Book of Ruth
Proclamation
of the Word
Ruth, a book of the Bible,
Ruth is a person:
- · An ordinary person
- · A foreigner
- · A widow
This is a story about people,
- · Real people
- · Not warriors
- · Or kings
- · Or priests
This is a story about people,
- · Real people
- · About survival and death
- · About struggle and birth
- · About welcome and blessing
Like many people, before and after,
Naomi and Elimelech and their sons moved because of famine.
Same as the brothers of Joseph who go
looking for food in Egypt and find Joseph.
And it happens still.
Naomi and Elimelech take their sons to
search for food in foreign country, the sons marry Moabite women, and all 3 men
die.
This was a perilous position for the
women to be in. At that time a woman
needed a man as protector and provider, otherwise she could be destitute and at
risk.
Naomi makes a sensible decision, go
back to Bethlehem now that the famine is over.
And Ruth goes with her, even though
Naomi points out that she is not likely to have another son for Ruth to
marry. This refers to the system of a
man marrying his dead brother’s wife, so that she will have children to carry
on the dead man’s name and inherit his property.
I wonder why this little book made it
into the Bible. It is one of 2 books named after women, the other being Esther.
·
We hear a story of loyalty of a
daughter-in-law to her mother-in-law
·
We read of unusual courtship practices –
including Ruth asking Boaz to marry her.
·
It is also a story that moves from despair to
hope
o
From death to life
o
From famine to abundance
o
From bitterness to joy
o
Barrenness to birth[i]
This is a story about ordinary people,
people like us, and how their story connects to the God story.
Ruth, the foreigner, the widow, is the
great grandmother of David, and an ancestor of Jesus. For the people of Israel,
Jewishness was important, yet here we have an outsider in the lineage of the great
King David and the Messiah.
….
Things to think about:
What
is family?
·
Bloodline?
·
People who love us and are loyal to us?
….
How
to live?
The book of Judges finishes: In those days Israel wasn’t ruled by a
king, and everyone did what they thought was right. [Judges 21:25 CEV]
What we see in the book of Ruth is
people living in ways that allows others to live with dignity. Naomi, Boaz and
Ruth all act out of loyalty,
love, and a deep sense of righteousness.[ii]
…
Spoken
blessings:
In the four chapters of this book, we
read of people blessing each other. It sounds a bit like passing the peace.
Such as when Boaz went to his field, he said to the
harvest workers, “The Lord bless
you!” They replied, “And may the Lord bless
you!” [Ruth 2: 4]
…..
How God acts:
We don’t have God telling people to
allow Ruth to be part of the community, there are no great miracles in this
story, like walking on water or the burning bush. Here we see God acting
through circumstances, and through the faithfulness of ordinary human beings.[iii]
…..
What
does all this have to do with us?
The lives of Ruth and Naomi and Boaz are
part of the story of God, and our lives are also part of the ongoing story of
God.
Sometimes it can be difficult to see God
in our lives, especially at times of grief and loss.
I wonder how often we offer a blessing
to people, even when we gather as a church.
One commentator wrote: As the old adage goes, “A coincidence is a
miracle in which God prefers to remain anonymous.”[iv]
Can you think of a time when a
coincidence turned out to be a blessing?
When I was at University in my late
teens, I was going to be a scientist, or a science teacher. Then I changed to engineering,
and this boy was in my Maths class, and he was at the church I had started
going to. Each year my family was involved in running a canoe race, and the
same year I changed to engineering, the same boy came to the race with a mate
to help with communications, remember this was before mobile phones.
It seemed everywhere I went there he
was.
I remember asking one of the people at
church how would I know if he was the one, God hadn’t yelled at me, or put our
names in bright lights.
We have been married for almost 36
years.
Can you see where your story connects with
the God story?
There is a word that keeps appearing in
this story, a Hebrew word: hesed: goodness, kindness, faithfulness[v]
We see this in the book of Ruth, which
is a tale about belonging, about blessing, about faithful love (in Hebrew, hesed), God's
faithfulness, incarnated in human beings.[vi]
