Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Noticing

Devotion: Ruth 2:8-13

In the celebrity-obsessed culture we have today people want to be noticed above all else. Indeed, surveys continue to tell us that our young people desire careers that will thrust them into the limelight over just about anything else. We want to be noticed. Perhaps this stems from our creation and bearing the image of God. Our first parents were created to be in relationship with God constantly. Adam and Eve were noticed by God. Once, however, sin enters the picture and the relationship is fractured, Adam and Eve no longer felt noticed and thus humanity has been doing things to get noticed ever since. We have forgotten (if we ever knew) that God is omnipresent and always notices us. We do not need the notice of others on a grand scale, so long as we know we are grandly noticed by God. This makes interactions like the one we have this week between Ruth and Boaz much more important. Ruth is not worried about being noticed, but Boaz notices her and then intervenes in her life.
"Then Boaz said to Ruth, 'Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.' " -Ruth 2:8-9 ESV
Boaz implores Ruth to stay in his field. Wandering away from the field will put Ruth, and thus Naomi, into potential peril. He has noticed Ruth and now takes steps to safeguard her. God is much the same way in our lives. As you may recall Boaz emerges on the scene and notices Ruth right away, but in this passage he intervenes in her life. God has always noticed you and intervenes in your life at just the right time to keep you in his care. God can and does orchestrate events and people to provide for you and to protect you--even and perhaps especially in the midst of pain and suffering. As Christians we are instructed to remain in God's field, the field of His care for us in Christ. There the Lord promises us provision for our great need for Him including living water and the bread of life--Christ Jesus himself.
"Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, 'Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?' But Boaz answered her, 'All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!' " -Ruth 2:10-12 ESV
When Ruth comes to know she is noticed by the words of Boaz, she is overwhelmed. This happens to us to when we come to know that God has noticed us. It is not to say that we went beyond His noticing, but that at just the right time we come to know of it. Like David in Psalm 8:4, Ruth cannot fathom why Boaz would take note of her. Her status as a Moabite would have disqualified her in any other place and culture from the mercy of these foreign hosts, yet in God's field she receives mercy. Boaz quickly notes that Ruth has done the work of true Israelite and even goes so far as to invoke the God of Israel to bless and reward her because she has taken refuge under His wings. Ruth has been noticed not only by Boaz, but by God Himself. Indeed, may we all be noticed for the good we do for others.
"Then she said, 'I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.' " -Ruth 2:13 ESV
Being noticed and knowing we have been noticed has a way of giving comfort. Celebrity is not the real noticing we want or need. We need to know that God notices and that knowing often comes from the way we comfort one another in trying times.



News for You: 

  • A Memorial Service for Dave Hellyer will be held Saturday, 10/28 at 2 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Omak.
  • This Sunday we will forgo our regular evening service to join Our Savior Lutheran Church at 4 p.m. for an international service of worship to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Rerformation.
  • CPC is seeking to fill our church secretary position. A successful candidate will be proficient in Microsoft Word and Excel with experience in database programs. The position will be 25 hours per week (9-12, 1-3) Monday-Friday. Applications can be obtained at the church office. Call the church office for more information.
  • Youth Group Meals are needed. Our middle and high school youth group meets at Kurt and Jennifer Fudge's house at 6 p.m. The youth group shares a family style meal, a devotion and activities. Be part of the joy by getting involved.
  • CPC's annual Trunk-or-Treat will be October 31 from 5-7 p.m. There are many ways to get involved:
    • Bring candy and your decorated vehicle to the church parking lot by 4:30 p.m. and provide some joy and community
    • Donate bags of candy to the church (we had over 400 kids last year, so we went through a LOT of candy)
    • Volunteer to help cook hot dogs or donate funds to help purchase hot dogs/buns.
    • Provide portable lighting to help light up the parking lot
  • Operation Christmas Child boxes are available starting next week at CPC. The deadline to submit boxes will be Sunday, 11/12.

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Tiireless

Devotion: Ruth 2:4-7

Ruth has gone off to glean for Naomi. She took a personal risk to care for the woman she declared to be her family. Most of us will take a risk for our families, even sacrifice for our families when called upon to do so. Yet Ruth showed her amazing love that she did so for Naomi. Ruth embodies what Jesus will later commend-that the people of God are a new a family and that even if we should have to leave our family to follow Jesus  of origins behind, we gain far more than we lose in doing so (see Matthew 19:28-30). Ruth exemplifies what Jesus will later proclaim.
Even so, Ruth is not the only protagonist in this little book. This week in our reading Boaz enters stage right:
"And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, 'The LORD be with you!' And they answered, 'The LORD bless you.' Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, 'Whose young woman is this?' And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, 'She is the young Moabite woman, who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. She said, "Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers." So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.' " -Ruth 2:4-7 ESV
Ruth has specifically targeted Boaz's field based on his reputation. When Boaz finally emerges on the scene, we are struck at once by his piety. Boaz's greeting is traditional, yet faithful, invoking the name of his God (YHWH) and his reapers respond in a faithful way. As the landowner, Boaz would have taken almost a paternal role in the life of his workers. Their faithful, pious response to Boaz shows that his own piety has rubbed off on them. Think of the Apostle Paul stating, "Be imitators of me as I am of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1 ESV). Boaz is a man of God to be imitated.
There is one more thing about Boaz that we need to note as he is introduced. Boaz notices. Being observant of the environment and other people is a commendable habit. As Boaz approaches his fields he immediately notices that a woman he does not know is out gleaning in the field. Now Boaz, as a pious Israelite, would have considered allowing gleaning his sacred duty to the poor (see Leviticus 19:9-10). Yet, Boaz goes a step further and notices Ruth. It is one thing to help the faceless poor, and quite another to get to know the poor as people as we offer aid. This short passage certainly commends the latter.
The reapers also report one more thing-that Ruth is working tirelessly. When we have a job to do, especially if that job is coming to the aid of another, we need to put everything we have into the job. Ruth took one short rest (because rest is not a bad thing), but otherwise poured herself into the task before her. We can be like Ruth and work tirelessly to help others that, like Boaz, we notice.



News for You:

  • CPC is seeking to fill our church secretary position. A successful candidate will be proficient in Microsoft Word and Excel with experience in database programs. The position will be 25 hours per week (9-12, 1-3) Monday-Friday. Applications can be obtained at the church office. Call the church office for more information.
  • Youth Group Meals are needed. Our middle and high school youth group meets at Kurt and Jennifer Fudge's house at 6 p.m. The youth group shares a family style meal, a devotion and activities. Be part of the joy by getting involved.
  • CPC's annual Trunk-or-Treat will be October 31 from 5-7 p.m. There are many ways to get involved:
    • Bring candy and your decorated vehicle to the church parking lot by 4:30 p.m. and provide some joy and community
    • Donate bags of candy to the church (we had over 400 kids last year, so we went through a LOT of candy)
    • Volunteer to help cook hot dogs or donate funds to help purchase hot dogs/buns.
    • Provide portable lighting to help light up the parking lot
  • Operation Christmas Child boxes are available starting next week at CPC. The deadline to submit boxes will be Sunday, 11/12.

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Life Goes On?

Devotion: Ruth 2:1-3

As I drove home last night I listened to radio interviews with people traveling to Las Vegas for vacation after the tragic events of October 1 (if you do not know what happened, here is a link to a summary article, but, fair warning, it is deeply troubling and upsetting). One couple being interviewed noted the horror of the recent events, but then said, "Tough as it is to say, life goes on." I turned the radio off after that and thought and prayed the rest of my way home. Truly, life does go on for most of us. After three massive hurricanes did untold damage to property and claimed dozens of lives of our countrymen in Florida, Texas, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, the truth is that some of us can just shrug and move on.
As a young student of economics and political science I was enraptured by Adam Smith, the 18th century Scottish economist. I loved his famous The Wealth of Nations (widely considered the foundation for modern market economies) and read through it a few times. Then, I had a professor ask if I had read his earlier work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and of course I had not. In that earlier work I found questions that I could not answer. Is it right or good for us to feel distant and impartial to the suffering of others? Smith seems to thread the needle explaining both how we can feel sympathetic and how we can feel distant. Famously, he discusses a man being tortured and an observer. So long as the observer keeps his thoughts on the self and does not let his imagination drift toward the other, he can be impartial, distant, unaffected, even cold toward the other's suffering. Once the imagination places him in the position of the other, however, such distance and impartiality is not only impossible, but wrong. Smith's religious affiliations are hotly debated, but I do want to note how thoroughly he was a product of the Enlightenment and Modernity. Smith seems to dismiss the idea that the suffering of others OUGHT to impact the self. His concern, it seems, is to illicit sentiment for the self while remaining impartial to the other. In the end, Smith, like so many of his generation and the generations that have been raised up following him in the sham of Modernity, falls into the trap of the sovereign self. It is the self that is the final arbitrator of what is right and wrong for the self. This is the position of the old man, the flesh, the carnal one who presumes the seat of judgment over others, but yet acquits the self for the same things (see Romans 2:1-11).
Now, you may be asking, what does any of this have to do with the opening of the second chapter of the Book of Ruth?
"Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, 'Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.' And she said to her, 'Go, my daughter.' So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech." -Ruth 2:1-3
We cannot be indifferent to the needs and crises of others. Indeed, life goes on, but it is precisely because of this that we need to care for the needs of others. Ruth and Naomi are destitute. They have returned to Bethlehem with nothing. They must presume on the kindness of Naomi's husband's kinsman, Boaz. The Lord commanded his people to give thought even in their business practice for the needs of the sojourner (Ruth, as a Moabite), the widow (Naomi) and the fatherless (see Deuteronomy 24:19-22). Hence, we do not have the option of indifference as followers of Jesus Christ. While we can and perhaps ought to disagree about how BEST to serve the needs of the vulnerable in society, we cannot debate God's will on this topic. God judges our society not on how the best of us are doing, but on how the least of us are doing (see Matthew 25:31-46). For the ancient and contemporary people of God, this continues to hold sway.
John Donne, a great Christian thinker once wrote in journal entry (we turned it into a poem):
"No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
"
Donne's point is that we cannot dismiss the suffering and death of others (here signified by the tolling of a church bell calling the community to a funeral service). No life is insignificant for every human life bears the image of God. We weep with those who weep.
As followers of Jesus we insist that every life matters and that every death matters as well. This is why at CPC we stand for the lives of the unborn with our partners at CareNet. Ruth and Naomi's lives matter to God. We cannot be calloused to the suffering of others. Those wounded and the families grieving for those killed in Las Vegas cannot be dismissed by the Christian. Our countrymen suffering in Puerto Rico cannot be ignored and dismissed by the Christian (by the way, if you want to help financially in Puerto Rico by working through our local EPC churches, you can do so here).
Ruth tells Naomi she is going to go at great personal risk because Ruth takes seriously that the embittered life of Naomi matters. She holds out hope that Boaz will do likewise. Friends, may we do the same for the suffering of others in prayer and support of various kinds. We can do this on a grand scale together, but perhaps, even more importantly as Ruth demonstrates, we need to do this on a personal level. Do you know someone who weeps? Do you know someone in need, be it physical, emotional, or spiritual? Do you know someone who is suffering in any way? Come alongside him or her and be a listening ear, a prayer partner and a pointer to God who loves us and walks with us even in the midst of tragedy, crisis and pain.



News for You:

  • CPC is seeking to fill our church secretary position. A successful candidate will be proficient in Microsoft Word and Excel with experience in database programs. The position will be 25 hours per week (9-12, 1-3) Monday-Friday. Applications can be obtained at the church office. Call the church office for more information.
  • Women's Bible Study launches Sunday, 10/8, at 6 p.m. in the Memorial Parlor at CPC. The study will cover Kay Arthur's "Ignite Your Passion for God." Copies of the study book are still available. Sign up at the Welcome Center at CPC.
  • Youth Group Meals are needed. Our middle and high school youth group meets at Kurt and Jennifer Fudge's house at 6 p.m. The youth group shares a family style meal, a devotion and activities. Be part of the joy by getting involved.
  • CPC's annual Trunk-or-Treat will be October 31 from 5-7 p.m. There are many ways to get involved:
    • Bring candy and your decorated vehicle to the church parking lot by 4:30 p.m. and provide some joy and community
    • Donate bags of candy to the church (we had over 400 kids last year, so we went through a LOT of candy)
    • Volunteer to help cook hot dogs or donate funds to help purchase hot dogs/buns.
    • Provide portable lighting to help light up the parking lot
  • Operation Christmas Child boxes are available starting next week at CPC. The deadline to submit boxes will be Sunday, 11/12.