewed a new cover for it. Even the somewhat new cover is ragged looking now. The pages are still holding up. No reason for a new Bible yet. I still carry in my tool box the pocketknife given to me by a friend of mine in Germany. I still have stuffed animals from when I was a boy. Even when I buy Fig Newtons I always get the same brand because those others are just not good enough. You see, I am happy with these things. I am appreciative of these things. I have joy in these things. You can give me a new Bible, a new pocket knife, or generic fig Newtons; I am still going to stick to the ones that give so much joy! I am really happy with what God has given me today. “I want what I got!”(Just like the song)

Now I have a strange question for all of us this morning: “Are you happy with the people that God has put in your life?

My friend John has been my friend since first grade in elementary school. We have been through so much together that I would not even know where to begin. Let me tell you that we never formally promised that we would be loyal friends for life. Our friendship was based on the joy that young boys have in building forts in the backyard together, riding bikes around town together, and taking the bus to the beach together in summer.

I remember one day in junior high school when a bully was threatening my friend John in the locker room at school. The bully was about to beat him up when I happened to come in. Well, I stood right up for my friend and told the bully that he would have to fight the both of us at the same time. He backed down then. The bully asked me: “So, what is he to you anyway? Is he like your brother?” I responded: “That’s right, he is my brother.”

So, you all know that I have a twin brother. I sometimes wonder if I would have stood up for my own twin brother the way I had done for my friend John. Going back to our scripture for today, Ruth 3:1, we see that Naomi does not call Ruth “daughter in law.” Nope, she calls Ruth simply “daughter.” Boaz also refers to Ruth as simply “daughter.” The love that Ruth displays for others causes those others to accept her into familial covenant with them.

There is a pastor in a church in Texas by the name of Dr. Gerald Mann who once preached a sermon in which he said; “The promises we make keep us awake. The promises we keep let us sleep.” If you are familiar with Dr. Mann’s sermons, you will know that he always likes to rhyme so that you can remember the point more easily. If you keep your promises to people to whom you are loyal, well, my guess is that you are sleeping very well at night. If you are failing in the promises that you have made, then you should be up at night wondering how you can repair your relationships with others so that you can once more show loyalty and get a good night’s sleep again.

Let us hear once more then the promise that Ruth gave to her mother-in-law Naomi from Ruth 1:16-17: “Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God; where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you.” What an incredible promise is made to Naomi! Ruth pledges her absolute loyalty to her mother-in-law in that moment with words that I think would be difficult for us to live up to in our own lives. But, I can guarantee you that both Ruth and Naomi are sleeping well at night. It is a strong promise.

We should not get confused by the wording in the Hebrew that is very poetic and has been translated into English as such as well. What Ruth is actually pledging is that she will die for Naomi if called to do so. We do not get many personal pledges of loyalty today that have that kind of understanding. When we are married, we hear the line “until death do us part,” but we are not asked if we would actually lay down our life for the person to whom we are being married.

When we look at the Gospel of Mark to the time when Jesus is telling his Disciples about the cost of discipleship in the end times we understand the Disciples are being called upon to be loyal unto Jesus unto death. Mark 13:9-13 “But take heed to yourselves; for they will deliver you up to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear testimony before them. And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you up, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say; but say whatever is given to you in that hour, for it is not you but the Holy Spirit that speaks. And brother will deliver up brother unto death; and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But he who endures will be saved.” The pledge to follow Jesus then is enforced with the understanding that it will lead to beatings, anxiety, betrayal, hatred and death.

Who would you die for? Since we started with the Scripture from Ruth, let me ask you: “Would you die for your mother-in-law?” That is perhaps not a fair question. But, for whom would you lay down your life? Your spouse? Your children? Your best friend from first grade? Your Lord Jesus Christ? How does one really express that kind of love to another? John 15:13, Jesus says: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Before I really go off on the third point of this sermon, let me just quickly run through what I have said so far: First, love to others means wanting the people you have in your life already and finding joy in their presence with you. Second, loving others as Christians means making a kind of a promise or pledge, spoken or unspoken. And third, love to others means being willing to sacrifice for them.

What does the kind of love that Ruth shared mean to us if not our sacrificing for another person? I want to be really clear that I am not just talking about having a kind of tolerance for another person’s actions. Ruth did not just tolerate her mother-in-law; she sacrificed for her. The disciples did not just tolerate persecutions for the sake of the Gospel, they sacrificed so that we could be saved today!

The kind of love that Ruth displayed is not about building up a resistance to other people but rather self-sacrifice out of love for the individual.

You all know that my favorite prophet in the Hebrew Scriptures is Isaiah. In chapter 56 the prophet talks about foreigners coming to the land of Israel and pledging their love by making sacrifices on the altar of the Lord. And, I would like to think that when we pledge our love to others in our own lives that we can do this by bringing our sacrificial love for that other person to the altar of the Lord. It is of course God that made the greatest sacrifice by giving us His only Son (John 3:16), what greater way to pledge love to another person than to do it before the altar of the Lord! Isn’t that what we do in marriage, baptism, ordination, confirmation, church membership? We pledge our sacrificial love and loyalty before God!

So these things we must remember: Want what and whom you have and find great joy in the people in your life. Keep your promises to those people so that you have peace in your life and you sleep at night. And, be ready to sacrifice out of the deepest and most Godly love that you have for those other people. That is what the story of Ruth is all about.

Amen.