“Going
Somewhere?”
Text:
Ruth 1:1-19a; 2 Timothy 2:1-13; Luke 17:11-19
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
You’ve
seen them. Men, women, and children. From Syria, Lybia,
Iraq, Sudan, and many other countries. Streaming over the border to the
countries around them. Fleeing war, famine, drought. Looking for hope, for
life, for peace and rest and safety in another country. Refugees we call them.
That
was Naomi, Elimelech and their two sons - refugees.
For them it was a famine that made them make the difficult decision to leave
Israel and flee to the country of Moab. They probably weren’t the only ones.
And, we are told, they wound up staying ten years. So they settled in for the
long haul. Their sons married native girls, named Orpah
and Ruth.
But
trouble didn’t stay in Israel - it followed Naomi. As if the famine and living
in a strange place weren’t enough, not only her husband but both her sons died
while they were stuck in that foreign land. So when it was time to go back
home, Naomi did not return uneffected. She was beat
up and beat down. And maybe she didn’t want any reminders of this tough and
bitter time in her life. Maybe she wanted her daughters-in-law to have a better
life than she had. And so she tells them: Go back. Go home. That would be
better for you.
But
one, Ruth, would not go back. She had been blessed by these refugees. She had
received from Naomi and Elimelech and her husband
something far more valuable than family, nation, land, or home. She had learned
there was something more desirable than an easy life. She had been given the
God of Israel. She had been adopted not just into Naomi’s family but into God’s
family. So she would not go back. Instead she says: where you go I will go, and where
you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
The
Apostle Paul would not turn back either. He too had received something far more
valuable than anything in this world. Arrest and prison could not sway him.
Persecution and suffering could not turn him back. His former life was a pretty
nice life, you know - he was well-respected, highly advanced, and a pretty
important guy. But compared to what he had received, the grace and forgiveness
of his Saviour, all that was a Moab to him now. So
like Ruth, he would not go back.
And
he gives the reason why - a saying, he says, that is trustworthy and sure:
If
we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if
we endure, we will also reign with him;
if
we deny him, he also will deny us;
if
we are faithless, he remains faithful -
for he cannot deny himself.
Now,
what exactly does this saying mean? Well, follow along. . . .
He starts with baptism. If we have died with Him - that’s
baptismal language for Paul. We die and rise with Jesus in baptism. We die to
sin and rise to live a new life. Not the old life, the Moab life, but a new
life as a child of God, adopted into His family. And baptized by Him we
will also live with Him, both now and forever.
But
as a baptized child of God, you will face difficulties, struggles, and trials
you will have to endure. Like Naomi and Ruth. Sometimes for doing what is right.
Sometimes for speaking the truth. Sometimes for resisting temptations to sin,
for not going along with everyone else. Sometimes with trials sent by God to
strengthen you. Sometimes with attacks
by the evil one to weaken you. And you might feel walked on now in all this,
but if
we endure, we will also reign with him. You won’t just live with Him,
Paul says, you will be exalted and reign with Him.
Some
do not endure, though. Some deny Him. When the going gets tough,
they get going. When the trials get hot, or the temptations get hot, they get
out of the church. That’s what Israel tended to do in the days of the judges,
when Ruth lived. They would fall away from God, deny Him. As a result, He
denied them His protection and allowed foreign nations to come in and conquer
them, in order to discipline them, that they might return to Him.
And
when they returned, they found a faithful and forgiving God. For, Paul goes on
to say, if we are faithless, He remains faithful. And yes, even
Christians can be faithless. Even you and I can act without faith, violate our
faith, and be false to our faith, turning back to Moab. Such is the case when
we do not forgive, but hold on to anger and grudges, that is going back to Moab. When we listen to the wisdom of the
world and follow it instead of the Word of God, that is going back to Moab. When our hearts are captured by the
pleasures and things of this world, that
is going back to Moab. When our mouths which here confess the creed and out
there curse and swear and speak words that cause hurt and pain, that is going back to Moab. Our Father
brought us out of our Moabs in baptism and
forgiveness and has given us a new life as His children, are we going to keep going back?
But
even though we act in these ways not of faith but of sin, He remains faithful. We
are not constant, but He is. For He cannot deny Himself. He cannot
deny His Word. He cannot deny His promises made and given. He cannot deny those
He has made His sons and daughters in baptism. He is faithful. He forgives. He
restores. He heals. He lifts up.
That’s
what He did for Paul. That forgiveness. That life. That undeserved grace. Jesus
came for him. Jesus knocked him off his high horse and onto his butt, but
lifted him up again. Jesus struck him blind, but then enlightened him. Jesus
sent him out into persecution and trials, but also strengthened him and
remained with him. And so Paul, like Ruth, would not go back. He would suffer,
he would work like an athlete, he would endure all things, but he would not go
back. But when he did, when he fell, he would repent. Nothing could compare to
what he had received.
And
so too for that leper. We normally hear this reading at Thanksgiving and the
focus is on the leper giving thanks, but hearing it now gives us a chance to
hear it a bit differently, and with a little different perspective. That this leper too would not go back.
He would not go back to his Moab - he had
to go back to Jesus and fall at His feet and worship Him. He had received so
much - not only cleansing, but life, from Jesus. His disease was a death
sentence. His disease separated him from his family and all other people . . .
except for other dying lepers. His disease made life not worth living. But
Jesus bridged that gap, came to him, drew near to him, and gave him his life
back again. And not just his physical life, but spiritual life. A life of faith
and hope and love.
And
so too has Jesus done for you. The disease of sin is a death sentence for us.
Sin has driven wedges between family and friends. Sin can make us feel that
life is not worth living. Sin means that we cannot approach a holy God but are
separated by our uncleanness from Him. But for you just as for this leper,
Jesus bridged that gap. God came to us in the flesh in His incarnation, drew
near to you in the water of our baptism, and raised you to life. That we who
are unclean be clean again . . . and again and again.
So
perhaps the song of Ruth the Moabitess, the song of
the Samaritan leper, and the song of Paul the persecutor could be the song that
we are going to sing in just a
moment - the words that we will sing just before coming to the altar to repent
and receive the forgiveness, life, and salvation of Jesus in His Body and
Blood.
We will sing this: What shall I render to the Lord for all His
benefits to me? I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call on the
name of the Lord. I will take the cup of salvation and will call on the name of
the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the
midst of you, O Jerusalem (Offertory, Divine Service 2, LSB p. 176).
No
leper, no foreigner could do that. No leper, no foreigner could be in the midst
of God’s people. No leper, no foreigner could be in the courts of the Lord’s
house. But you can! You have been cleansed. You have been made holy sons and
daughters of God in Holy Baptism.
So
when you go back and fall back into sin - and you do and you will, no matter
how resolute you are! - when you act faithless, return to the one who is
faithful. The one who puts Himself and His Word of forgiveness and His cup of
salvation here for you. No matter who you are, no matter what you have done, no
matter what you are going through, no matter what lies on the horizon, no
matter what your fears and troubles, He is here for you. To hear your prayers,
to take your burdens, and give you His love. And He will be here tomorrow and
the next day and the next. The world may say “go back.” Many might tell you
there’s a better way. But there is only one who laid down His life for you, who
went to a cross for you, that you might live with Him forever.
So maybe we’re refugees too.
Taking refuge here from a world which seems to be wandering farther and farther
from God and deeper and deeper into sin. We’ve come looking for drink, looking
for food, looking for forgiveness and peace and rest. And we find those things
here, in the house of our Saviour.
And
finding and receiving those things here, perhaps there is a Ruth or two out
there who needs them too. From a faithful Saviour who
is here to give. And maybe there’s a leper or ten out there who needs the
cleansing that Jesus is here to provide. Maybe you’ll be their Naomi, or their
Timothy, or their Paul. To let them know that here is what they need. Here is
what we all need. Not just for life here and now, but for when we finally get to go home, to our fatherland.
In
the Name of the Father and of the (+) Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.