Ruth 3:1-4:22
How old actually was Boaz? He must have been fairly senile not to have noticed a strange woman sneaking into his bed during the night. Either that or he moved even more strongly than I in the gift of sleeping-through-babies-crying-and-other-such-events.
What we read today reinforces what we saw yesterday - that as we approach the Father and lie at his feet (whether in the middle of the night or not) he declares to us “I will do for you all you ask” and then feeds us, redeems us and restores hope to us. But, there is more to this story than just that. Ruth teaches us that the Father does not just lavish love on his people. He doesn’t just leave people as passive recipients. He grafts us into being active participants in his huge plan to redeem the world. Ruth becomes a crucial link in the chain of Israel’s monarchy and of the ancestry of Jesus. The truth has always been that God uses people to further his purposes in the world. We nod knowingly when someone says it. But when it comes to believing that we could actually do something that would be a critical link in the chain of God’s redemptive plan well, we just seem to shake our heads and walk away. It may be, just like Ruth, raising children to be everything the Father wants them to be, it could be helping a friend walk through their confusion about Jesus, it might be bringing a friend to church, it might be leading a house group or a thousand other things. I suspect, like Ruth, we will not realise the significance of what it is that God actually does through us. But we need to know that he wants to use us. We need to know that he, in a mystifying act of grace, does turn us into critical members of the kingdom with eternally significant works prepared for us to do. After all, none of us could be less qualified for this than Ruth.
John 9:35-10:21
I must confess that the ability of demons to open the eyes of the blind is a topic that I have never heard discussed at any coffee shop I have ever visited. I suspect that many of my friends would think it is a retrograde view that comes from another age. But the activity of demons, incredibly, is not the thing in this passage that is most likely to prompt the gag-reflex. That honour lies in the offensively exclusive statements Jesus makes about himself. Jesus raises his eyes to the crowds and, without the faintest whiff of irony or self-aggrandisement, informs them that he is their only hope in life. He eyeballs men and women and tells them that without his love, they are screwed. The legacy that Jesus established and John passed on is defined by exclusive statements about Jesus. It is a legacy we have received but that I seem to shuffle my feet in fulfilling. I'm increasingly convinced that we are not called to be nice. We are not called to make people happy or to educate them or to heal them. We are not called to improve our local area or to write good books. At least, that is not the sum of our calling. That is not the root or the foundation or the framework of our task. These are really good things and things that we hope for. But, ultimately, our calling is to help people find Jesus and then, through him, to see our world renewed and redeemed. Our calling is to show people the good farmer who gives overflowing life and who came back from the dead. Our calling is to help people make a decision about what they are going to do with Jesus and then to help them do it. Our calling is to expose the death that lies outside of the kingdom and to offer and demonstrate the life that is found in the King. I feel like Jesus needs to be talked about more. Not in a sappy, or an arrogant or an un-natural way, but as the watchman who opens the gate to life. As the one who calls out every single person's name and invites them to come in and find peace.
Psalm 62:1-12
Those are 2 real good things that the psalmist has heard.
