A Mother Weathers Life's Storms

A Mother Weathers Life's Storms

Ruth 1:1-5

As you already know, today is Mother’s Day. I would like to begin today’s sermon with a short story.

A small boy invaded the lingerie section of a large department store and shyly presented his problem to a woman clerk in the lingerie department.  “I want to by a slip as a present for my mom,” he said. “But, I don’t know what size she wears.”  The clerk asked, “Is she tall or short, fat or skinny?”  “She’s just perfect,” beamed the small boy.  So the clerk wrapped up a size 34 for him.  Two days later, Mom came to the store by herself and changed the slip to a size 52.

How many of you already know that your mother is perfect?  Mother’s are very special people, and most of us think they are perfect.  Abraham Lincoln said, “All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother.  I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me.  They have clung to me all my life.”

George Washington said of his mother, “My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw.  All I am I owe to my mother.  I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”

I don't know if the mother in today's Bible text was perfect, and I'm almost certain Naomi wasn't the most beautiful woman ever.  It seems to me she began as a rather ordinary woman in a rather ordinary family.  But then some extraordinary events began to overtake her life.

Our text today is from the book of Ruth.  Here, in what has been described as one of the best short stories of all literature, we are introduced to a rather ordinary family and the particular events that happen to them.  On this Mother's Day we will see Naomi weather life's storms as she suffers through  ...

The Loss of Home  (vv. 1-2)    

The Loss of Spouse  (v. 3)    and ...

The Loss of Children  (vv. 4-5)

1. Body

1. The Loss of Home   (vv. 1-2) 
1. God is with us when every familiar thing is taken away
1. With the possible exception of some who descend from native Americans, most of us come from immigrants.
1. It's likely we don't know why our forefathers left their native soil and came to America, but for one reason or another they journeyed to distant lands to start life over.
2. This is something of the story we are reading today.
2. The "House of Bread" (Bethlehem) runs empty
1. In an economy largely based on agricultural, a famine is obviously very serious. Not only do people risk starvation, but the whole economy is in peril – agriculture is how people make their money, find their employment, etc.
2. Certainly the Quad Cities knows the devastation of having a population centered around a single industry and then having that industry take a major hit.  The population of these cities shrank measurably in the 80’s when many factories shut down, and people moved away.
3. The "Land of Praise"  (Judah)  -- God is silent
4. Elimelech ("My God is King") casts his lot with strangers in a foreign land
1. he was the brother of Salmon, a prince of the tribe of Judah
2. he leaves all he has in Judah and moves away.
3. We don't know any more than that.
4. Some claim Elimelech was forsaking the promises of God by moving away.
5. All I know for certain is that he had a wife and two young boys (perhaps sickly boys) to take care of.
6. Elimelech moved on to "greener pastures"
7. Sometimes, though, the grass isn't any greener elsewhere.
5. Naomi ("sweet, pleasant") moves her house
1. Question:  Did they leave their God behind in the move?
2. The Loss of Spouse  (v. 3)

1. God has a special place in His heart for the widow
1. Her Husband died
1. Her support is gone
2. Her family "network" is far away
2. Two children remain
1. Chillon  ("weak")
2. Mah'lon ("sick")
3. They may have been in their early teen years when their father died, since the Bible says they were in the land ten years altogether.
3. Naomi continues on, providing for her house
1. She raises her children into manhood
2. She sees to it that the boys are married
3. There is no indication Naomi grieved her loss
4. She couldn't allow herself to throw a "pity party" she had to care for her family.
5. Question:  Did God abandon them once Elimelech 
   ("My God is King") was dead?

1. The Loss of Children  (vv. 4-5)
1. God is with those who mourn

1. The joy of weddings
1. Orpah  ("thick skulled or stiff-necked")
2. Ruth ("girlfriend")
2. The sorrow of death
1. "weak" and "sickly" both die early into their marriage
2. neither of them produce children
3. New Living Translation -- verse 5, "both Mahlon and Kilion died. This left Naomi alone, without her two sons or her husband"
4. This leaves Naomi with two daughters-in-law to provide for in a land that is strange to her.
3. Illustration
1. In the movie, Young Sherlock Homes, Holmes has a discussion with the young not-yet-doctor Watson.  They talk about what they want for their lives.  Watson says that he wants to become a doctor to help the world.  And Sherlock Holmes says that his one desire in life is to “never be alone.”
2. I thank that’s true for most of us.  We don’t want to be left alone – even those of us who enjoy solitude don’t really want to be stuck with aloneness.  But that’s what happens to Naomi.  Her husband moves her to a foreign land – they have two problem children.  But then the husband and the sons all die!  And she is stuck in the middle of nowhere with responsibility for two daughters-in-law.
3. She feels terribly alone – deserted by family and God.
4. But the question I want to leave you with this morning is this: 
   When did God abandon Naomi?
1. That is to say, at what point did God leave her?

1. Conclusion 
1. Are you sometimes tempted to ask, "Where is God?" when faced by the news on the deaths associated with the current plague, the devastating loss of income faced by many today; the long lines of cars and people waiting for simple things, like food from a food pantry?  On Mother’s Day, especially, we remember with shame how women often bear the brunt of this misery, exploitation and discrimination.  The matter becomes even more pressing when one is personally faced with the suffering of a loved one, when the trouble that seems to afflict mankind in general comes to our own doorstep; when somehow church life or your own spiritual experience is upended from what used to be your routine.  "Where is God?" we ask.
2. Where was God for Naomi?  Where is God for you?
3. I would suggest to you today that God was right there in the midst of the struggle and suffering with Naomi.   And He's also right here, in the midst of it all, with you.
4. Hebrews 13:5 -- God Himself has said,  "I will never leave you nor forsake you."  (quoting Deuteronomy 31:6, 8; Joshua 1:5)
5. Psalm 139
1. O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
2. You know my sitting down and my rising up;
3.         You understand my thought afar off.
4.   You comprehend my path and my lying down,
5.         And are acquainted with all my ways.
6.   For there is not a word on my tongue,
7.         But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.
8.   You have hedged me behind and before,
9.         And laid Your hand upon me.
10.   Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
11.         It is high, I cannot attain it.
12.          
13.   Where can I go from Your Spirit?
14.         Or where can I flee from Your presence?
15.   If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
16.         If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
17.   If I take the wings of the morning,
18.         And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
19.   Even there Your hand shall lead me,
20.         And Your right hand shall hold me.
21.   If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall[a] on me,”
22.         Even the night shall be light about me;
23.   Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
24.         But the night shines as the day;
25.         The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
6. Yes, mothers are often called upon to weather the worst of life's storms, but they do not do it alone -- not those who know God.  He bears with them.