Weekly Sermon

"The Joy of Going All the Way"

Ruth 1:1-22; Ruth 3:1-18

The Reverend Anne Benefield

Geneva Presbyterian Church, July 25, 2004

 

In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there about two years, both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had considered his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back each of you to your mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband." Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. They said to her, "No, we will return with you to your people." But Naomi said, "Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it was been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me." Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. So 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 press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die-there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, If even death parts me from you!" When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her. So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them; and the women said, "Is this Naomi?" She said to them, "Call me no longer Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty; Why call me Naomi when the Lord has dealt harshly with me, And the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?" So Naomi returned together with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came back with her from the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. [This ends the first reading. Before we begin the second reading which is from the third chapter, let me tell you what has happened in the meantime. Naomi sent Ruth out to glean the barley that was left in the fields after the harvest. Ruth happened upon a field owned by a farmer named Boaz, who kindly extended his protection to her. When Ruth told Naomi that she was gleaning in the field of Boaz, Naomi recognized his name as a relative. In ancient Israel, the closest male relative to a widow had a responsibility toward her. Let's read what happens next.] Ruth 3:1-18 Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law, said to her, "My daughter, I need to seek some security for you, so that it may be well with you. Now here is our kinsman Boaz, with whose young women you have been working. See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Now wash and anoint yourself, and put on your best clothes and go down to the threshing floor; but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, observe the place where he lies; then, go and uncover his feet and lie down; and he will tell you what to do." Ruth said to her, "All that you tell me I will do." So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had instructed her. When Boaz had eaten and drunk, and he was in a contented mood, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came stealthily and uncovered his feet, and lay down. At midnight the man was startled, and turned over, and there, lying at his feet was a woman! He said, "Who are you?" And she answered, "I am Ruth, your servant; spread your cloak over your servant, for you are next-of-kin." He said, "May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter; this last instance of your loyalty is better than the first; you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not be afraid, I will do for you all that you ask, for all the assembly of my people know that you are a worthy woman. But now, though it is true that I am a near kinsman, there is another kinsman more closely related than I. Remain this night, and in the morning, if he will act as next-of-kin for you, good; let him do it. If he is not willing to act as next-of-kin for you, then, as the Lord lives, I will act as next-of-kin for you. Lie down until the morning. So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before one person could recognize another; for he said, "It must not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor." Then he said, "Bring the cloak you are wearing and hold it out." So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley, and put it on her back; then he went into the city. She came to her mother-in-law, who said, "How did things go with you, my daughter?" Then Ruth told her all that the man had done for her, saying, "He gave me these six measures of barley, for he said, 'Do not go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.'" She replied, "Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest, but will settle the matter today." Prayer: Lord God, open our souls to Your Word. Startled us with Your truth and transform us with Your love as seen in this story and in our lives. Amen. It's nice to be home having made a three-week car trip with my husband and children. John and I are still married and the children are still alive. I consider that an achievement! We survived and we don't hate each other, either. We actually had a wonderful time. Of course, we followed two simple rules. First, the parents make all decisions and all decisions are final. Second, the driver of the car chooses the radio station, cd, or book on tape that will be played. Since John is the number one driver in our family that meant John chose the music. That worked well for me, but not always for the children. We didn't give in on the radio until we were coming into Washington on I-66. Then John let Olya pick the station. Now that was an awakening. The first surprise was that she had a specific station that she wanted to hear and quickly gave us the location on the dial. The second surprise was that we heard at least ten minutes of commercials before we heard anything that Olya and Johnny called music-it was their definition of music, not ours. The third surprise was the content of both the commercials and the "music." The first commercial featured two girls talking about their tattoos and piercings. This was not a promising omen. When the "music" began, we were in for another shock. We couldn't discern a melody or many of the words, but the few words we caught were frightening. We could hear the words "sexy" and "body" and "go all the way." I guess we were glad we couldn't understand the rest. We turned the channel to WTOP and the children had to settle for traffic reports. At any rate, a few days later when I was leafing through the news magazines that had come while we were away, I found an article about wives having affairs with the same regularity as husbands and a series of articles about Los Vegas and the "return of sin city." All this exposure gave me nightmares, literally. We sure are living in wild times! It would be easy to think our times are worse than earlier times, but according to the Bible people have been going all the way just forever. Today, I want to talk about three people who went all the way. One went all the way home; one went all the way for love; and one went all the way for faith. Let's begin with Naomi. In the beginning of the story, Naomi and her husband and two sons left Bethlehem because of a famine. They traveled to the fertile lands of Moab. (Incidentally, the fertile lands of Moab were the very ones that Lot chose when Abraham split the Canaanite lands with him. Those lands Lot took weren't considered part of ancient Israel.) When Naomi and Elimelech left Bethlehem, I'm pretty sure their neighbors didn't approve. They would have thought it sinful to leave the Holy Land. I bet they gossiped about the punishment the family would receive. And things did go very wrong for Naomi's family. First, she lost her husband. Then, she lost her sons. Naomi had gone all the way to Moab and now she was facing the consequences. What were her options? She could stay in Moab, looking for help from her daughters-in-law and their families…if that failed she could become a beggar as many widows did. At least if she stayed in Moab, she wouldn't have to hear her old friends say, "I told you so." If she stayed in Moab, people in Bethlehem could talk all they wanted. They would probably say things like, "I wonder what happened to Naomi? She must be doing all right, otherwise she would have come back here." Staying in Moab would have been the easier thing, but Naomi decided to go all the way home. She faced the consequences. Do you remember what Naomi said when she returned to Bethlehem? She said, "Don't call me Naomi, [which means 'Pleasant'], call me Mara [which means 'Bitter']." Perhaps Naomi symbolizes that old saying that you can't go home. Going home and facing everyone can be humiliating. Naomi went home because that was the responsible thing to do. She did have family at home who could help her, but she would have to swallow her pride. Sometimes the last thing we want to do is to admit we need help, but Naomi admits it. Today, we baptized Charlotte Ann into the family of God. She's always been a child of God, but today we agreed that we would be here to help raise her, to guide her and encourage her, and to support her and her parents when things go wrong. The other night when I visited Ann and Gary to talk about baptism, I told them the most powerful story of baptism I have ever heard. Tom Tewell, the pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York, tells the story of what happened in a Texas church where he was a pastor. At that church, they had a wonderful laywoman who taught the baptism classes to the parents. She did a marvelous job and was much loved and appreciated. While she was still a young wife and the mother of three little boys, she found she had breast cancer. All too quickly, she died. A few weeks after her death, her husband asked to address the congregation. He stood before them and said, "A few years ago, when we baptized our sons, you promised to help raise them. I need you to fulfill that promise. I need your help. If one of the boys needs his tie straightened, would you do it? If one of the boys looks like he needs a hug, would you give it to him? If one of the boys isn't behaving well, would you take him aside and help him? I need you to fulfill the vows you made when you baptized our sons." We have promised to be a family to each other and to the children of Geneva. When we need to come home because everything has gone wrong, this is the place…this is the home God has given to us, where we are loved. Naomi returned to her church home and you can return to yours, to Geneva when you fell like you have nothing left to give and everything to lose. The second person in the story is Ruth. She shows that she is ready to go all the way in a number of circumstances. First, she is willing to go all the way to Bethlehem with Naomi. Second, she is willing to go all the way out into the fields to glean for barley. Third, she is willing to go all the way with Boaz. It is easy to minimize what it meant for Ruth to be willing to go all the way with Boaz, but let us remember some of the risks. It's clear that she was in danger of ruining her reputation, which is why Boaz insists that she slip out of the barn before daylight. But there is something else about Boaz. He must not have been a very attractive man. Notice what he says when Ruth identifies herself: "May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter; this last instance of your loyalty is better than the first; you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich." In other words, she hadn't chosen someone younger, richer, or more attractive. Boaz was a bachelor probably because he was unattractive. That is why he is appreciative of Ruth's attention. Things haven't changed much in three thousand years. I'm not up much on current television, but I understand that earlier this year there was a reality show in which the beautiful girl had to choose from a line up of average guys. The beautiful girl was named Melana Scantlin. She was a former NFL cheerleader and a former Miss Missouri. She was blond and bright. It's easy to pick a partner from a group of handsome or wealthy guys, but being forced to choose from a group of "Average Joes" was something else. When Melana was introduced to 16 of these average Joes, she ran off screaming into the Palm Spring desert. She eventually returned, but in the end, the show imported three handsome guys, one of whom she chose. Ruth could have chosen a handsome guy or a rich guy, but she chose Boaz who was an old, hard-working farmer. She went all the way for her love of a good man, a kind man, a man of integrity. Boaz also goes all the way. He goes the distance as a man of honor. In ancient Israel, the laws specified that ten percent of the planted fields was to be left unharvested so that the poor could glean the remaining grain. That was the law, but most farmers didn't actually leave ten percent. Boaz did. Generally speaking, the women who went to glean the leftover grain were harassed by the farm hands. They were open to abuse and attack, but not in the field of Boaz. He strictly protected the poor who gleaned on his land. And the law required that the next of kin was responsible for widows. The closest male relative was supposed to marry the widow, but having extra wives and children caused inheritance problems. Most kinsmen didn't follow the law. They allowed widows to beg or starve rather than give them the protection of marriage. Boaz spread his cloak to cover Ruth. He went all the way as a man of faith. So here are three people who went all the way-all the way home, all the way for love, and all the way for faith. What happened to them? They found joy! The Lord redeemed them. For all their suffering, God redeemed them many times. Boaz married Ruth when the closer relative declined the honor. They had a son, a baby that Naomi held and loved. That baby was named Jesse. He was the father of King David. How about that? David the great king of Israel was one-fourth Moabite! Ruth was an outsider, but God made her an insider. God brought her home to be a member of God's family. God brings us home, too, but we have to learn to risk going all the way for God. Amen.