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THE OVERCOMING POWER

OF LOVE<= o:p>

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Ruth 1:16-18

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God will provide for those who remain faithful.<= o:p>

A sermon preached by

Dr. William O (Bud) Re= eves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

July 27, 2008

Sometimes you remember the oddest things from = your childhood. (I’m going t= o date myself now.) I remember a lin= e out of a movie from 1968 called “With Six You Get Eggroll.” The film was one of a number of “family comedies” about the joining together of two families wi= th a bunch of kids. You can still = buy it online, but the local video stores don’t have it. It starred Doris Day and the late = Brian Keith.

The line I remember occurred when the father, = played by Brian Keith, was having a discussion with his teenage daughter, who was = having boy trouble. She thought she = was in love, but her dad had a different definition of love. He said, “Love…love, h= oney, is what you’ve been through together.” That’s not a bad definition,= is it?

Brian Keith’s definition of love would f= it in pretty well with the story of Ruth, our “great adventure” for today. The Book of Ruth is on= e of the most charming stories in the Bible.&nb= sp; But along with the story, it has some valuable lessons to teach us.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> “Love is what you’ve b= een through together.” Inde= ed, Ruth and Naomi and Boaz went through a great deal together, and in the end,= it was love that gave them the power to overcome.

The saga of Ruth began in Bethlehem of Judea, a town, as you know, that later had another very important beginning. There was a famine in Judea, so in= order to get food, a man named Elimelech took his family to Moab, the country just east of Judea. Unfortunately, things did not go w= ell there, either. Elimelech died= ; his two sons died; and his widow Naomi was left with two Moabite daughters-in-l= aw and no means of support. In t= he days before social security or life insurance, with no family to depend on, they were in a desperate situation.

Naomi had no choice but to return to Bethlehem, where = she still had some family. One daughter-in-law decided to try her luck in her own homeland. But the other daughter-in-law, apt= ly named Ruth, which means “friend,” refused to part with Naomi. She just couldn’t abandon her mother-in-law to travel alone across the wilderness and arrive in Bethlehem with no= body to help her. In one of the most = moving statements of loyalty ever voiced, Ruth committed herself to Naomi: “= Where you go, I will go; where you lod= ge, 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.”[1] It was an offer Naomi cou= ld not refuse.

When they got to Bethlehem, the barley harvest was starting. Ruth went out to glean among the harvesters. If there was a we= lfare system in ancient times, this was it. The poor people were allowed to follow along behind the reapers, pic= king up the few stalks of grain the farmhands left behind. It wasn’t much, but it might= make the difference between starvation and survival.

It just so happened that the field Ruth was gl= eaning belonged to Boaz, an older, wealthy farmer with no family. In addition, Boaz was a cousin of Ruth’s late father-in-law, Elimelech. They struck up a friendship, and B= oaz made sure Ruth found enough grain to keep her and Naomi supplied with food.=

By the end of the barley harvest, Naomi had a = plan. Since Boaz was a relative of Elime= lech, and he had no wife, maybe he would be interested in Ruth. Naomi told Ruth to make herself pr= etty and go to Boaz after the harvest party was over. “You uncover his feet,”= ; she said, “and he’ll tell you what to do.”

Sure enough, that night Boaz was sound asleep = when Ruth slipped quietly over to where Boaz lay and pulled the rough blanket off his feet. The cool night breeze d= id its work, and Boaz stirred. He sm= elled something besides himself and the grain, and it smelled good. He opened his eyes and looked down between his freezing feet, and there was a woman—a clean, sweet-smell= ing, good-looking woman!

“Who are you?” Boaz blurted out.

“I am Ruth,” she replied, “y= our maidservant. Spread your skir= t over me, for you are my next of kin.”

Now before you get any ideas about what was go= ing on here, this is not a contemporary soap opera. Ruth was using was a Hebrew figure = of speech for protection. A husb= and spread his skirts over his wife and children like a hen protecting her brood. Even at midnight, in t= he moonlight, all Ruth is asking for is the protection and care of Boaz.

Boaz proves himself to be equally upright. Ruth had made herself vulnerable, = both physically and emotionally. B= oaz could have taken advantage of her. But instead he blessed her, and thanked God that she would consider = him for a husband, old as he was. The next day he made all the arrangements for them to be married. Love conquers all!

So Boaz and Ruth got married, and before long,= Ruth had given birth to a bouncing baby boy.&nb= sp; All of Bethlehem rejoiced. The child grew up not only with a good father in Boaz and a good mother in Ruth, but he had a grandmother in Naomi who loved him like her own son. Anybody relate to that?<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> The boy’s name was Obed. But here’s the surprise, eve= n a shocking twist for the people in Bible times. Obed grew up and had a son named J= esse, and Jesse was the father of David. The greatest King of Israel had a Moabite for a great-great-grandmot= her!

In fact, this is probably the reason the story= of Ruth made it into the Bible. = It is a sweet story, but it was also a lesson for the Hebrew people not to be so dogmatic about who was in and who was out.= Sometimes they had (like we have) a bad tendency to exclude people we think are not like us. The Bo= ok of Ruth says “Even King David had Moabites sitting in his family tree. So open your hearts, open your min= ds, open your doors a little wider.”&nbs= p;

I think the real key to understanding Ruth is = understanding that love has no boundaries. = Love overcomes every false division human beings put up. Love fights the battles and hangs = on and perseveres and triumphs in the end. Love is what made God send his Son to save us. Love is what sent Jesus to the cro= ss to die for us. Love brought the Holy Spirit upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost. Love is the overco= ming power of God.

The gutsy courage of Ruth and Naomi and the providence of God are both based in a love that will not let go. The heroes of this story—Rut= h, Naomi, and Boaz—are people who show compassion for the needs of others. They go beyond = law and custom to minister to the needs of those who have no right to claim that love, yet they love them anyway. Ruth loves Naomi enough to leave her homel= and and her kinfolks to care for her destitute mother-in-law in a foreign land. Boaz loves Ruth enough = to make special provision for this foreign girl, eventually taking her into his home to be his wife. Ruth lov= es Boaz enough to gladden the time-worn calluses of his heart with the joy of a home and family.

This is the love that overcomes the false boun= daries of nation and race and age and sex. This is the love that triumphs through the tragedies and pains of li= fe and brings us through it all together.&nbs= p; This is the love of disciples who follow Christ.

This overcoming love has at least two implicat= ions for our discipleship today.

First, as the old proverb says, the Lord helps those who help themselves. Unfortunately, this saying is not = in the Bible. But it ought to be! Benjamin Franklin reportedly wrote = it in Poor Richard’s Almanac in 17= 57.= = [2] However, its truth= is supported by Biblical evidence. Ruth and Naomi were two widows who were forced to make their own way in a man’s world. Their stru= ggle for survival shows courage that overcame a tragic situation. It was Ruth’s hard work and = her devotion to Naomi that initially attracted Boaz, and that gutsy determinati= on proved to be her salvation. N= aomi had lost a husband and two sons; Ruth had lost a husband and had no children. But sometimes the important thing is not what you’ve lost; what counts is what you have left.

Years ago, there was a movie called “The= Best Years of Our Lives.” The movie was based on the true story of Homer Parrish, a soldier wounded in Wo= rld War II who had to learn how to deal with the handicap of losing his hands.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> The actor who played Parrish was H= arold Russell, an actor and a real-life veteran who had lost both of his hands in= a training accident during the war.

In Walter Reed military hospital recuperating = from his injury, Russell got to know a handicapped veteran of World War I who wo= uld come to visit the wounded. Th= is man had lost both of his hands in combat, yet had gone on to make a fortune in = real estate. He had a very practic= al approach to life, and he encouraged the men in the hospital ward to learn to use their prostheses just like hands. He told Harold Russell something that he would never forget. He said, “It’s not what you’ve lost that’s important—it’s what you have left and how you use it.”

Russell took what he had left and continued his acting career. His realistic = and sincere portrayal of Homer Parrish not only won him an Academy Award, but it also changed the way many Americans looked at people with handicapping conditions. Russell was named chairman of the President’s Committee on the Employment of the Handicapped when it was formed in 1947, and he served there for more than f= orty years. The Lord helps those w= ho are willing to use what they have to help themselves.

The second implication for our discipleship is= that God will take care of you. God will provide for those who remain faithful. Naomi and Boaz were upright, faithful Jews. Ruth had pledg= ed her faith to Naomi’s God. D= espite the hardships they faced, things worked out. God took care of their needs. His love never fails.

Maybe it was a coincidence that Ruth stumbled = onto the field of Boaz that day, and that Boaz happened to notice her. Maybe they were just lucky. Or maybe it was providence, the di= vine ordering of events to take care of God’s people. Now I don’t believe that God= is the cause of everything that happens or that God dictates the events of the world like puppets on a string. Even faithful people have to deal with ungodly trials and tragedies = in their lives. Nevertheless it = seems that coincidences happen with providential regularity to those who are faithfully seeking God’s will and following him.

It’s like a story I heard one time about= a young man who had just purchased a brand new red sports car, and he was enjoying taking it out for a spin. He was zooming around the curves on a deserted little road way up in= the mountains, just feeling the power and precision of this great little car. He was just about to take another = hairpin turn, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a helicopter swooped down and almost landed right in front of him. He threw on his brakes, and the helicopter lifted back into the sky.= He drove slowly for a minute, then regained his speed and almost forgot about the helicopter. Suddenly it came back and swooped = down in front of him again. He thr= ew on his brakes again, and this time he stopped the car, got out and shook his f= ist at the helicopter pilot and called him a few choice names. Then he got back in his car and proceeded slowly and carefully around the next curve.

What he saw around the next hairpin curve chil= led his heart. There was an 18-wh= eeler jack-knifed in the road. If h= e had come around that curve at full speed, he would have crashed right into the truck and probably killed himself. The young man stopped his car again and looked up into the sky. There was the helicopter hovering = above him, the pilot waving and giving him the “thumbs-up” sign for g= ood luck. But it was more than go= od luck; the pilot had saved his life.

God has the helicopter view of our lives. Sometimes we don’t understan= d, and sometimes we even get angry at the things that happen to us. But then we see that everything wi= ll work out if we will just pay attention.&nb= sp; It doesn’t mean there is no pain or heartache; it doesn’t mean that bad things will not happen. But it does mean that God will take care of us whatever happens. God will provide for those who rem= ain faithful to him. He will neve= r stop loving us.

I have a friend named Jimmie Lee. A few years ago, her husband of 52 years, Steve, died. He = was in the ICU for nearly a month following lung surgery before he passed away. While he was in the hospital, Jimm= ie Lee told me that she knew what she wanted to happen—she wanted Steve to g= et better. But she also said, &#= 8220;I have not always gotten what I thought I wanted. But I have always gotten what I ne= eded. Whatever happens, it will be all right. God will take care of us.”

When Steve died, Jimmie Lee said the same thin= g to me. “You don’t al= ways get what you think you want,” she said, “but God always gives y= ou what you need.”

I said, “God is good.”

And she responded, “All the time!”=

This is the love that Ruth and Naomi and Boaz shared, and that we can have today. This is the love that overcomes the difficult times of life. This is the love that triumphs in = spite of the tragedies. This is the= love that breaks down the walls of race, sex, nation, and economic status. This is the love that will not giv= e up when someone is lost—keep hoping and praying for that child of God. This is the love that in the end w= ill bring us all home to our heavenly Father.&= nbsp; Blessed be his name! A= men!