So last week we started our journey through the first few chapters of the book of Ruth. In case that feels like a long time ago, or maybe if you missed last week’s service, I’m going to give you a quick summary of where we’ve been…
So far we have three main characters: Naomi, matriarch; and Ruth and Orpah, daughters-in-law. There were some men at the beginning of the story – Naomi’s husband and two sons, but unfortunately, they died early in the story, which left these three ladies in a very hard place, with some very hard decisions to make. Being a sonless widow at that time in history was not an easy road to travel.
So, given the situation, Naomi makes the decision to turn around and head back to Bethlehem with her daughters-in-law. While on the road, Naomi tells Orpah and Ruth to go back to their biological families so that they could remarry and have children. After doing some deep thinking, and shedding some tears, Orpah makes the decision to return home,
Leaving her mother-in-law behind. Ruth, on the other hand, chooses to break with convention, by staying in the foreign to her city, and living with her mother-in-law.
My reflection last week teased out the idea that Naomi was feeling less than positive about life, and about the role God played in it. She had been dealt a pretty rough hand so it was little wonder that she wanted people to call her Bitter, instead of Naomi.
I also highlighted the fact that some times our self worth is defined by the worth assigned to us by others, which is partly how Naomi got to this bitter spot. The point of the reflection was that we are intrinsically worthy of love and care, especially of God’s love and care, which is offered without strings or limitations, without judgment.
But that was last week, and today we find ourselves in Bethlehem with Ruth and Naomi who are doing their best to survive. Like I said before, life women without any kind of male support
is a difficult path to walk, but these two women are doing the best they can given the situation.
Today we introduce a new character into Ruth and Naomi’s story…
Ruth 2: 1-23
It so happened that Naomi had a relative by marriage,
A prominent and rich,
Connected with Elimelech’s family.
His name was Boaz.
One day Ruth, the Moabite foreigner,
Said to Naomi,
“I’m going to work;
I’m going out to glean among the sheaves,
Following after some harvester who will treat me kindly.”
Naomi said, “Go ahead, dear daughter.”
And so she set out.
She went and started gleaning in a field,
Following the wake of the harvesters.
Eventually she ended up on the part of the field
Owned by Boaz,
Her father-in-law’s Elimelech’s relative.
A little later, Boaz came out from Bethlehem,
Greeting his harvesters,
“God be with you!”
They replied, “And God bless you!”
Boaz called his young servant,
The foreman over the farm hands,
And asked him,
“Who is this young woman?
Where did she come from?”
The foreman said, “Why, that’s the Moabite girl,
The one who came with Naomi from the country of Moab.
She asked permission.
‘Let me glean,’ she said,
‘and gather among the sheaves following after your harvesters.’
She’s been at it steady ever since,
From early morning until now,
Without so much as a break.”
Then Boaz spoke to Ruth:
“Listen, my daughter.
From now on don’t go to any other field to glean –
Stay right here in this one,
And stay close to my young women,
Watch where they are harvesting and follow them.
And don’t worry about a thing:
I’ve given orders to my servants not to harass you.
When you get thirsty
Feel free to go and drink
From the water buckets that the servants have filled.”
She dropped to her knees,
Then bowed her face to the ground.
“How does this happen
That you should pick me out and treat me so kindly
-me, a foreigner?”
Boaz answered her,
“I’ve heard all about you,
Heard about how you treated your mother-in-law
After the death of her husband,
And how you left your father and mother
And the land of your birth
And have come to live among a bunch of strangers.
God reward you well for what you’ve done –
And with a generous bonus besides from God,
To whom you’ve come seeking protection under his wings.”
She said, “Oh sir, such grace, such kindness –
I don’t deserve it.
You’ve touched my heart,
Treated me like one of your own.
And I don’t even belong here!”
At the lunch break, Boaz said to her,
“Come over here; eat some bread. Dip it in the wine.”
So she joined the harvesters.
Boaz passed the roasted grain to her.
She ate her fill and even had some left over.
When she got up to go back to work,
Boaz ordered his servants:
“Let her glean where there’s still plenty of grain on the ground –
Make it easy for her.
Better yet, pull some of the good stuff out
And leave it for her to glean.
Give her special treatment.”
Ruth gleaned in the field until evening.
When she threshed out what she had gathered,
She ended up with nearly a full sack of barley!
She gathered up her gleanings,
Went back to town,
And showed her mother-in-law the results of her day’s work;
She also gave her the leftovers from her lunch.
Naomi asked her,
“So where did you glean today?
Whose field?
God bless whoever it was who took such good care of you.”
Ruth told her mother-in-law,
“The man with whom I worked today?
His name is Boaz.”
Naomi said to her daughter-in-law,.
“Why, God bless that man!
God hasn’t quite walked out on us after all!
God still loves us, in bad times as well as good!”
Naomi went on,
“That man, Ruth, is one of our circle of covenant redeemers,
A close relative of ours!”
Ruth the Moabitess said,
“Well, listen to this:
He also told me,
‘stick with my workers until my harvesting is finished.’”
Naomi said to Ruth,
“That’s wonderful, deal daughter!
Do that!
You’ll be safe in the company of his young women;
No danger of being attacked in some stranger’s field.”
So Ruth did it –
She stuck close to Boaz’s young women,
Gleaning in the field daily,
Until both the barley and wheat harvesting were finished.
And she continued living with her mother-in-law.’
(end of scripture)
“As it happened,” Ruth stumbled onto the field of Boaz. Without knowing who he was or how he was connected to them. Now, just a little bit of cultural background. Before we launch into any theological reflection. It says in the passage that Ruth was going to glean grain to bring home. Historically speaking, after the farm workers have finished threshing the grain in the field
the poor of the community (with a high proportion of this group being women), would come and gather whatever grain they could from the ground.
This would make up most of the food they would have for the day.
So, Ruth, as a widow living with her widowed mother-in-law was not in a good financial place.
To eat, Ruth had to pick up the leftover grain –and it was coincidence that she managed to pick Boaz’s field. A man with familial connections, and she works long and hard gathering grain, impressing Boaz with her work ethic, and blowing him away with her compassion for her mother-in-law.
Now onto the theological. If we think back to the first chapter of the book, it seemed that somehow God was very much absent from the story, except for that one moment where Naomi laments the unfairness and suckiness of her life. If we continue through the book, a pattern develops…God really isn’t mentioned. God isn’t a character in this story like God is in so many other stories.
Is God absent?
Is God not really involved at all with Naomi?
Where IS God in all this life messiness?
There are no full blown epiphanies. No “thus says God” moments…Nothing that confirms for us that God was present in the story…God is talked about – “God’s blessings on you!” –
but never steps out from behind the divine curtain. Theology professor Fredrick J. Gaiser asks:
Where is transcendence?
Instead of a transcendent feel, what we get is an earthiness – it’s almost an exaltation of a purely human drama. It’s emotions, messy, complicated relationships, and life … A widow clinging to another widow, breaking cultural norms, and changing the expected movement of the story by simply making a choice, by saying “I will stay with you, Naomi.”
But I wonder, despite all this talk of God’s “absence”, if there is something of God in the relationship? Could the divine be found in the deep connection shared between Naomi and Ruth? In that long, sad journey from Moab to Bethlehem, in the settling in foreign places,
was God there?
Where do Ruth and Naomi end up? In Bethlehem…“Bet le hem”… in Hebrew it literally means the house of bread…And they have none. No money. No food. No status. No community…
And yet the first time that Ruth goes out to glean from a field, it ends up being Boaz’s field…
Her father-in-law’s relative. Is there anything divine in the path this story takes?
Not so long ago in history, not nearly as long ago in history as the book of Ruth, but some time ago, a young man was traveling in Czechoslovakia when it was still a communist country. He was traveling with a woman named Maria, one of the leaders of the Czech underground church.
To be religious in a communist country was to put your life at risk.
These two were making their way to Pilsen, to meet with another family, leaders in the religious resistance in that city. Once they arrived in Pilsen, they got off the train, and Maria whispered to her companion: “I don’t have their address”
Shocked, the man asked the most obvious question: “Well, how are we going to find this family?
This is a pretty big city.” He was confused, a little annoyed and a wee bit lost.
Maria answered: “All I know if that we take streetcar number 7”
So they got on streetcar number 7. As it happened, he saw a young person – a child –and thought to himself (he and Maria weren’t sitting together): “I will get off when the child gets off.” And when the child stood up to leave, he did too, and from the across the streetcar, he was surprised to see Maria do the same thing. When they met up in the street, the man asked Maria: “Why did you get off here?”
Her response: “I saw the child, and told myself that I would get off when the child got off.”
They followed the child, and when they were able to catch up with her, Maria asked: “Do you know so and so?” And the child responded: “As it happens, they are my parents”
As it happens…
As it happened the man and Maria miraculously follow the right person. As it happened,
Ruth managed to glean grain from a previously unknown family member’s field. A family member who honours her loyalty and compassion, and her willingness to buck convention.
Look at these grace moments, for that is what these moments are… Grace moments,
couldn’t we, shouldn’t we, wonder if this is where God dwells in the story? Not in some center stage main character role, but in a quiet, off screen supporting part?
Maybe, what these two stories give us is the confidence that the presence of the divine can slip in at the most unexpected moments. Maybe God slips into these stories, our stories from the side, by way of a simple “as it happened?”
Maybe God is present but not in a pot stirring, event affecting, fate establishing, interventionist way, but rather in a preparatory way, opening us up to find the divine in life, in the simple moments of every day. Faithfulness, belief, Hesed, springs up from the earth, from a widow embracing widow, from taking on of the unknown. It springs up out of what we might write off as just a story or just chance.
These unexpected, as it happened moments, remind us to expect the unexpected, to revel in the fact that all creation is imbued with the holy…That each of us carries the spark of the divine, and this spark, this Spirit, doesn’t need or want to be center stage, but rather is looking to support us, to empower us to live fully, honouring the person we are, giving life to the faith that we carry. And through this supporting role, through this earthiness , God moves and works and has life, giving life to the vision God holds for creation, giving hope to God’s cherished people so that we can be God’s advocates for a world so often blind to the “as it happened” moments.
God slips in, unnoticed.
God slips in, unnoticed and opens us to the unexpected. By doing so, God opens us to our deepest longings, our human embraces, and our endless journeys.
As it happened…
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
