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Salt + Light Community is a SOMA church plant in the heart of Fort Worth, TX. Here you’ll find teaching and discussions from our gatherings on Sundays.
All right.
And I also don't like standing on this
stage, but I committed to our team that I
would try it today, so we're gonna try it.
Um, I don't like staying on
stages, but one thing I do like.
That was a smooth transition is
rollercoasters anyone like rollercoasters?
Anyone?
Hate rollercoasters.
It feels like of all the ways, like our
country's divided, that's yet another way.
Uh, the, the liking rollercoasters,
hating rollercoasters, divide.
Uh, we're gonna be in the, the Book
of Ruth, if you have that pulled up.
We're gonna be in the last, uh,
couple of we versus in Ruth one.
Um, but, but I love, I love those.
I love the, the height, the, the drops,
the flips, the stomach twists, the,
the, the same reasons all you hate
it are the exact reasons that I love.
Rollercoasters.
And so
some of my favorite memories,
uh, is uh, have been introducing
our kids to rollercoasters.
And I think that some like it
and some don't as well, but I
dunno, which is more exhilarating.
The actual rollercoaster
or the introduction of the
children watching their faces.
Um.
And, and I'm just gonna hold this then.
So there we go.
Is it, 'cause I'm on the stage, I can,
I can step down if you need me to.
That's, I'm, I'm very fine with that.
So, uh, one of the things that the Book
of Ruth is, is, is a roller coaster.
If you were here last week, Nicole
took us on a ride, like there's
highs and lows and, and, and
rises and drops and ups and downs.
And, and in Ruth chapter one, Naomi and
her husband immigrated to Moab for the
explicit purpose of feeding their family.
Uh, their sons met wives there.
That, that's a good thing.
That's a high.
But what happened in Moab, the, the
rollercoaster dropped, um, in chapter one.
The, the, the wives that their, their sons
found were worshipers of four in gods.
That, that's not great.
And then all three men
died and that's not great.
So, so this high became a low,
the, the rise became a fall.
But right when we left off last week,
Ruth and Naomi were starting their journey
back to Naomi's home where there was food.
So, so we're looking like
we're, we're going up.
Ruth stayed with Naomi.
That's a good thing.
Now Ruth is the one immigrating to
a foreign land, and so there's two
widows with zero children and that,
that was a big deal in the time.
We'll get into that a minute ago.
So it looks like.
A, a low, it looks like the, the
rollercoaster is going down, but,
but they're headed to Bethlehem,
which is the, the term Bethlehem.
The word Bethlehem means house of bread.
So they're going in order to find food.
So it looks like there's hope.
It looks like there's good coming
and so maybe we're back on a rise.
Did you feel that any last
week, this rise and fall?
It's a quick paced book, but it takes
us up and it takes us down super fast.
As they arrive, the roller
coaster's gonna drop again.
Look at, look at how
the town greets Naomi.
Look at how Naomi reintroduces
herself to her old relations.
It'll be on the screen if
you don't have it pulled up.
Um, the two of them went on until
they came to Bethlehem, and when
they came to Bethlehem, the whole
town was stirred because of them.
And the woman said, is this Naomi?
She said to them, do not call me Naomi.
Call me Mara.
Call me Mara.
For the Almighty has dealt bitterly.
With me.
So they're going back looking for hope.
They're going back looking for belonging.
They're going back looking for provision.
And they do not get a warm welcome.
They don't get a, oh, we're
so glad to have you back.
The, the tone here.
If you're, if you're, if you're,
if you're not picking up on
it, is what happened to her.
Is that Naomi?
It's not.
Is that Naomi?
It's ew.
The mental picture is one of,
of whispering and, and gossip
among the women of the town.
And Naomi doesn't downplay that.
She doesn't ignore it.
She just steps right into it.
Anyone know what the word
Mara Mara means in Hebrew?
Bitter literally means bitter.
So Naomi says, my very name is bitter.
Call me bitter.
Anyone ever felt that?
Now through the Old Testament, we
don't do this as much today, but
God changes people's names based
on his interaction with people.
So, so for Abraham and Sarah, I,
God met them, bless them, changed
their name to Abraham and Sarah.
Nearly every example we see
in the Old Testament of a name
change is a positive thing.
Jacob, I'm gonna call you Israel.
You're gonna be the father of nations.
Also, nearly every example of that we see
in the Old Testament is initiated by God.
So in at least two ways.
Naomi's example is a
clear opposite to that.
She initiated the change.
It is not a positive thing, she said,
because God has dealt bitterly with me.
She's giving herself a new self identity.
She's giving herself a
negative name change.
I am Mara.
I am bitter.
So the Book of the Ruth
is a rollercoaster.
And her name change is the second thing
that the Book of Ruth is, and that is,
and I hope this is freeing for you.
It's a story of breaking norms.
The Book of Ruth is a
story of breaking norms.
Throughout this book, Ruth and Naomi
break norm after norm, after norm.
This is just the first couple
that we're seeing today of a lot
we'll look at in the coming weeks.
I wanna submit the whole
book breaks the norms.
I'll get back to that in a minute,
but, but every norm breaking is, is
an example and a foreshadowing and
appointing to God, who Nicole rightly
said, is the hero of this book.
Every human norm.
Breaking is a pointing to God who
is a breaker of norms back then.
And today, God broke and
breaks religious norms.
He broke and breaks societal norms.
He broke and breaks relational norms.
And that's a good thing.
'cause here's what I mean first.
Um, an ancient near East norm.
It said that a woman's entire
identity was tied to her husband and
kids, especially tied to her husband
and being able to produce a son.
In fact, the, the root word
for Hebrew widow, the, the root
Hebrew word for widow, it's less,
less commonly known than Mara.
She says, I'm Mara.
Call me bitter.
I'm bitter.
Call me Mara.
The root word of widow is one who's
unable to speak, one who has no voice.
A widow is literally a silent one,
and we can go, oh, that's
such ancient history.
Still today in some societies,
widows lose their status, lose all
their status if their husband dies.
Second, to be childless for
a lot of history and a lot of
the world brought great shame.
This isn't just true in
the ancient Near East.
We took our kids to see the musical
six a couple weeks ago, right?
Famously Henry vii divorced one
wife and then killed another who
couldn't give him male heirs.
And then again, and at
least some tribal cultures.
Today it is a grounds for divorce for a
man if his wife doesn't produce a song Sun
and like it or not.
And there's a lot there not to like,
to be clear, it's simply true in a
lot of cultures throughout history.
So widowhood was a negative norm.
Childlessness is a negative
norm, a third negative norm.
In the Old Testament, God had one person,
one people, excuse me, one nation,
and that was the nation of Israel.
And so there was no place in
Israel's theology for a Moabite
immigrant who worshiped false gods.
They had immigrants, they had
folks who were foreigners.
They, they were even called to
bless 'em, but to be welcomed in.
There's no place for that.
That's the scenario here, but into
Bethlehem Walk, this immigrant, childless,
pagan woman named Ruth, and this widowed,
voiceless, bitter woman named Naomi.
So from their very arrival, Ruth
and Naomi are breaking norms.
And then in Naomi's first act upon
entering Bethlehem, this voiceless
widow finds her voice and she
doesn't just use her voice to say hi.
She uses her voice to do what?
Blame God
for her bitter life.
That's bold.
Hmm.
Like what she says.
She doesn't just stop there.
She said, I went away full and the
Lord has brought me back empty.
Why call me Naomi when the Lord
has testified against me and the
Almighty has brought calamity upon me?
Strong words.
She's declaring God to be her oppressor.
She's declaring God as her enemy.
Y'all.
This is a woman in deep pain and ultimate
societal rejection and utter emptiness.
And who does she blame for that?
She blames God.
But how does God respond to Ruth's charge?
Like, if you're part of the crowd,
this is one of those, like, you look
up as if lightning's gonna strike
and take a few steps back, right?
Like, you just, you just made some
real, real big claims against God.
I don't wanna be any part of this.
You, you, you're wondering
if the, the ground's gonna
open up and swallow in Naomi.
That happened in the Old Testament
when people cursed God like this.
But instead, you know what God does.
I'm gonna zoom us way out for a minute.
God includes this book in the cannon
of our scriptures, in the Hebrew
scriptures, in Christian scriptures, and
I think the Muslim scriptures as well.
But this is why.
This is why I don't think that
just Ruth and Naomi broke norms.
This is why I think the book itself
breaks norms and of the time.
Religious norms, relational
norms, societal, societal norms.
Because Christians, throughout
history and across the world, one
of the core things that Orthodox
Christianity holds to is believing
that the Bible is the word of God.
Like there's a lot of other
works in relics from similar time
periods that are not in the Bible.
But one of the things we affirm in the
New Testament, even talks about the
Old Testament in this way, is that we
see all scripture as trustworthy and
helpful and useful, all scripture.
And if that's true, it's not all
scripture except this weird book
where these two women hate God.
If all scripture is useful,
then all scripture is useful.
If all scripture is trustworthy,
all scripture is trustworthy.
If that's true, if you believe that, and
as a follower of Jesus, this is one of our
core beliefs, then, then the Book of Ruth
is God's own rejection of common religious
and societal and relational norms.
Because religion and society
say you can't be angry at God.
That's not right.
You can't blame God.
But at some point, even if you've
never expressed that out loud, be
honest, I'm not gonna ask you to
raise your hand, but come on, every
one of us has faced some pain.
Yes, every one of us has
faced some confusion.
Every one of us has faced some tragedy.
Yeah.
Every one of us has or will ask
the question why every one of
us has or will ask the question,
where was God when blank happened?
God, where are you in this?
And again, I'm not asking you to
raise your hand, but if you resonate
with that at all, 100% of us,
this book gives you permission.
To take those feelings and thoughts
and actions to God rather than
hide them from him as if he
doesn't know our hearts anyway.
'cause again, religion and society
says, look like this to be good.
Act like that in order to earn God's love.
And God says No.
Son, daughter, you can be honest with
me, says, God, you can question me.
You can bear your heart to me.
Not just in the pretty moments
on the rollercoaster, but
in the the worst as well.
You can be bitter at me.
You can seek me directly.
You can tell me all the
things you think are wrong.
One of the things we talk
about periodically as a church
is the concept of lament.
Which is a long lost
art of followers of God.
Something that we're probably
not really great at, but, but the
act of lament is telling the king
what is wrong in the kingdom?
God, there's this thing that is not right.
There's this thing that should not be God.
There's this thing that doesn't
seem to reflect your heart.
What is going on?
That's what lament is.
Good King, I can't fix this.
You can fix your kingdom.
Why aren't you?
That's what Naomi is doing.
Frankly, like that's what
a lot of the Psalms do.
I'm dwelling in the Psalms this
year 'cause I'm not, I'm I'm, I
follow Paul's logical writings.
I love the stories and scripture.
I'm not great at poetry, so I
felt like the Lord is asking me
to like just dwell in the poetry.
There's a lot of dark stuff in the Psalms.
They're part of the scripture as well.
God gives voice to every emotion we feel.
God gives voice to every
experience you'll face.
And that's so helpful 'cause, 'cause
y'all, even if we believe in our
heads that God is good, we all
have times where our hearts doubt.
Yes.
And so here's the point.
You may be literally barren, childless.
You may be a literal widow or not.
Okay.
But at times, every single one
of us suffer, and at times,
every single one of us is hurt.
And at times, every single one
of us feels like we don't belong.
And at times, every single
one of us is bitter.
True church.
Is it hard to admit again, like the
world around us says, no, no, no.
Put, put on a happy face look, look good.
Even if we're wrecked inside,
something about us feels like we
have to put on a different face.
So lemme ask you again.
Everyone suffers, everyone is hurt.
Everyone feels like you don't belong.
At some point, everyone's bitter.
Is that true?
The Book of Ruth gives
voice to those moments.
God invites you to him.
When you feel despised and rejected
by people, God invites you to him.
Even when you feel despised
and rejected by God.
And if you feel the tension in that,
then our next question is to ask why is
God okay with our, with our bitterness?
Why is God okay with our accusation?
Why is God okay with our blame?
And the answer is that
God is not done with you.
He is okay with us bringing these
things to him 'cause he has more for us.
He has a next chapter, he has a next page.
He has a next rise on the roller coaster.
It's often at the bottom.
It's often at the low.
It's often at the fall.
It's often at the valley that God
meets us to open a new chapter
in his story and our story.
You believe that?
Have you experienced it?
In other words, is God just with you
when you're on the top of the mountain?
When the roller coaster's at his peak?
This is really good news.
God is also with us in our very lowest.
This is a psalm that you
may have heard of before.
It actually is not Psalm 21.
Even though I walk through the
valley, the low, the lowest of lows,
the darkness of the shadow of death.
I'll fear no evil because why?
God's with us there.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort
me, not you yelling at me from the top.
It'll get better one day.
That's not comforting.
Not, Hey, once you get back up
here, we can keep walking together.
That's not God.
In the valley of the
shadow of death you are.
With me
last week, Nicole compared Naomi to Job.
Who in, in the scriptures is, is like
the famous guy for suffering much.
But you know what happened at
the end of the book of job?
Nope.
Nope.
God restores blessing to
job in the book of Genesis.
Joseph is sold by his own brothers,
imprisoned in a foreign land for 40 years.
Can you imagine this?
40 years?
It seems like God is silent.
But you know what happens?
At the end of Joseph's story,
God restores and blesses Joseph,
and today we get a first glimpse
of God restoring Ruth and Naomi.
Here's what happens.
So Naomi returned Ruth the Moabite,
her daughter-in-law with her who
returned from the country of Moab.
And they came to Bethlehem at
the beginning of Barley Harvest.
Now, Naomi had a relative of her
husband, a worthy man of the clan, of a
lilac that was her husband, whose name
was Boaz and Ruth, the Moabite said
to Naomi, let me go into the field.
And glean among the ears of grain after
him, and whose sight I shall find favor.
Okay, that's an interesting phrasing.
So essentially she was gonna go to
fields and then like crop shares.
Folks had different parts of the
field, and whoever would show her
favor, she would glean in that field.
That's what's being said there.
And Naomi said to Ruth, go, my
daughter and Ruth set out and went
and gleaned among the fields after
the Reapers, and she happened.
I love this phrasing, and she happened to
come to the part of the field belonging
to Boaz, who was of the clan of Ale.
All right, here's where we start to see
glimpses of God restoring Ruth and Naomi.
I wanna show you at least
three examples of God's hand
quietly being at work in this.
First of all, Ruth and Naomi arrive
when, at the beginning of a harvest.
Why did they come back?
They were hungry.
They needed food, and so in God's perfect
timing, they arrive at the start of
barley harvest for whatever it was in
their minds that said, we should go.
We should go now.
Whatever it was, God brought them to
the place where he was going to provide.
In his timing.
The rollercoasters starting
to click, click, click up.
Second, Ruth goes out to glean.
So if you're unfamiliar with
this, she's gathering scraps.
This is not an accident,
neither is it stealing.
In Leviticus, everyone's favorite
book, God instituted essentially
an Old Testament welfare system,
and so anyone who harvested was to
leave the edges of the field for
widows and orphans and immigrants and
foreigners to come and, and get little
bits of scraps that were left over.
This is God's care.
This is God's law that he had
written centuries beforehand.
That is meeting Ruth and
Naomi in their time of need.
Now, this wasn't a pretty, there's
a lot of like pristine, beautiful
pictures of Ruth out, like you find
'em in like mardel, um, like grabbing
beautiful heads of grain and this
kind, no, this is like, it's rough.
Like the folks who are going out
are scrapping for the only little
bits of grain that are left.
People got in fights, people got
taken advantage of this kind of stuff.
It wasn't great.
And yet, centuries before God had
provided a way to feed these two women.
And the roller coaster starts to click,
click, click up a little bit more.
And then third and key
for the rest of the story.
And I, again, I love the phrasing here.
Ruth happened to arrive, says the
narrator at this specific field.
Now this is a sly move.
The narrator knows whose field this is.
Ruth has no idea.
We who've perhaps read the story of
Ruth, know what's going to happen.
Ruth didn't know
this is God leading Ruth to the right
field, not just to provide food for her,
but to start the redemption story, the
restoration story of Naomi and Ruth.
Here's the point I'm trying to make.
It's God who pursues this
immigrant, childless, pagan
woman named Ruth and provides for
her and meets her in her need.
And it's God who provides and meets
and pursues this widowed, voiceless,
bitter woman named Naomi, in order
to write a new chapter and to
start to restore these two women,
y'all.
That's what God does.
That's what God does in the Book
of Ruth, and that's what God does
in each of our lives as well.
And so, so please hear this if
you hear nothing else today.
Whether you're an addict or clean or
married or single or divorced, or criminal
or illegal or legal or manic or depressive
or fertile or barren or young or old or
rich or poor, longtime follower of Jesus,
new follower of Jesus, not a follower
of Jesus, whether you feel like you're
on a mountain, whether you feel like
you're in a valley, whether you have no
idea where you are on this rollercoaster
or any other scenario, God loves you.
And God is pursuing you and God
is providing for you, and God is
writing the story of your life,
and I love that we got to
do our birthday blessing.
I love that.
I got to receive our birthday blessing
today of God made you and God knows you,
and God leads you and God loves you.
That is the undergirding of the
story of Ruth, and that's the
undergirding of what we believe
when we can believe it.
And that's the final way.
The ultimate way maybe that
God breaks religious norms.
Religion says, do and
say the right things.
Society says, look and
act proper relationships.
Say put on a happy face.
I don't want the cost benefit
to be too strong here.
You can't be too needy with me.
Gotta be polite.
But God and I increasingly hope
that we, as his people say, no.
God says, I didn't come for those people.
The proper, the polite, the
folks who only do and say the
right things, the happy face,
God came for the fringes,
the marginalized, the hurting,
the outcast, the lowly.
God came for the folks
who know they need him.
'cause we have nothing on our own.
Jesus says this a few centuries later.
He's talking to the, the self-righteous
Pharisees and says, those who are
well have no need for a physician, but
those who are sick, I've not come to
call the righteous, the self-righteous
is what he is saying there, but
rather the sinner is to repentance.
Have him come for you if you think
you've got everything together.
I've come for you.
If you know you have some need and
some brokenness that needs repair,
Jesus met the widow and leper
and child and tax collector and
prostitute and foreigner and women
and other marginalized societies.
And you know what he
did with each of them?
If they would say yes to him
to, to receive his help and his
lordship, he would, he would restore
each to their original and true.
Identity.
And so this is where we need
to land our time today and go,
what is that true identity?
Who, who, who at their
core were Ruth and Naomi?
Who is at your core?
Every man and woman and child, no
matter your age, race, ability,
socioeconomic status, legal status.
Who are you according to God?
This far predates even Jesus' time on
Earth from the beginning of creation.
Here's who God says you are.
Not the general you, although that is
also true, but each and every one of you
hear me on this, God said, let us make
mankind in our image after our likeness.
God made you in his image.
I think God gave you purpose.
Let them have dominion over the fish
of the sea and over the birds of the
heavens, and over the livestock and
over the earth, and every creeping
thing that creeps on the ground.
And so God made mankind in his own
image, and you could sub out mankind
for your name and read this as
God created you in his own image.
In the image of God, he created him.
Male and female.
He created them.
Whoever you are, whatever situation
you face, whatever religious and
societal and relational norms
say God calls you his child,
his son, his daughter, his beloved heir.
No matter what else has been piled on you.
Who you are at your core is
someone created by God in the
image of God for the glory of God.
Whatever other lies you believe you, God
says you are worthy because you're mine.
Whatever loneliness you
feel God is with you.
And whatever moment you're in,
God is not done with your story.
And so you and I can say, and, and,
and rightly bring this to God, at times
we can say with Naomi, I am bitter.
Call me bitter, change my name,
and God will still look at you
and say, you are my beloved.
You're my son, you're my daughter.
And whatever situation you face, what
we'll see with Ruth and Naomi through the
rest of this book is still true for you.
That God is at work for your good,
even if you don't see it yet.
We're intentionally walking through
this story in little bits, so I
hope you feel some suspense here,
even if you don't see it yet.
This is true in the book.
This is true in your life.
God is working.
To restore
is that good news,
and communion is a way to
celebrate God's redemption story.
It's a way to look at God's restoration,
the the bread and the wine, in our
case, the crackers, and either the wine
or the juice they remember and declare
God's primary means of restoration,
which is that Jesus both pursues.
Despised and rejected people, and also
that Jesus was ultimately despised and
rejected himself to the point of death.
Jesus' life broke norms to show
God's heart, and Jesus' death gives
you a new and true identity, and
Jesus' resurrection brings you home.
And so if you believe that, even if
you have an ounce of belief in that,
then no matter who you are, no matter
what your situation is, you belong
to God and you belong at God's table.