Sun Kwak, “Ruth: The Faithfulness of God” (Advent 2025)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zQuEObAUfs

TEXT: Ruth 1:6-21; 4:13-17

[6] Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them food. [7] So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. [8] But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. [9] The LORD grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. [10] And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” [11] But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? [12] Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, [13] would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.” [14] Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

[15] And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” [16] But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. [17] Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” [18] And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

[19] So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” [20] She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. [21] I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”

[13] So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son. [14] Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! [15] He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” [16] Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. [17] And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

SERMON: “Ruth: The Faithfulness of God”

Dick is an 81 year old man, at the time of the episode released on This American Life. And the segment is titled Can You Hear What I Hear? because he’s had this song stuck in his head. He could hum it, he could identify it within seconds. And yet, he couldn’t seem to track it down — song title, artist, none of it. And so, he goes on this quest to find this song. But it’s to no avail. One day, however, he hears it again, and it’s when he’s put on hold when he’s on a call with his medical providers. And it’s a pattern he picks up on. That it’s, at the very least, a song he hears when he’s put on hold. So, he begins reaching out for help, to see if anyone else might join him on this quest. But sometimes, he would just call the hospital and ask them to put him on hold, just so he could listen to the song, because he longed to hear the tune. Then, one day, Dick meets Denise. She’s the registrar at the medical imagining center where Dick went to get a CT scan. And for on average of an hour and a half each day, she’s at work, Denise is put on hold. So, she hears the song a lot. On that particular day when she meets Dick, she’s put on hold and has her phone on speakerphone. And Dick immediately identifies it as his song. And it opens up this conversation about this old man whose life mission, at this moment, is to identify the song. So, Denise joins in. She goes about and contacts whoever she can, to get more information about this song. And eventually, she not only gets the title of the song. But through a librarian some states away by the name of Abby, she gets the link on YouTube — a clip titled One Hour of Cisco Hold Music. And it plays as if you’re on hold for an hour. And some of the comments that Dick got to reading about this song, through this YouTube clip —

Best hold music ever made, I love this song.

So addictively pleasant, please put me back on hold so I can listen to it some more.

I work in a call center, and this music is the best to listen to after listening to some rude customers.

I’ve been looking for this song for almost three years.

I thought I was the only person who loved this.

Dick, it seemed, found his people — those who were enchanted by the same tune that drove him to finding out more about the origin of the song. A community devoted to the discovery of, in being enchanted by this song. And isn’t that the church? A place where a mixture of people around this song. A song that carries a tune that is foreign to some, distant to others, proximate to some, but familiar to all. For just as C. S. Lewis narrates through the song of Aslan, the song that created all of Narnia. It’s a song some hear and some don’t. But a some that tunes and orients our hearts to our place of community and belonging.

Last week, we touched upon the second of the mothers of Jesus given to us in the genealogy recorded in Matthew 1, with the story of Rahab. And here was someone who had only heard rumors about the God of Israel. And yet, something about this story spoke to her. That there was something about it that drew her in, to make her wonder — Is that story for me too? And the way we described it was something that was simultaneously foreign and yet familiar. A little like what C. S. Lewis says when he talks about the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited. Because it wasn’t just exclusive to Rahab. But like her, myriads have heard the story, have listened to its tune and have wondered — Is this story for me too?

And today, we get to the third of the mothers of Jesus. And she actually has ties to Rahab. It turns out that we read in Matthew 1:5 that Rahab has this son named Boaz, who’s going to play a pivotal part in bringing this mother of JesusRuth into the story. And you might see the connections. Rahab, a foreign woman, who was shown kindness by the God of Israel. And so, Boaz, an Israelite man, shows kindness to Ruth, a foreign woman from Moab. And not just a foreign woman but a widow, society’s most disadvantaged people during this time. So, the Rahab to Ruth connection is strong, through the link of Boaz. And yet, what ties these matriarchs of the faith together is the link of a greater and more ultimate redeemer. He whose song and tune joined their hearts, to the wondering — Is this story for me too? You see, because at the heart of Ruth’s story is the covenant faithfulness of a God who never leaves his people. And as desperate as her situation and circumstance might have been, Ruth clings to this. Because she’s heard the story, presumably from Naomi, her mother-in-law she follows into Israel. And against all logic and common sense andNaomi’s persuasion against, Ruth clings to this story. Because she’s heard the tune, and she’s made it her life quest to find out more about the story. The story that she belongs to, the story that she was made for, the story that has enchanted her soul for deeper meaning and purpose.

And from what we observe from our passage today, God uses this quest, this commitment of Ruth to minister to and serve as a guiding force for Naomi, a bewildered and disenchanted woman, who’s lost her husband and two sons while living on foreign soil. We’re kind of doing a fly over of this story. But the situation is that Naomi and her husband Elimelech leave Israel, and they settle down in enemy territory in Moab. There, their two sons Mahlon and Chilian find Moabite wives. And they’re doing life, but tragedy hits the family, and all the men are dead, leaving Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth — three widows in a time when widows could not financially sustain themselves. But Naomi hears something — she heard that the LORD had visited his people. And so, she’s setting out to return to the country she’d left and forsaken. Towards the end of chapter 1, we read about how Naomi is returning to Bethlehem with Ruth, and the women in town are asking — Is this Naomi? I mean, it’s been ten years, and a lot can happen in ten years. But it seems that these ten years have weathered her, beat her down. This is a devastated woman — having lost her husband and both her sons. And it seems she’s almost unrecognizable. And what does she say? Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. Naomi meaning pleasant and Mara meaning bitter. And she continues — I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me? That wording of the Lord testifying against her is something she told her two daughters-in-law Orpah and Ruth previously in ch1v13, where she says that the hand of the LORD has gone out against [her]. This is how the Old Testament authors described God smiting his enemies. And Naomi says that this is the way God has treated her. That’s how bad it seems; she seems like an enemy to God. And so, here she is — coming back home, after some time away. G. K. Chesterton once said: “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land. … [T]he only way to go to England is to go away from it.” Yeah, I don’t think that’s Naomi perspective, at this moment. She doesn’t have this romantic view of her return back to Israel. She’s coming back empty and jaded and disenchanted.

Because I don’t know if you caught it, when we were reading our passage earlier. But she was really trying to shake offRuth and Orpah. And Orpah, it seems, got the hint. But Ruth didn’t seem to get it. Because the song that Naomi’s heard — about her God visiting his people. It’s a tune from the very same song that Ruth was enchanted by. And so, she stays. But you think about what Naomi is doing here, in trying to convince Orpah and Ruth to go back to Moab. And it might not make a whole lot of sense from our vantage point — telling her daughters-in-law to go back to Moab, the place where pagan gods are worshiped. I remember when first taking a listen to the podcast series put out by Christianity Today titled The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, chronicling the series of events that lead to the collapse of one of America’s most influential churches and pastors at that time. This was a story involving church hurt and failed leadership. And there were layers under the layers — years of caked in hurts and wounds through built in habits of abuse. And in the repeated words of Mike Cosper at the beginning of every episode —  It’s the story about power, fame, and spiritual trauma. Problems faced across the spectrum of churches in America. And yet, it’s the story of the mystery of God who works in broken spaces. That while there was so much hurt in the history of the church, there were also ways where God burst through the cracks and into the brokenness. And there was healing that was going to take a number of years and seasons in the aftermath of the collapse of the church. Some of those who were employed at Mars Hill said that they couldn’t walk back into a church for months and for some years. Because they had lost trust in God’s leaders and his systems. And that even now, they’re back in churches. But they are so hesitant to invite anyone to church — be it friends or neighbors. Because they don’t want to risk them getting severely hurt.

From our perspective, it seems like a no brainer that Naomi would bring her daughters-in-law back to Israel, to the place where God would defend widows and orphans. Except that wasn’t her experience, and it was no longer her expectation. Because Naomi lived in the days when the judges ruled. And it was a dog eat dog world quickly degenerating after the time of Joshua. And if you look at your Bibles, after the very end of Judges is the beginning of Ruth. It’s the very next book, and it’s intentionally positioned this way. Because the way Judges ends — In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And then, the beginning of Ruth — In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land. This was a difficult and trying time, with bad leadershipand uncertain circumstances. And it’s quite expected that Naomi lost complete trust in God’s leaders in Israel. And she’s set to go back after ten years, but in her mind, there was no way she was bringing her daughters-in-law with her. She couldn’t trust the leaders of Israel to lead in such a way where socially disadvantaged women like her and Ruthand Orpah would receive the kind of kindness and protection that God commissioned his leaders toward, in this time and place of corrupt leadership and broken systems.

So then, how exactly do we get Naomi to not only bring Ruth but to have her name etched into the annals of redemptive history and in Jesus’ family line? Well, do you remember how empty and broken Naomi was in the beginning of the book? Soren Kierkegaard writes that true emptiness comes when you stop feeling the pain. There’s a numbing effect to this emptiness, and it not only affects the way you view your present but the way you view your future. It’s this place where you’ve lost your sense of purpose. But this woman who had been numbed somehow starts feeling again. And we see this full 180 at the end of the book. Where it seems the same women who were asking — Is this Naomi? Those same women reappear at the end of the story, telling her these words in ch4vv14-15: “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” Seven sons — that’s the perfect family, the fullest family. And from saying that she is empty to the conclusion, where she’s found to be filled full. Because of this redeemer who entered into her plight and visited her in her brokenness and even in her distrust. There’s a little ambiguity with who exactly this redeemer is in reference to. And according to commentators, that’s intentional. Making us wonder — Is this Boaz? Is this the child on her lap? Is this God? Because it’s something that happens throughout the course of the story. This mixture of characters orchestrated to move toward her brokenness.

Because earlier in the story, when Ruth and Boaz meet for the first time, and Ruth is shown this otherworldly generosity and kindness, Naomi hears about this, and her jaw drops. And this once disenchanted woman reacts in saying in ch2v20 — May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead! She’s responding to this great generosity shown to a foreign woman by Boaz. But that word kindness is the Hebrewword hesed, which is more aptly translated as covenant faithfulness. And the way that the statement is grammatically structured leaves it so that this covenant faithfulness could either be attributed to Boaz or to the LORD. A little bit like how the book closes. But you think about what covenant faithfulness entails. It’s usually not about someone you’ve just met. The essence of it is not shown through a friendly welcome or a surprise gift. But of one staying through tough times, or keeping steady through storms. It’s a wife who stays faithful to her husband while his business is failing. It’s a parent who unceasingly loves a child no matter how wayward or distant. And for Naomi, who’s left Israel, who may have adopted Moabite culture and ways, maybe even involved in some of their worship. She’s looking at her life, and she’s looking not just at faithfulness but covenant faithfulness — Even after all I’ve done against you, God, you, O Lord, have not left me. And so, she’s looking at the provisions through the means of Boaz’s generosity, and she sees God’s hand — not turned against her but opened toward her. Using the moving parts of human generosity to be thread into his story of radical faithfulness.

Because what we’re told in ch1v14, before any of this is seen or even promised. At the lowest point of their lives, Ruthclung to Naomi. Not because Naomi had anything to offer her. But quite the contrary. She clung to Naomi. And the very first time this word, in the Hebrew, was used in the Old Testament was in the very context of covenant faithfulness. Where in Genesis 2:24, we read — Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to (or cling to — same Hebrew word) his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And wouldn’t we know that the one Ruth pointed to in clinging to Naomi is the one who’s clung to his people — not when we were at our best but at our worst and in desperate need of saving. That Jesus would exemplify ultimate covenant faithfulness in leaving his Father in heaven, in order to cling to and commit to a wayward bride? And so, Ruth commits this covenant faithfulness in ch1v16, in telling Naomi — Where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you. Identifying with this broken and distraught mother-in-law in her place of emptiness from life to death. And it’s this commitment to Naomi that leads the women around Naomi here in the end of the story to say that this daughter-in-law who loves her was worth more to her than seven sons. And for this promised Son, this Son born to us, the one we come around during this Advent season, to this true and better Ruth and true and better Boaz. When he left his throne to commit to Naomi’s and to our restoration, here was the true immigrantwho left his home and would exemplify covenant faithfulness to his distraught people, saying not just what Ruthcommitted to back in ch1v16 — Where you go, I will go. But to take it a step further in saying — Where you’re to go, I’ll go in your place, when leaving heaven and subjugating himself to the place of ultimate poverty and emptiness, when hanging on the cross for our sins. The Son of God emptied for us, in order that we might experience the fullness of God’s promises. Where it would ultimately be said of him and not Naomi that as he was beaten, as the Almighty testified against him, dealt bitterly with him, and brought calamity upon him, his face was so distraught that he was utterly unrecognizable. And so, in this Advent season, we come around Jesus, who not only became flesh to dwell among us but had that flesh spat upon, beaten, and flogged in order that we might be held together in his love and grace.