231224 Sermon on the birth of the King (Christmas Eve)

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

He rules the world with truth and grace.

That line comes from the well-known and well-loved Christmas hymn, “Joy to the world.” “He rules the world with truth and grace.” Who rules the world? Jesus rules the world.

Jesus being the king who reigns and rules is a theme that is found in a lot of Christmas hymns. I’ll give you a couple examples. O Come All Ye Faithful. O come all ye faithful to Bethlehem. Why? To behold the King of angels. Or Hark the Herald Angels Sing: What are the herald angels singing? “Glory to the newborn King!” Christmas is about the birth of the king.

This king was promised to come in the Old Testament. There are so many prophecies about a great king. He would be from David’s line. He will bring light to those who sit in darkness. He will bring righteousness, justice, and peace. His kingdom will be an eternal kingdom. I don’t think it is possible to overstate the importance of this great, eternal king.

But another thing that almost all the Christmas carols point out, however, is the strange scene into which this king was born. A stable is not the normal place to give birth for any human being, much less the great king. Consider these opening lines: “Away in a manger, no crib for a bed…” Didn’t even have a crib. Or: “Once in Royal David’s city stood a lowly cattle shed, where a mother laid her baby in a manger for his bed…” Jesus being born in a barn instead of even just an ordinary house is so strange.

In fact, for me, this aspect of the Christmas story is a little hard to believe. When we read the Bible we shouldn’t think the people about whom we read are so completely different than us. There’s no indication that the people of Bethlehem were especially cruel and heartless that they would all turn away a pregnant woman. Who among us, no matter how poor the pregnant woman might be, wouldn’t gladly give up our room or even the whole house if need be?

Jesus being born in a stable, it seems to me, was not because of any meanness of the people of Bethlehem, or a matter of chance. God wanted his Son to be born there. He created the circumstances so that it came to pass. The net result is that God’s Son, the long-expected Savior, was born in conditions that were much worse than you or I were born into. Even if you were just born in a house, you were born into relative luxury compared to God’s Son. There wasn’t even a crib to lay down his sweet head.

Why did God cause his Son to be born in such lowly conditions? One thing that God may have been indicating is that all the things to which we look for happiness and fulfillment are not where happiness and fulfillment are truly to be found. We so easily believe that if only we had some more riches, some more luxuries, then we’d be happy. Or if only we had some more prestige. Or, even, for those of a more sentimental nature, if only I had that Norman Rockwell Christmas, then my heart would be full.

No, happiness and fulfillment must be satisfied by something much higher than any earthly, created thing. That thirst can only be quenched by a relationship with the uncreated Creator. And, indeed, to bring about that happy relationship is the very reason why this great king came.

And we see that this great king continues to be a strange king. He was not found in big fancy palaces. He didn’t have servants so that he wouldn’t have to work anymore or be troubled by anything. Just the opposite: he served instead of being served. And his service continued all the way to the end. He didn’t sit upon a big fancy throne. He was nailed through his hands and his feet to an instrument of torture and death.

On the cross the king suffered in our place for the sins that we have committed. With all our sins God didn’t just say, “Forget about them. No big deal.” No, the great king came to set things right, not to ignore wrongs. He came to bring about righteousness and justice. He suffered the punishment that was due for our sin. By the high and holy sacrifice of the king we have peace with God. The king has brought about righteousness, justice, and peace, reconciling sinners to God by his death and resurrection.

The work of Jesus the king is not over, however. He sits at the right hand of God the Father, reigning and ruling all things, but especially his spiritual kingdom. The way that Jesus reigns and rules in his spiritual kingdom is by sending out his Gospel, which means “good news,” so that sinners may repent and believe in the king. So that having been justified by faith, we may have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

This message that gets sent out is similar to what the angel was sent to speak to the poor, lowly shepherds: “Do not be afraid. I bring you glad tidings of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” The angel tells the shepherds that the great king has been born. Christ the Lord will save them.

In like manner the Gospel goes out in our day. Just as with the angel and the shepherds, not everyone hears it. The shepherds heard it; others did not. Likewise, not everyone is in a church tonight. And even though people might hear about the great king, not everyone believes it. Whether a person believes or does not believe does not just depend on their attendance or lack of attendance. Whether a person believes or does not believe is dependent upon the reigning and ruling of Christ the king. When and where it pleases him the Holy Spirit creates faith in those who hear the Gospel. They believe in the king. As John says, “Those who believe in Jesus’s name are children of God—born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.” Children of God

This is all to say that Jesus’s reigning and ruling right now at the right hand of God the Father is very special. If you believe in this king—if you turn away from your sins and hate them, if you believe that Jesus is the king who saves you—this is God’s doing, and it is marvelous, but how marvelous it is is only apparent to the eyes of faith. There is no outward kingdom of Christ right now with magnificent signs and wonders. He rules by his Word and the Holy Spirit. He converts. He brings people out of darkness and the fear of God’s punishment to the light, to forgiveness, to being confident before God because of what Jesus the king has done.

Although Jesus reigns and rules as king in a hidden way right now, it will not always be that way. There is more to come with Jesus’s kingdom. He isn’t done as he sits at the right hand of God the Father. He will come again to bring his reigning and ruling to completion. He will come again on the last day with power and great glory to judge the living and the dead. At that hour, when the trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised, and he will give eternal life to all believers in Christ.

Although this day will be tremendous and awesome, some might say “dreadful,” it is a continuation of all that this king has been doing since the beginning. When he comes on the last day he will accomplish yet more righteousness, yet more justice, yet more peace. Jesus will accomplish yet more of the kinds of things we read about him doing in the Gospels. Jesus went about casting our demons, healing diseases, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, raised the dead, so on and so forth. Jesus was working to bring to nothing anything that was evil, sad, fearful, mean, painful, and so on. These will be brought to nothing once and for all on that great and final day. The king will see to it.

Thus we have a real parting of the ways depending on whether you believe in this king or not. What do we say about these evils? These evils are so easy to find, so easy to Google, so easy to do? We have evils on the outside and evils on the inside. Even if we were to do everything relatively well time marches on and our bodies get old. Things aren’t as fun as they used to be. I think we could come up with a good long list—and we wouldn’t have to work too hard to do it.

The parting of ways is with the philosophers in our midst. The philosophers throw up their hands and say, “Too bad! That’s life! There’s no changing it! Might as well just get used to it!” To which a believer in Christ should say: “The Lord rebuke you!” Because there is the king, God’s Son, things will not just go on as they always have been. There is nothing evil that is going to endure. Whatever is evil is doomed. The king is going to see to it. A great change is in store for everyone and everything.

This is good news. It’s strange good news, in a way, because the evil that the king has come to destroy is surely found also in us. You can’t keep holding on to that evil. The king won’t allow it. The king is on the march. The king is going to be victorious. As our epistle reading said, “He is going to purify for himself a people for his own possession.” Being purified is often not a very pleasant experience for the thing or the one who is being purified.

This is where I think it is important to keep in mind who is doing the purifying. Is God, who is purifying, good or evil? Is God for us or against us? Surely God is for us. That is the meaning of Christmas. God is for us. What more proof do we need than that he sent his Son to be king, being born in a barn? In addition to all the strange things I’ve been pointing out tonight, God’s love for us sinners is strange in that he gave up Son, his dearest treasure.

So if it is good news even that we should be purified, that the darkness we love by nature should be replaced by the light, then what do we have to complain about? Anything evil is doomed. Anything evil is so utterly temporary. God’s kingdom, on the other hand is eternal. His kingdom is unstoppable.

Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

231213 Sermon on Ruth 3-4 (Advent 2 Midweek) December 13, 2023

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

I’d like to begin tonight by orienting ourselves. Last week we heard the first two chapters of the book of Ruth. The two most important people in this book are Naomi and Ruth. Naomi used to live near Bethlehem with her husband and two sons, but they needed to leave when a famine came on the land. They had to move to Moab. As they were living in Moab, Naomi’s two sons married Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth. Not long after that all three husbands died. Naomi’s husband died. Orpah’s husband died. Ruth’s husband died. The women were left alone in their widowhood.

This was an especially vulnerable situation to be in during ancient times. Men worked to provide for the family. They also protected the family. Naomi, Orpah and Ruth were poor and extremely vulnerable.

What I focused on during last week’s sermon was how Naomi and Ruth, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, loved one another. Naomi urged her daughters-in-law to go back to their homes, to marry new husbands, and allow Naomi to fend for herself. This was sensible advice. It was their best shot at happiness. Ruth, however, refused to leave Naomi. Wherever Naomi would go Ruth would go.

Where Naomi then went was back home. The famine by this time was over. When Elimelek was still living, Naomi and he farmed some land near Bethlehem. Bethlehem was home. So Naomi and Ruth went to Bethlehem.

When Naomi and Ruth arrived, they needed to have a way to support themselves. Neither of them had two nickels to rub together. Naomi was old and frail. So it fell upon Ruth to work and support them both. The job she took was very lowly—the kind of work that beggars do. She was a gleaner of the fields. Being a gleaner meant that you would go through the field after it was harvested and pick up the leftovers. If the harvesters missed some grain at the side of the field, the gleaners could harvest that for themselves. Or if some stalks fell out of a bundle, the gleaners could take that for themselves. The gleaners didn’t have a right to take what they wanted. They could only take what was left over.

The good thing, though, was that Ruth ended up being a gleaner in the right field. The owner of the field ended up being a relative of Naomi’s. His name was Boaz. He was also a redeemer, which I’ll explain in a moment. It was good that Ruth worked in Boaz’s field because Boaz treated Ruth kindly. He commanded his workers to allow Ruth to work right next to the harvesters. He even told them purposely to drop so stalks. Boaz wanted Ruth’s gleaning to be worth her time, and it was. When she came home to Ruth with what she had gleaned, Naomi was thrilled.

Now I mentioned that Boaz was a redeemer. Our reading tonight was very much about the redemption process that Boaz underwent for the benefit of Naomi and Ruth. So what is this redeeming about? To understand it, you need to know that loans and the ownership of property worked differently in Israel than how they work among us. God stipulated in his Law how the Israelites needed to handle these things.

Basically nobody owned land in Israel, according to God’s Law. God was the owner of all the land. The people leased the ability to live on the land and work it from God. Now if there came a time when the people who lived on the land came into financial difficulty, they could sell their right to work the land to somebody else, but this was always only a temporary arrangement.  

The family who sold their right to work the land could get their original land back in two ways. One way was by what was called the jubilee year. Every 50 years was a jubilee year. During that year all debts were cancelled. The selling of rights to the land was cancelled. Then the family who originally owned the land would get it back, free and clear.

The other way that a family could get their land back was by a redeemer. This is what happened with Naomi and Ruth. Naomi and her late husband Elimelek had some land near Bethlehem years ago. When the famine came, they must have sold their rights to that land to somebody else when they moved to Moab. Naomi still had a right to that land, but the debt needed to be redeemed. More prosperous relatives were able to redeem their poorer relatives to restore them to the land.

So in our reading tonight we heard about how Boaz set about redeeming Naomi’s land, which also meant that these widows would come under his wing. Ruth would become his wife. This was a big commitment. It would be expensive for Boaz. He also would be taking on the responsibility of caring for these women. But this was something that Boaz was happy to do, because, as you heard, he loved Ruth.

The real driver behind our story tonight is not the peculiarities the Law that God gave to Israel about debt and property. It’s a love story. Last week I talked about the love that existed between Naomi and Ruth. Tonight we heard about the marital love that Ruth had for Boaz, and Boaz for Ruth. For the love of Ruth Boaz redeemed Naomi and her.

He had to play his cards right to do that, because a closer relative had the ability to redeem them too. Boaz had to meet with the council, and that’s where there was that strange exchange of a sandal. Long story short, Boaz did play his cards right. They married, and in this way God provided for Naomi and Ruth—lifting them out of poverty and danger. They were even blessed for generations after them. King David would be born from this line. This also means that Ruth and Boaz are Jesus’s ancestors too.

Now as we look to how we might apply what we’ve heard to our own time and place, I’d like to talk about something that pastors don’t talk about very much—the importance of marrying a good spouse. God’s Word actually speaks about this in many places, and with many examples, both good and bad. One of the most important factors for people’s life of faith is the person they marry—either for good and for ill. A godly, pious spouse is very powerful for helping the other retain his or her faith. On the other hand, an impious spouse will be a powerful hindrance to living faithfully.

And this is not only the case for the spouses themselves. It also has its effect on the coming generations. This is easily proven. When both husband and wife are pious, faithful, church-goers, they are going to raise their children the same way. Boys learn how to be husbands and fathers from their dads. Girls learn how to be wives and mothers from their moms. As the Proverb says: Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

On the other hand, when moms and dads are not on the same page when it comes to their faith and attending church, the coming generations will have mixed signals about how to live and what to do. If mom and dad don’t attend church, the children won’t either. By the time the second or third generation is born, the children might not even be baptized and confirmed.

So we should be wise and serious about marriage. We can speak about this negatively and positively. Negatively speaking, Christians should not continue in relationships where their potential spouse is not Christian, does not want to become a Christian, or doesn’t actively live a Christian life. Being a Christian is not just saying that you believe in God or in Christ. It also means that you repent of sins, believe in Jesus, and want to do better. It means that you are active in your congregation—helping your fellow congregation members, even as they help you. If the person you are dating is not an active Christian and does not want to become one, then the relationship should end.

Positively speaking, Christians should, first of all, pray for God to give them a godly spouse. You parents and grandparents should pray for godly spouses for your children and grandchildren. There’s nothing more beneficial you could ask for them. And then, second of all, when an opportunity presents itself to marry a pious Christian, don’t just sit on your hands. Get out there and make it happen.

We see good examples of this with Ruth and Boaz. When Naomi heard about Boaz, I bet you her wheels started turning immediately. Notice how she encouraged Ruth to go to Boaz and to make known her affection for him. Naomi was a matchmaker. Being a matchmaker is no sin. Making known your affection is no sin. It’s risky, of course. Hearts can be broken. But even in a situation where things do not turn out how we would want, it is better to try and fail than to never try at all.

If I may be so bold, I’d even like to speak personally. I was captivated by Jana from the moment I first laid eyes on her. The feeling, however, was not mutual. When eventually, years later, I made known to her my long-standing affection in an email, she was not immediately on board. But, being wise, she talked to her father about it, and I’m glad she did. He basically said to her, don’t be too hasty. Give it a chance. Long story short, less than a year later we were married. I hope that she hasn’t been too disappointed; I know that I haven’t been. If it hadn’t been for my father-in-law, who knows if we would have gotten married.

So romantic relationships do not need to be only how they get depicted in movies or sung about in songs. Movies and songs can be a lot of fun, but that might not be how God would have it be for you with your spouse.

What is important to recognize are the things that were recognized by Boaz and Ruth. Each recognized in the other that here was someone who was loving, honorable, generous, pious, and so on. That said, neither was probably “perfect” in every respect. Ruth was practically a beggar. Boaz sounds like he was an older man. Maybe he didn’t have the best of looks anymore. But God gave them both the gift of love. God brought them together. The two became one flesh. The blessings carried on for several generations.

So my encouragement is that we be wise and serious about marriage for ourselves and for those whom we love. Being wise and serious does not come out of thin air. If anything, what seems to come naturally is getting carried away by the feelings that are stirred up by stories and songs.

God is the key factor. He is the one from whom all good things come. You young people, you’re never too young to pray for a godly spouse. You older people, pray for godly spouses for your children and grandchildren. There’s hardly anything more important you could ask for to help them not only in this life, but even to eternity.

231206 Sermon on Ruth 1-2 (Advent 1 Midweek) December 6, 2023

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

The book of Ruth is about poor people. Being poor can lead to desperate actions. The book begins with a desperate action. A poor family leaves their homeland when they can no longer make ends meet. A famine struck the land. Naomi and her husband Elimelech have to leave their land behind in search of better conditions. They went to the land of Moab where the people worshipped other gods besides the Lord God. Naomi and Elimelech had two sons who married Moabite women.

But one bad thing happened after another for this family. Elimelech, Naomi’s husband died. Then both of Naomi’s sons died. The family that was left was made up only of widows—three widows, three in-laws. Naomi was the mother-in-law. She had two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth.

Being a widow is bad enough regardless of whether we are talking about modern times or ancient times. Being a widow carries with it sorrow and loneliness. But in ancient times being a widow also brought about impoverishment and vulnerability. Men were important for providing sustenance for the family. There was no social security during those times. Men were also important for protecting the family. Widows could be overpowered and taken advantage of. So with Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth all being widows we are talking about very weak, poor, and vulnerable people.

Normally histories do not get written about weak, poor, and vulnerable people. Wretched people live in wretchedness, die in wretchedness, and are soon forgotten. But the attentive reader is going to notice that Naomi and her daughters-in-law are not completely wretched. They have a couple of outstanding attributes that no amount of money can buy.

Naomi, first of all, was obviously loveable. Naomi was loved by her daughters-in-law. The way that a person becomes loveable is by being loving. People who love do not look out for themselves, first and foremost. They look for how they can love, serve, and sacrifice for others. Naomi must have lived this way, as can be seen in what we heard tonight.

When Naomi’s sons died she lost everything. She had no means for any income that could amount to much. The only hope she had was in her daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth. But Naomi thinks about their welfare instead of her own. She tells them that they should leave her and find new husbands. Naomi was too old to marry and have children, but Orpah and Ruth were young. They could still get married to a man who could support them and whatever children God might give them.

And a clear sign that Naomi was loveable is shown by both of her daughters-in-law’s reactions. Orpah and Ruth weep at the thought of leaving their mother-in-law. They love their mother-in-law. However, Naomi was right. If they were to have any hope for a better future they needed to marry again. With the famine and everything else that was going on, it sounds like they were living in desperate times. One daughter-in-law, Orpah, takes her mother-in-law’s advice. She leaves to find a husband and we do not hear about her again.

Ruth, however, refuses to leave. She says, “Where you go I will go, 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 anything but death parts me from you.” Here we see someone else besides Naomi who loves in an extraordinary way. Ruth, also, is so very loveable because she loves, she serves, she sacrifices. She doesn’t look out just for herself. She looks out for the good of her mother-in-law.

And how is it that both Naomi and Ruth are able to be so loveable, so selfless, so sacrificial? Both of them have faith in God. God would bless them and keep them. Because God would bless them and keep them, they didn’t need to be their own gods. They didn’t need to see to things themselves, engineer their own happiness, taking whatever they could get. God would see them through. They believed that even though God had dealt with them in a rather bitter way up to that point. They were impoverished, after all, and God had taken their husbands from them. Nevertheless, they could afford to love, because God would bless them and see them through.

Now if we take a step back and look at these two women we can see how rich they are, even though they are so very poor in almost every other respect. You can see how noble they are, even though they would have been outwardly clothed with the rags of poverty. They were living life with a capital L, even though they had nowhere to lay their head and to call their home. They were like the birds of the air. They were getting their daily bread, day by day, without barns full of provisions.

We see several of Jesus’s sayings fulfilled in Naomi’s and Ruth’s lives. Jesus said, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Naomi and Ruth were loving and being loved. What more can we ask for out of life than loving and being loved? But this love does not just come out of nowhere. Love comes from God, who, as St. John says, “is love.” And so Naomi and Ruth were fulfilling another of Jesus’s sayings when he says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” It is by faith in God’s kingdom, in his reigning and ruling, that we receive the Holy Spirit’s gift of love.

Again Jesus says in another place: “I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly. The thief comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy.” The way to have life and to have life more abundantly is to love and to be loved. To love one another means that you are looking out for the other. You love, you serve, you sacrifice. This is abundant life as it reflects the nature of God.

The alternative is to steal, to kill, and to destroy. This is the character of every ungodly life. It’s where a person looks out only for himself or herself. Others get used for one’s own benefit instead of being served. Instead of trusting in God to bless you, you see to things yourself, unable to be generous, because you never know what the wheel of fortune might give you.

Looking at Naomi and Ruth from a distance we see that everything that subsequently happens with them is a working out of their faith in God, and their fervent love for one another. These are their riches. Outwardly they are extremely poor. Ruth is practically a beggar and a slave. I’m sure that both Naomi and Ruth would have like it very much if their outward circumstances were different. Nevertheless, they are content. They continue to believe. They continue to love.

Faith and love can seem like small matters. History books are not written about faith and love. Nevertheless, faith and love are the truly great things. Faith and love are what prepare us for the eternal things. Heaven is the place where God is, and “God is love.” Those who do not want to love, therefore, do not belong there. Hell, on the other hand, is where everyone is an expert at not loving—that is, manipulating and torturing. They steal, kill, and destroy eternally. They are unable to do anything else. Faith and love are by no means small things. They are the truly great things.

But we don’t need to wait until we get to heaven to see the effects of faith and love. We can see the effects already in this life. What a difference Naomi made for Ruth already in this life. Ruth loved her so much! And what a difference Ruth made for Naomi. Ruth practically kept Naomi alive. And, as we’ll hear about more in the next two chapters next week, Ruth was the great-grandmother of King David, that truly great man of God. The heritage of faith and love can be passed down from generation to generation. Something of David’s wonderful, courageous faith, and his burning, passionate love, was from his great-grandmother Ruth.

We can easily apply these thoughts also to our own life. We all can probably point to someone in our life or in our lineage who believed and loved, and thereby brought that faith and love also to us. We also are presented with a challenge and an opportunity for our own lives as well. The challenge is to separate ourselves from the great horde of humanity who seeks only to steal, to kill, and to destroy—looking out only for themselves.

Or, alternatively, we can believe that God exists and that God blesses. We can trust in him. Then we can afford to love no matter what our circumstances. When we believe and love, there’s no telling what might happen. There’s no telling what can happen in the coming generations.

Think of Naomi and Ruth. Do you suppose that either of them thought that they would be the ancestors of a king while they were going from place to place, barely surviving? So also we do not know how our actions will affect our families and friends and even those yet to be born—either for good or for ill.

What we can be sure of, no matter what, is that if we fear, love, and trust in God, and if we love one another, goodness is bound to come. Naomi and Ruth are examples for how we should live and wait for God’s blessings.