SCRIPTURES: John 15: 13 and Ruth 1: 15 -19.
In John's Gospel, at the first celebration of the Lord's Supper, Jesus spoke these immortal words: "Greater love has no person than they lay down one's life for another."
Of course, he was referring to his own willingness to die on the Cross because of his love for humanity, but he was also talking about the love that we celebrate and affirm at today's Mother's Day Service and the start of National Family Week. For isn't it the essence of a Mother's love expressed in a willingness to sacrifice and give up her own life's energy for the sake of her child that has inspired us to create this wonderful holiday to honor our moms.
As I thought about that statement, I began to reflect upon Biblical models of woman who illustrate that greater love with the thought that today would be a very appropriate Sunday to remember their example and how it relates to that greater love that we have been blessed to experience in our own lives.
The woman I have selected to use as our source of inspiration today is wonderful Ruth, a faithful daughter-in-law, who knew that when she expressed her devotion and greater love for her Mother-in-Law Naomi in the words " Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people will be my people and your God my God," she was probably ending any chance that she would ever have to be a Mother herself. It's an amazing story with an even more amazing ending, so let us reflect upon this experience and see what it means for us.
First, let me explain the statement that her commitment of love to Naomi was ending her own dream to be a Mom. You see earlier in this same Chapter we read the painful story of how Naomi and her Moabite daughters-in-law had all experienced the same tragedy of the death of their husbands. Naomi was devastated because she had lost her husband and her sons but she also was concerned for her daughters-in-law. Go back, she told them, to your home land. Find a new start. You are young enough, I am too old.
If there were any hope for a new beginning for Ruth, she would have to listen to this advice. If not, she would doom herself to living as an outcast foreigner of humble means in Naomi's home village.
Orpah, the other daughter-in-law saw the wisdom in this choice that put her own needs before her Mother-in-law's, but Ruth would not budge. Where you go, I will go. Your home is my home, and I will make any adjustment necessary, even changing my religion to express my greater love for you.
As I wrote those words for today's sermon I have to admit my eyes filled with tears, and it may be happening again as I share this story also because you see I know that I too have been blessed with family and friends who have shown that greater love to me throughout my life. I know it is not true for everyone; I pray that it is true for you because to experience the gift of that greater love from our Mother, or some other person God has placed in our lives is truly one of life's greatest blessings.
I know this is a sermon, but let me interrupt it for a moment of prayer: Lord, I thank you, we thank you for the loved ones you have blessed our lives with. We thank you also for the knowledge we share with these loved ones that through Christ, the gifts of life and love are forever. Amen.
Yes, I know that I have said enough. I should sit down. But there is that amazing end that I promised you. I guess this is one of those examples of why hope springs eternal.
For Naomi was right. The odds against Ruth finding a husband as a lowly foreigner were great. But guess what? The final chapter in Ruth's book is all about her marriage to Boaz. Now that's a great end to the story.
But there is an even greater end in the final verse of her book which tell us: Among the descendants of Boaz and Ruth were the great King David and yes, the humble Son of a carpenter named Jesus who one day would say "there is no greater love than to lay one's life down for another."
Ruth showed that love and is a vital link in that ongoing chain of love that we are privileged to be a part of. Some Moms, thank you, your sacrifices are never in vain. Your greater love inspires us to walk in the footsteps of both Ruth and our blessed Saviour knowing that to show that greater love is to experience it even more fully in our own lives.
Pastor Stephen Giordano — May 8, 2005