I preached this sermon at St. Lydia's on Sunday, July 4 as the "season finale" of the book of Ruth. The text is Ruth 4. Read it here.
This story ends the way our best story begins:
with a baby who comes into the world as a sign of great
promise.
The old women in Bethlehem gather around Naomi and say, “Blessed
is this child. He shall be to you a
restorer of life, and a nourisher of your old age.” The pendulums set in motion at the beginning of the book are
all smoothly and gracefully swinging back.
Winter has given way to harvest.
Barreness has given way to fertility.
Hunger has given way to nourishment.
Emptiness has given way to fullness.
Ruth’s womb is filled with the promise of life: the security
that these two women have been seeking all along. The book closes with a celebration of that life, a
celebration of promise: a future that is not empty but full.
What is the difference between an empty life and a full
one?
A few chapters ago, we heard to Naomi, who was so devastated
by the loss of her husband and sons, that she said to her daughter in law, “The
hand of the Lord has turned against me. I went away full, but I came back empty.”
There have been times in my life when I’ve believed I was
empty. Times when I felt so empty,
that I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to be full again. Times when I seemed to be on the wrong
side of the hand of God.
The winter can be so cold and so long,
that we stop being able to imagine
that the earth could soften and produce life.
Hunger can be so deep,
that we stop being able to imagine
what it might be like to feel satisfied.
Emptiness can be so complete,
that we can’t remember
what it was like to be full.
We do all sorts of things to make ourselves feel full,
to fill that place in us that needs something, that wants.
We try to fill it by eating when we’re not hungry,
or by not eating when we are.
By keeping so busy we don’t notice it.
Late at night we might try drown it away,
In a department store we might try to buy it away,
We stay with someone we probably shouldn’t,
or sleep with someone we probably shouldn’t,
all to keep from feeling empty.
We all eat candy, sometimes.
It’s not a big deal.
We just can’t live on it.
But where’s the difference between filling the empty
and actually being fed?
Ruth is pregnant, full from the inside with life. Life that she’s creating, that will, in
turn, nourish her. The women gather around Naomi and say, “this
child will be the nourisher of life.”
What wonderful thing has God conceived in you that is
nourishing your life?
What’s moving in you that will feed you until your dying
day?
What fills you to the brim,
surges through you and makes you feel whole,
not for a moment, or a few hours, but over a life time?
The story ends how our best story begins: with a baby who
comes into the world as a sign of great promise.
The nourisher,
The restorer of life
God is conceiving in you a life that is not empty,
but full.
We finish the sermon together at St. Lydia's. I invite you to share a story from your experience about fullness and emptiness.
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