Why Ruth? ... Not a moral but a genealogy

Scripture: Ruth 4

            For the last week, Kate, Natalie and I have spent time with both sides of our family, and, because we have fairly typical families, family time is both good and it has its moments. Families are great and fun, and they also magnify all of our issues, meaning that family time can be the most relaxing and most stressful time all at once. But no matter how messed up some of our families are we can all take solace that at least our family systems are not like they were in ancient Israel. Or maybe some of us think that still might be an improvement in which case… oy.

As much as we remember the story of Ruth for being a nice tale of Ruth’s faithfulness to her mother-in-law, it’s hard to miss that that faithfulness is necessary because of societal structures where women were treated as property. This story, like so many from the Bible, is timeless in a sense—its morals play as well today as they did three thousand years ago—but it’s also a story with elements of a particular time and culture that we would find unacceptable today. Each generation changes. Every new set of children brings a new sense of what is right. From one generation to another those changes can be significant, but over the course of centuries those changes can make for a cultural sea change. We like to think that we are enlightened, but give it a generation or two and they’ll look back at us as uncultured, and give it a century more and we’ll be considered next to barbarians. This is why it is so important that we do not worship cultural things that change but instead we worship a God who does not.

Ngede Challenge Recap

Apologies this has taken so long. It's been well over a week since the race, but life has been busy! We've been packing for a week and half which includes a triathlon for each of us, a week at a resort, a stay at a hotel, two days with my parents, and of course there's a baby involved, so it's possible the packing has taken longer than the vacation. But anyway... on to the story.

This year started out with the hope of completing my first Olympic distance triathlon. Well, it didn't work out that way. The dates just didn't fit right, and I didn't have any more Sundays to take off. So, I needed a challenge. Naturally, I wanted to pick up where I left off last year and work toward a 100-mile "century" ride, but again the dates didn't work. All the big rides around these parts fell on days where I had weddings or Sundays. So, on to plan C: A revisit to the Ngede Challenge.

Two years ago I did this race (see recap here) and it went well... or as well as something that really hurt, left me heat exhausted, and included a busted up bike and a hurting back could go. Anyway, I finished in under 3 hours then (2:59:10 to be exact) and my goal was to improve on that this time. All in all it should be doable: my physical condition was as good or better, my equipment was in better shape, and I was two years older and wiser (not sure if that last one is really a help or not).

So, what is the Ngede Challenge? Four parts: A 10k road run, 10k mountain bike, 25k road bike, and a "5k" trail run. Notice the "5k" in quotation marks. We'll get to that.

10k road run

No matter how prepared I am for a race the start line is a place of jitters. But this time I felt like I had things fairly together. The weather was nice--maybe a little warmer than I would like--but it wasn't overly muggy. My transition zone was set up precisely according to my pre-list instructions. Kate was there with Natalie to cheer me on. Basically, things were good.


Then the gun went off and I forgot all plans and preparation. OK, maybe that's an exaggeration. The first part of the run is uphill for almost a mile. This stinks. It also makes pacing a problem. I settled into a gait that was comfortable, but I had no idea if I was too fast, too slow, or just right. I would have to wait and see.

This year's race was small. They always are, but this one particularly so. Only 12 people were out on the road, and of those I think 4 or 5 were relay teams, but I didn't know who was a team and who was an individual. So, as we started the run I sized up the competition. The first guy on the road is ridiculous. His name is Craig and he's won this race every year. I didn't need to worry about Craig, except to see how far ahead of me he was going to be on this leg and then again when he was coming back on the road bike. Second on the road was a guy I didn't know who seemed to be trying to keep up with Craig. Then there was a high school kid in a blue shirt who was running fast but whose form didn't look good. Then a guy, Corey, who I finished in front of two years ago but who looked much stronger now. Then a woman in purple who seemed to be a runner of similar ability to my own. Then me.

Commitment matters

Scripture: Ruth 2

             Ruth is a terrible book for Lutherans because everything turns out so darn well. I looked and couldn’t find a single mention of sin, the devil, or judgment, so frankly I didn’t know what to preach on. The more “nice” I found Ruth to be, the more suspicious I became that I was reading it wrong. Years of seminary training and bland, tasteless Scandinavian food have taught me to treat all scripture with humility and reverence by finding the part of it that makes me feel like a terrible person long before I look for the hope that my terrible-ness is not the last word. But I’m hard pressed to do that with Ruth, because everybody acts like they’re supposed to. There’s not a bad guy in the bunch. The laws are followed. Ruth and Naomi find a nice, good life. Everyone’s happy.

            …except for me because I don’t have a sermon.

            Seriously, where’s the hard edge in this story? Where’s the part that matters for you and me today when we face the real hard struggles that we face? What happens when it doesn’t work out so swimmingly for us as it did for Ruth and Naomi?

            You know, the more I think about it, the more certain I am that those are absolutely the wrong questions to ask of Ruth. Those are questions that can only be asked by a person who is sitting in a comfortable chair, worried about the bigger picture. This is not a story about how the world is all of the time—that’s where us big-headed seminary-educated theologians get caught up—this is a story about Ruth and Naomi, loyalty and devotion. We big-heads are so focused on big-picture conceptions of God that we find ourselves unable to actually enjoy a story that is encouraging and has a good moral center. We are deeply suspicious of miracles because God sometimes doesn’t do that. And all the while we miss God actually doing things in the world because that God doesn’t fit into our nice, convenient, vacuum packed boxes in which we like God to live.

North Shore Confirmation Retreat Recap

This is going to be quick because, well, I have a lot to get together. What am I working on? Oh, just this...

 Packing for a race... putting together a plan of attack... basically just making sure I don't forget things this time... for about the first time ever.
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Anyway, this isn't about me. It's about what we did this past weekend. Fifteen Confirmation students and eight adults piled into vehicles and headed to the north shore of Lake Superior. We had supper at Grandma's Sports Garden in Duluth and then made our way to Tettegouche State Park as it turned dark where we set up camp in a primitive campsite. Just tents and whatnot. In the dark. With Jr High kids. All in all I was pretty impressed that it all came together.

We had a brief worship and talked a little about why we were there. This was a preview to Confirmation; it was also a little snippet of what a mission trip is (even if it's just one night). Then we had s'mores and hit the hay--by which I mean hit the hard rocks we were sleeping on. We were going to be getting up nice and early.

The morning meant an early start: wake up at 6, breakfast and ready to roll by 7. We split into two groups. One was going to stay in Tettegouche and hike Mt. Trudee; the other was heading to Gooseberry Falls State Park. The Gooseberry group was led by Kate and they had a shorter, one mile hike along with various devotional practices. They especially focused on reflection in art, thinking about what God has given them and how that might be reflected in their lives. This was part of a plan to improve our focus on prayer in Confirmation this year. We wanted to give a little taste of what was to come.

The other group joined with myself and Sam and we headed up a mountain... or at least as much of a mountain as Minnesota has to offer. Tettegouche is home to several of the best views in Minnesota that I know of, and one of these is certainly Mt. Trudee, which is a 3.7 mile hike from our campsite. I'm proud to say that our group did that hike (for a round trip of 7.4 miles) and there was absolutely no complaining. They just rocked it. Along the way we practiced some examples of "pilgrim's prayer." Prayers for a journey. We walked in silence for three and five minute intervals. They also listened to scripture and were intentional about noticing the world around them. Then, of course, we got to enjoy the view from the top.

Following our morning activities, we spent some time in Duluth and then hit the road back home. It was quick and we were spent, but all in all a good trip. I look forward to a fun year of Confirmation ahead!

We love because he first loved us

Scripture: 1 John 4:7-21

            Sometimes we need to step back for a moment and admire how stunning some bits of scripture are. “We love because he first loved us,” writes John, which is a nice little Christian Hallmark card waiting to be made, but he goes on: “Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” I am utterly floored by that scripture not because I don’t believe it, but because it’s the kind of thing that I honestly don’t expect to find in the Bible. Usually, the Bible focuses on elements of faith and then treats acts of love as a response to that faith—and so it is in that little diddy in verse 19: “We love because he first loved us.” But to take it one step further and say that our love of God is proven in our love of our brothers and sisters—not in the strength of our faith—is so dang practical; it makes my job easy because I don’t even need to make that small leap. It means that a Christian who does not demonstrate love for her neighbor is an oxymoron.

            And what does that love look like? Well, according to John “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.” Love can’t be compelled—this is not a case of God saying “love your neighbor or else.” If you feel that this is a command of the law then you’ve already missed the point, because the kind of love that God loves is love that has no ounce of self in it. You don’t love because you’re going to get something out of it, and you don’t love because it’s the right thing to do; you love because God loves us, and the only way to experience God is to pass it on.

A last training run

Yes, I know I haven't put up Sunday's sermon yet. That will happen tomorrow when I'm in the office. Today I'm off, recovering from the weekend... and getting in one last training run.

The Ngede Challenge 50k is four days away, which is exciting and terrifying. This also means that the training is winding down. Today was supposed to be a swimming day, followed by a bike ride tomorrow, an off day Thursday, and a short mountain bike ride Friday on a portion of the race course. Plans changed, though, as I was completely exhausted when we got back from our Confirmation retreat last night and there was absolutely no way I was getting up early to lap swim this morning.

So I changed things up and added in a short 5k run instead. This allowed me to sleep in (like an extra thirty minutes but with an infant I'll take what I can get) and run instead at my leisure. Fast forward to eight-something this morning and I was walking to the arbitrary crack in the pavement where I start my run, planning, as I told Kate, to do an easy interval: code for one mile easy warmup, then one mile hard, and one last mile of easy recovery. Boom.

Hence, nobody was more surprised than me that when I reached my start I took off like a crazy person. My first mile was going to be hard. In the split second before I started to run I had decided that this was not going to be an easy 5k interval; instead, it was going to be a 5k at a hard, race-like pace. I am nothing if not a masochist.

Behind schedule

Due to a confirmation retreat leaving today immediately after church (and a lack of time to pack for said retreat) Sunday's sermon will not be on the blog until Tuesday. Look for that and a full report on our two day, one night trip to the north shore on the blog this week!