The Second Wednesday in Advent
*Why Have I Found Favor?* Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen! Ruth said to Boaz, “*Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner*?” Dear Christian friends, Ruth is an example for us, written into the Scriptures in order that we may learn to share her faith. What does faith do? Faith enables us to look totally outside of ourselves for everything and to look inwardly for nothing—not even for good works. In her emptiness, claiming no credit of her own, refusing to self-validate any of her own actions, Ruth does the good works that are produced by faith. Ruth illustrates the purest and most faultless form of religion, which is this: “*to look after orphans and widows in their distress*,” as St. James has written (1:27). Naomi was the widow in distress. Ruth could gain little from the woman who has lost everyone in her life. Ruth gives what Naomi has lost, pledging Naomi her own life: Where you go I will go, and 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 (Ruth 1:16-17). Would that God’s Christians were so committed to one another in this day! Would that we dared such devotion as to say to each other, “May the Lord deal severely with me if I should even come close to failing you!” Living in a world where there are many better things to do, Ruth has nothing better to do than good works create by faith and carried out for the sake of the neighbor. Like all women, Ruth is a living image of the holy Christian Church and all Christians therein. Boaz is a living prophecy of the Coming Christ. Boaz notices Ruth’s works, even while Ruth remains voluntarily blind to them. It is not that Ruth was unaware of her care and commitment to Naomi. Ruth refused to use her love a tool for her own gain. Ruth held the Christian faith pure and undefiled in this: She committed herself to good works while ignoring her good works. “*Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner*?” Therefore, Boaz says about Ruth what Ruth refuses to say of herself: Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” State Boaz’s Words a bit differently, and you come close to the promises of God, spoken to all who live by faith in His mercy and trust in His grace: “*Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter your master’s rest*” (Matthew 25:21). Again, “*As you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to Me*” (Matthew 25:40). “*Why have I found favor in your eyes,*” asked Ruth, “*that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner*?” There is nourishment here for every Christian: · With the Words, “*I am a foreigner*,” Ruth teaches us to claim nothing, to demand or insist upon nothing, to point nowhere for proof of our worthiness. · The Words “*Why have I found favor?*” teach us to trust our Redeemer for all that we need in this life and in the next. Ruth’s kinsman-redeemer Boaz had already been kind and generous to Ruth, but the best part of his redemption was yet to come. Consoling Words of comfort were spoken to Ruth, in order to make her daily hardships more bearable. Some barley and wheat were added, with a promise attached, “You shall not be harmed.” With one Word from Boaz, the future suddenly brightened, as Naomi was quick to observe: “*This man is a close relative of ours*,” Naomi said, “*one of our redeemers*!” The best parts of Ruth and Naomi’s redemption still await the end of the book, where Boaz at last takes these women into his home to be part of his family forever. Ruth’s marriage to Boaz caused the women of Bethlehem to rejoice. “*Blessed be the Lord,*” they sang. “*He has not let you this day without a redeemer!*” (Ruth 4:14) We Christians have the same reason for great hope and much rejoicing. Christ our Boaz has already entered His field; He has already greeted His workers; He has already spoken His consolations to us; He has joined His promises to food for our nourishment. All that remains is for us to enter “*the marriage supper of the Lamb*” (Revelation 19:9) in His kingdom, which has no end. With the Word of Jesus, our future is bright and secure. That does not mean we need feel bored while we wait for our redemption. Naomis are everywhere.
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