Giving All to Family

I am giving thanks for our family today. Who is our family? Have you stopped to think about what makes a family? Everyone’s family is different, but yet the same. God has given us a wonderful gift: our family. Our family includes those that we are related to us by blood, adoption, and marriage. Our family also includes the mother of the person whom we loved and married. Our family is a special gift from God that we are here to celebrate.

Did you realize that our family also includes people who are not related to us at all? Do you have people that come to family gatherings who don’t have any connection to your family except that they are loved? The common thread defining a family is love. Sometimes, God puts together people who love each other who would not naturally be considered family. We can also love our enemies until they become family.

Giving to our family is so important. Giving to our family is found frequently in the scriptures. We give our love, our time, and our faith to our family. We give our love freely. We give our time to be with those that we love. We also give our time to earn a living to pay for a place to live and food to eat. We also give our faith and belief in God to our family. My daughter, Jessica, gives to her family by being a wonderful caregiver when someone is sick.

The book of Ruth has a great story of giving all you can to your family. Life can be really hard and difficult. We need to pull our strength from God when times get tough. The love from our family also keeps us going. What happens when we don’t know about God to use his strength? This Old Testament book in the Bible is named for Ruth who was not Jew. She did not worship God when the Bible starts telling her story. Giving to our family is the heart of the story of Naomi and Ruth. Naomi gave her love of her God to her sons and daughters by sharing God’s love with her family. In turn, Ruth gave her love back to Naomi.

In Ruth 1:1-3, we learn about Naomi’s tragedy. It says “¹In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. ² The man's name was Elimelech (ih-LIM-uh-lek), his wife's name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon (MAY-luhn) and Kilion. They were Ephrathites (E phra thights) from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. ³Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.”

Naomi lost her husband who provided for her and loved her. Naomi was thankful that she still had her two sons. Her sons were growing into men and would provide for their widowed mother.

Moab is the land east of modern day Israel across the Jordan River. The country of Moab was settled by the descendents of Esau. There was severe hatred between the descendents of the twin brothers Esau and Jacob. That hatred was renewed and passed down to the next generation. Naomi had plenty of heartache with her grief in a foreign land.

The story continues in Ruth 1:4-7, “⁴ They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, ⁵ both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. ⁶When she heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. ⁷With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.”

Usually, Naomi’s sons would provide for her if something happened to her husband. Not this time. All of her men were dead. Naomi had no money, no food, no hope, and no men to provide for her. She had two daughters and no way to eat or earn a living. What would she do?

She didn’t have any easy choices to make. Naomi’s first instinct was to head back home to Judah where God was blessing the land with rain and food again. She also was torn about taking her daughters out of their home country into a foreign land.

Naomi was making some hard decisions in Ruth 1:8-14: “⁸Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back, each of you, to your mother's home. May the Lord show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me. ⁹May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband." Then she kissed them and they wept aloud ¹⁰ and said to her, "We will go back with you to your people." ¹¹ But Naomi said, "Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands?”

^“12Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons- ¹³ would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD's hand has gone out against me!" ¹⁴ At this they wept again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-by, but Ruth clung to her.”

Naomi gave her daughters a chance to start their lives over again by finding new husbands and forgetting about Naomi. Naomi told her daughters to leave her and save themselves. Naomi told them that it is better for them to have a future. Naomi didn’t want all three of them to starve. Orpah agreed with Naomi’s logic and left to start a new life. Ruth heard Naomi’s logic, but came up with a different answer. Ruth had the idea that she should stay with her mother-in-law, Naomi.

In Ruth 1:15-18, Naomi said ¹⁵ "Look your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her." ¹⁶ But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." ¹⁸ When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.”

The speech that Ruth gave Naomi is used in many wedding ceremonies. The words are between a bride and groom. In the Bible, the words are from a daughter-in-law to her mother-in-law. Ruth’s speech has a lot of wonderful wisdom: 1) Ruth is asking Naomi to stop speaking that Ruth will leave her. Our spoken word is very powerful. 2) Ruth is promising to go where Naomi goes and stay where Naomi stays. 3) Ruth is also promising that Naomi’s family will be her family. 4) Ruth is pledging that Naomi’s God will be Ruth’s God.

Ruth makes the most important pledge at the end of her speech. Ruth promises to worship God. Our family is blessed when there is unity of faith. Naomi and Ruth both believed in God now and would put their trust in God. Worshipping God made all of the difference for Naomi and Ruth. Ruth did not know that life would be better if she was loyal to Naomi. Ruth loved her mother-in-law. Ruth traveled back to Naomi’s home. She gleaned in a field owned by a guy named Boaz. Ruth was given favor in Boaz’s eyes by God.

In Ruth 2:8-13, the scripture tells us what happened when Ruth had the faith to go with Naomi to a new land. It says “⁸So Boaz said to Ruth, "My daughter, listen to me. Don't go and glean in another field and don't go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls.

⁹ Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled." ¹⁰ At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, "Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?"

“¹¹ Boaz replied, "I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. ¹²May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge." ¹³ "May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my Lord," she said. "You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servant girls."

Ruth gave all of herself to her family. She is a role model for us to follow. Ruth and Boaz fell in love and were married, but that’s another story.

Our family needs us. Ruth was loyal to her family when the chips were down. It is easy to be good to your family when everything is going well. It is harder to be there for the family when life is tough.

The wonderful fact about this story is that Ruth and Naomi were considered family even though they came from different cultures, different countries, and even different gods. Ruth and Naomi’s countries had fought wars against each other. They could be considered bitter enemies. Instead of being bitter enemies, Ruth and Naomi were family.

We are all children of God. Our family needs to grow to include our church family. Our family needs to grow to include people from other countries and cultures. If we are created in the image of God, then we have a lot more brothers, sisters, and cousins than we ever imagined. In God’s eyes, we have a huge family.

I’m going to help officiate a wedding in two weeks in Roanoke. Gary Ellis is of one of my best friends. Gary has traveled on mission teams to Zambia and Ghana with me. He also went on a trip to work on Hurricane Katrina cleanup in Mississippi. A mission team is like a family when we go out to serve God. We also helped to repair houses damaged by Hurricane Katrina to make them into homes again. One couple took pictures of each mission team who came to rebuild their house. They considered each team to be part of their family. We’ve stayed in touch with that couple.

I’ve studied various wedding vows in preparation for the wedding ceremony. I thought about my wedding vows this week. I said something like “I, Walter, take you Susan, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; to be the mother of our children, from this day forward until death do us part.” Our vows also spoke that we wanted God to bless us with children.

I made my vow to Susan because I loved her when we married. My love has grown for Susan over the last twenty-one years. Susan and I spent Friday morning at Lewis Gale Hospital to get a test that she needed. Susan and I will be at the hospital again on Monday morning. Susan feels bad that I have to be at the hospital with her. I told her that I’m with her in the bad times as well as the good times. I’m with her in sickness and in health.

My vow wasn’t just words that I said. Marriage is not always easy. We have to work hard to keep a marriage strong. My vow was words that I said with love and with God’s help. We are putting our trust for Susan’s health in God’s hands.

I do the best I can to give all of my love to our family. I also try to give all of my love to our church family. Giving our best to our church family includes praying for the people on our prayer list. Giving our best to our church family includes being there to help and encourage each other. Actually, it is easier to think of our church family as just being our family. Our family needs encouragement and support when times are tough. Our family is there in times of grief as well. Our family comes together to celebrate joys and victories, too.

I was touched by Richard’s baptism last week. One of the ways that a family gives their all is to share their love of God with the rest of the family. Richard’s family celebrated his baptism by being by his side while he was baptized. The family was united in their joy and faith in God. I felt the power of the Holy Spirit anointing Richard as we prayed for him.

The family felt the power of the Holy Spirit because they were connected by their love of Richard and their love of God. It was hard to see where the family ended and the church family began. We were united as a “family.” Our family had overwhelming joy that Richard is growing in his faith. I felt the power of the Holy Spirit in a way that I had never felt it in the past. We saw the Bible come to life last week.

Mathew 3:11 promises to us that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. My hands felt fire when I laid my hands on Richard’s head. The whole church family felt the power of the Holy Spirit bless Richard during the baptism. We felt God’s presence in our church. Isn’t that great?

Our family is growing because we are sharing the love of Jesus Christ. Our family is growing because we are giving ourselves fully to each other. The book of Ruth teaches us that we need to include others in our family. Ruth gave her love and her time to Naomi when it didn’t really make sense to give herself completely to her mother-in-law.

God provided his grace and favor to Ruth because she was faithful to her mother-in-law. Ruth gave her whole heart and her whole future to Naomi.

She wasn’t partially committed to her family with one foot loving Naomi and one foot with a backup plan. Ruth was completely in love with Naomi. Ruth was completely committed to Naomi who was her family. Ruth and Naomi loved their enemy until the enemy became family.

Richard was completely committed to giving himself to God. Our family was completely committed in loving Richard and blessing his new life. Richard’s new life started the moment that he said “Yes, Jesus” during his baptism. Mark 12:29 explains how to love our family: ²⁹"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all of your mind and with all your strength.' ³¹The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."

Go out today and love your enemy until your enemy becomes family. Go out today and give all of your love to your family. Go out today and be committed to your family in good times and bad. Go out today and share the love of Jesus Christ with your family whether it is the good times or the bad. God will be there for us at all times. Go out and be there for your family today and every day. Amen!