Embodying Obedience
In my morning time with God the other day, the devotional I read retold the story from the older testament of Boaz and Ruth, a Moabite woman and not a Jew.
This is a story of a family with their fair share of drama.
During the times of the Judges, a Jewish couple, Elimelech and Naomi left Israel during a famine and settled in Moab, a country east of the Dead Sea. Eli died and his two sons married Moabite women, then some years later each of the sons died, leaving Naomi without a husband or sons.
After Ruth’s husband had died, she followed her mother-in-law to Bethlehem, Naomi’s home town. Being a widow and a foreigner put Ruth in a twice vulnerable position. She was permitted by the Law, as laid out in Leviticus, to gather the left behind scraps from the harvesters as they reaped. Ruth was poor and what we call today “food insecure”, so she welcomed the chance to help feed the small family.
Boaz is described as a good man and invited Ruth to glean in his field, not go to any other landowner’s plot, and ordered his hired men not to harass her in any way. Boaz even told the harvesters to drop a little extra for her to gather. He welcomed her to his workers’ table to eat after the work day was done. She ate until filled and had a doggie-bag of leftovers to take home.
As the story unfolds, we see Boaz employ the Levitical Law, but then put clothes on it and take it out for a walk. Not merely obeying, he embodied its intent with his generosity, acceptance, kindness, and comfort to a probably fear-filled woman. The short book is worth re-reading as it has so much good to offer us.
Just a bit of reminder on this guy: Boaz was the son of Rahab, the sex worker who hid the spies, and her husband, Salmon. Boaz, in turn, will marry Ruth, the foreigner, and down the road will turn out to be the great-grandfather of King David, in whose line of descendants will come Jesus (I think I have all that right…). What a wonderful multi-colored, multi-ethnic, multi-backgrounded family tree that intends to resemble the family of God today (God save us from a mono-cultured, siloed church)!
But back to Boaz…this story got me to thinking about how often I obey but sometimes fall short of embodying what God calls me to do. I check the right boxes and say the right things, but there are plenty of times when my heart is not in line with the heart of God. Duty without understanding puts believers on a treadmill of religious performance, and that neither fulfills us nor does anything to bring us closer to God.
By the time Jesus comes around, the Pharisees were the admired model churchmen of their times, and pressed hard to do all the God stuff just right, but often, according to Jesus, missed the point of the commands. “You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” Calendars crowded with good God things and lists of the right duties done in a week carry the danger of turning what was intended as a dance between close friends into a spreadsheet to determine if one is doing enough to earn love.
Jesus got after this idea at a dinner with a group of “deplorables.”
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. "Follow me and be my apprentice,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.
Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”
When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this scripture: ‘I want you show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’
“For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
Ruth and Boaz, Jesus and Matthew, and a party rowdy enough to get the attention of pastoral staff of the First Church of the Holy Huddle. The tie that binds the stories together can be seen in the Hosea passage Jesus refers to: “I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.” In other words, understand and follow the spirit of the law and don’t just check the right boxes.
Boaz did that when he extended compassion and generosity to an immigrant
Jesus certainly showed that by inviting a hated collaborator into his circle
And Matthew got the idea through bringing in his friends to a dinner like no other
As followers of Jesus, obedience is so much more than the list of God-stuff you slide into your week. We need to embody our obedience through our acts of mercy, acceptance, kindness, and comfort.
Take a minute to consider how that might look in your day (which is all yours to use, given as another chance to join in with God in just a slice of all he is doing).
Acts of mercy carry a cost. Choose to pay it.
Words of acceptance may be misunderstood. Stand with whom you uplift.
Moments of kindness can be taken advantage of. Take the risk.
Comforting others might bring up your own hurts. Embrace your pain.
As for me, this week I’m going to be on the lookout for openings to act generously like Boaz, shockingly kind like Jesus, and inviting like Matthew. Acting in these ways puts us at odds with much of our culture and in synch with God.
Sounds good to me. You in?
Music?
Funnies? You betcha
I had been walking for miles after my car broke down coming back from a hectic day of exhausting meetings hours out of town. Plus, my phone had died.
Since leaving my vehicle the weather had turned and I could see a downpour was inevitable before I would find a place to call for help. So I decided to try hitchhiking.
The first 5 or 6 cars passed me by, the drivers staring forward pretending to not see me. But eventually someone did pull over and just in time! As I got into the car the first couple of expected raindrops fell on the hood and windshield.
As we pulled away from the side of the road the driver asked me, "Aren't you afraid I might be a serial killer?"
Looking dead ahead, I replied, "The odds of two serial killers being in the same car are extremely unlikely!"
The absolute silence in the car, as we traveled to the next town, was the most peaceful part of my whole day!
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WHAT GOD WON'T ASK
~ God won't ask what kind of car you drove, He'll ask how many people you drove who didn't have transportation.
~ God won't ask the square footage of your house, He'll ask how many people you welcomed into your home.
~ God won't ask about the clothes you had in your closet, He'll ask how many you helped to clothe.
~ God won't ask what your highest salary was, He'll ask if you compromised your character to obtain it.
~ God won't ask what your job title was, He'll ask if you performed your job to the best of our ability.
~ God won't ask how many friends you had, He'll ask how many people to whom you were a friend.
~ God won't ask in what neighborhood you lived, He'll ask how you treated your neighbors.