October 13, 2025

Today's Reading: Ruth 1:1-19a

Daily Lectionary: Deuteronomy 11:26-12:12; Matthew 12:22-37

“And she said, ‘See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’ But Ruth said, ‘Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.’ And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.” (Ruth 1:15-18)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Ruth could have just gone. It would have been easy for her to do so. It’s usually easier to go with the flow and do what is expected. Ruth could have just gone back to her sister-in-law, back to her people, and back to her gods.

But there is the sticking point… “back to her gods.” That’s the worst part. Ruth knows that she cannot do that. She sees that Naomi’s God is… well, actually God. Capital “G” God vs lower case “g” god. Ruth here is not just choosing between Naomi and her family. She is choosing between life and death. She chooses correctly.

It’s also interesting where they end up after our reading. They go to Bethlehem! There, they meet Boaz, always considered to be a type of Christ in the Old Testament (a type is someone who points forward to Christ). Ruth chooses life (or, more accurately, she is chosen by God) and is called into the people of God. Sound familiar? It should! It’s exactly what happens to us. The Holy Spirit creates faith in us to bring us out of Moab, out of the land of the little “g” gods of idols, of sin, of death, and into Bethlehem, the house of bread, that is the church, where someone better than Boaz, Christ himself, feeds us the very bread of life.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Faithful God, You promised to preserve Your people and save Your inheritance, using unlikely and unexpected vessels in extending the genealogy that would bring about the birth of Your blessed Son. Give us the loyalty of Ruth and her trust in the one true God, that we, too, might honor You through our submission and respect and be counted among Your chosen people, by the grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and the Holy Spirit, who reign together with You, now and forever.

Rev. Jonathan Lackey, Pastor of Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

Step back in time to the late Reformation and learn about a divisive yet inspirational figure: Matthias Flacius Illyricus. His contributions to Lutheranism still echo in our teachings today, from the Magdeburg Confession to parts of the Lutheran Confessions. Learning about Flacius’s life will help you understand more intricacies of the Reformation than ever before.