Over the last few months, we've tried something a bit different in our preaching here at St Boniface. No - I don't mean doing it well - although some of you may feel that would indeed be different! I mean that we have taken a single book from scripture and preached on it for several weeks. The book was, I hope you will remember, the epistle of James from the New Testament; a straightforward, no nonsense book of advice on how to walk the path of faith.

I hope you enjoyed the series on James and I hope that you took something from it that will have helped you with your own spiritual journey. We thought that in this period between Christmas and Lent, we would explore another book. A book that some of you may know and others may not. Another potential scriptural backwater that, like James, tends to get passed by in the Sunday lectionary. This time, we thought we would take you back from the New Testament to the Old and for those of you who shy away from the Old Testament and who never get past the story of the creation in Genesis then I can recommend this little book as the perfect way in.

This book is tiny, only 4 chapters long and it sits between two of the mighty historical books of the Old Testament, Judges and 1 Samuel. I always picture the Old Testament as a giant and epic story of a nation. A story of kings and prophets, wars and famines, exiles and refugees. A story on the grand scale, a Cecil B De Mille production that tells of God's influence on his chosen people.

Sandwiched in the middle of this great epic, amongst the thunder of war and the screams of terror and the booming voice of God is a quiet unassuming little book that tells the story of two women and how the unseen hand of God guides their lives. The book is the Book of Ruth and today, I want to introduce it to you. Over the next few weeks, we will dive into its details and its depths.

The great thing about studying Ruth is that we can do it together. It's so short that we've printed the whole thing on the back of your sheets! All 4 chapters, all 85 verses and I would encourage you all to read it over the next weeks. It won't take long but it may change the way you think about your life and your relationship with God.

So what's it all about, this story of Ruth. Well, rather than get you all to read the sheet, let me tell you the story as just that - a story.

RECOUNT THE STORY IN MODERN LANGUAGE

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So there you have it, the story of the book of Ruth. But what is God saying to us through this story? What messages are we to take from it? Well, over the next few weeks, we will break up the story into it's different parts and get into the detail but for today, I want to stay general and just look at one or two of the overriding themes that jump out at us.

Well the first thing that I would note is just how human this book is. Never mind the fact that the action occurred in the Middle East 3,000 years ago. The emotions and the feelings of Naomi, Ruth and Boaz are as real to us today as they were to them. We can sense Naomi's desolation at the loss of her husband and two sons. We can understand the love that she has for Ruth who gives up her life unselfishly to care for her mother-in-law. We can sense the tensions and animosity that can exist towards foreigners and immigrants that are surely just as acute in Britain today as they were in Palestine then.
So we can associate with the humanness of the story of Ruth and Naomi. But what of God? Where is he in this story? In the Old Testament we are used to God being visibly present. We are used to the God of Abraham who speaks directly to the founding fathers. An interventionist God who causes the Red Sea to part, who imparts the ten commandments with a burning bush and tablets of stone. A God who talks to prophets and makes covenants with Kings. So where is God in the story of Ruth and Naomi?

Where was God when the famine drove Elimalech and his family from Judah to Moab? Where was He when Naomi needed Him when her husband and sons died? Where was He when her despair was so deep that she told her friends to call her Mara because the Lord had dealt bitterly with her? The answer is, of course, that God was there through all of this.

The unseen God whose guiding hand is working through the lives of ordinary people. The unseen God who works through Ruth to comfort Naomi. The unseen God who works through Boaz to provide a new life for Ruth and for Naomi and to provide an heir in Obed who would be the grandfather of Israel's greatest king, David and who 1,000 years later would return to Bethlehem as a man of David's line.

It is this that is for me the real power of the book of Ruth. The way that we see the guiding hand of God at work in the lives of ordinary and extraordinary people. People who suffer the same as we. People who feel as we do, who experience joy and pain, happiness and desolation. People who, like us, are never left by God.

Rick and I have had a number of debates and discussions about the fine line between faith and fatalism. If we have true faith then we trust in God. We trust that his unseen hand will work in our lives just as it worked in the lives of Ruth and Naomi. Often we are unaware of God at work. Often we despair, like Naomi, that God has deserted us and we hope that our faith will draw us back to God.

Sometimes we know, we just know, that God has worked for us. He reveals himself, not with thunder and the parting of clouds but through the kind words or deeds of another, as Ruth did for Naomi or Boaz for Ruth. Often he is there in the smile of a child - just as he must have been when Obed looked into Naomi's eyes.

It is this revelation of God through the lives and actions of others that is for me the essence of my faith. I have no great expectations of God. I do not expect him to come to me in my dreams and reveal the secrets of eternal life in heaven. I do not expect him to intervene to make me healthier or wealthier or wiser than I am. I do not expect him to work miracles around me to reinforce my faith; to heal the sick or raise the dead or provide manna for the hungry.

I see God at work every day. I am humbled by the fortune that he has given to me in my family, my work, my friends, my home. I am unworthy of the gifts that God has already given to me without going out looking for more. I never say Thankyou as often as I should. I take God for granted. I forget about him. I think about my own skills and expertise and forget that everything that I am and everything that I have comes from Him and belongs to Him. He doesn't seem to mind because when I do remember Him, He's still there, still caring for me. Still exercising that unseen hand in my life and yours just as he did for Naomi and for Ruth.

So as we study this wonderful little book over the coming weeks, I hope that you will draw something from it. I hope that you might relate to Naomi and Ruth and Boaz. I hope that you will see God at work in their lives and through that see something of God at work in your lives.