Glyne Baptist Church for a good few years and Maeve, even before we got married, before I knew
you all, was coming along here. I'm part of the church family so it's lovely to be back, a bit of
a homecoming in a sense and we do bring greetings from Cork Baptist Church. So I'm the pastor over
in Cork Baptist Church in the city centre and we do pray for you on a regular basis. So we pray for
the different churches on a Sunday morning and we keep Cary Glyne Baptist Church in our prayers
and we're going to spend some time looking at part of the book of Ruth. So this can be found
in your church Bible on page 267 if you're using the Red Church Bible. So it's 267 and the book of
Ruth is in the Old Testament so if you're using something other than a Red Church Bible feel free
to look it up in the index and find that there. So we're in Ruth and it's chapter 1.
So it's Ruth chapter 1 on page 267.
So we'll read the first 18 verses and we'll just focus on verses 8 to 18. So let's read
from Ruth chapter 1 and verse 1.
In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land. So 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 was Naomi and the names of his two sons were Malon 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 10 years both Malon and Kilion
also died and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. When Naomi heard in Moab that the
Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she 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 she 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 you kindness
as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will
find rest in the home of another husband. Then she kissed them goodbye 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 turned against me. At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her
mother-in-law goodbye. 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 even death separates you and me. When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined
to go with her, she stopped urging her. Let's take a moment to pray and to ask for God's help
as we look at his word. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for your word to us this morning.
Thank you that you promise to work through your word on our hearts and on our lives by the power
of your Holy Spirit. And so, Father, we ask that this morning you would help us not just to hear
what you are saying to us, but Lord, to respond, to act accordingly, to become more like Christ and
to have our eyes lifted to see our Saviour again. Amen.
I want to encourage you to keep Ruth chapter 1 open in front of you as we look at it together.
And the question we want to ask this morning as we look at this is what will carry us through?
What will carry us through? So, you could ask that question in many different areas of life. So,
we've had a number of students coming to Corp Baptist in the last few weeks as the semester
has started. Some of them are from very exotic places like Antigua, the Netherlands, Dublin even.
And as they move to be with us, a question for them might be what is going to carry them through?
They're away from family, away from friends, away from all that is familiar. Others have been displaced
in our world this morning by conflict, far more serious displacement. And the question for them,
for those who are believers, is this, what is going to carry them through when their lives have been
turned upside down? For some of us this morning, perhaps, it is as we looked at the future.
And we're not sure about how the future is going to unfold. And again, it's this question,
what will carry us through? For others, again, it is facing the loss of a loved one,
facing deep-rooted, profound grief. And when we experience that, the question is, what will carry
us through? And the reason we want to ask this question is because this is something of what is
being experienced by these ladies in Ruth chapter 1, and especially Naomi. In verse 9 of chapter 1,
the second half of the verse, Naomi kissed her daughter's-in-law goodbye, and they wept aloud.
And in those few verses, you realize that these women who have left Moab and are on the way to
Bethlehem, they're in the middle of nowhere, in a sense. They are facing uncertain futures.
They don't know how things are going to unfold. They have experienced profound upheaval in their lives.
They have left their home of more than 10 years. In the case of Orpah and Ruth, it's their whole lives.
And they have experienced profound grief. In verse 5, both Malon and Kilian also died,
and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. And so for Ruth and Orpah, they have
lost their husbands. For Naomi, she's lost her two sons and her husband. And the question for them
is what will carry them through, and that's what we want to consider this morning together.
And as we consider that, we're just going to ask, what have they lost, and what will they find?
So what have they lost, and what will they find? So let's think first of all about what they have lost.
And we see this in verse 3, what they have lost.
In verse 3, Elimelech, Naomi's husband died, and she was left with her two sons.
In verse 5, both Malon and Kilian also died.
So for each of these women, they have lost their husbands. And as we've said, for Naomi,
she's lost her sons. And these are people who are dear to them.
These are loved ones who they've lived their lives with, whose lives have been shaped together,
and they have grown together. And as they have lost their husbands, it will bring to mind the memories
of their lives together, the conversations that they've had, the happy times, the sad times,
the regrets, the things they wish they had said and didn't.
And so for each of these women, they're experiencing profound grief.
As they have lost their husbands, they have also lost their home.
In verse 6, when Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them,
she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home.
But in doing so, that means they're leaving Moab where they had lived for a long time.
In verse 7, with her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living.
And so now they have all the upheaval of moving from one place to another.
And as we meet them on the road, they are between places.
And so not only have they lost their husbands, they've lost their homes.
Not only have they lost their husbands in their homes, they also have another loss.
In verse 11, when Naomi says,
Return home, my daughters, why would you come with me?
Am I going to have any more sons who could become your husbands?
What she has in mind there is something that's unusual to us.
It's something called leveret marriage.
But the practice back then was that if a woman lost her husband,
somebody who was closely related to him would marry her in order to raise up children
to keep the family line going.
It was a way to provide for, to care for the woman who had lost her husband
in a society where there was no social welfare, no child benefit, none of these provisions.
But as Naomi says this, she says there's no hope for blessing or provision through this means.
And she elaborates on that in verse 12.
Return home, my daughters.
I'm 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.
And so you realize that Naomi has lost hope.
There's no hope for me, she says.
And not only that, but they now are faced with the prospect of losing each other.
In verse 11, Naomi says to her two daughters-in-law,
go back, each of you, to your mother's home.
In verse 11, she says, return, my daughters.
In verse 12, she says, return home, my daughters.
So these women who have lived a significant amount of their adult lives together,
10 plus years, and now faced with the prospect of losing each other.
For Ruth and Orpah, the choice now is, do they go with Naomi and lose their family and friends back in Moab,
or do they go back to Moab and lose Naomi?
And for all intents and purposes, this is essentially like them having a death.
It's like an American wake.
Back in the 1800s, you may be familiar with the idea of an American wake when Irish people emigrated to America.
No Zoom, no Skype, no phones.
And so they realized that this was goodbye.
It was as though they were saying goodbye.
They were saying goodbye to their loved one forever.
They would never see them again.
And so they would have a wake as though it was a funeral for that person.
And for Naomi and Ruth and Orpah, that is what they are faced with.
And so these women, they have lost much.
They have lost their husbands.
They have lost their homes.
They have lost hope.
And they have the prospect now of losing each other.
And some of you know what that is like, to have lost so much.
It's been about 10 years now since my dad died.
He died in September 2013.
And when we lost him, there's nothing that can prepare you for that.
There's nothing that can prepare you for losing your parents.
And so there was a suddenness to that.
And yet at the same time, we had been losing him for years.
Because he had dementia.
And I remember once when myself and Maeve, just before we got married,
Dad came down to visit us in Cork.
And he turned to me in the car.
And he said, did you hear Peter has moved to Cork?
And I realized in that moment, he doesn't realize who I am anymore.
And so it was like losing him before we lost him.
And for some of you, you know what that is like, to lose a loved one.
And for some of you, you have layers of loss in your life.
It may be losing a loved one, losing a home like Naomi and Ruth and Orpah.
Moving country.
For some of you, it may feel like you have lost hope as you look to the future.
Like Ruth and Naomi and Orpah.
And sometimes those layers are for us as individuals.
And sometimes those layers of loss come for us as church families.
Where it feels like wave after wave of loss crashes in upon us.
Even one of these types of losses is significant.
To experience them all can be overwhelming.
And so it's not surprising that these women cry.
In verse 9, she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud.
In verse 14, at this they wept aloud again.
And this is not the kind of polite dabbing the corners of your eyes, crying.
This is the kind of weeping that you will hear before you see them on the road.
And you will give them space for this sacred moment of grief.
It's not surprising that they cry.
And it is not surprising that Naomi is struggling with God.
In verse 13, she says,
It is more bitter for me than for you because the Lord's hand has turned against me.
And you realize that Naomi has a big view of God.
She doesn't think that all that has happened in her life is the result of chance and randomness.
She's a big view of God.
If you have a small view of God in a moment like this or no view of God,
what that view of God does is it leans into your ear and whispers,
It's all meaningless.
It was for nothing.
But Naomi is a big view of God.
Not a pocket-sized God that she brings out on a Sunday morning.
She knows that the Lord gives.
And she knows that the Lord takes away.
And she's right in seeing God like that.
But it is a hard question to ask.
Why then has this happened?
It is hard to live in a life, live in a world where life can sometimes feel overwhelmed by grief.
And as she wrestles with God, she has lost sight of something.
She still knows he's a big God, but she has lost sight of what he is like.
Verse 13, it is more bitter for me than for you because the Lord's hand has turned against me.
In that moment, Naomi thinks that God is against her.
And isn't it striking that that's how she's thinking about God relating to her?
Because she has already said back in verse 8,
May the Lord show you kindness.
Verse 9, may the Lord grant that each of you will find rest.
She's able to say to these ladies in their moments of grief and loss,
that the Lord, may he show you kindness and rest.
But she can't say that to herself.
She says, the Lord has turned against me.
And I wonder, have you ever felt that in the moments of loss that you have experienced?
That God has turned against you.
And it doesn't even need to be profound loss.
I remember when our boys were younger and we would be up at 3 o'clock in the morning
and 4 o'clock in the morning and 5 o'clock in the morning
and I'd be thinking, I've worked to do tomorrow, God.
I mean, don't you realize I have to get up in three hours' time?
Thinking that somehow God was against me in those moments,
not appreciating that this is the reality of life in this world.
It's a hard place to be and that's where Naomi is.
She has lost much.
She's lost her husband.
She's lost her home, her hope.
And has the prospect of losing these women who are dear to her as well.
And so we've reflected on what they've lost.
Let's reflect a little on what does she find.
What does Naomi find to carry her through?
In verse 14, Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye.
And you can't really blame her, can you, for going back to Moab.
But look at what Ruth does.
Ruth clings to Naomi.
And in verse 15, Naomi says,
Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods.
Go with her.
And what we have now is one of those moments
like you experience every time you walk into an Irish home
and they ask you, Do you want a cup of tea?
And you say, No.
And you're thinking to yourself,
I'm not sure, do they really want a cup of tea?
And so you ask them again, Do you want a cup of tea?
And they say, No.
And then the third time,
You'll have a cup of tea.
Okay, I will.
So, and there's this ballet of tension
as you're trying to figure out
where the other person stands with relationship to tea.
And for Naomi and Ruth,
what's going on is,
Ruth, go back, go back.
And we're wondering, is Ruth just being polite?
Is Ruth just saying,
No, Naomi, I'll go with you.
And is she going to crack under the pressure to return home?
Will she or won't she?
This is Ruth's opportunity now.
Nobody would blame her for leaving Naomi
and going back to Moab.
But look at Ruth's response.
Verse 16.
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.
Ruth, in these verses, in these words,
is expressing a commitment to Naomi.
It's the kind of commitment
that is saying to Naomi,
Look, you may want me to return.
And Naomi is being very kind.
Naomi is putting a brave face on it.
You may want me to return,
but you need me to be with you.
You need somebody with you now.
Ruth recognizes that Naomi needs somebody.
And so Ruth says to her,
I'm sticking with you.
I'm going to stay with you.
Where you go, I will go.
And where you stay, I will stay.
Ruth is expressing the kind of commitment to Naomi
that gives to her what she needs,
even if it's not what she wants.
It's the kind of commitment that sticks with you.
And very often, that's just what we need, isn't it?
In our moments of loss.
For just somebody to be with us.
It's the kind of commitment,
even though it's between Ruth and Naomi,
that grows community.
Verse 16,
Your people will be my people.
Even though they're alone on the road,
Ruth recognizes that they are going to be
heading back into a community.
And it's the kind of commitment
that is rooted in this shared faith.
Your God, my God.
And as Ruth says this to Naomi,
it's remarkable.
It's profound because,
humanly speaking,
there's nothing in it for Ruth.
It's at great cost to Ruth
that she says this to Naomi.
And in fact,
she's willing to pay any cost,
in a sense,
when she says in verse 17,
Where you die, I will die,
and there I will be buried.
Not even death
will separate us, Naomi.
These are incredible words
of commitment
at great cost.
And they're incredible
because in our culture,
commitment is not always rewarded.
It's not always admired.
It's not always honored.
Your internet provider
will charge you more
the longer you stay with them.
They want you to shop around.
And that's the reality
in other areas of life as well.
And yet,
what we see here
is this beautiful
commitment of Ruth
to Naomi.
It's nearly like a marriage vow,
isn't it?
Till death do us part.
And what you realize is
that this is going to carry Naomi through.
You don't yet see it,
but as the book unfolds,
it's Ruth's commitment to Naomi
that carries her through.
The commitment of just this one lady
to this other lady
will carry her through.
And one of the joys
of coming back
to Carigalline Baptist Church
is that I see this,
and I'm sure you see it as well,
as we come back
from time to time
the same people
committed to one another
from different backgrounds,
different nationalities,
different ages of life.
But every time we show up
on a Sunday morning
or at a home group
or pop over
for a cup of coffee,
we're saying,
I'm with you.
I'm here.
I'm not going anywhere,
even if it costs me.
And we say that
to one another
because we have this shared faith.
Your God is my God.
Your people are my people.
We express that commitment
to one another
because it reflects God's commitment
to us.
When we were living over in the States,
I'm sure I've told some of you before,
we were involved in a car accident.
Everybody was fine,
but what we experienced
in those moments
was expressions
of God's people's
commitment to us.
So as the ambulance arrived,
one of the ladies
working in the ambulance
was obviously a believer.
She came up to me
and she said to me,
we've been praying,
I've been praying
as we got to the scene
that everything will be okay.
And later on,
after we left the hospital,
a friend of ours
left his Valentine's Day dinner
to come and be with us
in the hospital.
He was committed to us.
He was with us.
And when we got home
to where we were staying,
an Indian couple
who were good friends of ours
cooked us dinner.
And what they were expressing to us
was we're with you.
We're committed.
And then an older man
and his wife
brought us out for dinner
afterwards
to hear,
to listen.
How are we doing?
What they were expressing to us
was commitment.
We're with you.
Where you go,
we will go.
I remember after my dad died,
one man in particular
intentionally meeting up with me
just to see how I was doing.
And what I realized
in that moment was
he is with me.
He's with me in the midst of this.
And you know,
when we experience
the commitment of God's people,
it can carry us
through.
And that's what Naomi
is experiencing
from Ruth here.
It's really,
really significant.
Really,
really profound.
and largely because
it reflects God's commitment
to us.
We follow a Savior
who is utterly committed
to us,
who will
do for us
what we need,
even if sometimes
it's not what we want.
a Savior
who says to us,
I am with you
always,
even to the end
of the age.
a Savior
who saves us
as individuals
but brings us
into a community.
He is so committed
to us
and a Savior
who is committed
to us
at great cost.
Isn't it interesting
as Ruth says
to Naomi,
even death
will not part us?
And we could
very well say
that that's what
Jesus says to us.
Even death
will not part us.
And we know
that for sure
because Jesus
went to his death
in order
to make us
his own.
That is the level
of commitment
that Jesus
has to you
and I.
That is what
Mary
experienced
on that first
Easter morning
as she was
weeping
at the tomb
not unlike
how Ruth
and Orpah
and Naomi
are weeping
and suddenly
she realizes
that not only
is Jesus
committed to her
in life,
he is committed
to her
even through death
as he says
her name,
Mary,
and she turns
to see him.
She realizes
she has a Savior
who is committed
to overcoming death.
and that carries
her through
and that will
carry us through.
And you know
there is coming
a day
when our Savior
Jesus
will wipe away
our tears,
when there will be
no more suffering
and no more grief,
where we will
no longer be
between one place
and another,
when we will
be home
with him
forever.
And we're not
there yet.
But what will
carry us there,
what will get us
there,
is his
commitment
to us.
And so let's
pray and
ask him to
help us
to hear that.
Father,
thank you so much
for Jesus.
Thank you that
he is committed
to us.
Lord,
that he is with us
by his Spirit
and that not even
death can
separate us
from him.
We have seen
that clearly.
He has gone
to the cross
for us
in our place.
And Lord,
though it looked
like
all was lost,
Father,
we think of
that first
Easter morning
as he speaks
Mary's name.
And we know
there will be
a day when
he speaks
our name.
And we will
know that it
is his
commitment that
has carried
us through.
Father,
we long
for that
day.
Father,
we cry out
for that
day.
Father,
in the meantime,
we pray that
you'd help us
to reflect to
one another
that commitment
that Christ
has for us.
Lord,
that we would
be with
one another,
that we would
be for
one another.
Lord,
even if it
is at cost
to ourselves.
And so,
Lord,
we pray you'd
help us
to reflect
our Saviour
more and
more.
Amen.
We're going
to sing
in response
to what
we've been
thinking about.
It's a hymn,
a song that
reflects on God
commitment.
It used
the word
faithfulness,
the idea
of God
being faithful
to us,
just to
remember
and reflect
on how
God is
utterly
committed
to his
people.
So let's
stand and
sing
in response.
Thank you.