14th After Pentecost Bob Moore

And from whom no secrets are hidden.

Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that we may perfectly love thee.

Worth that we make upon the Holy Day.

The Lord be with you.

Let us pray.

Grant, O merciful God, that your church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your name, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Please be seated.

Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, Today you are witnesses that I am acquiring all that belong to Elimlek and all that belong to Cheleon and Malon from the hand of Naomi.

Also Ruth Moabite, the wife of Malon, am I acquiring for myself as a wife to maintain the dead man's name on his inheritance, to reestablish the name of the deceased on his heritable property, that it may not be cut off from his kin and from the gate of his native place.

Today you are witnesses.

All the women and men who were at the gate, along with the elders, said, We are witnesses.

May the faithful God grant that the woman who is coming into your house be like Rachel and Leah.

The two of them built up the house of Israel.

May you prosper in Ephratha and establish a lineage in Bethlehem, and may your house through the children that the font of life will give you by this young woman be like the house of Oteraz, where Tamar gave her birth to for Judah.

So Boaz took Ruth as his own for wife.

He came to her, and the source of life granted her a pregnancy, and she gave birth to a son.

Then the women said to Naomi, Blessed be the faithful God, who has not deprived you of this day of next of kin.

And may the child's name be renowned in Israel.

He shall be to you a restorer of life and a provider in your latter years, for your daughter-in-law has given birth to him, she who loves you, and she who is more to you than seven sons.

Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom, and she fostered him.

The neighbor women gave him a name, saying, A son has been born to Naomi, and they named him Obed.

He became the father of Jesse, the father of David, the word of the Lord.

We will read responsively by the half verse.

Give thanks to she who is majesty, for she is good.

Let the redeemed of who she who saves proclaim that she redeemed them from the hand of the foe.

And she has gathered them for all the lands.

They wandered in the wilderness and the desert.

They were hungry and thirsty.

Then they cried to she who hears in their trouble.

And she led them on a straight path to a city fit for settlement.

Let them give thanks to Wom of Life for her faithful love and her wonderful works for the woman born.

For she satisfies the thirsty soul.

They cried to the mother of all in their trouble.

She sent forth her word and healed them.

Let them give thanks to the womb of life for her faithful love.

Let them sacrifice sacrifices of thanksgiving.

If the foot says, Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body, is it then not part of the body?

And if the ear says, Because I am not an eye, I am not part of the body, is it then not part of the body?

If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing?

If the whole body were hearing, where would be the smelling?

Thus it is that God has designated the parts of the body, each of them according to the will of God.

If all were a single part, where would be the body?

Thus it is that there are many parts, yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no use for you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no use for you.

Rather, on the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body that we think dishonorable we clothe with more honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with more decorum.

However, our more respectable parts do not need such.

Yet God has so composed the body, giving the more honor to the lesser part, that there may be no division within the body, rather that the parts may have the same concern for one another, and if one part suffers, all suffer together with it.

If one part is honored, all rejoice together with it, and we'll be able to do that.

Yet say to you all, yet I say to you all, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of the one in heaven who begot you.

For the Son, which belongs to God, raised, rises on the evil and on the good, and God reigns on the righteous and on the unrighteous, woman or man?

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet one, your sisters and brothers, what more are you doing than others?

Do not the Gentiles do the same.

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly sovereign is perfect.

The gospel of the Lord.

Please pray with me.

Oh God, we ask you to bless our enemies as we pray for them.

And we pray for reconciliation, knowing that you are the great one who has reconciled us all.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Well, it looks like we finally finished the book of Ruth.

And we've been on it for a while.

And I know that I remember mostly or most of what I've heard is out of that first chapter where Ruth declares her commitment to Naomi and says, I will go where you go.

I will lodge where you lodge.

Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

It's kind of uniting them in a bond of, well, it's affection, it's love, it's friendship, it crosses generations.

I hope it's what we have in true friendship and true love.

And I think it fits in with our setting today about uniting things.

Even our colleague for today unites us when it says that the church being gathered in unity by your Holy Spirit may show forth your power among all peoples.

That's a little bit of an idealistic view.

But I would like all peoples to be reconciled to God.

I'd like all peoples to be able to attend church.

In Deuteronomy 23, it talks about Ammonites and Moabites.

And they're not their favorite people.

I don't know if you knew that.

It says in Deuteronomy 23, 3, no Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation.

None belonging to them shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

Well, you know, I don't know ten generations back from my relatives.

They could have been Ammonites and Moabites.

I have no idea.

But that's a long time.

And Deuteronomy is one book.

And 500 years later, Isaiah says a totally different thing.

Isaiah says, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

That's I maybe I'm more of an Isaiah person than I am a Deuteronomy person.

But that's that's just me, and that's the way it goes.

But this story of Boaz and Ruth and Naomi and all the people, it's coming to a conclusion.

And this is a strange turn, but I kind of see Boaz as a redeemer, someone who redeemed for the family what had been lost with the death of Naomi's husband Elimelech.

Apparently, Elimelech had some property back in Bethlehem, or maybe Ephrata.

Ephratha to me is kind of like the heights in the Houston area.

It was the old town, and then it got surrounded by Bethlehem.

So Ephratha is the heights area of Houston back in Palestine.

And so there was some property.

And Boaz was had was pushed by Naomi and Ruth to make a decision.

Of course, Naomi and Ruth had been and returned to Bethlehem because the rain was going, the crops were working, they could eat, they could be housed, and they were well accepted.

But Boaz, they decided, at least between Naomi and Ruth, had to make a decision and chose.

And so they forced a decision with that threshing floor scene.

And Boaz went to the gate and he called ten elders, kind of the city council, and there were all the people gathered at the gate.

And he encountered the person who was the closest kin, closest relative to Naomi.

And he said, You know, Elimelech had some property.

Are you going to claim it and pay for it?

And the guy said, Yes, I will.

And then Boaz said, Do you know that with the property come Naomi and Ruth?

And he said, No, that's a little too much for me.

Not going to take on that burden.

But Boaz was ready to do it.

And the people gathered there were pleased with the decision.

And he publicly claimed that it's almost an adoption ceremony where someone is adopted.

And I believe in baptism greatly because I think it unifies people across all boundaries and all levels.

I like the phrase that it says in baptism.

You are brothers and sisters in Christ, and you are friends in the Holy Spirit.

That doesn't mean you think alike, because I know some of my brothers and sisters don't think like me, which is okay.

They're still my brothers and sisters.

But the inheritance and the unity really does come through this kind of thing.

So I think unity is a big, but also the commitment.

You know, I have this phrase that I am what I eat, and sometimes I eat what is good, and sometimes I eat what is bad.

But I also think that we are what we commit to.

You know, I might give my money to one thing and be halfway committed because then when they say, Well, you volunteer for this, I'll say, No, I gave my money, that's all I'm doing.

Um, but we are, I think, you know, the political party or the affiliation or the church, what we commit to.

Um, Boaz committed to Ruth and Naomi.

He committed to them fully.

Um, and the child that was born from Boaz and Ruth was just as much Naomi's child as it was Ruth and Boaz.

She cared for that child.

It was her own.

It was part of her flesh of her flesh and bone of her bone.

Wonderful.

And that's why I think the epistle comes in.

Because talking about unity.

When one suffers, all suffer.

When one rejoices, we all rejoice.

And we can see glimpses of that.

And I believe that we think.

About it one way, and scripture says it, no, it's not that way.

We think of a single unit as the body, and Paul says, Oh, it's many parts, and we need all those parts, and we need everyone around.

Uh, and we all are needed and all have a function.

Um, it it's a great set.

Uh Boaz was needed, Ruth was needed, Naomi was needed, and it produced eventually David.

In the world in which we live, we have to, as Jesus said, love even those people that don't strike us as very lovable.

That's called reconciliation.

And I think that's the first thing that God does: reconciles the world, he does creation, does mercy, does grace, but the love that we have for one another has to go beyond simply the surface.

Boaz went the second length.

He not only inherited the piece of property and put it back within the family.

Um, just a side note, Perez is the clan of Judah.

And that was a very powerful clan, one that was well respected and well done.

And I think that maybe each congregation is a clan within a family within a tribe.

And you don't know how much you're connected to each and every person in a clan and a family and in a tribe.

So we love one another because we have been connected by the water of baptism.

And even those who are not baptized with us, we care and pray for them.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

If you look in your bulletin, looks like on page 6, 4, there is the Nicene Creed.

When you find your place, please stand and we will reaffirm our faith.

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God for God, light, light, true God, true God, begotten of many, of one being with the Father.

For us, for our salvation, he came down from heaven.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and was made man.

For our sake he was crucified by his Father, he suffered death and was buried.

On the third day he rose again, parts of the scriptures.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come to judge the dead.

Bless our questions and the stirring of our hearts.

Grant us wonder and delight in your mystery.

We come before you, O God, saying, Bless us and keep us closed.

We pray for your church that we may be alert to your stirring and aware of your presence.

Guide and strengthen those in leadership, our bishops, priests, and deacons.

Empower all who worship and serve in your church, in your name.

We come before you, O God, saying, Bless us and keep us closed.

Our hearts ache for people around the world who live in poverty, hunger, and oppression.

Keep us mindful of their needs, and move us to make a difference in their lives.

We come before you, O God, to say, Keep us closed.

We are surrounded by people who are in pain, physically and spiritually.

We pray that they are upheld by our prayers and come to know healing in their lives.

We come before you, O God, today, bless us and keep us closed.

Some among us are dying, and some have passed into eternal life.

We pray for those who mourn and ask that all may be assured of your unending presence and your promise of life eternal with your saints in light.

We come before you, O God, staying.

Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God.

Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to bear, too real, too high, and too deep to undo.

Forgive us to trouble.

What our hearts can no longer bear, and what has become to us the consuming fire of the justice.

Set us free from a past that we cannot change.

Open to us a future which we can change.

And grant us grace to grow more and more in your life.

Jesus Christ.

True repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit.

Please stand.

The peace of the Lord be all.