101: All Things Work Together for Good

OT Lesson: Ruth 1:1-5 (CEB)

    During the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. A man with his wife and two sons went from Bethlehem of Judah to dwell in the territory of Moab. The name of that man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the territory of Moab and settled there.

    But Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died. Then only she was left, along with her two sons. They took wives for themselves, Moabite women; the name of the first was Orpah and the name of the second was Ruth. And they lived there for about ten years.

    But both of the sons, Mahlon and Chilion, also died. Only the woman was left, without her two children and without her husband.

NT Lesson: Romans 8:26-30 (NRSV)

    Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

    We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Sermon

Introduction

    Good morning. I am back from my two weeks’ vacation and I am now moved into Lebanon. Tomorrow is a holiday, precisely Labour Day. So you all get to rest an extra day. How nice it is! But what I don’t understand is why men get to rest on labour day when they don’t labour. I remember when Hannah was in labour because I was in the same room in the hospital. That was over thirteen hours’ labour. In the Korean culture, typically the paternal grandfather gets to name the grandchildren. But my father was not around, so we got to name our son. We discussed about the name. I wanted to give him Korean name, and Hannah wanted to give him English name. After lengthy discussion, we decided to give him Korean name, Jejun. But on the labour day, I mean on the day when she was in labour, she was in great pain. Then suddenly she grabbed my wrist so hard and told me, “His name is Samuel!” In that situation, who can be brave enough to say no. That is how my mischievous boy became Samuel on his mother’s labour day, which is his birthday. But I should say all things work together for good, or should I say that God works in mysterious ways?

James Kim

    There was a Korean American guy, James Kim. He was somewhat famous among the techy people, hosting tech products and gadgets reviewing shows at TechTV International. He was one of the senior editor of CNET, and wrote several hundred product reviews. He had a beautiful family with his French American wife, and his two daughters. In 2006, after spending the Thanksgiving holiday in Seattle, WA, he and his family set out for their home in San Francisco, CA. During the journey, there was heavy snowfall, and he missed a turnoff. They consulted the highway map and ended up being stranded and stuck in the middle of a mountain area in Southwestern Oregon. There was no cell phone reception and they could not make 911 call. And their car ran out of gas. James Kim then made a camp fire using dried wood, magazines, etc. He later burnt the car tires to send the rescue signals. When all the means were exhausted, James Kim left out to the snow covered mountains hoping to reach a nearby village. He walked little more than sixteen miles before he died of hypothermia. Meanwhile the co-workers of James Kim reported the San Francisco police for a missing person. In the long run, the search and rescue team days after found the car and the family alive but with severe frostbites, and the body of James Kim sixteen miles apart from the car.

    It is a very sad story, but it is not a unique story only to James Kim. There used to be almost thousand people died in the similar way before, but not any more. The number of dying people in this way drastically reduced now. So what had changed? People still drive back and forth between Washington and California. Snow still falls in Oregon. Cell phones still don’t have a reception in the middle of the mountains. What has changed is that everybody has now GPS. They used to sell separate GPS devices such as TomTom or Garmin. And now GPS is in your cellphone. So anyone with a cellphone or a tablet has a GPS. The simple GPS now saves almost thousand lives annually in this country. Isn’t this amazing? If James Kim had a GPS, he might be still reviewing gadgets.

How GPS Came to Us

    GPS stands for Global Positioning System. I am not going to tell you the technological details or scientific backgrounds. But just simply, GPS uses signals from at least three or more satellites to calculate where on earth—no swearing but literally—you are located and positioned. It was initially developed by the US Navy in the mid 60s, and then the Department of Defence took it over and made it available from the late 70s. Wait a minute. We had GPS from the late 70s and then James Kim died in 2006 because of no GPS. That doesn’t makes sense. GPS actually came to us painfully as well.

    Because GPS was developed by the US Navy, and the expensive satellites were all launched by the US Department of Defence, the GPS technology used to be available only to the military of the US and of the selective few allies. And nobody complained about it—US military made it, so US military can use it. What is wrong with that? Right. Now, South Korea has an airline, Korean Air, which I cannot really fly with because I cannot afford it. Last April, my family and I visited Korea. The Korean Air round trip was about $2,500 per person while Air Canada was about $800. The good thing of Korean Air is that they speak Korean, but I can speak Canadian. So I flew with Air Canada. It was OK. The only problem I had was that we detoured and transferred at Toronto, actually the airport is in Mississauga. Anyway, when we were landing at Toronto, Samuel did not like the sensation of going down, and began to yell, “The plane is falling! The plane is free falling!” I was quite frustrated because other people might hear and be offended. “Samuel, be quiet! We are not falling, and definitely NOT free falling. Where did you learn free falling?”

    Anyway, what I wanted to talk about the Korean Air is this: It was Thursday, September 1st, 1983 when the Korean Air Flight 007 left John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to Seoul, Korea via Anchorage, AK. And the plane accidentally went into the airspace of then Soviet Union slightly because Japan’s airspace and Soviet Union’s airspace are next to each other. Without having GPS back then, the pilot, the co-pilot, and the navigator (human) just thought they were flying normally in the Japanese airspace. But the Soviet interceptor SU-15 immediately shot down the Korean Air Flight 007. Two hundred and sixty-nine people from sixteen different countries were killed in the air. Among the victims was Larry McDonald, the US congressman from Georgia. It was the first in history that a civilian air plane was shot down by a military attack. This was indescribable evil. Hundreds of people including tens of little children died up in the air without knowing why. So many people looking forward the family reunion had to suffer the sudden and unexpected loss of their loved ones. Without doubt, what Soviet Union did was evil, I mean, pure evil. After this unspeakable tragedy happened, then US President Ronald Reagan made the military GPS available to the civilians to prevent the similar future disasters. Then the civilian air planes began to equip the GPS. Long time later, luxury yachts and luxury sedans began to equip the GPS. Then the portable GPS came out such as Garmin and TomTom. And now all the cell phones and tablets, even fitbits and other wristbands all have GPS. And because of that, almost thousand people are not dying of being lost and stranded.

Larry McDonald

    I am not saying what the Soviet Union did was eventually good. Again, I say that is pure evil. I don’t call hundreds of people’s death a sacrifice for us. That is a tragedy. But God works in mysterious ways, and in God, all things—good and evil—work together for good.

Naomi

In today’s OT lesson, we see a happy family. Naomi means pleasant, and her husband Elimelech means ‘My God is the king.’ As I said before, some of the names in the Bible may not be their actual names. For example, Nabal means a stupid one, and what kind of parents name their son stupid? A good mother names her son Samuel. Naomi’s sons are Mahlon and Chilion. Mahlon means sickness, and Chilion means wasting. I think the Bible narrators replaced these names to make it easy to memorise. Mahlon whose name is sickness died of sickness. Chilion means wasting, and the whole time in the land of Moab for Naomi was nothing but wasting. Again, there is no way that the parents actually named their children like this.

    Anyway the family of four living in Bethlehem had a famine. In other words, the economy got bad and the father was fired. So the whole family went to the land of Moab to get a better job. It was going OK in the first place. Their two sons got married. The happy family got happier. But then dark shadow covered the family. Naomi’s husband died. And then all of her two sons also died. If Naomi is a friend of mine, I don’t know what to say to her. Nothing will cheer her up. She was endlessly sinking into the bottomless abyss of sorrow and hopelessness. Great evil overshadowed her life. Biggest goal of life and purpose of the ancient people is to hand down their family name, which is shown repeatedly in the OT. And now that became impossible for Naomi. The purpose of her life was completely destroyed beyond repair.

    You all know how the book of Ruth ends. In the end, Ruth was married to Boaz. Do you know what kind of man was Boaz before he met and married to Ruth? I bet he was ruthless. Ruth and Boaz had a son and eventually Ruth became the great grandmother of king David. Boaz was super rich and Naomi escaped from the poverty. So everything ended well. Right? You may wonder what about the purpose of life—handing down the family name? Well, the marriage between Ruth and Boaz was not the regular one, but something called Levirate marriage.

Levirate Marriage

    If you speak Latin, I think most of you do, you know what the Levirate marriage is. Levirate is in Latin the husband’s brother. So it is marrying to your brother-in-law. I know what you think—oh gross! But the ancient world was so different from the modern world. And we cannot judge them by the modern day standards. These days the marriage is between the two people and it is like playing ping pong or chess—two people’s game. But in the ancient world, the marriage is between the two families or clans and it was much more like team playing game such as baseball. For example, the original pitcher somehow becomes unavailable, then the team sends another pitcher, instead of quitting the game itself. Likewise if the husband becomes unavailable, i.e. dies, without having a son, then the family has to provide another husband. But if the husband dies after having a son, then the game is over and the family does not have to provide any more husband.

    In the book of Ruth, her husband and her brother-in-law both died. In this case, one of the cousins or nearest male relative has to be the husband. And Boaz was the second nearest relative of Ruth’s original husband. The nearest one refused to marry Ruth, so Boaz married her. But the rule of the Levirate marriage is that the son born between the two is legally the heir of the deceased, even though he is the biological son of Boaz. So Naomi’s purpose of life fulfilled legally.

Conclusion

    Naomi had so much evil in her life—the famine, the flight to a strange foreign country, the death of her husband, the death of all her sons. But God worked in mysterious ways, and in God all things work together for good. Naomi legally became the ancestor of the Saviour of the world. The gentile girl, Ruth, became legally and biologically the direct ancestor of Jesus Christ. And the author of the gospel of Matthew did not forget to mention Ruth in the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah while even Sarah and Rebecca were not mentioned at all.

    In life, we have good things. In life, we have bad things. Evil happens. One day we may covered in sorrow and tears. Other day we may drown in hopelessness for our future. We don’t know what will come next year, not to mention next day. But when things happen whatever that might be, let us remind ourselves day after day that God works in mysterious ways, and that in God all things work together for good. Even the evil things we suffer today will turn into a good thing in Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Friends, I am so convinced of this, that He who began a good work in you will thoroughly complete it by the day of Christ Jesus. Amen.