THEME: Our God uses traditions to bless, but He isn't stuck in them. He will even bypass normal traditions when it will accomplish His purposes.

SETTING FOR THE SERMON MONOLOGUE: On two successive Sundays in the fall of 1994, the Old Testament lectionary reading was from the book of Ruth. In the first one, I extolled Naomi. The message title was "How's Your Mother-In-Law?" It centered on the need to recognize people seldom recognized. In a sense, the book of Ruth is about her. It is principally, however, about another woman, Ruth. I believed I could talk about her better by allowing her husband Boaz to tell this story -- a story of love, and a story of an unlikely Midianite woman who became the grandmother of King David.

Text: Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17

Blessed be the God and Father of Abraham…