Pastor Debbie Spangler
Sermon Text: Ruth 3: 1-5, 4: 13-17
Sacrifice---an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. In the game of chess, a sacrifice is a move intended to allow the opponent to win a pawn or piece, for strategic or tactical reasons. In baseball, a bunted ball that puts the batter out but allows a base runner or runners to advance is a sacrifice. In the card game of bridge, a bid made in the belief that it will be less costly to be defeated in the contract than to allow the opponents to make a contract is known as a sacrifice bid. Parents often sacrifice a lot of their time driving their children to and fro to attend classes and after school activities so that their child may have extra advantages. We all make sacrifices, often small ones daily, in order to gain something else we want, prize, or need. Veterans—who are being honored today---as they should be---have given their time and security and some even their lives—to safeguard our country, our freedoms, and our security. Thank you, Veterans, for your service!
Elliot Huck was a 14 year old from Bloomington, Indiana who had placed 45th out of 250 spellers in the semifinal competition. He was invited to the 2007 National Spelling Bee that was to be held on a Sunday. In Elliot’s eyes, the competition conflicted with the biblical command to rest on the Sabbath. “I always try to glorify God with what I do in the spelling bee because He is the one who gave me my talent for spelling. Now I’m not going to spell and I will try to give glory to God in that,” he said. Dropping out wasn’t an easy choice for Elliot—he loved his time in Washington, D.C., at the 2006 national competition and was looking forward to more of the same. But he said, “I have accepted that God knows what’s best, and I’m just going to do what He says.”
We had four Scripture readings this week that all point to the subject of sacrifice. In Ruth’s story, we read that after the deaths of Naomi’s, Orpah’s and Ruth’s husbands and after Naomi heard that the famine was now over in her homeland, Naomi determined to return home. She told her daughters-in-law to stay in their own country and remarry. Orpah chose to stay but Ruth was willing to give up the possibility of security in staying in her own country rather than be an alien in another one and to give up the possibility of children in order to care for and remain with Naomi. It turns out that the field in which Ruth was able to glean wheat turned out to be that of a close relative of Naomi’s---one who could possibly be their “kinsman-redeemer”. Naomi tells Ruth her plan and Ruth follows it. The result: Ruth gained a husband. They had a child named Obed. That child gave Naomi much joy in her old age. That child also became the grandfather of King David and was of the lineage from which Jesus was born. In Ruth’s case, her sacrifice of familiarity of her own country, of putting her desires and wishes after those of her mother-in-law’s came with ripples that affected generations. Ruth was not aware of this larger purpose in her life. WE will not know the full purpose and importance of our lives until we are able to look back from the perspective of eternity. (makes me think of the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”). Live in faithfulness to God, knowing that the significance of your life will extend beyond your lifetime. The rewards will outweigh any sacrifice you have made. [reference: the Book of Ruth]
Our complementary Old Testament text is from 1 Kings 17: 8-16 in which we read of Elijah, who was told by God to go to Zarephath. God had told a widow to supply Elijah with food. When he arrives he meets a widow gathering sticks. Elijah asks her for some water in a jar and a piece of bread. The widow replies that she only has a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. She is gathering a few sticks to take home to make a meal for herself and her son, that they may eat it---and die. There was famine in the land due to drought. The widow expected her little bit to be their last meal. Elijah told her to not be afraid and to first make a small cake for him and bring it to him and then to make some for herself and her son. Elijah told her that “the jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.”
Could you, would you, sacrifice what little you had left to feed yourself and your son to give to a stranger? She chose to have faith in the God of Elijah. She made the cake for Elijah and just as Elijah said, the flour and the oil did not run out until the drought was over. Faith is the step between promise and assurance. Miracles seem so out of reach for our feeble faith. But every miracle, large or small, begins with an act of obedience. We may not see the solution until we take the first step of faith.
Our Gospel reading for today is from Mark 12: 41-44 and Jesus is in the temple treasury. He is watching the people as they put their money into the treasury. He sees many rich people throwing in large amounts. But a poor widow comes along and puts in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Jesus calls his disciples together and says: “This poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything---all she had to live on.” The value of a gift is not determined by its amount, but by the spirit in which it is given. A gift given grudgingly or for recognition loses its value. Give out of gratitude and generosity.
One widow commented on what her late husband had done: “He worked on a little switchbox smaller than a loaf of bread. That’s all he worked on for 15 years. But when that Boeing 747 lifted off the ground for the first time, it was the happiest day of his life.” Her husband had worked on a tiny switchbox for 15 years, yet the Boeing 747 could not have lifted off without this man’s contribution. Often we think our seemingly small efforts aren’t very important. But when the great kingdom of God “lifts off,” we will be thrilled to find out that our efforts were essential.
Hebrews 9: 24-28 sheds light on the ultimate sacrifice—that of Jesus Christ for us. We all die physically. Christ died so that we would not have to die spiritually. He has forgiven our past sin—when he died on the cross, he sacrificed himself once for all “do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself”. He has given us the Holy Spirit to help us deal with present sin. He appears for us now in heaven as our high priest. He promises to return and raise us to eternal life in a world where sin will be banished.
Joseph Donders wrote this: “Jesus was sitting that morning in the temple looking at the treasury box in which all kinds of people were throwing their money from rattling and loud clanking bags. And then in that row of rich people very politely and submissively greeting by the temple and all the others, there is again that widow with her two five-cent pieces carefully knotted in her handkerchief. She stepped in front of the box unknotting her coins; the others were getting impatient already, and she dropped her two five-cent pieces, and was pushed on immediately. Jesus stood up, his disciples too, and he said to their astonishment: “She gave all she had, everything; she gave more than anyone else.” If our baptism in him means anything to us, then our lives too should integrate the example of the widow who gave all she had in view of God. When he took his bread that last evening of his life, when he took his cup and said: “This is my body, this is my blood,” he must have been thinking of that widow in the temple.”
Last week’s reading was of: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your soul and with all your strength---and love your neighbor as yourself. In giving all she had, the poor widow sacrificed her future for the sake of others. In sacrificing his life to atone for our sins so that we could have eternal life through belief in him, Jesus showed us the true meaning of sacrifice.
Author Kathleen Norris wrote: “Perfection, in a Christian sense, means becoming mature enough to give ourselves to others.” Jesus was and gave the perfect sacrifice---so that you and I would learn and grow to be mature in our faith by giving up something we deem more valuable: our security, our little bit of food, our last bit of money for something greater: care for someone you love, care for others above yourself. Jesus showed us the way---giving His life because He loves us that much.