2-13-2011 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

LEAVING ROOM FOR GOD TO WORK: PART II

    John F. MacArthur is the senior minister of the Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California.  He is the founder of a radio program entitled Grace to You, and is the author of numerous articles and books.  In fact, as I understand it, he’s actually the fifth cousin of General Douglas MacArthur, as well. One of John MacArthur’s books is entitled, Hard to Believe: The High Cost and Infinite Value of Following Jesus.  Personally, I think there’s a sermon in the title of that book alone.  In any case, please pardon the sexist language, and listen to what John F. MacArthur has to say in Hard to Believe: The High Cost and Infinite Value of Following Jesus.  He writes:

Mankind wants glory.  We want health.  We want wealth.  We want happiness.  We want all our felt needs met; all our little human itches scratched.  We want a painless life.  We want the crown without the cross. We want the gain without the pain. We want the words of Christ’s salvation to be easy.

    Is there truth in MacArthur’s words?  Isn’t that really what all of us want?  We want health, we want wealth, we want happiness.  We want the crown without the cross, we want the gain without the pain.  Perhaps some of us even take part in the life of the church to ensure that such is indeed the case.  Yet when we find that there is suffering in life in spite of our trust in God – when we find our lives in turmoil in spite of our faithful church attendance – we can begin to become a little bit bitter.  Why, if things get bad enough, we might even find ourselves crying out to God: “I trusted you!  Where are you now?  How can you let this happen to one of your most faithful servants?  Why do I even bother with you at all?”

    In essence, that’s where Naomi found herself in the story we encountered in the book of Ruth.  Recall the events that had transpired in her life.  In the midst of a dreadful famine, Naomi and her husband Elimelech had left their home in Bethlehem to go to the land of Moab.  Rumor had it there was food in the land of Moab.  So that’s where Naomi and Elimelech lighted, together with their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion.

    It wasn’t long before Elimelech died.  Mahlon and Chilion came to marry Moabite wives.  Mahlon married a woman named Ruth, while Chilion married a woman named Orpah.  (As I mentioned last week, that’s Orpah, not Oprah.)  In any case, Mahlon and Chilion soon died as well.  Naomi was thus bereft of both her husband and her sons.  Hearing that the famine in Bethlehem was over – and with nothing left in Moab to hold her – Naomi decided to go back home.  She headed toward Bethlehem with her two daughters-in-law in tow.

    They hadn’t travelled far when Naomi stopped the procession.  She urged both Ruth and Orpah to return to Moab.  “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s house,” she said.  “May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.  The Lord grant   that you may find security, each of you, in the house of your husband.”  Naomi only wanted what was best for her daughters-in-law.  It was a very different time and place back then.  A woman without a husband had no power, few rights and unscrupulous businessmen could easily take advantage of her.  Naomi wanted her daughters-in-law to live productive and fruitful lives with new husbands of their own.  As for herself, she was willing to live with what she believed was her curse.  As Naomi put it, “My daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.”              

    “The hand of the Lord has turned against me,” Naomi said.  “The hand of the Lord has turned against me.”  Naomi truly believed that God was working against her.  It was God who had made her life miserable.  It was God who was responsible for everything that had transpired.  It was as if she was crying out to God, “I trusted you!  Where are you now?  How can you let this happen to one of your most faithful servants?  Why do I even bother with you at all?”

    Recall now what we discussed last week regarding Naomi’s situation.  We noted that hope is a choice.  Hope is always a choice.  Ideally we choose to believe that life isn’t over in spite of how dire things might look at the time.  After all, there are certain things that simply cannot be done until God shows up.  Thus, perhaps the real definition of faith has to do with leaving room for God to work.  Again, perhaps the real definition of faith has to do with leaving room for God to work.

    Of course, Naomi was in no mood to hear those words at the time.  She urged her daughters-in-law to return to Moab.  Orpah relented and returned, but Ruth clung to her mother-in-law.  She then uttered some of the most profound words in all of Scripture.  Ruth said, “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 – there will I be buried.  May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!”

     Naomi realized that Ruth was not about to leave her, so she consented to bring her along.  Upon their arrival in Bethlehem, Naomi was quickly recognized.  “Is this Naomi?” the people asked.  Naomi replied, “Call me no longer Naomi – call me Mara – for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me.  I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.”  The name “Naomi” meant “sweet” or “pleasant,” but Naomi no longer felt the name fit her.  She thus changed her name to Mara, which literally meant “bitter.”  Naomi was bitter – she was angry with God – and she wanted everyone to know just how she felt.

    Well, Ruth and Naomi had to get on with life.  They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest, so Ruth volunteered to glean the fields of some wealthy farmer.  In those days Israelite landowners were supposed to leave the standing plants the harvesters missed, as well as the edges of the fields, for the poor and resident aliens who had no land of their own to cultivate.  This was explicitly stated in the Torah – the Jewish law – and we find these same instructions in both the book of Leviticus and the book of Deuteronomy.

    Here’s where the story gets interesting.  In verse one of chapter two it says, “Now Naomi had a kinsman on her husband’s side, a prominent rich man, whose name was Boaz.”  Then the Bible goes on to talk about Ruth volunteering to glean the fields of some wealthy farmer. Then in verse three it says, “So she went. She came and gleaned in the field behind the reapers. As it happened, she came to the field belonging to Boaz.”  Did you catch that?  “As it happened, she came to the field belonging to Boaz.” 

    I particularly like the translation of this verse we find in the King James Version of the Bible.  The King James Version says, “And her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz.”  The Hebrew words translated here, “As it happened,” or “and her hap was to light,” literally mean, “her chance chanced.”  The author of the book of Ruth is saying, “And her chance chanced that she gleaned in the field belonging to Boaz.”  We might say, “As luck would have it, she gleaned in the field of Boaz,” or, “What are the odds that she gleaned in the field of Boaz?”   The point is that Ruth did not intentionally land in the field of Boaz.  Was it an accident?  Was it luck?  Or was it the hand of God?  I want you to keep that thought in mind as we move on.

    Ruth went to work in the field of Boaz.  Now Boaz wasn’t there at the time Ruth started to work, so when he arrived he asked one of his servants, “To whom does this young woman belong?”  Now we wouldn’t dare ask a question like that today.  I can’t imagine what would have happened if the first time I ever met the Rev. Dr. Kate Irish Filer I had asked her, “To whom do you belong?”  We have to remember the era in which these events took place.  Boaz asked his servant, “To whom does this young woman belong?”

    Boaz was told exactly who she was.  She was the widow of the son of his kinsman Elimelech.  Boaz thus took an interest in her.  He told her to glean only in his field.  The truth is, a woman   on her own might have found herself in real danger in the field of an unscrupulous man.  What’s more, he saw to it that she received food and water – well above the call of duty – and he saw to it that she went home to her mother-in-law with a large bundle of barley. 

    When Ruth arrived at the home of her mother-in-law, Naomi was astounded at the amount   of barley she had.  “Where did you glean today?” she asked.  Ruth told her that she’d worked in the field of a man named Boaz.  It was then that Naomi’s eyes were opened.  She said, “Blessed be he by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead.  That man is a relative of ours, one of our nearest kin.”  Naomi suddenly realized that the hand of God had not gone out against her.  In fact, the hand of God had gone before her to prepare the way. Hearing that    Boaz had taken a more-than-passing interest in Ruth led Naomi to hope that a relationship between Ruth and Boaz might lead to a solution to her own problems.

    Ladies and gentlemen, hope is in the details.  Naomi comes to realize that God has been at work in her life all along.  Everything matters.  God’s hand does not go out against us.  God’s hand goes before us to protect us. There is nothing in life that is beyond the province of God’s influence.  Again, there is nothing in life that is beyond the province of God’s influence.  Each and every thing we endure can be used by God to promote the further good, and to bring about God’s ultimate plan. 

    Lisa was an attractive high school senior.  She was on the basketball cheerleading squad and was active in the youth group at the American Reformed Church in her little town in Minnesota.  Her father was a good Dutchman, who used to say things like, “If you ain’t Dutch, you ain’t much!”  There are actually a lot of people in Minnesota who say that.   

    Lisa went to a party right after her high school graduation.  Let’s just say she had a little too much to drink.  She went back into a bedroom and quickly fell asleep.  A young man who had also had a little too much to drink went back to that bedroom and took advantage of her.  Lisa did not even know it at the time.  She soon found out, however, when she discovered that she was pregnant.  And not only was she pregnant, she was pregnant with twins.

    This would have been a scandalous thing in a small town in Minnesota thirty years ago.  This would have been a scandalous thing in any small town thirty years ago.  Her family was embarrassed.  Her reputation was compromised.  Perhaps it would have been more convenient to take the easy way out and have an abortion, but her family’s religious convictions precluded that.  So Lisa did the only thing she could.  She held her head up high and she gave birth to a pair of beautiful, perfect twin girls.

    Several years later, she met and married a man named John.  John loved Lisa, and he loved those little girls as if they were his own.  In fact, John and Lisa later had a daughter of their own and all three girls were treated exactly the same.  They were raised in the midst of unconditional love.  Trust me, it is a rare man who can do that.  Those twin girls – who came into this world in the midst of uncertain circumstances – are now 30 years old.  They are both college graduates, they are both married, and they both now have children of their own.  Am I the only one who sees the hand of God at work here?   

    The hand of God does not go out against us.  The hand of God goes before us to protect us.  There is nothing in life that is beyond the realm of God’s influence.  Each and every thing we endure can be used by God to promote the further good and to bring about God’s ultimate plan.  Ladies and gentlemen, hope is a choice.  Choose hope.  Then just be patient…and leave a little room for God to work.  Amen. 

 

2-6-2011 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

LEAVING ROOM FOR GOD TO WORK: PART I

    Dr. Lehman Strauss was an Old Testament professor at place called the Philadelphia Bible Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania a good many years ago.  Then from 1939 until 1957 he served as the senior minister at the Calvary Baptist Church in Bristol, Pennsylvania.  As pastor of a very large church, he performed a lot of weddings and did a great deal of premarital counseling.  Case in point, Dr. Strauss spoke of a time when a young woman came to him and asked if he would marry her and her fiancé.  He met with the couple and after spending a couple of hours with them, he said that he just couldn’t – in good conscience – perform their marriage ceremony.  He had some sincere questions about the character of the young man she wanted to marry.

    The young woman was angry with Dr. Strauss.  She quit going to his church and eventually found another one to attend.  Before long, she approached the minister of her new church and asked if he would marry her and her fiancé.  That minister agreed, and it wasn’t long before the woman and her fiancé were married.  Three years later, this very same woman went back to see Dr. Lehman Strauss.  She said, “I have a problem.  I am in the process of getting a divorce.”  Then she added, “My problem is, I just can’t understand why God let me get into this mess!”

    Did God really let her get into that mess, or did she manage to get into it on her own?  Dr. Strauss had tried to save her the heartache, but she just wouldn’t listen.  The question now, I suppose, is this: “Where do we draw the line between what is God’s responsibility and what is our responsibility?”  In other words, when are the predicaments in which we find ourselves God’s fault, and when are they our own?

    Let’s take a look at the passages we read from the book of Ruth a moment ago.  Yet before we get to the question at hand, I need to take a little time to set the scene for you.  The era in which the events of our passage took place was what we call the period of the judges. This is after Joshua led the Hebrew people into the Promised Land, yet before Saul or David were anointed as kings.

    There was a man of Bethlehem named Elimelech.  The name “Elimelech,” by the way, means, “my God is King.”  The name “Bethlehem” means “house of bread,” but in spite of that it seems there was a famine in the land.  Thus, Elimelech took his wife and his two sons to live in the land of Moab.  Now to a Hebrew audience some 3000 years ago this was not a good thing.  Moab was considered to be a God-forsaken place.  The 19^th chapter of the book of Genesis explains why.

    A man named Lot was the nephew of Abraham.  He lived in a town called Sodom.  An angel of the Lord told Lot to flee from Sodom, for God was going to destroy both Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone.  You probably know the story.  In any case, after Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt, Lot was left with his two daughters.  Lot was afraid to settle in another city – perhaps with good reason – so he and his daughters lived in a cave in the wilderness. 

    To make a long and somewhat sordid story short, Lot’s daughters got him drunk with wine and had an incestuous relationship with him.  Ah, sometimes the Bible reads like a cheap Harlequin romance novel, doesn’t it?  Both of his daughters conceived and one of them had a son named Moab, and the land of Moab – just across the Dead Sea from Judah – was named after him.  Thus, good Hebrew people everywhere came to look with disdain upon Moab – and upon Moabites – because their origins were conceived in utter sin.  Are you with me so far? 

    Elimelech took his wife and two sons from Bethlehem to Moab because there was a famine in the land.  Elimelech’s wife was named Naomi, which means “sweet” or “pleasant.”  Their sons were named Mahlon and Chilion.  The name “Chilion” means “sickly” and the name “Mahlon” means “wasting away.”  Some names, huh?  That would be like us naming our kids “cancer” or “tuberculosis” or “cirrhosis of the liver.”  I think the names of these people are indicative of the fact that there’s more to this story than meets the eye.

    In any case, Elimelech and Naomi lived in Moab with their boys, and then Elimelech died.  Obviously, this made life hard for Naomi, so she tried to make the best of a difficult situation.  Each of her sons took Moabite wives.  Mahlon married a woman named Ruth, and Chilion married a woman named Orpah.  (That’s “Orpah,” not “Oprah.”  Oprah is somebody else.)  Interestingly enough, the name “Ruth” means “friendship,” and the name “Orpah” means “stubborn.”  Perhaps there’s a hidden meaning in those names as well.

    Well, as luck would have it, Mahlon and Chilion lived up to their names.  Mahlon, whose name meant “wasting away,” and Chilion, whose name meant “sickly,” both died as well.  Naomi was thus bereft of her husband and her sons.  When she heard that the famine in Bethlehem was over, she decided to go back home.  Ruth and Orpah both – at first – started to go with her.       

    After traveling a very short distance, however, Naomi had a change of heart.  She urged both Ruth and Orpah to return to Moab.  “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s house,” she said.  “May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.  The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you, in the house of your husband.”

    It was a very different time and place back then.  A woman without a husband had no power, few rights, and unscrupulous businessmen could easily take advantage of her.  Widows and orphans were often considered the most vulnerable people in society 3000 years ago.  Naomi only wanted what was best for her daughters-in-law.  She wanted them to live productive and fruitful lives with new husbands of their own.  As for herself, Naomi was willing to live with her curse.  She had lost her husband and her two sons.  As she put it herself, “My daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.”

    “The hand of the Lord has turned against me,” Naomi said.  “The hand of the Lord has turned against me.”  Think about what that means.  Naomi truly believed that God was working against her.  It was God who had made her life miserable.  It was God who was responsible for everything that had transpired.  In the mind of Naomi, God was the one who was solely to blame.

    I think that brings us back to the questions we considered at the beginning of this sermon.  Where do we draw the line between what is God’s responsibility and what is our responsibility?  Or, when are the predicaments in which we find ourselves God’s fault, and when are they our own?

    Naomi had good reason to blame God for her predicament.  You could make a pretty good argument that what happened to her was God’s responsibility, and that the situation in which she found herself was, in fact, God’s fault.  I mean, if we truly believe that God is sovereign – that God is all powerful, all knowing, and present everywhere – then don’t we necessarily have to believe that God could have prevented what transpired?  Yet on the other hand, is it not also possible that God was preparing a situation for Naomi that she could not have envisioned?  Is it possible that everything that transpired in her life was necessary for God’s ultimate plan to come to fruition?  We’ll talk more about that next week, but for now, I think we need to consider the issue of faith.

    Naomi was bitter.  She truly believed she had suffered unmercifully at the very hand of God.  Her faith in God remained intact.  There is no question here as to whether or not she continued to believe in God.  The question is, what did she believe about God?  Her faith in God’s benevolence had been shattered.  Her faith in the love of God had been crushed.  Her faith in God’s mercy had been obliterated.  Dire circumstances have a tendency to bring that out in us.  When things don’t go our way, we tend to blame God, and raise questions about God’s character.  It’s times like these when we can lose the most precious thing of all.  We can lose hope.                                 

    Ladies and gentlemen, hope is a choice.  Hope is always a choice.  Ideally, we choose to believe that life isn’t over in spite of how dire things might look.  After all, there are certain things that simply cannot be done until God shows up.  Again, there are certain things that simply cannot be done until God shows up.  Thus, perhaps the real definition of faith has to do with leaving room for God to work.  Write that down.  Perhaps the real definition of faith has to do with leaving room for God to work.

    Robert Dykstra was a minister in Saddle Brook, New Jersey.  To his utter shock and dismay, his wife of 30 years – Yvonne was her name – took her own life.  In a book entitled, She Never Said Goodbye, he discusses the horrendous trials he endured in the aftermath.  Listen to how he describes his grief:

Death defies our deepest spiritual imagery.  The promise of a future heavenly home takes a back seat to the harsh, present homesickness.  I can’t talk or think about heaven until I’ve dealt firmly and courageously with the finality of her physical death…She is gone, and nothing can bring her back to me, and spiritual language gives me no answers.  It only leaves me longing.

    Did you catch that last part?  Spiritual language gave him no answers.  It only left him longing.  That’s where he was in the early stages of his grief.  But he didn’t quit the ministry, he didn’t abandon life, and he didn’t give up on God.  Perhaps we could even say that in faith, he left room for God to work.  In time, this is what Robert Dykstra came to say:

The grave, silent and cold, not the fiery, red-hot images of Armageddon, carries me into the last age – the final day – the single tomorrow of the conquering Christ.  The victorious death and resurrection of the Son of Man alone frees me to live in the face of death, to accept her dying – and my own – as a purely natural consequence of living.  It calls me to till my garden of memories and dreams.  Where once the rising eastern sun cast its long, dreadful shadow across the face of Paradise, it now signals a bright, undying hope.

    Try as we might, we just can’t understand it all.  There is more to life – there is more to death – than meets the eye.  Only God knows how it all comes out.  Only God knows what’s in store. We just have to be faithful, and leave room for God to work.  Perhaps no one in history has put it any better than the anonymous author of a poem called, The Weaver.  Listen closely to the words.

 

My life is but a weaving

Between my Lord and me.

I cannot choose the colors

He works so steadily.

 

            Oft times he weaves in sorrow

            And I, in foolish pride,

            Forget he sees the upper,

            And I the underside.

 

The dark threads are as needed

In the Weaver’s skillful hand,

As the threads of gold and silver

In the pattern he has planned.

 

            Not ‘til the loom is silent

            And shuttles cease to fly,

            Will God unroll the canvas

            And explain the reason why.

 

    Ladies and gentlemen, some things just can’t be done until God shows up.  Faith…is leaving room for God to work.  Leave room for God to work.  And it the process, you just might find your own hope being restored…regardless of what you’re going through at the moment.  Amen.