Weekly Sermon

"The Romance of Redemption" - August 25, 2002

The Reverend Anne Benefield

Geneva Presbyterian Church

I Corinthians 13:1-13; Ruth 1:1-19a

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 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 was Ruth. When they had lived there about ten 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 has 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. Prayer: Lord God, as we hear this beautiful story, may we hear in it your grace. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. The story of Ruth is a literary masterpiece. It is a timeless story that is just as powerful today as it was when it first happened. Before we continue to the rest of the story, let's talk about who the people in the story. The come from a different time and place from us, but like us they find themselves in difficult and tragic situations. The important human characters in the story are two women named Naomi and Ruth and one man named Boaz, but the most important person in the story is the divine character, God. From the perspective of ancient Israel, the human characters, Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz, are a pretty sad group. Naomi and her family had left Bethlehem during a time of famine. Leaving a homeland wracked with famine might seem like a reasonable course of action to us, but in Old Testament times, leaving Bethlehem by choice meant leaving the promised land, leaving God's chosen people. In this action, their neighbors would believe Naomi and her family invited calamity upon themselves. Then there was Ruth; she was a foreigner. She was from Moab. She did not belong among God's people. She was an outsider. And Boaz, though he was wealthy, was an old man. He was past his prime. Boaz, Ruth, and Naomi weren't a very impressive group of individuals. Their lives were not going very well, either. We know from the passage we read that Naomi has experienced great losses. She has lost her husband and her two sons. We also know from studying the history of ancient Israel that a woman without a male protector was in a precarious position. Naomi has lost more than her loved ones; she has lost her resources for survival. The only good thing that has happened to Naomi is that Ruth has chosen to stay with her. But for Naomi, Ruth's loyalty does not fill the gap. Naomi presses on to Bethlehem with Ruth following. When they arrive, the women of the city rush out to meet their old friend, Naomi. Her response to their opened arms is not what we or they might have expected. When her friends say, "Is this Naomi?" She says to them, "Call me no longer Naomi-pleasant one-call me Mara-bitter one- 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?" Naomi is angry and bitter. She seems unappreciative of her friends and even of Ruth. She says she has returned empty, but what about Ruth? Didn't Ruth come with her? How can Naomi say she came back empty? From our perspective Naomi's response to both Ruth and her friends seems contrary, almost cruel. But looking from Naomi's perspective we can understand. What happens when we lose loved ones, or we lose our jobs, or we lose money, or when we lose face or status? Don't we go through a process of shock and anger? We feel lost, frightened, and upset, and often we find it almost irritating when people around us try to comfort us. That is exactly what is happening to Naomi. She is in the middle of the grieving process. And like Naomi, when we're in the middle of grieving we can't always respond to the kindness and support of others. Naomi's story doesn't end here, just as our stories don't end in the early stages of loss. Often we are propelled forward not because we are ready to cope, but because the realities in our lives won't wait until we feel better. Naomi is not only feeling isolated and angry, she is also immobilized. When she and Ruth arrive in Bethlehem, Naomi knows the area, but she doesn't take steps to start a new life. Ruth is the one who goes forward to find food. Ruth goes out into the fields, following behind the reapers and picking up the barley that is left over. Ruth becomes the provider for Naomi, who can't provide for herself at this point. She happens to come to fields belonging to a man named Boaz, and he notices her. He asks the men working the harvest who she is. When he finds out that she is Naomi's daughter-in-law, he gives her a large share of barley to take home and he offers her protection in his fields. When Ruth returns home to Naomi with an abundance of food, Naomi wants to hear all about Ruth's day. When Ruth explains that it is Boaz who has been so kind to her, Naomi is transformed. Up until this time, Naomi has been isolated, angry, and immobilized, but notice how God has responded to Naomi: *When Naomi felt alone, God sent Ruth who vowed to be Naomi's companion. *When Naomi felt empty, God sent her friends to meet her with opened arms. *And when Naomi was immobilized, God sent Ruth out into the fields to find food. The surprising thing is not that God provided for Naomi. It is that Naomi has trouble seeing God's providence for her. I am reminded of an old, old story about a first grade class. The teacher arranged for the group to go on a field trip to a farm. One child figured out the teacher's expectations. As he jumped from the bus, he called out to his friends, "Don't look! Don't look! If we look we'll have to tell about it tomorrow!" In her grief, Naomi won't look. Aren't we kind of like that, too? We're afraid of God's presence in our lives. Each of us has reasons for fearing God's presence. Maybe we are like Naomi, holding on to our bitterness and anger. Or maybe we are like Ruth; we feel like we don't belong in Christ's community, we're not one of the chosen people, not good enough. Or maybe we are like Boaz, set in our ways, comfortable in the life we have built. If we open our eyes to God's presence in our lives, we might have to make changes. We might be called upon to act in God's plan. An amazing thing happens in the story of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz. Naomi catches a glimpse of God's plan and she begins to work with God. When Naomi starts collaborating with God, things get pretty exciting! So let's get back to the story. As I mentioned earlier, Ruth had happened upon Boaz's field and he had noticed her and been very kind to her. What Ruth didn't know was that Boaz was a relative; he had a responsibility toward Ruth under the law. If a man died before his wife had born a child, the next of kin-usually a brother-was required by Levitic law to marry the widow so that she could bear children in the name of the dead husband. Now this law wasn't always followed, but it sure created some interesting situations in the Old Testament, including this one. On the night of the harvest celebration, Naomi tells Ruth to go over to the threshing floor and hide. Naomi knows that Boaz will celebrate with food and drink. She tells Ruth that after Boaz has fallen asleep, Ruth should go uncover his feet and lie down next to them. When Boaz awakens, she says to him, "spread your cloak over me for you are next of kin, you are the one with the right to redeem me." Boaz, who is an older man, is flattered by Ruth's attention and promises to redeem her. He sends her home with more food for Naomi. But there is a complication. There is a closer relative. The next morning, Boaz goes to the city gate where the men of the village gather to conduct business. There he finds the relative who has the first obligation to Ruth. He explains that Naomi is "selling her land," but if the relative wants to buy the land, he must marry Ruth in order for her to produce children in the name of her dead husband. The relative doesn't want any more children among whom to split his inheritance. He declines. Boaz marries Ruth and another miraculous thing happens. They have a son and their son is Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David. Ruth is the great grandmother of David and an ancestor listed in the genealogy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This story tells us a number of wonderful, liberating things. First, it tells us that we are all invited to join in Christ's salvation story. God's grace is for us all. Most of us have a feeling that there is a loophole somewhere in God's grace, and we fit in it. We think we are not good enough for God, but this story demonstrates that God's plan is inclusive. Naomi isn't thrown out of the story of salvation because she complains and feels bitter. Ruth isn't barred from the story because she is from Moab. Boaz isn't eliminated because he has lived a comfortable life. God's grace covers them all and it covers us, too. The second thing the story tells us is that God's salvation story is being written right here on earth. Salvation history isn't about heaven; it is about the kingdom of God breaking into our world. When we understand that salvation history is being written through us, right now, our understanding of life changes. What we do today and tomorrow matters. As Kathleen Norris writes, "You can't throw away time without hurting eternity." Everything we do has consequences in God's plan. There is one more thing that this story tells us: Each of us has a unique plan from God for which we are exquisitely made. Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz are not interchangeable, and neither are we. This week I reread an article about Mister Rogers. I think most of you know who he is-the much beloved Mister Rogers with his friendly neighborhood. In 2000, Wendy Murray Zoba who wrote an article for Christianity Today witnessed the power of Fred Rogers' belief that "Everybody longs to be loved and longs to know that he or she is capable of loving." Mister Rogers calls it "loving someone into existence." In 1998, another writer named Tom Junod wrote about Mister Rogers for Esquire Magazine. Junod told the story of a boy, a teenager, who was severely handicapped with cerebral palsy: "The people entrusted to take care of him [when he was little] took advantage of him and did things to him that made him think he was a very bad boy…He would get so mad at himself that he would hit himself hard, with his own fists, and tell his mother on the computer he used for a mouth that he didn't want to live anymore, for he was sure that God didn't like what was inside him anymore than he did. "This young man was still watching Mister Rogers' Neighborhood at age 14, and the boy's mother sometimes thought that Mister Rogers was keeping her son alive. "Then one day Mister Rogers was making a trip to California and decided to pay a visit to the teenage with cerebral palsy. At first, the boy was made very nervous by the thought that Mister Rogers was visiting him…He was so nervous in fact, that when Mister Rogers did visit, he got mad at himself and began hitting himself, and his mother had to take him to another room. Mister Rogers waited patiently and when the boy came back, Mister Rogers said, 'I would like you to do something for me. Would you do something for me?' On his computer the boy answered yes. 'I would like you to pray for me. Will you pray for me?' "The boy was thunderstruck because nobody had ever asked him for something like that, ever. The boy had always been prayed for. The boy had always been the object of prayer, and now he was being asked to pray for Mister Rogers, and although at first he didn't know if he could do it, he said he would, he said he'd try, and ever since then he keeps Mister Rogers in his prayers and doesn't talk about wanting to die anymore because he figures Mister Rogers is close to God, and if Mister Rogers likes him, that must mean God likes him, too." Tom Junod asked Mister Rogers how he knew what to say to make the boy feel better. He responded, "Oh, heavens no, Tome! I didn't ask him for his prayers for him; I asked for me. I asked him because I think that anyone who has gone through challenges like that must be very close to God. I asked him because I wanted his intercession." [Wendy Murray Zoba, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" Christianity Today, March 6, 2000, p.45] No one else could pray for Mister Rogers like that boy and no one else but Mister Rogers could have been the conduit of God's love for that boy. We, too, have unique gifts, but we must say "Yes!" to God's plan. Amen.