Worship at Home - June 28th 2020

Worship at Home – Sunday June 28th 2020

Introduction:

This week’s engagement with Scripture is provided by Graham Follett who was planned to preach this morning at Trinity.  I have provided a short order of worship to use alongside Graham’s thoughts and reflections.  The headings for the intercessions are taken from the Methodist Worship Book Service for Holy Communion in Ordinary Seasons.

Call to Worship:

God is our strength and refuge,

our present help in trouble,

and we therefore will not fear,

though the earth should change!

(Richard Bewes – based on Psalm 46 – taken from Hymn Quest)

Hymn – StF 338 There is a Redeemer - https://youtu.be/tUqfdaCLm0Y

Prayer of Adoration and Confession

Loving and redeeming God,
we come before your throne of grace with confidence
because your Son, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ has opened the way.

Merciful and gracious God,
we come on behalf of ourselves and the world
to find help in our time of need.

Compassionate and sympathetic God,
we lay before you our sense of weakness and failing
asking your forgiveness and renewal.

We give you thanks that through your Redeeming love
we have heard the faithful word of Christ
who empowers us to go forth knowing our sins are forgiven.  Amen

Hymn – Stf 427 – I’m accepted, I’m forgiven - https://youtu.be/hmJSEhn7DtU

Engagement with Scripture – 

Reflection on Ruth Chapter 4 (NSV) – Graham Follett

This reflection is in the form of a commentary on Chapter 4 of Ruth. We’ll look at each verse and see what it really says

4: 1  Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat there. When the kinsman/redeemer[a] he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.”

This guardian/redeemer is a kinsman of Boaz, yet his name is never disclosed. Actually, the only way he’s identified is by Boaz saying “my friend”. In Hebrew the phrase translates as  Peloni Almoni. It just means “a certain someone.” He’s anonymous. And we’ll see why he remains anonymous. He’s not all that noble.

Back to Boaz:  

So he went over and sat down.     2 Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so. 

Boaz seems to have these people in the palm of his hand! He says to Peloni Almoni – “sit” and he sits. Boaz gets some witnesses and commands them to sit. They do so immediately. He’s not being bossy or domineering. He’s just getting things done.

3 Then he said to the kinsman/redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. 4 I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you[b] will not, tell me, so that I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”

Here’s the moment of truth – will Ruth get to marry the godly Boaz? Or does she have to marry Peloni Almoni, the anonymous certain someone?

Back to the kinsman/redeemer, Peloni Almoni :     “I will redeem it,” he said.

Oh dear! That’s not what we wanted is it? Ah, but Peloni Almoni wants the land, and Boaz hasn’t mentioned Ruth yet. So will he take the land AND Ruth? So Boaz gets to the heart of the matter:

5 Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth, the Moabitess, you acquire the dead man’s widow,

So, he’s telling this Peloni, if you want the land, you need to take Ruth, the Moabitess woman whose husband would have owned it. Now why does he say that? Well, here’s the next bit:

in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”

It’s a matter of tradition/custom. So, is he still interested?

6 At this, the kinsman/redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”

Is Peloni, this kinsman, this guardian/redeemer telling the truth? How would marrying Ruth mar or jeopardize his inheritance? If Peloni raised up a son for Ruth, that son would inherit the property of Mahlon. He wouldn’t have to take anything that Peloni had. So, I think he’s not being really honest. And I think that’s why we aren’t given his name. He’s not ready to selflessly care for the widow of the deceased and carry out God’s will in respect to raising up a son to inherit that land. So, shame on him. We don’t want to know anything about him. Of course, actually, we’re happy that Boaz gets to marry Ruth now!

7 (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalising transactions in Israel.)

So, here we have another snippet of cultural traditions and customs in those times. The narrator explains a custom in Israel – taking off one sandal - that would have been familiar to the characters. A bit like present day deals being set by a shake of the hand.

8 So the kinsman/redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal.9 Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion and Mahlon. 10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from the town records. Today you are witnesses!”11 Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. 

And then they go on to speak highly of what they really want to see the Lord do with this marriage.

May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12 Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”

So, the elders and all those in the gate call to mind the great people of Israel’s past. They want Ruth to become like Rachel and Leah. Hmm.. Perhaps there were some things that weren’t so great about their lives. But the people in the gate don’t talk about the mandarins or the household idol incidents. They point to the fact that these two built the house of Israel and that’s what they’d like to see happen with Ruth. And Tamar and Judah is a pretty strange story. Judah wasn’t concerned to give his son to Tamar as a husband to do just what Boaz was going to do by marrying Ruth – raise a son to inherit his dead father’s possessions. But no matter how strange that story was, God worked it for good. The result was Perez, who was a father to the tribe of Judah.

13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son

By the way, let’s just remember; Ruth was married to Mahlon for about 10 years and never bore a child. So perhaps she was barren. And that’s why the narrator says that it was the Lord himself who made her conceive; something she apparently couldn’t do before.

14 The women said to Naomi,

Note that they spoke to Naomi, not to Ruth.

“Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman/redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel!15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”16 Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

The name “Obed” seems to come from the word meaning “servant”. In other words, he’d lovingly serve his grandmother in her old age.

Now, he, Obed, is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Well, that’s a pretty uplifting story. But we’re not done just yet. We finish this book with a genealogy. You probably don’t think that’s very exciting. Well, you might by the time we’re finished. This genealogy has a purpose.

18 This, then, is the family line of Perez:Perez was the father of Hezron,19 Hezron the father of Ram,Ram the father of Amminadab,20 Amminadab the father of Nahshon,Nahshon the father of Salmon,[d]21 Salmon the father of Boaz,Boaz the father of Obed,22 Obed the father of Jesse,and Jesse the father of David.

And David will be king. The king that Israel has needed all throughout the book of Judges. The king who will lead God’s people to do right in his eyes. The king who was promised way back in the book of Genesis. The days of the Judges were dark. But the Lord preserved his godly ones and in particular the line of his chosen king through it all.

So, there we have it. A rather satisfying story with a good outcome. 

The book of Ruth ends with the birth of Ruth and Boaz’s son, Obed who is destined to be the grandfather of David, and so a direct line to Jesus.

How did we get there? Well, the book of Ruth shows us many things, but it is intrinsically about the relationship between Ruth and Naomi. How they work together and support each other in various ways. Ruth supports Naomi as they travel back to Bethlehem, and Naomi introduces Ruth in to her wider family and so secures her future. Each need each other. But here’s a strange thing; after the birth, the women acknowledge Obed as Naomi’s son whereas we all know – and so do they – that it was Ruth who gave birth. So the women are acknowledging the inseparable parts the two women play in each other’s lives. A beautiful outcome, as both have worked together to support one another.

This story is written in the spirit of cooperation, and perhaps we should all think about our own story. What part do we individually play in the lives of those we journey alongside? I would guess that in these strange times of the Corona virus, we are conscious of playing a greater cooperative, supportive and loving role in many other’s lives. We must not lose that, for it is the way of Jesus. 

Now a short prayer to conclude this refection

Heavenly Father, thank You for the beautiful reminder in the book of Ruth, that no-one is outside Your offer of salvation, and that no matter how far we have strayed away from Your loving arms, You are ready and willing to bring us back into fellowship with Yourself.            We praise and thank You that no one is beyond redemption and no matter how far we have strayed You are ready and willing to open Your arms of love to the prodigal. Thank You for Your goodness and grace and we pray that those who have wandered far from You will find their hope in Jesus – in Whose name we pray, AMEN.

Prayers of Intercession

We pray

for the universal Church …
for peace and justice in the world …
for those in authority …
for the concerns of the local community…
for those who suffer …
for those who grieve

Collect for this Sunday (from MWB p549)

Merciful God,
out of the depths we cry to you
and you hear our prayer.
Make us attentive to the voice of your Son
that we may rise from the death of sin
and take our place in the new creation.
We make our prayer through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and our Lord.  Amen

The Lord’s Prayer

Hymn: STF.303 I know that my Redeemer lives. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk4BUl0dX0Y

Blessing:

May Jesus Christ, who for our sake became obedient unto death, even death on a cross, keep you and strengthen you, and may the blessing of God who is Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifierbe with you now and for evermore.  Amen