"GOD'S CHOICE...AND OURS"
Ruth 1:1-17
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. When she heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back, each of you, to your mother's home. May the Lord show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband." Then she dismissed them and they wept aloud and said to her, "We will go back with you to your people." But Naomi said, "Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me - even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons - would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord's hand has gone out against me!" At this they wept again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-by, but Ruth clung to her. "Look," said Naomi, "your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her." But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."
In Christ Jesus, Dear Fellow Redeemed,
One of the major soft drink companies in our country used to have an ad slogan. You may remember it - they claimed that their product was "the choice of a new generation." The ads showed attractive, confident, intelligent young people in high-tech jets or expensive sports cars. The point of the ads was that today's "new generation" knows how to make the right choices, and one of the things they choose is this particular soft drink.
I don't think that's a very accurate picture of the new generation in America. Most young adults today in our upwardly mobile society don't have the right answers. When it comes to the really big questions, I mean. Like where the earth came from, what we human beings are doing on it, and where we're going when we leave it. They aren't making the right choices...about what's really valuable in life - what's worth working hard to get. Many of their choices are confused and random. A better picture of the "new generation" might be of a child in the control room of a nuclear reactor, pushing buttons and pulling levers, and never knowing what the consequences might be.
Today's text is about a young woman who, against all the odds, made a right choice. It's about you, too, and the choices you make in life. Above all, though, it's about God, and the choice that He made! God chose this young woman - and He has chosen you - to be His own. Our theme today is...
"GOD'S CHOICE...AND OURS"
I. God chose to save us. II. Let us choose to serve God.
You know what a "Cinderella Story" is. That's the term sports writers use to describe an athlete or team that overcomes terrifically high odds, and comes from behind to win the victory. When the local high school team defeats all the bigger schools and goes on to win the state championship, that's a "Cinderella Story." Well, the account of our text is a true story with a Cinderella ending. Just consider the odds that were stacked up against this young woman named Ruth. I think you'll agree that her chances of having a successful life looked pretty slim!
First of all, Ruth was wed to a foreigner. When Elimelech and his wife, Naomi, fled the poverty of draught-stricken Israel and came to the land of Moab, Ruth and her friend Orpah married their two sons. They were a poor family, struggling to stay alive. Soon disaster struck - Naomi's husband died, and then her two sons as well. The three women were left widows. You have to remember, in those days there was no welfare, no social security. If a woman's husband and provider died, she was in big trouble. Especially in hard times, starvation was a very real possibility! Things looked about as grim as they could be. It was time to make a hard decision, and Naomi decided to return to Judah.
And what about Ruth? What would her future be? She must have wondered about that every second of the day. She needn't have been frightened, though. Because Ruth was a very special person. Ruth had been chosen by God! God had chosen this poor, humble woman from Moab to have an exciting and successful future. She couldn't possibly imagine it yet, but she was to become a member of the royal line of Judah. She would be married to one of the wealthiest men of the one of best families of Bethlehem. Her grandson would be King David. One of her ancestors would be Jesus, the very Son of God - the promised Messiah! God had chosen humble Ruth to be His own.
It's important for our self-esteem to feel "chosen" and "special" too, isn't it? Some of you probably went through the same experience I had as grade school student - the experience of waiting in line on the playground as two captains chose up sides for a game of basketball or touch football. I wanted so desperately to be chosen - not left out of the game or chosen last!
The good news is that God has chosen you. From the very beginning of eternity, God decided to pick you to be, in the words of Peter, one of "...a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people." -- I Pet 2:9. He didn't choose you because you were especially good - the Bible says that "all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." He didn't choose you because you were particularly strong or wise or noble. Actually, God called you to faith in Jesus in spite of the fact that you're not any of those things! As Paul said, "You see your calling, brethren, that not may wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not may noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are." -- I Cor 1:26-28.
Like Ruth, God chose you for salvation simply because He loved you. He "elected" you to be a believer before time began. This Bible teaching is called the "Doctrine of Predestination," and theologians have puzzled over it for centuries. I heard of an elderly woman, though, who said she understood it quite clearly. She said, "I know God must have chosen me before I was born, because I'm sure He would have seen nothing in me to have chosen me afterward!"
And contrary to what the TV evangelists will tell you, it is God who has chosen you...not the other way around! Jesus said to His disciples, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain..." -- Jn 15:16.
What is the "fruit" that we produce because God has chosen us? Simply this: that we dedicate our lives to Him. In gratitude to God for choosing us, let choose to serve God! Ruth did!
When Ruth became a member of that family of believers, she took on more than an new last name. She was taught to know a God who was different than the idols she had grown up with. A God who cared for and governed His people. A God who promised to one day send a Redeemer who would pay for her sins, and the sins of all people. Ruth came to have faith in the Jehovah-God of Israel, and her faith brought forth fruits. She chose to serve God.
Both Orpah and Ruth loved Naomi, their mother-in-law. Both cried when Naomi said she was leaving. But Orpah finally kissed Naomi goodbye and went back to her people. Ruth clung to Naomi! "Look," said Naomi, "your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her." Even Naomi underestimated the power of the Holy Spirit in Ruth's heart! "Surely, she thought, Ruth will want to give up the true faith and go back to her own people and their idols - she can't want to face such an uncertain future with me in the Land of Israel." But Ruth wasn't uncertain about her future. She had faith in Jehovah, and she wasn't about to return to the false gods of Moab. Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried."
For Ruth there was only one choice. She chose to follow the Lord, and that meant following Naomi on a weary journey of 75 miles back to Naomi's hometown of Bethlehem. Ruth decided that this strange country would become her country, because it was the Lord's country. A strange people would become her people, because they were the Lord's people. She would serve Jehovah, the God of love, with her whole life, no matter what the consequences. It was courageous choice to make.
The Bible tells us of others who came to know God and made the same choice - to dedicate their lives to His service. Paul talks about Moses, who, "...when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward." -- Heb 11:24-26. Joshua called on the people of Israel to choose who they would serve - the true God, or idols. He said, "If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Ammorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." -- Josh 24:15.
What about you and your household? Whom will you serve? Have you chosen, or are you still making up your mind? I want to help you decide. I want to remind you of a few things...
Remember your Savior with a crown of thorns on his head, bent and bleeding under the cruel Roman whip. Remember Him struggling painfully toward Calvary, and stumbling to the pavement under weight of the cross. Remember Him as the nails were driven home, metal clanging on metal, agony following agony. Yes, remember Him, because at that moment He was remembering you. He was loving you all the time! Your sins and my sins put Jesus on that cross. And when the life was finally gone from His body, our sins were gone as well.
My dear fellow-Christians, let us love Him as He first loved us! Let us choose to serve God. Jesus gave His whole life for us - will we give only a part of our lives to Him? No - let's each of us resolve to serve our Savior seven days a week, with every fiber of our being! We are the reason Jesus lived - let's make Him the reason we live! God has chosen us...let us choose to serve God! AMEN.
ONE THING IS NEEDFUL
Lutheran Sermons for the Church Year by Pastor Paul Naumann