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1 Year Lectionary – 1st Wednesday in Advent – 11/29/2023 | Pr. Chris Rosebrough

Welcome to the Teaching Ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Kongsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of Northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone, and now, here’s a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrough:

Time Stamp	Transcript
0:22	A reading from The
0:29	Book of Ruth chapter 1 in the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in
0:35	the land a man of Bethlehem and Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab
0:41	he and his wife and his two sons the name of the man was alimac and the name
0:47	of his wife Naomi and the names of his two sons were mahlon and Kon they were
0:53	ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah they went into the country of Moab and
0:59	remained a there but ALC the husband of Naomi died and she was left with her two
1:06	sons these took moabit wives the name of the one was orpa and the name of the
1:12	other Ruth they lived there about 10 years and both mlon and Kon died so that
1:19	the woman was left without her two sons and her husband then she rose with her
1:25	daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab for she heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited
1:33	his people and given them food so she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law and they
1:40	went on the way to return to the land of Judah but Naomi said to her two
1:45	daughters-in-law go return each of you to her mother’s house may the Lord deal
1:50	kindly with you as he has dealt with the dead and with me the Lord grant that you
1:56	may find rest each of you in the house of her husband and then she kissed them
2:01	and they lifted up their voices and they wept and they said to her no we will
2:07	return with you to your people but Naomi said turn back my daughters why will you
2:12	go with me have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands turn
2:17	back my daughters go your way for I am too old to have a husband and if I I if
2:23	I should say if I should have hope even if I should have a husband this night
2:28	and should bear Sons would you therefore wait till they were grown would you therefore refrain from marrying no my
2:35	daughters for it is exceedingly bitter for me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me then
2:42	they lifted up their voices and wept again and Ora kissed her mother-in-law and Ruth clung to her and she said see
2:50	your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her Gods return after your
2:56	sister-in-law but Ruth saido not urge me to leave you or to return from following
3:01	you for where you go I will go and where you Lodge I will Lodge your people shall
3:07	be my people and your God my God where you die I will die and there I
3:16	will be buried may the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death
3:21	Parts me from you and when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her
3:27	she said no more so the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem and when
3:33	they came to Bethlehem the whole town was stirred because of them and the women said is this Naomi she said to
3:41	them do not call me Naomi call me Mara for the almighty has dealt bitterly with
3:48	me I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty why call me Naomi
3:55	when the Lord has testified against me and the almighty has brought calamity upon me so Naomi returned and Ruth the
4:03	moabit her daughter-in-law with her who returned from the country of Moab and
4:08	they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley Harvest oh Lord have mercy
4:14	on us in the name of Jesus Amen you know sin is awful in fact sin
4:21	leads to horrible consequences that are often times legitimately terrible to
4:26	endure and quite painful phys physically painful psychologically painful
4:32	spiritually painful and you’re going to note here the wages of sin is death this
4:37	is most certainly true but God seems to be content to make sure that we’re paid
4:43	those wages in small incremental payments it’s almost like having an apartment of sin and God has seen fit to
4:50	make sure we get paid the rent every single month it’s a little bit awful if you think about it and so when we come
4:57	to the story of Ruth and Naomi it’s important to note that this isn’t a
5:04	story that begins with faithful Israelites in fact far from it I can legitimately say that IMC and Naomi have
5:13	done something that is quite foolish it’s sinful if you think about it and as
5:18	a result of it they paid a very heavy price Naomi being left holding the bag
5:24	and the problem is is that when her husband died then her sons now we’ve got
5:30	a big problem and that problem is is the way the property worked in ancient Israel women couldn’t own it and as a
5:37	result of it she was in dire need of a redeemer somebody who can redeem her
5:43	property but that would require a marriage and well this is for the later
5:49	part of the chapter let’s just say that dried up old women having marriage proposals from Young Kinsmen redeemers
5:57	is not really in the cards here all right that’s just not what’s going to go on so let me walk through this text and
6:02	see if we can figure out what’s going on and along the way we’re going to note that in this first chapter Ruth the
6:09	moabit woman is going to behave very much like Christ wonderfully so we have
6:15	to keep this in mind types and shadows are the things we’re looking for we want to bring this back to Christ and of
6:20	course it’s no coincidence that we’re reading this story during Advent because after all this does play take place in
6:27	Bethlehem hm that seems like a good men for me if we’re going to be looking forward to the birth of Christ so here’s
6:33	how the text reads in the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land and a man of Bethlehem and Judah
6:39	went to sojourn in the country of Moab he and his wife and his two sons now this requires you to have read other
6:45	portions of scripture if you read the book of the judges it’s a it’s not a good book okay
6:52	after the children of Israel get into the land of Israel and Joshua dies and that generation dies we are all over the
7:00	map well over and again you hear this refrain through the Book of Judges and again the people of Israel did what was
7:06	wicked in the eyes of the Lord and they worshiped the bals and so God sold them into slavery to the moabites to the
7:12	Philistines to the upit the ballet ties and all the other tits out there right
7:17	all that being said this is how this goes and then what happens is that the people of Israel cry out and say God we
7:24	were wrong have mercy on us God sends a savior a judge a deliverer they are
7:30	rescued from slavery to these flee bitten tribes and then well the whole thing starts all
7:38	over again over and over sounds a lot like my sanctification by the way it’s
7:44	just it’s not a straight line into Glory it seems to be like this right that’s
7:49	kind of the point and so here you can read between the lines a little bit by reading the cross references in the Book
7:55	of Judges and so in the days when the judges ruled there was a famine well you’re going to note knowing your Mosaic
8:01	Covenant knowing your book of Deuteronomy you’ll note that God did not promise the people of Israel famines he
8:07	promised them plenty if if they obeyed the commands of God
8:15	the fact that they were experiencing famine was God basically saying are you
8:20	guys going to put those Idols away or not you’re going to keep worshiping Baal
8:25	and listening to your neighbors that you know the Canaanites and all these other people and start worshiping their
8:30	deities if that’s the case well guess what I’m going to lock the sky up Rain
8:36	won’t fall crops won’t grow you’re going to get hungry and rather than go you
8:43	know God is judging us exactly like he said he would judge us in the book of
8:48	Deuteronomy for not being faithful and obeying his commands and worshiping only him you know what we need to do we need
8:54	to repent we need to put away our idols and worship Yahweh alone so um ALC and
9:02	Naomi and their sons come up with a great idea let’s leave the promised land
9:08	and head to moabit territory and all the Norwegians said UA
9:15	yeah that’s the correct lurgical response here so you can see what’s going on this is not a good setup all
9:21	right but you’re going to note God is going to allow them to experience the consequences of their sin and rather
9:26	than repenting fleeing the scene and well God’s not going to be content
9:32	to leave all of them there so the name of the man was ALC and I apologize this
9:37	is a bit gratuitous but every time I hear his name I hear a song running through my head Alim Alim Al you know
9:45	the song right and so the name of the man was IMC and his wife Naomi and the names of the two sons were Mahon and
9:53	kilon and they were ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah sounds a lot like
9:59	what’s going on in that new testament when we get there in just four weeks right so they went to the country of Moab and there they remained but Al LIC
10:08	the na the husband of Naomi died and she was left there with her two
10:14	sons and to make matters worse her two sons took moabit wives which they’re not
10:21	supposed to do all right I don’t care how hot the Pagan chicks are you’re not supposed to marry the Pagan chicks
10:28	that’s not how this work works so these good Israelite boys are not very good Israelite boys they have the hots for
10:33	the moabit girls and so they marry them and the name of the one was orpa and the name of the other was
10:40	Ruth they lived there about 10 years that’s more than a sojourn by the way
10:45	I’ve been here for 10 years almost 10 years here in North Dakota Minnesota and it don’t feel like no sojourn you know
10:52	it’s because I ain’t going anywhere anytime soon 10 years is a long time and both mlon and kilon they Di died so that
11:00	the woman was left without her two sons and her husband this is disaster this is
11:07	the ancient equivalent of bankruptcy we’ve got nothing I own property but I
11:12	can’t actually own it outright I can’t get to that asite we are well no longer
11:19	able to supply ourselves we are completely poor dependent upon charity of others at
11:26	this point so then she rose with her daughters-in-law to return from the
11:32	country of Moab and for she had heard in the fields of Moab that Yahweh had
11:38	visited his people and given them food huh interesting word by the way
11:44	visited Yahweh visited his people yeah that’s how it worked in the time of the judges isn’t it Yahweh visited his
11:51	people sent a redeemer sent a judge delivered them which of the judges was it it doesn’t say was it was it Gideon
11:57	was it Samson was it Barak it doesn’t say which it was we’re not exactly sure but when you read the Book of Judges it
12:04	invokes all of those names where you sit there and go of course Yahweh visited his people because when he punishes them
12:12	it’s so that they will repent and so note here having fled the scene and not repented up to this point
12:19	they’ve now missed the visitation of God and they were completely in the wrong place they were in Moab rather than the
12:27	promised land so she heard that Yahweh had visited his people and given them food so she set out from that place
12:34	where she was with her two daughters-in-law and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah but
12:41	Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law go return each of you to her mother’s
12:47	house may Yahweh deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me
12:53	and Yahweh grant that you may find rest each of you in the house of her husband go go go back home find a new husband
13:01	have a family enjoy all of that stuff so she kissed them and they lifted up their voices and they all wept this is what
13:08	happens with women they cry you know so they’re all crying this is a sad departure and so they said to her no we
13:15	will return with you to your people really let’s see if that’s true
13:21	so Nai said well turn back my daughters why will you go with me have I yet sons
13:26	in my womb that they may be become your husbands turn back my daughters go your
13:32	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
13:39	should bear Sons would you therefore wait till they were grown now if you don’t know what’s going on here why would she say something like this okay
13:46	Naomi an older lady at this point uh is basically saying if I went back and had a husband and had Sons would you wait
13:53	for them to become adults cuz the idea here is that this is how this works
13:58	worked is that if Naomi did get married then her son would then be required to
14:06	marry one of the chicks and then the other son would be required to marry the other one in the and then produce
14:14	Offspring for the dead brothers that’s a requirement of the Torah so that’s kind of a weird one okay
14:23	kind of working this through an 80 a lady how old she doesn’t say maybe she’s 60 I don’t know it doesn’t it doesn’t
14:29	say but she has a son at 60 and then these and then Ruth and and orpa how old
14:36	are they 25 30 a 50-year-old woman marrying a
14:42	20-year-old boy you know or you this it’s it’s starting to get a little weird and so I think orpa begins to come to
14:48	her senses and go yeah maybe that’s not what I’m signing up for right kind of explaining how that all goes down
14:56	so when um so so would you therefore refrain from marrying no my daughters it
15:01	is exceedingly bitter for me to for your sake that the hand of Yahweh has gone out against me so they lifted up their
15:07	voices they wept again orpa kissed her mother-in-law basically you can say orpa
15:13	kissed her mother-in-law goodbye because now she leaves the story
15:19	but Ruth clung to her and so she said see your sister-in-law has gone back to
15:24	her people and listen to these words and to her God return after your
15:31	sister-in-law what kind of awful advice is that listen your sister’s gone back
15:37	to her family and to your deities that you Worship in your family go with her do the
15:43	same no Israelites supposed to talk this way right no Israel israelit supposed to
15:49	talk this way because there is only one God what kind of advice is this you want me to go back and commit
15:57	idolatry huh you can kind of see where Naomi is not exactly the most Pious lady
16:03	almost secular in her thinking and so you have to wonder if God is not working
16:09	in her her own repentance to see that there’s more to the that more to life
16:16	than meets the eye and that what scripture says is true man doesn’t live by bread alone but by every word that
16:22	proceeds from the mouth of God which clearly she seems to have forgotten a little bit here your sister-in-law has
16:28	has gone back to her people and to her God so return after your sister-in-law but now Ruth really comes through and
16:34	listen to these words Ruth saido not urge me to leave you or to return from
16:40	following you for where you go I will go and where you Lodge I will Lodge your
16:47	people shall be my people and your God my God now here’s an interesting thing
16:54	the way the sentences work out here watch what watch what happens where you
17:00	go I will go future tense where you Lodge I will Lodge future tense your
17:08	people shall be my people future tense and your God my God not future
17:16	tense confession of Faith Ruth already believes in Yahweh we
17:23	don’t know how this happened the text doesn’t say but by this statement the paying attention t to the grammar one of
17:30	these things is not like the other right so your people shall be my people your
17:35	God my God where you die I will die and there I will be buried and may Yahweh do
17:42	so to me and more also if anything but death Parts me from you what a confession it may Yahweh do so to me
17:51	more and more also if anything but death Parts me from you that’s her saying I believe in
17:57	Yahweh I believe in Yahweh and because of that I if I did Wicked I would expect
18:02	Yahweh to do more evil to me to cause more Calamity to fall upon me if I do
18:08	not remain faithful to stay with you and here’s where she exemplifies Christ what does Christ say
18:15	to us in the uh in the um uh Great Commission go therefore Make Disciples
18:20	of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the father Son and Holy Spirit teaching them all which I have commanded
18:26	you and lo I am with you always even until the end of the age
18:33	that same faithfulness of Christ is exemplified here in Ruth she is going to
18:38	be with Naomi through thick and thin through disaster and blessing and This
18:45	Disaster has not turned her love away from her at all instead like Christ she
18:51	steadfastly stays with Naomi Naomi doesn’t deserve this Naomi has a lot of
18:57	issues that have to be resolved here for sure but when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her she said no
19:05	more now fascinating thing comes up next they end up going back to Bethlehem and
19:12	here’s where I have to kind of prepare you for what’s going to happen we are going to hear
19:19	Naomi lament you think of Lamentations the
19:24	book of Lamentations that’s a lament did you know that there are over 60 Psalms
19:29	in the scripture that are Psalms of lament where it legitimately sounds like
19:36	people are either crying out to God in great pain wondering where he is or even
19:43	kind of complaining to God about the bitterness of the circumstances that they find themselves in how long oh Lord
19:53	David says will you forget me forever how long must I cry tears into my pillow
19:59	and you not act according to my prayers things like this and so here’s the important thing is that we live in a day
20:06	where unfortunately American positivity has had a horrible impact on
20:13	Christian doctrine and I mean it in the worst possible way I’ve been recently doing some study on the foundations The
20:20	Roots the origins of the Pentecostal movement okay and there’s a
20:27	wonderful wonderful history written about it that takes us way back into American history and you’re going to
20:33	note something there in the early phases of American History Americans were like
20:39	insanely optimistic about their future they believed that they had a manifest
20:45	destiny to bring democracy to the entire Western Hemisphere and they believed
20:51	that they were going to just roll across the country and Conquer everybody for
20:56	life liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness and this ended up having a huge profound impact on
21:03	Theology and whose theology did it impact the most of all people John Wesley John Wesley and the methodists
21:11	they embbeded this positivity and it’s that theology
21:17	that then gave birth or it was the big chicken that laid the egg that became
21:23	the Pentecostal movement and within the Pentecostal movement then you have today’s modern day name it and claim it
21:31	Prosperity preachers God wants you to be the head and not the tail he’s going to give you prosperity and health and
21:37	wealth and you’re going to be the oh yeah the bees knees and all this kind of stuff and the one thing you cannot do
21:44	the mortal sin in those theological systems is to say anything with your
21:50	mouth that is negative right because in their way of
21:57	thinking you your words create
22:02	reality right which is nonsense that’s witchcraft okay but I would note if that
22:10	were the case then the story of The Book of Ruth would end very differently than it ends because we’re about to hear
22:19	Naomi give the ultimate negative confession in the form of a lament and
22:26	she is Ed in her soul and you’re going to note this throughout the scriptures
22:32	and the scriptures teach us in the Psalms to do this we see example after
22:37	example after example of Godly men venting their lamentation voicing their pain voicing
22:46	their suffering acknowledging the Calamity that has befallen them or the people of Israel
22:53	and I would note there’s an entire book dedicated to this process called
22:59	Lamentations right now I would note something here I’ve never heard Joel ostein preach on Lamentations but I will
23:06	not be asking asking David lovey to do so because he’ll twist it horribly but that’s a whole other story okay and yes
23:13	I mentioned David ly in a sermon okay all of that being said listen to her words and take note
23:21	it is healthy it is right it is Godly
23:27	and it is modeled for us to give voice to the difficulties the suffering
23:35	and the pain that we are going through that doesn’t mean that when we do so we are always correct in what we say and
23:43	you’ll note that when we do so often times God is silent sitting by standing
23:50	by waiting for us to kind of get it out because it’s part of the morning process
23:57	of sin it’s part of the teaching process of being a disciple of Christ even
24:02	Christ himself lamented in the garden and showed his lamentation when he said
24:08	father if it’s possible please let this cup pass from me but again not my will be done your
24:15	will be done right that’s a lamentation so The Story Goes On so the
24:21	two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem boy that sounds a lot like a story we’re going to be reading shortly
24:27	keep pointing it out because I this is the whole point of this text and when they came to Bethlehem the whole town
24:33	was stirred because of them and the women said is this Naomi and she said to them do not call
24:40	me Naomi call me Mara now a little bit of a note here Naomi in Hebrew means
24:48	Pleasant okay don’t call me Pleasant my life is anything but that she says
24:53	instead call me Mara and this kind of invokes a little obscure CED portion of
24:59	the book of Exodus Remember When the Children of Israel they crossed the Red Sea and they’re starting now to head
25:05	towards Mount Si and the first thing they run into after this this the uh the
25:12	the Springs where they had the 70 palm trees after that they ran into a place called Mara the Springs of Mara and it’s
25:20	noted because the water in the springs of mar was bitter it tasted terrible and
25:26	you sit there and go why are we getting this detail and Moses takes a piece of wood Chucks it into the spring of Mara
25:34	and then the waters become sweet and you scratch your head and go huh but then
25:40	you read the church fathers and the church fathers have a very interesting way of reading that text they talk about
25:46	the bitterness of sin and the consequences of sin but the wood represents the wood of Christ’s cross
25:52	and by his death and his resurrection the bitterness of this life turns to the sweetness of the joys of
25:59	Eternity keep that in mind so here she’s invoking yeah and the the word always is
26:05	referencing itself so when she says call me Mara you should sit there and go oh wait that has something to do with that
26:10	Exodus test text and it does and then she says this the almighty has dealt
26:16	very bitterly with me I went away full and Yahweh has brought me back empty is
26:23	she saying anything false no she’s speaking the truth but you’ll note that all the Joel Joel oits are going no
26:29	don’t say that you’re bringing down a negative confession upon your own head you’re
26:34	cursing yourself with your words wrong she’s not I went away full and the Lord has
26:43	brought me back empty now you’ll note Ruth doesn’t speak up at this point
26:50	because you’ll note that what she said was not true she did not come back empty
26:58	she came back with a faithful daughter-in-law who loves her so much
27:03	that she refused to be parted from her and she had repented of her worship of false gods and believes in Yahweh and so
27:11	you’ll know Ruth’s silence here actually speaks because rather than sit there and
27:18	go oh that’s it I’m heading back heading back to Moab don’t you’re treating me
27:24	like I’m like chopped liver or something and liver is a terrible thing just want to make that clear all right and so you
27:30	know you you say you came back empty but you have me you don’t even think I’m you don’t what is this right this is not how
27:36	she’s talking by the way strongly recommend that you do not argue with your spouse by using words like always
27:42	or never avoid those things like the plague right if you say to your spouse you never do this lie that’s not true or
27:50	you always blah right lie again and you know you hurt your spouse when you talk
27:55	this way because you’re not recognizing the good that they do and in your pain and your anguish you’re over lamenting
28:02	things you’ve overcooked it and so your spouse could rightly say what you’re saying is not true what I I’ve done this
28:09	that and the other thing why does this not count right but you’ll note this is where Naomi is bitter in Soul bitter in
28:18	the sufferings bitter in her loss and she knows that the hand of Yahweh is the one that has been against her and from
28:25	her point of view in her pain and her suffering she believes she’s come back empty that is not a slight against Ruth
28:31	and Ruth doesn’t take it that way why call me Naomi why call me pleasant when
28:36	Yahweh has testified against me and the almighty has brought Calamity upon
28:42	me H so Naomi returned and Ruth the moabit her daughter-in-law with her who
28:50	returned from the country of Moab and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley Harvest but you’re going
28:56	to note here what a terrible start this is this is there’s so much problems here that
29:03	that need to be resolved but this is your life and my life we’ve all suffered
29:08	great loss because of our sin my sin your sin we’ve all experienced this kind
29:15	of bitterness of soul in one degree or another and may even in our future have much more bitterness ahead of us we
29:22	don’t know the losses or the pain or the difficulties that lie ahead for tomorrow
29:29	ah that being the case you’ll note that it’s okay to lament but note then that
29:35	Christ himself knows the bitterness of this life he himself wept when he lost
29:41	his dear friend Lazarus he wept at his tomb he wept at the loss he wept at the
29:47	de Devastation that sin has brought to each and every one of us and his
29:52	solution was to drink to the drags the bitterness of God’s Wrath path on the
29:58	cross so that you and I can be forgiven and reconciled to God so that through
30:05	Jesus our bitterness in this life brought on ourselves by our own sin can
30:11	be turned to the sweetness of the Forgiveness of sins reconciliation with God experiencing his Mercy receiving
30:18	from him that inheritance that is given as a gift by grace through faith because of the great love that God has for us
30:26	rather than the almighty bringing Calamity upon Naomi for the point of purposely bringing her to the bowels of
30:33	Hell instead he is allowed Calamity to befall her so that she is now prepared
30:39	to receive the great gift of his mercy and provision this is a good place to start
30:47	and so brothers and sisters as we begin our journey through Advent a penitential
30:53	season let the bitterness of your sin come come and feel it speak to God and
31:01	tell him of the great pain and suffering you’re in because of your sin cry out to
31:07	him and cry Lord have mercy on me I am a sinner let that bitterness of heart
31:15	knowing that you have transgressed God’s holy law and like Naomi like ALC ma like
31:20	Mahon and kilion we have deserved disaster because of our sin but know
31:26	this that Christ has not determined that you experience his wrath he has instead
31:32	determined that you are to be forgiven reconciled to him and that the inheritance that we all collectively
31:39	lost when our parents disobeyed God in that Garden of Eden when they heard the
31:45	voice of the serpent that said did God really say and then went on and ate from
31:50	that fruit that was forbidden and caused us to lose the inheritance of paradise
31:55	on Earth that note that God has determined to give that back to us for
32:01	Christ himself went to the cross and his cross then becomes now the tree of life
32:07	and he is leading us to that inheritance that will never tarnish can never be
32:13	stolen will never blow away like the dust in the Sands of the Sahara or
32:20	anything like that in a World Without End and so note God is working through
32:25	our suffering as the scriptures says suffering produces perseverance perseverance character and character
32:32	hope so in this opening chapter Naomi may not see it yet but she is not
32:38	without hope in fact God is about to do something quite unexpected in the name
32:45	of Jesus
32:51	Amen

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