Listen: https://beingtim.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/ruth-4.m4a

God within us,
divinity connecting us.
We are one.
Somos Uno. 

+++

The Moabites were despised by the Israelites because they were descendants of a sexual union between Lot and his eldest daughter. 

In the first chapter of Ruth when Naomi and her husband emigrated to Moab, they were crossing an entrenched border separating humanity.

Maybe it was the famine.
Maybe it was the Holy Spirit.
Regardless Naomi crossed that border. 

For ten years they lived in Moab. Naomi’s sons married Moabite women. Then her husband died. [pause] Then the two sons died. 

Her whole family dead, Naomi mourned. She cried out “call me Mara, for the Almighty has made me very bitter! …The Lord has testified against me” (Ruth 1:20, 21 CEB).

Abandoned through death, they were two women without men to care for them or protect them or give them status (as was necessary in ancient times). And so Naomi went home to Bethlehem. 

Though she would be despised in Israel, Ruth, Naomi’s Moabite daughter-in-law emigrated with her. 

Maybe it was desperation.
Maybe it was love of God and Naomi.
Regardless Ruth crossed that border.

Because she was from a despised group the Israelites kept their distance from Ruth. They failed to welcome Naomi with anything more than curiosity. 

Without a means of supporting herself or her mother-in-law, Ruth turned to gleaning the fields. 

(Ancient custom and God’s command required that the edges of the field be left for those in need.)

There Ruth met Boaz. He was the landowner and a kind man who ordered his workers not to assault or humiliate her. Later Ruth learned he was a kinsman redeemer in the family of Naomi’s husband. 

A kinsman redeemer is a relative who’s expected to support widowed family members. Another redeemer, however, was in line to do so before Boaz.

With few options, Naomi and Ruth strategized a means for survival. Ruth went to the threshing floor. After Boaz was good and drunk and passed out, she uncovered his feet and lay at them. 

Waking in the middle of the night, Boaz saw Ruth and asked:

“Who are you?” … She replied, “I’m Ruth your servant. Spread out your robe over your servant, because you are a redeemer.” (Ruth 3:9 CEB)

“Don’t be afraid,” Boaz told her, “I will do all that you ask.

Maybe it was infatuation.
Maybe it was the divinity within.
Regardless Boaz crossed that border between Israel and Moab. 

He immediately went to the town gate — the place where legal issues were decided. 

A man of power and influence, Boaz called a minyan of elders as witnesses. He called to the first in line redeemer. He used his skills to convince the first in line redeemer to give up his claim to land…

and, of course, to Ruth just as he had promised.

Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. 

May the LORD grant that the woman who is coming into your household be like Rachel and like Leah, both of whom built up the house of Israel. (Ruth 4:11 CEB)

They were married, were intimate, and gave birth to a son. Through their son’s lineage will come King David. Ruth, a despised Moabite immigrant will become the great grandmother of Israel’s most revered king: David.

Maybe it was Ruth’s bold action.
Maybe it was the Holy Spirit.
Regardless the newborn weaves immigrant blood into the lineage of Israel.

+++

On its surface this is the story of Naomi’s grief and restoration. She moves from despair at the loss of her entire family to cuddling her grandson Obed.

 Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom, and became his nurse.  (Ruth 4:16 NRSV)

And that is Good News. In the surface story, the nature of God is revealed. Though difficult times come upon individuals and nations, transformation and resurrection are the way of creation.

[pause]

But we’d be remiss if we skipped rocks on the surface and failed to dive into the deep baptizing waters of the Book of Ruth. 

We’d miss the depth of God’s dreams for humanity if we saw only the tale of Naomi’s hardship and return of her hope.

[pause]

The ancient world was a harsh and dangerous place. To travel was difficult. Customs were developed about how to treat the sojourner and immigrant. 

But people are people. We get suspicious of others. We fear. We don’t always follow customs or rules. One of the most famous — and, frankly, misused sections of the Bible — is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. 

It’s remarkable really that this story has been turned into an excuse for hatred of those who are LGBTQ+ when it is a story of the opposite. 

It is about the  importance of love of neighbor, of hospitality, and welcoming sojourners and immigrants.

This is true literally, interpretively, and even the Bible itself tells us this is so. The prophet Ezekiel said,

This is the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were proud, had plenty to eat, and enjoyed peace and prosperity; 

but she didn’t help the poor and the needy. (Ezekiel 16:49 CEB)

It was not by chance that this story in Ruth is about immigration from Israel to Moab and from Moab to Israel. Recall that Moabites were descendants of the sexual union between Lot and his eldest daughter. 

Abraham’s cousin Lot was an imperfect man to say the least. He did offer his daughters up to be raped by men pounding on his door after all. He did sleep with his own daughters and began the lineage of the Moabite people.

But Lot got one thing right. He knew that God expected us to welcome the stranger. He knew this — love of God and neighbor was sacrosanct. In fact, that’s what got him into trouble in Sodom.

[pause]

Lot was an immigrant in Sodom who followed the ancient custom of taking the outsider into his own home. He puts up and feeds the strangers who come to Sodom.

And for listening to God’s command, for his hospitality, the men of the town threaten to rape him. (That’s where people get the idea that this is about homosexuality.)

You see, the men of the town hate outsiders. They barely tolerate the immigrant Lot and are ready to harm him for stepping out of line.

And so, Moabite lineage is of welcoming others as much as it is about Lot’s sexual immorality…(though the Israelites fixate on the sexual.)

[pause]

When famine strikes Bethlehem, Naomi and her husband emigrate to Moab. Their success in Moab implies they are welcomed by the Moabites as custom and God requires. 

Their sons marry Moabite women of some standing. (Some sources believe Ruth and Orpah came from a royal family.)

[pause]

When tragedy strikes the family, it is Ruth who becomes the immigrant. She crosses the border into Israel where she is ignored and derided as an outsider. 

Recall in chapter two when Boaz first meets Ruth, his workers go to great pains to remind him that she is Moabite. The implication is clear: Moabite women are less than. She is not worthy of Boaz.

But Boaz crosses the border, too. He sees the whole image of God within Ruth rather than rejecting her as subhuman.

Maybe it was his character.
Maybe it was the Holy Spirit.
Regardless the greatness of Israel will come through this immigrant woman.

+++

In the surface story, it is Ruth who is redeemer for Naomi. Diving deeper, we find that it is through Ruth and her actions that wholeness is restored not just one woman but to Israel. 

Through an immigrant woman — a woman whose people are derided by the powerful and commoner alike — Israel’s King David will lead the nation to greatness.

[pause]

We, too, can trace our spiritual roots to this bold immigrant woman. In the gospel of Matthew we learn that she is forebear in the lineage of Jesus whom we call savior.

Jesus continued Ruth’s tradition of crossing borders. He stood with the marginalized. He sided with the poor, the widow, and the oppressed. He saw the image of God within all he met. 

May we, as twenty-first century disciples of Jesus cross the borders that divide humanity. May we love extravagantly even in the face of derision and spite.

God within us,
divinity connecting us.
We are one.
Somos Uno. 

Amen.

Listen: https://beingtim.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/ruth-3.m4a

Well, this is one of those parts of the Bible that you’re never sure you want to preach. It is laced with sexual innuendo and maybe explicit sexual behavior. 

+++

Just look at this third chapter! Naomi tells Ruth to get gussied up, go to the threshing floor, and after Boaz is good and drunk and passed out…

…uncover his feet and lay there. [clear throat]

The Hebrew word for foot is often a euphemism for another part of the body: genitalia. 

Linafelt and Beall note that,

the scenario is laced with other sexually loaded terms as well. The verb [meaning] “to lie down,” occurs eight times in the chapter, and while it often means in Hebrew simply to sleep it also often has the explicit meaning of to engage in sexual intercourse. 

The verb [translated as] “to know,” occurs six times in the chapter and is also a frequent term in Hebrew for sexual intercourse…

[pause]

Naomi tells Ruth to trick Boaz in order that he might marry her and provide for them both. 

And Ruth complies. Willingly. Without hesitation or even questioning. It’s a devious plan whether sexual relations happen or not. 

[pause]

How? Just how did our deep friendship between these two women turn into such a sordid tale? Are these two women really that crafty and devious? 

Have I been wrong about Ruth’s virtue? 

+++

Our story began two weeks ago when a famine hit Bethlehem. Naomi and her husband Elimelech took their two sons and moved to Moab. This was a bold move because as Israelites, they were supposed to despise Moabites.

(Moabites were descendants of the sexual union between Lot and his eldest daughter. Lot, of course, is the very same man who in the Sodom & Gomorrah story offered his daughters up to be raped by men pounding on his door.)

Because of this lineage, Moabites were believed by Israelites to be less than pure in the sexual morality. Particularly the women. 

The family made a home for themselves in Moab for ten years. During that time, the sons married Moabite women: Orpah & Ruth.

Then Naomi’s husband died. [PAUSE] Then her two sons died. 

Naomi had lost her whole family. 

Women without men were in a precarious position.  They were immediately thrown into survival mode because without the protection of a man, they might not survive. 

Understanding their situation, Naomi encouraged her daughters in law to return to their families. Orpah complied. Ruth did not saying,

“Don’t urge me to abandon you, to turn back from following after you. Wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” (Ruth 1:16 CEB)

Two weeks ago I suggested that Ruth saw God for the abundantly loving one that God is. I said that was a primary reason she refused to abandon Naomi.  

Destitute, the two women returned to Naomi’s homeland. Ruth knew she would be a despised woman in Bethlehem and went anyway. 

I said it was because of her love for Naomi and God. Could I have been wrong?

In the second chapter — last week — Ruth went gleaning to gather food. By chance she met the landowner Boaz. 

Boaz took a special interest in Ruth. Perhaps he was just being protective because of what she did for Naomi. 

Or maybe he had a romantic interest. Regardless, he told his men not to assault or humiliate her.

When Ruth told Naomi about her day, Naomi revealed that Boaz was a relative.

+++ 

Which brings us back to chapter three. Naomi and Ruth plot like an old black & white movie to catch a husband for Ruth.

Specifically Boaz. Boaz is perfect because he is well off. There’s a good chance of success because he’s shown some interest in Ruth already. 

Annnnd… as a kinsman redeemer he is in line to support the widowed Naomi and Ruth. A kinsman redeemer is a relative who’s expected to support widowed family members. 

But there is a line of succession. The dead husband’s brother would be first but, of course both brothers are dead. Boaz, is a redeemer but not next in line.

Where this story gets uncomfortable — and is  unlike any Cary Grant or Irene Dunne, or Doris Day flick I’ve seen — is when Naomi tells Ruth to go to Boaz once he’s drunk, uncover his lower extremities — his feet [cough] — and lay down.

Sure, sometimes feet are just feet, but often, as we’ve established before, they’re genitalia. With all the other sexual language it is hard not to think that was Naomi’s intention for Ruth. 

Adele Reinhartz suggests that:

In this case, Naomi [and Ruth] may have a bolder and less respectable act in mind. Similarly, the verb lie down, which appears eight times in this chapter, may be a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

Either way, for a woman to “bathe, put on some perfume, wear nice clothes, and then go down to the threshing floor” (Ruth 3:3a CEB) and lay at his drunken feet is at best manipulative.

Especially if Boaz is partially clothed when he awakes! Maybe Ruth and Naomi are not the paragons of virtue we’ve — I’ve — made them out to be so far!

+++

[PAUSE]

Oh, it’s so great to be pure! So wonderful to be the arbiter of right and wrong across the millennia! 

Such a joy and privilege I have to be an educated, white, straight, cisgender, middle class American in the twenty-first century! 

From my vantage point — my correct vantage point — what Ruth and Naomi did was immoral!

[pause]

Sigh. But despite traditional Christian insistence that morality is absolute, it is not.

 We are viewing this from a perspective of privilege. It’s easy to be straightforward, to avoid manipulation when your survival is not at stake. But Ruth and Naomi had few choices. 

When the dominant culture doesn’t accept you and when systems of oppression make it impossible for you and yours to survive — let only thrive — you develop other ways of coping.

In the working class neighborhood where I grew up, common wisdom was that I could meet my future wife at college or at church — respectable places — but my best friend, a gay man, had to resort to the clubs.

And Christians had the gall to judge him!

You see when the churches were supposedly hating the sin and loving the sinner, the only way to survive was to shun the very churches that shunned you. 

Like Ruth and Naomi my gay friend was only doing what he had to do in order to survive. 

And, though, we are Open & Affirming, we have a very long way to go to regain the trust we threw away. 

[pause]

When the US dominates the economy of the Americas, using Mexico and other Latin American nations in order to enrich ourselves without concern for local peoples…

[pause]

For example, Chiquita and other US corporations bought up so much Guatemalan land in the mid-twentieth century that there was not enough land for the people to grow the food they needed to be self-sustaining.

When Guatemala’s duly elected president tried to implement land reform to enable the people to sustain themselves Chiquita turned to Washington.

And so, “In 1954, the United States CIA led a coup in Guatemala, which overthrew the Árbenz government. 

The CIA then installed Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas as the country’s new president.”

When we disrupt economies and stable governments for our own interests, why are we surprised that families will journey miles on foot to enter this country — legally or illegally? 

It is a matter of survival just as Ruth gussied herself up and uncovered the feet of Boaz.

Survival. 

[pause]

When you’re among a marginalized group sometimes you have to do things that middle class morality frowns upon. As a member of a marginalized group herself, a colleague of mine put it this way:

“Sometimes we have to do in reality what we would not do otherwise to survive.”

Her comment reminds me of those with whom I interact who are homeless. Sometimes I get embellished stories as people ask for help. They tell me what they think I want to hear.

Sometimes people are pushy. 

Sometimes people game the system just as Ruth and Naomi gamed the system to survive.

+++

I think God weeps that after millennia, we still fail to use the abundance of this world in such a way that we all have what we need. 

I imagine God was not so concerned about the particularities of morality in ancient Israel anymore than about the  particularities of our immigrant and  homeless neighbors’ survival strategies.

Rather I think God weeps that our collective sin made it necessary for Ruth and Naomi to manipulate Boaz so that they might survive.

And that too often in Christ’s church we worry too much about the particularities of morality while failing to assure that everyone of us thrives as the Creator intended.

Amen.

Listen: https://beingtim.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/ruth-2.m4a

Life is hard. Life is strikingly hard when you’re poor. It’s harder still when you’re poor and from an immigrant group that is despised and demonized by those around you. 

[pause]

And it certainly doesn’t make it any easier if you’re a woman. 

I’m not talking about the twenty-first century, though I could be. 

No, this is the story of Ruth. 

+++

Last week, we met our heroes Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi. Having left Bethlehem in the midst of a famine, Naomi and her husband and two sons settled in the land of the Moabites. 

The Moabites were despised by the Israelites because they were descendants of a sexual relationship between Lot and his oldest daughter. (You know, Lot from Sodom & Gomorrah. 

Lot was the man who offered his daughters up to be raped when evil men pounded on his door because he dared to offer hospitality.)

Naomi, her husband, and family made a life for themselves in Moab. Despite the Israelite disgust for Moabites their sons married Moabite women. One of them was Ruth. 

Then the doo doo hit the fan. 

Naomi’s husband died… PAUSE …And so too the two boys. The three women were left on their own.

A woman without a man in the ancient world had no easy choices or means of support. 

In this time of grief Naomi decides to return home. Having left Bethlehem a wealthy woman, Naomi arrives home an impoverished woman with her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth in tow.

“Don’t call me Naomi, but call me Mara, for the Almighty has made me very bitter.  I went away full, but the LORD has returned me empty.” (Ruth 1:20 CEB)

+++

Life is hard. Life is hard even when you’re middle class. Even when you’re white and one side of your family arrived on this continent in the 1600s.

It’s certainly a bit easier if you’re a man but life remains hard.

[pause]

After five years of full-time service, I was tenured. I was on track to make more money than I’d made in my whole life.

But Maggie was called from New York to West Virginia and I followed. 

This was a time of a deep recession. This was a land of poverty and suspicion. 

Having been taken advantage of by outsiders for generations, the culture had evolved until all outsiders were eyed with suspicion. 

(Can you blame them? It is the only state in which the US army dropped bombs to stop workers from striking. Look up the Battle of Blair Mountain!) 

But it was hard for me. It was over a decade before I found a full-time job again.

Life is hard for everyone. However, by virtue of color, gender, or lack of resources some have more significant struggles. 

But this is the story of Ruth. It’s a story that reveals the particular struggles of immigrants, women, and living in poverty in the ancient world. 

Though in different form, these struggles remain in our time.

+++

With no options left, with no one coming around with casseroles or welcome home baskets, Naomi and Ruth are left with few options.

So, Ruth goes gleaning. The books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus command our ancient kindred to care for the poor and the immigrant. 

When you harvest your land’s produce, you must not harvest all the way to the edge of your field; and don’t gather up every remaining bit of your harvest…

Leave these items for the poor and the immigrant, [let it go to the immigrants, the orphans, and the widows]; I am the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 24:19 & Leviticus 19:9, 10b CEB, Deut. inserted in brackets)

You’ll recall Jesus told us that no commandments are greater than love of God and neighbor. Gleaning is an example of how ancients were to share a significant part of their resources with others.

These were commands to care for others in concrete ways. 

This command is STILL for us! As a church, as a city, a state, and as a nation we are called to put love of neighbor into action. 

The war on the poor is inconsistent with the teachings of Christ and the Hebrew Bible.

Of course not everyone followed God’s command anymore then, than we do in this century. There were those who marginalized those who were poor and sought to keep wealth for themselves. 

It is likely, given that Ruth feels she must ask Boaz if she can glean, that not all growers left crop for gleaners.

But God’s command to love neighbors in concrete ways still matters.

Social safety net programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, legal provisions that prevent people from losing healthcare, and even our own community meal and support of Jackson Street Youth Center are all examples of loving our neighbors.

We don’t live in an agrarian society in which literal gleaning is effective but we can sustain ministries and support other entities — governmental or nongovernmental — with our own hands and dollars. 

We are called by God to do so.

+++

When Ruth goes to glean, she is not safe. Notice how Boaz warns his employees to not harass or harm her. 

 “I’ve ordered the young men not to assault you” (Ruth 2:15b CEB)

“Let her glean between the bundles, and don’t humiliate her.” (Ruth 2:9b CEB)

Boaz wouldn’t do this if it was unnecessary. I’m reminded of the #MeToo movement in our country right now. 

The number of powerful men and not as powerful men who have harassed or assaulted women is not new.

We teach in the Safeguarding God’s Children training that at least one in five women are sexually abused or assaulted by the time they’re 18. It happens in Hollywood, in Washington, in families, and in the church. 

THAT is a sin. As church and as a people we can and must do better.

I’m sure that Ruth was thankful for the protection from the reapers and others. But…But Boaz did nothing to change the system. 

It is as if he turned a blind eye to other women who were gleaning! 

But don’t you think it’s time we listened to women? Love of neighbor includes implementation of policies and standards for behavior in the church and beyond. 

Jesus points us toward respect of women. Though the gospel writers fail to count her, Mary Magdalene was one of his apostles. The early church included prominent women leaders. Jesus crossed cultural boundaries with the woman at the well. 

He even allowed himself to be schooled by the Syrophoenician woman. If she can teach Jesus, certainly we can teach our boys that girls and women are full human beings created in the image of our God!

+++

Our ancient kinswoman, Ruth, is the great-grandmother of David and an ancestor of Jesus. She was an immigrant. Though she was despised by the Israelites, Boaz crosses cultural borders. 

He does so despite the warnings by the worker that she is Moabite and somehow inferior. 

Perhaps Boaz crosses the metaphorical border between the Israelites and Moabites because Ruth has been kind to Naomi. Perhaps.

This story, however, was written and included in the Bible because we are to learn something. 

[pause]

I think that what we are to learn is that the circles we draw to separate Moabites and Israelites, Latinx and Anglos, queer and CISgender, housed and unhoused, conservative Christians and progressive Christians, and so many more are not drawn by God.

Rather God includes all of us in God’s circle of value and love. 

+++

So where does that leave us? It leaves us in the same place that it always does:

[We] must love the Lord [our] God with all [our] heart, with all [our] being, with all [our] mind, and with all [our] strength… said Jesus. And You will love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31 CEB)

This is no abstract calling. We are called to do love even when it makes us extremely uncomfortable. 

Amen.

Listen: https://beingtim.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/ruth-1.m4a

Chapter 1 of Ruth

1. Once upon a time…
   1. Elimelech and Naomi
   2. lived in Bethlehem 
   3. Sons: Mahlon & Chillion

2. famine
   1. left Bethlehem for food
   2. to live in Moab
   3. sons took Moabite wives
      1. Orpah
      2. Ruth

3. Anyway…
   1. Elimelech dies
   2. Mahlon & Chillion die

4. Naomi decides to go back to Bethlehem
   1. heard famine over

5. Tells Orpah & Ruth
   1. go home, remarry, have children
   2. We want to stay with you
   3. Orpah returns home
   4. Ruth insists on staying with Naomi 

6. They arrive in Bethlehem
   1. Woe am I! says Naomi
   2. They arrive at beginning of barley harvest

Who were the Moabites?

1. Moabites & Jews not friends 
   1. Israelites were Jewish
   2. Moabites worshiped other gods

2. Extreme distaste for Moabites
   1. Moabites were descendants of Lot & his older daughter
   2. Both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the ancestor of today’s Moabites. (Gen 19:36-37 CEB)

3. Elimelech crossed deep boundary
   1. desperate
   2. or immoral
   3. or maybe God lured him to forgive 

Why were Orpah & Ruth hesitant to leave Naomi?

1. Loyalty to Naomi?
   1. not in text
   2. believable
   3. certainly Ruth issues strong statement: 
   4. “Don’t urge me to abandon you, to turn back from following after you. Wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. (Ruth 1:16 CEB)

2. Crossed line when marrying Jews? No where else to go?
   1. except Orpah did return
   2. except rabbinic tradition says they were royalty
      1. sisters
      2. King Eglon of Moab
      3. side note: Orpah mother of Goliath
   3. if royalty, arranged marriage 

3. Concern for Naomi?
   1. 1. lost whole family
      2. we like this but no clear textual evidence

4. Had fully converted to Judaism?
   1. 1. left alone in Moab would’ve been hard to practice
      2. no textual indication about faith
      3. Rabbinic tradition implies 
         1. Orpah never fully converted
         2. Ruth doesn’t fully convert until…
      4. she says, “and your God will be my God” (Ruth 1:16 CEB)

Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Ruth 1:16 CEB

1. Ruth recognized the One in the Jewish god
   1. in Naomi’s kindness
   2. in their relationship
   3. in Elimilech crossing boundaries
   4. in her own marriage that implicitly said, despite Lot’s sin, Moabites were fully human and worthy of love

2. She knew it would not be easy to go to Bethlehem 
   1. would be rejected
   2. hard to find husband

3. But her love & faith
   1. led her to follow Naomi
   2. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. (Ruth 1:16 CEB)

Even though it would be hard, Ruth went to Bethlehem 

1. For her God, she would
   1. care for Naomi
   2. go to a place where she’d be despised

2. Being faithful is never easy.
   1. 1. if easy, it’s not faith
      2. faith rarely makes rational sense
      3. but it is who we are created to be

3. Dietrich Bonhoeffer criticized cheap grace
   1. claiming faith without changing or growing
   2. claiming faith only when it is convenient 

4. That is not Ruth.
   1. Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is returning to her people and to her gods. Turn back after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to abandon you, to turn back from following after you. Wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. (Ruth 1:15-16 CEB)
   2. Amen.