YAY! A four-Wednesday Advent season makes for a four-sermon series.
The First Wednesday in Advent *Call Me Mara* Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen! Naomi said to the women of Bethlehem, Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me? Dear Christian friends, Naomi is an example for us, written into the Scriptures in order that we may learn to share her faith. Where does faith begin? Faith begins in contrition, that is, in sorrow over the condition in which you find yourself. Naomi was in a bad place. The Lord Almighty had dealt bitterly with His servant, so bitterly that she wished to change her name. *“Call me Mara,” *she said, and Mara means “bitter.” What great faith! Naomi radically changes her own name, but she refuses to do violence to the name of the Lord her God. Naomi will NOT curse the name of the Lord, despite His ability to have allowed her life a better, happier course. Naomi will NOT utter the Lord’s name in vain. Without accusation and indictment, Naomi speaks only what has happened. She judges NOT the reasons why: · “*I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty*.” To this Naomi has refused to add, “The Lord emptied me because He takes more than He gives. · Naomi will only say, “*The Lord has testified against me*.” She will NOT say, “The Lord was wrong.” · There is deep sorrow in Naomi’s Words, “*the Almighty has brought calamity upon me*.” Yet, for all the sorrow, there is NO wringing of Naomi’s hands, NO obsessing over the question, “Why has God done this to me?” and NO nighttime wondering whether the Lord Almighty takes pleasure in our pain. Great benefit is attached to Naomi’s self-restraint: benefit for you; benefit for me; benefit for all who would hold their tongues and refuse to blame the Lord Almighty for their bitterness of life. By speaking only what has happened; by refusing to know the reasons why, Naomi has: · chosen NOT to add more sin into an already-miserable situation. How about you and me: Don’t we already have enough struggles, without adding the further guilt and burden of blaming God? May the Lord our God grant such faith to us, that in our lives we be content to speak only what has happened, WITHOUT pretending to know the reasons why. “*My thoughts are not your thoughts*,” says the Lord. “*Neither are your ways My ways*” (Isaiah 55:8). · left herself open to the possibility that the Lord her God might know what He is doing. Despite everything that has happened—Naomi still leaves room for grace and mercy of her God. By not cursing God, Naomi leaves herself room for expectation, for hope, for deliverance, for faith in Christ the Coming One. May Lord our God grant such expectation—such certainty of hope—to us, as we ourselves labor through hard days and keep vigil through sleepless nights. May the Lord make us participants in Naomi’s patient resignation, especially as we enviously bury our dead and suffer strain in countless ways. May the Lord grant to us a share of Naomi’s faith when He empties us in the manner that He emptied her, in order that we may be filled with something new. As you her say to her daughters, Naomi did not feel herself able to wait for a son. Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Looking at her own body, Naomi dared not to hope for a son. Nevertheless, the end of this blessed book will show that God mercifully saw fit to do precisely that. God blessed Naomi with a long-awaited son by using the body of another woman, her daughter Ruth. In that day, all the women of Bethlehem rejoiced to say, “*A son has been born to Naomi*” (Ruth 4:17). Let’s keep ourselves open to the possibilities. God has also blessed us with a long-awaited Son, too. And we have this promise from God: In the Son born of Mary’s body, all bitterness shall become one day pleasant again, and all emptiness filled.
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