August 14 - Ruth & Naomi

Recorded Worship on YouTube

Sermon by Carolyn Smith

What are you celebrating this week? What is making you hopeful this week? Where is

one thing you might do, safe and with faithfulness and courage, to make more of

that real this week?

Many of us enjoy this story, and I know for some women in this congregation, this story

of Ruth and Naomi is sacred - about faithfulness, friendship against all odds, and

not just helpless, but women choosing their path forward with dignity, strength

and courage. Choosing a way in the face of challenge. As I look back with respect

and admiration at the women who paved a way forward for me and my

generation. I can feel the strength they feel in this story even if my road has been

very different. How strong? How strong was Naomi, widowed and stranded

away from her traditional home? Or Ruth taken as a wife by a foreigner, and now

widowed as well. She decides to go the way Naomi goes - We love the sense of

warm companionship and faithfulness, and the welcome in our favourite little

town of Bethlehem - and the poetic commitment: your people will be my people,

your God will be my God. We almost wish we could leave off the end part of

Naomi’s lament and despair... It’s easier when we aren’t reminded of how tough

things can be. Or is it?

Sense her grief, the exhaustion and despair. As widows and as foreigners, they they are

marginalized people unaccepted, women unprotected, they will be preyed on. We

know that Naomi and Ruth are wonderful, they should be safe, they have so much

more to offer. We read Naomi’s lament that she has no other sons for the girls to

marry as a pity! Or other men in the family to take them as wife - too bad... So to

be clear, their only hope is for a man to wed them. And worse... the word here

“Take”... take a breath my friends.. the phrase to take a wife is the same verb used

in Hebrew for rape. Indeed, the choice of partner and family, the patterns of

protection and usefulness for women was not reliably safe - widows were ‘taken’

by the dead man’s brothers or cousins... as a guilt trip, or conquest to keep land or

wealth where it belonged. And as awful as that sounds, they’d face complete

poverty and starvation without the men. These women knew their lot. And so, in

a moment of clarity, Naomi recognized one fleeting hope - to return to long-

forgotten family in a place where the famine wasn't so bad; and Ruth recognized

that Naomi’s way with any luck at all, might hold hope for her as well.

We admired their strength before.... We are humbled now.

Now I’m the kind of movie-watcher or book reader who skips to the end. You can’t spoil

a movie for me - I want to know if things turn out ok before I spend my time on

“ENTERTAINMENT” that makes me cry. Because I get enough of tags making me

cry sitting with real people in real pain, or seeing our community and our kids

struggle and the planet struggle, and reading the news as bullies and tyrants get

away with terrible stuff. So I’ll tell you now, things work out pretty well in the end

for Ruth & Naomi. This story tells of their faithfulness and strength but it didn’t

come without fierce daring courage from these two unlikely heroes.

And if only, that fear of marginalization and poverty was in the distant 500 year BC past.

If only when one hero solved a problem, we could move on and tackle the next.

And whenever it happens we rightfully and joyfully celebrate and songs of praise

ring out, each win is heaven on earth for someone, some people in some

moment. It’s progress But the work is not done. The arc of the universe is long

but it bends towards justice, and each of us showed up today here in the pews, or

online with your computer screen, or reading this when you get the chance,

looking for something that was worth your time and your heart. And whether it’s

a finger and a prayer, or you are one of those who is hauling on that arc of the

universe, we are called to bend it together toward justice.

Remember? We know the ending... but they didn’t. Ruth was totally gambling when she

chose to go the way that Naomi was going. Which was what way? I often

mention the way of Jesus, but at 500 bc his great great grate grandfather wasn’t

even a gleam yet. So what way - where did they go? .... Bethlehem... do you

know what the word means? City of Bread... The whole story has been about

people seeking food and safety - leaving Bethlehem in a time of famine and all

that Naomi has to show for it is Ruth. And now because a new harvest was

coming in the city of Bread, they return. I know you first want to say “Harvest”

-that must mean Jesus being born but we are still a long time from that. How

Long, o Lord, how long? Naomi has no clue and just a glimmer of hope, but she

has Ruth.. Another clue... chapter 2 - remember what happens.... I mentioned

daring courage... well Ruth finds a good husband Boaz....... And quoting some of

the painfully boring genealogies in teh bible... Boaz the father of Obed, whose

mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.

What is the other name we give to Bethelehem? The City of David ..... Now my friends,

that’s a long game.... A legendary game.... And it is a bumpy road.... Naomi found

Ruth - and for them, they could celebrate!!

Our story is a story of coming to know God - the whole way through this OT - there are

brutal things... there are colossal tragedies and tyrants... but people kept showing

up for something. Even in their mistakes and their clumsiness, like King David

included, they found something meaningful in compassion and second chances.

They kept teaming up and marching on, and well - we have the long view.... Things

have come so very far.... Joy and Discoveries and science and innovation -

accomplishments and education, and justice and equality -... that arc is bending

and we’e celebrating with good reasons!! Humans with a Way of Jesus for many

many of us... and other faith traditions as well have come along way, so far, we’ve

sometimes forgotten how far, and at what great cost.

Many of us have had the privilege to forget, AND despite that you found your way here

looking for meaning in this community and this story, I think because we count on

the hope and goodness about this way.... Like even if we can’t see the ending,

we’ve heard there’s a harvest coming. Like Ruth sizing up her options and clinging

to Naomi.

Women’s equality - is just one issue - what else do we pray for? ____ And I expect there

is a wide range in our diversity and experiences... - the planet. ___ Indigenous

rights. Black Lives Matter. Europe/War/Climate, How long o Lord, how long?

What else.... Afghanistan 1 year later....

This longing... imagine what could be different!!

What about personal concerns, because you are beloved? And what you really deep

down pray for? I’m not talking about measuring who has it worse - whatever holds

us back is our struggle, and it helps us understand our equality of human

experience.

Now take a moment to feel a sense of a time when you were the odd one out - maybe

passed over for a job, or as a kid one time... or something about aging or

loneliness is ... that sense that you have so much to offer if only you could get the

chance.... This longing that things could be better.... For moment, consider Ruth &

Naomi and think “OH, maybe this is a little of what they experienced.”

Allow that to sit with you, to open eyes to see how God sees, to open hearts and hands

towards taking a hold of that arc again and bending it again - and we can't see

the ending this time... but bending it again, faithfully, courageously toward Justice

in a way that is love and compassion for this world.

To end, I will give you a blessing by the wonderful Jan Richardson. Think of the hopes

and the dreams we have named today. Think of Ruth and Naomi, this world

around us... And if you will , maybe close your eyes, feel yourself settled, here

amongst friends and companions on the way...

Blessing the Way

With every step

you take,

this blessing rises up

to meet you.

It has been waiting

long ages for you.

Look close

and you can see

the layers of it,

how it has been fashioned

by those who walked

this road before you,

how it has been created

of nothing but

their determination

and their dreaming,

how it has taken

its form

from an ancient hope

that drew them forward

and made a way for them

when no way could be

seen.

Look closer

and you will see

this blessing

is not finished,

that you are part

of the path

it is preparing,

that you are how

this blessing means

to be a voice

within the wilderness

and a welcome

for the way.

—Jan Richardson

Deborah Laforet