Fairhaven UMC

Okay, so this Sunday we are starting another mini-series. This one is designed with October and Halloween in mind. And I’m calling this, I think we’re calling this the Spooky Sermons series. This is a series of sermons on witches and spirits and other things like that that are found in the Bible.

And I wanted to start out by talking about Halloween itself just for a moment, because there are some Christian churches and some Christian backgrounds more conservative than ours that believe that Halloween has no place in the church, that Halloween is tied to the occult, and that Scripture is clear that occult practices are forbidden. There are indeed a number of passages in Scripture that, both the Old and New Testament that talk about the occult. I’ll share just two of them. Deuteronomy 18, 10 to 12 says, ‘Let no one be found among you ‘who practices divination or sorcery, ‘interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, ‘casts spells, or is a medium or a spiritist, ‘or who consults the dead.

‘Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord.’ And the Apostle Paul writes in this message we just heard today, The works of the flesh are fornication, impurity, licentiousness, and he says, idolatry and sorcery amongst those other sins. God does not mince words about this. So how did it happen that our supposedly Christian culture came up with Halloween? Well, Halloween comes from All Hallows’ Eve, which was and is the day before All Saints’ Day, which is November 1st, which used to be a major holiday in the church, not so big now as it used to be.

All Saints’ Day was a day to remember the saints who’ve gone before us. And we still do this every year in our churches. We remember our loved ones who have passed in the previous year. So All Hallows’ Eve was also just sort of in the popular culture, sort of a boundary between summer and winter, between growing and harvesting.

And all of these events just sort of came conflated into a folk holiday that involves eating sweets and dressing up in costumes. And that’s Halloween. Yeah. There are a few stories in the Bible that seem a little bit spooky and Halloween-like, and that’s what we’re preaching on this month.

Probably the best known of these stories is the one we just heard, which is the Witch of Endor or the Medium of Endor. And before we dig into the story, I wanted to ask this question. How many of us have ever wished that we could speak to someone who has passed? Yes. I mean, I know I would love to talk to my dad again.

And I would love to talk with my good friend, Melinda, again. She passed away from cancer at the age of 40, which is way too young. And I miss her still. If it’s really possible to speak to the dead, and if a medium could make it happen, then why don’t we do it? Well, the number one reason is because God says, No, don’t do that.

But of course, children, even children of God, are famous for asking the question, Why? Why would it be wrong to bring somebody back from the dead? And coming at that question, setting scripture aside just for a moment, coming at this just through pure reason, I can come up with a few reasons why bringing a dead person back to life would not be a good idea. If we really care about the person who has passed, knowing that they have passed through death into God’s kingdom beyond, if we bring them back to this side of death’s door, are they going to have to die a second time? If it was someone I loved, I wouldn’t even risk that. Dying once is more than enough for most of us to deal with. And I would never ever chance somebody having to die a second time.

Another reason not to do this is because the world has changed since that person died. And the longer they’ve been dead, the more shocking that change would be. Think for a minute, just imagine, I sometimes think of weird things like this, but Like, for example, if Ben Franklin could come back and see where we are today, right? How would he react to what we’ve done with his discovery of electricity? What would he think of an electric car? What would he think of a car? Would he be terrified by what he saw? Right. I think he’d be partially intrigued too, but I think he’d also be looking around going, oh my goodness.

He’s never seen anything that moves faster than a horse. Right? So what about airplanes? If we really care about the person who has passed, we would never do this to them. But in our scripture reading for today, bringing the dead back is exactly what happened. God’s law was violated and God’s prophet Samuel, who was passed, was violated.

So what was King Saul thinking? I mean, he was a man that God chose out of all of Israel to be the king, to lead his people. Why was he consulting a medium? Let’s take a look at what happened in that scripture we just heard. The word tells us that Saul was a man unsure of himself. He was always sort of debating and divided on the inside.

And because of this, he didn’t always listen to God’s word from Samuel the prophet. Saul was basically just sort of an insecure person. And that insecurity got worse after David killed Goliath and became sort of a popular hero in their nation. We also need to know that sometime during Saul’s early years as king, when he was still committed to doing things God’s way, that Saul had made a law in Israel, in keeping with God’s word, that all mediums and wizards and workers of magic were to be put out of the country, banished completely.

that years later, as we come to our reading for today, the prophet Samuel has just died, Samuel being Saul’s main advisor, the person he leaned on the most, and the Philistines decided it would be a good time to attack Israel again. And David wasn’t there to lead the army this time because Saul had chased him out of the country. And now Samuel, he’s gone. Saul’s on his own.

And when Saul sees these Philistine armies, he’s afraid. So he prays for guidance. And here’s nothing. He consults with the priests and says, and he gets nothing.

He tries the Urim and Thummim, and there’s something that prophets sometimes use to hear from God. But heaven is silent. There is no word from God to be found. Saul is on his own, and he is beside himself with fear.

So what’s he going to do? Now Saul has never had the confidence in God that David has. You remember how his spirit about going into battle for the Lord, you know, he’s into that. Saul could never get that kind of confidence. David knew and loved God so well that when he fought, he fought for God’s honor.

and God honored this and gave David victory. But back in the days of Goliath, Saul had stayed in his tent, too scared to go out and lead the army. And now, being desperate for some word from God, some direction, some assurance, some guidance on what to do, Saul can’t find any. So out of fear and desperation, Saul tells his men, Go find a medium, even though he knows that that’s illegal.

Saul is breaking the law that he himself wrote. So Saul’s men obey his command and they find a medium and Saul dresses up in a disguise, partly so that the public won’t know where he’s going and partly to fool the medium. But there’s an irony here. If this person really is a real medium, she’ll be able to see through the skies.

And if she isn’t, Saul’s in trouble anyway, either way, no matter which way things go. So let’s step into the action that we heard a moment ago. Saul asks this medium to call up a spirit for him. She answers that this is illegal, but Saul swears by God’s name, God who said not to do this, right, by God’s name, that no punishment will come on her.

And she says, okay, who do you want to talk to? And Saul names the prophet Samuel. So the medium calls up Samuel. She was no fake. She knew what she was doing.

And the minute she saw Samuel, she also recognized Saul. And she cried out in fear and Saul said to her, Don’t be afraid, tell me what you see. Saul’s asking this woman to have more courage than he has. And she tells him she sees a divine being coming up out of the ground, and Saul says, What does he look like? And she says, An old man wrapped up in a robe.

And Saul bows down with his face to the ground like a subject, not like a king. Saul has completely forgotten who he is. And then Samuel spoke and he says, Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? So that’s what I’m thinking. People would not want to come back, would they, once they pass through? Anyway, it is not pleasant to do that.

Saul has forced his will on Samuel. Saul has given one of God’s greatest prophets, no choice in the matter, no control over his own life. Saul has interrupted Samuel’s enjoyment of God’s company. thinking only of himself, not about his men, not about this medium, and not about God’s people, who he’s supposed to be leading.

If Saul had any empathy for Samuel at all, he would have immediately said, I’m so wrong, I’m so sorry. I should never have done this to you, go back. But Saul’s aware only of himself. He says, I’m distressed.

The Philistines are coming. God won’t answer me. The prophets have no word for me. My dreams tell me nothing.

Tell me what to do. Samuel’s answer is a good one. He says, If God won’t answer you, why ask me? Good question. We human beings, we mere mortals, we cannot force God’s hand.

And that’s what occult practices try to do. They try to force God’s hand. They try to skirt around God’s law. They tempt us to play God.

Samuel continues. He says, God has done to you just what he said through me he would do. God has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor David because you didn’t obey the command of the Lord concerning King Amalek, which is another story for another day. But Samuel speaking true when he says this, As Samuel adds, God will give you and Israel and Israel’s army into the hands of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me.

That is, in the land of the dead. Saul almost passes out from fear. This is like way too much for him to deal with. And then Samuel disappears and the medium comes to Saul and says, Look, I’ve listened to you.

Now you listen to me. You’re weak right now, eat something. You can’t get home right now. And it was true, Saul hadn’t eaten anything for over a day.

And his servants agreed, they persuaded him to eat. The medium sacrificed her fatted calf for him. That’s the most important meal that a person could make. And she made fresh bread and she served the men and they ate and they went home.

And our scripture reading for today doesn’t tell us this, but the very next day, Samuel’s words come true. Saul and his sons, including Jonathan, David’s best friend, die in battle with the Philistines. And 2 Samuel 1 contains a song that David wrote to remember them. He says, How the mighty have fallen! Tell it not in Gath, proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon.

Saul and Jonathan, in life they were loved and admired, and in death they were not parted. How the mighty have fallen! The weapons of war have perished! This whole poem, David’s Lament, is worth reading if you have a moment. It’s the first chapter of 2 Samuel. David loved both Saul and Jonathan dearly.

And David will remember and honor the family of Saul when he becomes king. But that’s another story for another day. For today, we have this unusual story of a medium, a real medium, doing what mediums do, which is forbidden by God’s law, doing it at the command of a man who knew better and was disregarding God’s law. And it leaves us to wonder what might have happened if Saul had chosen a different course of action.

If there’s anything this passage teaches us, is that we should never try to take control from God. God is in charge, thank God. And if God won’t answer, whatever it is that we’re asking about, leave the thing alone. Don’t try to force the issue.

The Bible specifically and clearly says no to divination, witchcraft, wizardry, sorcery, omens, spells, spiritists, calling up the dead, enchantments, and there are no exceptions. we as God’s people, we listen to God and we do what God commands because we love God and because God is God and we are not. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Amen.

Just a little cultural footnote, Orpah there. That’s where Oprah got her name. For those of you who might not, it was somehow misspelled or misunderstood when she was born. But that’s where her name comes from.

So here we are. So today will be my final installation of our Bible Stories from Childhood series. We have one more from Pastor Dylan next week, but this is my last one with you, so at least for now. And I’ve saved my favorite one for last, the story of Ruth.

I love Ruth. A moment ago we heard parts of Ruth chapters 1 and 2, and I will also draw on chapters 3 and 4 as well, so the entire book, we’re going to cover that very briefly. So if you want to, feel free to grab a pew Bible and follow along. I will start in chapter 1 and move straight through.

Ruth is found right after Joshua and Judges in the Scriptures. So the story of Ruth is one of those stories whose message gets richer as we get older. As children, when we heard this story, we may have learned from Ruth things like that God takes care of us when we are faithful, or what it means to have or to be a good friend, or that we should help other people even if it’s not always easy. And these are all good lessons that we can take from this story of Ruth.

But as adults, there’s a lot more to see. First off, the story of Ruth is not meant to be a children’s story. There are some very adult themes in here. Secondly, the story of Ruth is a very Jewish story, and what I mean by that is that the story assumes that we, the readers, know the law of Moses and specifically what Moses said about foreigners and about poverty and about family relationships.

And third, most important, the story of Ruth is our story, yours and mine. And I’m going to get back to that at the end, but let’s begin at the beginning. The stories found in the book of Ruth take place during the time of the book of Judges. This was after the Israelites have left Egypt, after they’ve arrived in the Promised Land, but before Israel has a king.

And during this time, the people of Israel had amazing personal freedoms. They had the law of Moses to guide their life together, and they had regional judges who had the background and the authority to settle any legal disagreements or disputes that came up. But imagine this if you can. They had no central government.

no senators or representatives or anything like that, no states, no governors, no mayors, and as a result, no taxes. As a citizen of Israel, one’s only responsibility was to worship God in the ways that Moses taught and to bring gifts and sacrifices to worship, which were then used to maintain the tabernacle and to assist the poor, as well as being part of the celebration of worship. Because when you brought your animals and offered them, you would then have a feast afterwards after the animals had been roasted. Okay, so that’s it.

Apart from that, every person was free to live as they best understood God’s word. Now having said all that, life still wasn’t always perfect. Back in those days, people of course had no electricity, no refrigerators, no supermarkets. Okay.

I mean, they depended on the crops that they planted and the animals that they tended to stay alive. And if a year came along that was very dry, like this past summer has been for us, going hungry was a real possibility. And that’s what happened at the beginning of the book of Ruth. There was a famine.

It was very dry. All the food, the plants died, the animals died, the food was gone. And a family from Bethlehem, a town whose name means house of bread, found themselves without any bread. This is a family of four, Elimelech, whose name means My God is King, and the mother Naomi, whose name means Pleasant.

And you put those two together, you could say that life is pleasant when God is King. Okay, so that works. But in this case, something was wrong because their two sons were named Malon and Chilion or Kilion, which means sickly and ailing. So for some reason, maybe because of the famine, these boys were not thriving.

And Elimelech and Naomi decided the only thing that they could do was to leave home and go to another country. So they became immigrants in the country of Moab, a country on the opposite side of the Dead Sea from Bethlehem, about 40 or 50 miles away. And it took about 10 days to walk there, not because it was so far, but because the land was so rough and mountainous. So this family of four came to this foreign land, this Moab, where people spoke another language, where they worshiped another god called Chemosh, the god of war and destruction.

And how difficult was it for them to learn that new language and that new culture and to make friends and to stay true to their god at the same time and to find a place to settle and to farm and raise livestock and start all over again. As we imagine putting ourselves into their shoes and imagine being there, we come close to understanding where we are now because we also worship the one true and living God. We also live among a people where many people worship something other than God, if they worship at all. But here’s where we find ourselves, and being strangers in a strange land, we set up household and we do the best we can for our families and for our neighbors.

But it’s kind of like the old hymn says, and this is an old, I think this one comes from the Baptist hymnal, I have not found it in the Methodist hymnal yet, but you may have heard it. It’s an old hymn that says, This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door, and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.

That’s how Naomi and Elimelech felt. This wasn’t their home. This place could never be their home, but they did the best they could where they were. and after a few years, Elimelech passed away, and Naomi found wives for their sons named Orpah and Ruth, and the next generation started setting up household.

But then tragedy struck. Malon and Kilion also died, and the women were left alone, without children, without defense, and with no way of making a living. Naomi, brokenhearted, heard that there was food again in Bethlehem, so she started to head back there. And the young women went with her at first, but Naomi said to her daughters-in-law, Go back to your father’s houses.

You are still young. You can still find other husbands. As for me, I’ll go home and see if I can find a relative to live out my days with. And the women wept because they loved each other and did not want to say goodbye.

But Orpah, she saw the logic in Naomi’s thinking and after a while she went home. But Ruth wasn’t having it. And Ruth spoke those words which we hear so often at weddings. But how often have they spoken to a mother-in-law as they are here? Ruth said to Naomi, Entreat me not to leave you or to turn back from following after you, for wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you lodge, I will lodge.

Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me. Sometime during those years of being married to her son, Ruth had become a believer in the God of Israel.

Ruth, who was still standing in her own country, near her relatives at this point in time, speaking her own language, gives it all up out of love and loyalty to God and to Naomi. So Ruth’s story is our story. Like Ruth, before we met Jesus, we were foreigners to God’s people. The language of faith was foreign to us.

And technically, we still are immigrants like Ruth was. This world is not our home, but somewhere along the way, For those of us who know Jesus and claim his name, we made a decision to leave the ways of this world behind and follow Jesus into a new world, into God’s kingdom. We changed our citizenship from one country to another, just like Ruth did. But I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself.

Back to Ruth. So Naomi, the mother-in-law, she knows that this move is not going to be easy for Ruth. Thank you. Ruth has a new language to learn.

She has a new country to get to know. And Moabites were despised by the Israelites because Moab had frequently been at war with Israel. So this wasn’t going to be easy. But eventually Naomi and Ruth arrived back in Bethlehem, and the people who knew Naomi back in the old days, who saw her now, gasped at the change.

Naomi said to them, Don’t call me Naomi anymore, which means pleasant. She says, Call me Mara, which means bitter, because the Lord has dealt bitterly with me. And the women arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. And immediately Ruth started following the law of Moses.

She went to the nearest farm. As the law of Moses said, she followed behind the harvesters and picked up anything that they missed. The law of Moses said that farmers were not to harvest to the edge of their fields or to go over a field twice, but they were to leave a few stalks behind for the poor and the foreigner. And she said, And Ruth was both poor and a foreigner.

So she worked hard in those fields, and as she was noticed by Boaz, the owner of the field, he asked about her and he listened to the praise that the harvesters spoke about her. They said to Boaz, she’s that young Moabite, who came back with Naomi. She said, please let me glean and gather among the sheaves. And she’s been on her feet from early this morning until now without even resting for a moment.

God, that’s high praise from a farmhand because harvesting is not easy work. Even today, we hire foreigners to work our fields doing some of the work that none of us want to do. And Ruth was doing it without pay except for being able to keep whatever she picked up. Boaz was moved by her hard work and her loyalty to Naomi and he said to Ruth, Don’t harvest anywhere else.

I will tell my men not to bother you, stick close to my women, drink from the water the young men provide. And we heard a moment ago how Ruth responded to this kneeling face down on the ground and Boaz blessed her and said, May the Lord reward you for your deeds, the Lord under whose wings you have taken refuge. So we discover in this that Boaz is also a man of faith. And when mealtime came, Boaz invited Ruth to come and eat some bread and dip it in the wine, which might be a foreshadowing of communion, maybe? We’re not sure about that, but it kind of looks like it.

When the day was over, Ruth had gleaned about an ephah of barley, roughly about a bushel, they say about 50 pounds of barley, by hand, and she brought this home to Naomi. And while they ate, Ruth told Naomi about the kindness of Boaz and everything that he had said. And Naomi praised God and said to Ruth, He’s one of our nearest kin. Stick close to his women so that you won’t be bothered as you work in the fields.

And Ruth finished out the barley harvest and then the wheat harvest, and she did well for the two of them. Meanwhile, Naomi was doing some thinking. She thought to herself, Ruth needs a husband, and we need a man in the family, and we need a son. And the law of Moses said that if a man died without having children, his brother should marry the widow and have children for him.

Now the details of this law are a bit involved. They include inheritances and all that kind of thing. But to sum it up briefly, here’s what Moses said in Deuteronomy chapter 25. He said, If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family.

Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. And the first son that she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother. That’s the law of Moses, and that’s what Naomi and Ruth knew. Okay.

The second passage I want to share that comments on this is from Jesus. And Jesus said this in answer to the Sadducees who didn’t believe in resurrection back in the day. So the Sadducees made up this story that they thought disproved the idea of resurrection. Matthew’s Gospel says that the Sadducees who say there is no resurrection came to Jesus with a question.

Teacher, they said, Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. Now there were seven brothers among us, and the first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother, and the same thing happened to the second and the third brother right down to the seventh, and finally the woman died. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her? Because the Sadducees thought that this disproved the concept of resurrection because you couldn’t possibly have a woman being married to seven men at the same time, right? So therefore resurrection must not exist. Jesus answered, You are in error because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God.

At the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage. They will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead, Have you not read what God said to you? I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

That’s Jesus’ word. And Naomi, of course, had not heard Jesus’ comments on this, but she knew what Moses said. So she decides that Boaz should be the man to do this for Ruth. Boaz is not a brother, but he’s a close relative.

And so Naomi tells Ruth what to do. She says, take a bath, put on perfume, dress up in your very best, and go down to the threshing floor and watch where Boaz lies down. When he’s asleep, uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do. So Ruth does this, and in the middle of the night, Boaz wakes up and finds someone at his feet and he says, Who are you? And Ruth answers, I’m Ruth, your servant.

Spread your cloak over your servant, for you are next of kin. Now, the Bible doesn’t tell us this because everybody knew this back then, but Ruth had just proposed marriage. The cloak represented two people taking shelter together in a storm. And she’s saying to Boaz, You are the kinsman redeemer.

Put a ring on it. So Boaz’s answer tells us three things. First off, he’s probably a bit older than Ruth, since he says, You didn’t go after younger men. Second, that Boaz is pleased with and honored by the suggestion.

And third, that there’s another man who’s a closer relative, who stands between them. And Boaz will take care of this in the morning. So he gives Ruth all the grain she can carry to take home to Naomi and says to her, Don’t be afraid. I will do for you all that you ask, for you are a worthy woman.

And the very next day, Boaz has a conversation with that other relative and finds out for certain that he’s not interested in Ruth. So Boaz and Ruth are married and they have a son and they named him Obed and Obed was the father of Jesse and Jesse was the father of David, King David. These sons will form a dynasty that will reign for 400 years. If the people of Israel had not welcomed the foreigner Ruth into their community, King David would never have been born.

And without David, the family into which Jesus was born would never have existed. God’s salvation works out one life at a time, one year at a time, one day at a time. So the story of Ruth is our story too. We also were once foreigners to God, but Jesus was born into our world as one of us, and He became our kinsman redeemer, our Boaz.

By the grace of God, faith wins and love wins. And the apostle Paul explains this in the book of Ephesians. He says, At one time, you Gentiles by birth, remember that you were at one time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in this world. But now in Jesus Christ, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

So then you are no longer strangers or aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God. So Ruth’s story is our story. The generosity of Boaz parallels the generosity of God, and Ruth’s love for Boaz is like our love for God. Even when things seem dark and difficult, God’s light is with us in a very real way.

As we keep the faith, as we keep on living God’s way, guided by God’s word, in some way that we can’t see yet, there is a future being built. Right now, we are where Ruth and Boaz were on that night on the threshing floor. We are betrothed to Jesus, but with a lot more that has to happen before we can set up household. One theologian puts it this way, we accept God and our future without always knowing what either will bring.

But the wheels of time are turning and our future with Jesus will be like Ruth’s, a future of royalty and majesty and joy. Amen.