24th Sunday after Pentecost
November 8, 2015
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44
(Or watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGVXioI7LII&feature=em-upload_owner#action=share)
There was an inspirational trio of sentences that gained
popularity a few years ago, that started out in a country song. The original lyrics were: “You’ve got to sing
like you don’t need the money. Love like
you’ll never get hurt. You’ve got to
dance like nobody’s watchin’. It’s gotta
come from the heart if you want it to work.”[1] Those lines were condensed to the more
popular: “Sing like no one’s listening.
Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like no one’s watching.” They’re encouraging because they’re a
reminder that it doesn’t matter what others think of your singing voice, you
should sing, anyway. In John Wesley’s Directions for Singing in the front of
the hymnal he wrote to not be afraid of your voice “nor ashamed of its being
heard.”[2] Sing like no one’s listening; when it’s hymns
you’re singing, it’s music to God’s ears, no matter whether you can keep a tune
or not. Love like you’ve never been hurt
may be hard, also, because it’s taking a risk that you might be hurt again, and
yet being bold and courageous enough to love again, anyway. Love like you’ve never been hurt. And many of us are self-conscious enough,
that it can also be hard to dance like no one’s watching. Unless you’ve trained for “Dancing with the
Stars,” most of us don’t really want an audience when we dance. When we don’t have an audience is when we
feel the most comfortable cutting a rug.
So, what do you do, how do you act, when you don’t have an audience,
when you stop being self-conscious and worrying about others’ expectations and
just let yourself be free to be you? Who
are you when no one’s looking?
We didn’t read the first part of Ruth’s story, just how
it ends, so if you’re unfamiliar with it, I encourage you to read the rest of
it some time. The book of Ruth is just
four chapters and a really easy read, because it’s a great story. If you start at the beginning, what you learn
by the time you get to the passages we read today is that “the characters in
this story are beyond reproach.”[3] Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz are “admirable people
who acted with courage and kindness in everyday situations… Out of concern for
others, all three [of them] do more than is required.”[4] They go above and beyond any duties or
obligations or expectations. They are
not just polite and well-mannered, but kind and gracious. Ruth would have been better off staying in
Moab, her own country, and finding a new husband there after her first husband
died. Instead, she stayed with Naomi and
they journeyed together to Naomi’s home country. It was a difficult life in Bethlehem where
Ruth had to work hard in the fields to provide food. Naomi could have simply given
up in self-pity. Her husband and both
sons had died. She could have just said,
“Woe is me. I deserved better. Life dealt me a bad hand. It’s not fair.” Instead, she carefully worked out a plan to
find a good husband for Ruth, her remaining daughter-in-law. Likewise, Boaz could have easily ignored Ruth
as an undesirable, distant relative who had no claim on him as family and who
he could have banned from his farm.
Instead, he protected her when she worked in his fields and responded
compassionately to her brave request that he assume family responsibility for
her and Naomi. The whole story of Ruth
didn’t have to happen. Instead, Ruth was
loyal to her late husband’s mother and Naomi worked to find a future with hope
for them both, rather than give up and sit down and throw herself a pity
party. Boaz did not have to let Ruth
glean in his fields or respond to Ruth’s claim, yet he chose to have compassion
on her. All three of these people showed
that they have character. They showed
what they are like when no one’s watching.
They showed that they possessed qualities of honesty, courage, and
integrity. They took responsibility,
rather than play the victim card, which all three of them could have done. They could have viewed themselves as victims
of their circumstances, life dealt them a raw hand. Instead, they planned and took action to
change their circumstances. Ruth married
again. Naomi had a grandson, after
all. And Boaz was willing to let his son
be heir to Ruth’s first husband, instead of his own heir. Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz showed themselves to be
people of fine, honorable character.
However,
having good character does not mean you
are automatically liked or accepted. Ruth
was a foreigner and Naomi was widow; they were outcasts in their society, in
spite of having character. Jesus obviously
had integrity and character, but he was often rejected and hated. Our opening hymn this morning began “Hail,
thou once despised Jesus!”, and I think the argument could be made that some
people still despise Jesus.[5] Or, to quote Scripture, he is “the stone that
the builders rejected [that] become the chief cornerstone.”[6] In fact, sometimes you are rejected and
despised because of your good
character. I remember a petition that
circulated in high school that everyone in my class signed, except for me. While I agreed with most of what was in the
petition, there was one line in there that I didn’t agree with, and so I
wouldn’t sign it. I was the only one in
my class, but I disagreed with that one line, and so I couldn’t, in good
conscience, sign my name. Just because
you have integrity does not mean that others will respect you for it,
unfortunately.
Having a good character also does not
mean that you’re perfect and without sin. Paul writes in Romans that “all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God.”[7] We, obviously, are not Jesus and so we are not perfect; we are those whom he died to
save. And so, even if we have an
honorable character, we still sin, we still do not always do things perfectly. We still need grace allowed to us. The good news is that “Christ was offered
once to take on himself the sins of many people,” as we read in Hebrews this
morning.[8] Christ was offered once. He does not get
sacrificed again and again each time we sin or each time we apologize for our
sins. Jesus Christ has done it once and
for all. He doesn’t keep getting back up
the cross. That’s what Dietrich
Bonhoeffer was talking about when he wrote about “cheap grace,” which is to say
that when we freely sin or keep doing the same bad thing over and over without
worrying about the consequence, because hey, Jesus died for me, I’m covered: then,
we cheapen his sacrifice. It makes light
of what he did for us on the cross. Instead,
those with good character work to minimize their character flaws, to overcome
them. They strive to do better next time and not take lightly the gift of God,
which is his Son, Jesus Christ. We
believe we are going on toward perfection, recognizing we are not there now,
and so sometimes our temper will get the better of us, or that great trait of
perseverance will turn into willful stubbornness, or we will turn a blind eye
when we ought to speak or we will eat all the leftover Halloween candy in one
sitting. Hopefully, however, the recognition
of the places where we fall short turn into character-building experiences as we intentionally seek to do better and
improve our character and become more like Christ.
Character means how
you act when no one’s looking. Unfortunately,
we don’t know exactly how Jesus acted when he was by himself, because the
Gospels were recorded by eye witnesses
of his life; there were no hidden cameras.
Still, we do know what he said
about other people’s behavior, such
as the widow and the scribes we read about in the Gospel of Mark this
morning. Jesus commented to his
disciples that the scribes, or church leaders, put just enough money in the
offering box to make a good impression.
They made a donation in order to be seen
making a donation; that was their motivation for giving. They were leaders in the temple, they
obviously were supposed to help out, and so they made sure that everyone saw
when they did it. These are the ones who
longed for honor and recognition, for fame and celebrity, but they are the ones,
Jesus said, who are also the most likely to cheat and to show off. That speaks volumes about their character,
doesn’t it? All they really cared about
was getting the best of everything for themselves and making sure that they looked good. Then Jesus observed this poor widow quietly
putting two coins in the treasury. She
didn’t want a big fuss about it, like the scribes did, because unlike them she
was not extrinsically motivated. The
widow didn’t give because she was trying to show off, or for any external
reward, or because she knew she’d get recorded in the Gospels for her story to
be shared for millennia. She didn’t know
Jesus was watching or paying her any attention.
No, she didn’t give a lot, but proportionately, she gave everything she
had, because she truly wanted to help.
She thought God could do more with her two coins than she could. She knew it wasn’t much, but it was all she
had to give.
Character can be developed; it’s not necessarily
something you’re born with. So if your
halo’s been tarnished, that’s okay. We
believe in a God of second chances. You
can gain character, even if you haven’t had it in the past. Act with integrity, regardless of whether you
think anyone’s watching. People with
character don’t give their spare change or give out of their leftovers; they
share what they have even if it means they go without because someone else
needs it more. Don’t throw yourself a pity party when things
don’t go your way, or say you deserved better.
Instead, you get yourself together and form a plan to move forward with
life. Character doesn’t mean you’ll get
fame or recognition or acceptance or even respect. Sometimes people will hate you because you
have courage and are honest and upright.
Character doesn’t guarantee you a rich or comfortable life, and it
doesn’t mean that you’re perfect or always know what to say or how to act. It means you have integrity. It means you keep your word. It means you are kind and compassionate, not
just polite. It means you’re gracious, quick
to allow grace for yourself and for others.
Character is who you are when you think no one’s looking. I pray for each of you what Paul wrote in 1
Corinthians, that God may “strengthen you to the end, so that
you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”[9]
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