What do you do when you are stuck in the meantime, between what has ended and what still refuses to arrive, like a traveller waiting at a station for a delayed train? This sermon reads the book of Ruth as an ancient guide to that in-between and follows three figures, each teaching something different: Naomi about belonging among God’s people, Boaz about a faithfulness to God’s word that becomes a blessing to others, and Ruth about taking refuge under the wings of God’s goodness. It is a story of God slowly turning hopelessness into blessing. Listen if you are waiting today and cannot yet see the end.
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- Elimelech leaves Bethlehem, the house of bread, for Moab, and then he and his sons die. What does this opening of the book of Ruth reveal about the time of the judges, when everyone did what was right in their own eyes?
- What in Ruth's story shows that the grain left in the fields and the kinsman redeemer law were God's way of caring for widows and the poor?
- Naomi asks to be called Mara, meaning bitter. What helps you in your own in-between time not to sink into bitterness or withdraw from God's people?
- The sermon says that God's children belong among God's people, even when the community is imperfect. What most often pulls people away from community in hard seasons, and how can they come back?
- Boaz stays faithful to God's word even though it costs him time, money and effort. What small, everyday step of faithfulness could become a blessing to someone near you this week?
- Ruth, a foreigner with no claim to God's promises, took refuge under God's wings and became part of His story all the way to David. What might taking refuge in God's goodness look like for you this week?
