26 February 2011

Psalm 137, 144; Ruth 4:1-17; 2 Cor. 4:13-5:10; Matt. 6:1-16

The story of Ruth is one of the most beautiful stories in not only the Bible but anywhere. The nearer redeemer was unwilling to compromise his own children’s share of the inheritance by taking Ruth and providing her with a child which would have been part of his duty (see Genesis 38 and the silly little parable the Sadducees tell Jesus about the woman who married seven brothers). Boaz was willing to do whatever was necessary to marry this extraordinary woman and it all ties up nicely in a bow, just as God’s will. It is amazing as a story of redemption that this Moabite woman, a hated race, becomes the great-grandmother of the greatest king in the history of the nation and therefore the one who Messiah was to come.

Wait a minute. We are told to let our light shine and then we are told to practice righteousness in secret! How am I supposed to keep both those commands? There is a difference between doing what needs to be done and what the Lord would have us do and making a public display of doing our duty. Jesus draws a distinction here and says that we are doing no more than our duty so why should it draw attention to ourselves. All that these others do is commended, it is the ostentatious way in which they do it that is rebuked. When we do things this way we have indeed received our reward, the praise of men, for we are doing them for that very reason when they are to be done for the glory of God. In our theology as Anglicans we talk about good deeds done prior to salvation and acknowledge that they are not properly classed as good as they do not have their purpose as the glory of God but of self. Jesus says we can do the same after salvation as well and we must needs be careful.

Our aim is to please God and our portion is not of this world. Boaz was unconcerned about his own heritage and legacy in marrying Ruth and providing an heir for her dead husband that his name might be carried on. Jesus teaches that we are to practice righteousness not for the sake of our own renown but for the glory of God. Paul says that all that we do is for eternity and not for today. We are told to not concern ourselves with this world and what it brings but to press on to what Paul calls an “eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” Have we ever thought about glory being heaviness? We think of it as light unapproachable but heavy is not something we normally think of but that is what Paul says that what we experience in suffering and affliction is light in comparison that weight of glory that awaits us. Let us consider always His glory and not our own.

Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.