When the church is restricted, God isn't

Restrictions don’t apply to God. The Almighty is exempt from wearing a face covering or staying in a bubble. But it can feel like even God is restricted when the church can’t do all the activities and ministries that we have always done. The children’s clubs and evangelistic outreaches, Bible studies and small groups. We can’t even encourage one another over a cuppa after the service. There is so little we can do. But God does his best work when he seems to be restricted.

A great example of this is in the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament.

In that familiar story a young widow called Ruth famously decided to join herself with her Jewish mother-in-law Naomi when Naomi decided to return to Israel. They were both widows after the death of their respective husbands. On the way, Naomi tried her best to talk Ruth out of coming as she could not see any benefit in her doing so. In her view Ruth’s prospects for life were much better if she remained in her own country. But in loyal devotion to Naomi and trust in the God of Israel, Ruth abandoned her own country and fully committed herself to Naomi and her people. Thus a pair of widows arrived in the little town of Bethlehem. The locals hardly recognised Naomi as she had been away ten years and had gone through so much sorrow with the death of her husband and sons.

There was so little Ruth and Naomi could do; talk about being restricted! One old widow and one foreign widow. But Ruth had an amazing attitude. She couldn’t do much but she could do something; she could glean. It was the ancient equivalent of a welfare system where the farmers left the corners of the field for poor widows and others to glean the remainder. So she asked Naomi for permission and went and gleaned in the fields all day in order to provide food for her mother-in-law.

There may be many things you can’t do at the minute but the question is what can you do? With the loss of jobs, fear and restrictions, there are more people needing help than ever. Ruth was just looking out for her mother-in-law, trying to do what she could to help someone who had it rough. This was a dangerous thing to do. Israel was not the nicest place in those days and there was the real possibility of a foreign widow being assaulted (see 2 verse 22). But Ruth was determined to do what she could to help, even at risk to herself. We Christians are not to take unnecessary risks, but if there are risks that are necessary for the sake of others we should be the first to sacrifice our comfort and security.

As you know God protected her and guided her efforts. I love that phrase in chapter 2 verse 3: ‘she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz’. Some coincidence! Then this man Boaz noticed her hard-working, selfless and sacrificial attitude to her mother-in-law and he stepped in to encourage her efforts. In the same way our Lord Jesus Christ will encourage any of our efforts to help people, especially those who are needy.

Even in this pandemic let’s not become paralysed by what we can’t do but get on with what we can do and leave the big plans and strategies with God. We may not be able to do the big things we usually do but there are lots of small things we can do, for neighbours and colleagues, and our brothers and sisters. What we do doesn’t need to be big and spectacular. Ruth was willing to work hard in order to serve an old widow, though she too was a widow and had been through a lot herself. She had no grand plans for her life, she had given her life up in service to Naomi and Naomi’s God. God had a grand plan. As you know, through her marriage to Boaz Ruth ended up becoming part of God’s plan to save the human race. She became the ancestor of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and her name appears in his genealogy in Matthew chapter 1. But Jesus came, born in the same small town, over 1000 years later. Ruth lived and died a normal life and didn’t even know just how significant she was. She does now.

God delights to take small people doing small things, seemingly insignificant acts of kindness, and make them part of his big story. Especially when we “can’t do much” because of all the restrictions, this might be the very time God is doing most. Who knows what stories he will tell with our lives if we are willing to give them for the service of others, because of our faith in our all-powerful (or unrestricted) God.

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