Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Ruth 1:15-22

 

"Where you go, I will go;
where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
and your God my God."

 

Friends of mine had this text read at their wedding and I can see why.  The story of Ruth is a beautiful example of committed faithfulness.

 

The narrative is simple enough in the re-telling. An Israelite couple from Bethlehem named Naomi and Elimelech move with their two sons to the neighboring country of Moab to escape a famine. The two sons marry Moabite women but, sadly, all three husbands eventually die.  The three widows discuss their futures. Naomi decides to return to Bethlehem and releases her daugthers-in-law so they could remain in Moab and re-marry. Orpah takes her up on the offer and decides to stay, while Ruth insists on going with her mother-in-law. The reading for today includes that powerful part of the story where Ruth pledges her faithfulness to Naomi. 

 

Ruth's commitment to Naomi earns the respect of the town, including a wealthy kinsman named Boaz. He allows Ruth to gather the grain from his fields that the workers leave behind (a common provision for the poor); in fact, he instructs the field hands to leave extra for her.  As if you couldn't see this coming, the two eventually marry and become (again, not surprising) the ancestors of King David.  Given the stature of David in biblical literature, it is no wonder that Ruth's story is included in the biblical canon: such is the faith-filled pedigree of the King specially favored by God.

 

The story is inspiring, but to be honest, sometimes it strikes me the way a made-for-TV romantic melodrama might. It is long on sentiment and short on realistic details. There's so much I want to know. What was going on in Ruth's inner life? What daily challenges called into question the commitment she made? What moments of goodness nourished that same resolve? How did she emotionally manage leaving behind all that was familiar to become a stranger in a strange land? What gave her the courage to face the unknown?

 

While we the storytellers don't give us a transparent glimpse of Ruth's inner world, they do believe that Ruth's actions can only be explained by her confidence in her outer world. For them, she is a model of faith in God and God's provision. The fact that Ruth's commitment was rewarded first with daily food, then with a new husband and ultimately with a royal family legacy must mean (in the theological worldview of her day) that God was honoring her for her unwavering trust.

Our worldview is somewhat different today, I hope. We no longer believe that God rewards and punishes us through the circumstances of our lives (as Naomi believes in 1:20-21). But we still believe in a good God whose desire is to give God's very life and love to all that is not God. We can at times look back over our shoulders and make out, however faintly, the pattern of God's love in the warp and weft of our story.  And seeing that pattern through the eyes of faith gives us confidence to live committed lives in this present moment whether the future turns out exactly as we would wish. If often doesn't. But drawing on God's commitment to us, we pledge our very lives today to a world desperately in need of God's goodness. 

As as anonymous spiritual writer observes (echoing the kind of commitment Ruth surely exemplified): "There has never been a time when there are so many options. While options are a great blessing, they are also a great temptation.  We have become a group of dabblers. We think of options as choices, but if we always hold our options open, we are really failing to make a choice. We fail to truly commit with our idea of ‘starter homes’ and ‘parish shopping’ and uprooting our family to get the bigger house or the bigger job or the bigger paycheck. Commitment is simply a choice. You make a choice. And then you stop second-guessing, weighing the alternatives, wondering about lost opportunities. You settle in for the long haul, make it work, put your energies into this place, this community, this relationship, family, home. You put all your creativity and energy into this life, surrendering to the truth of it, committing yourself to find the deepest and most profound wisdom and understanding available, committing yourself to go deeper. There is enough wisdom in this place to plumb the depths for a lifetime. Dabbling in this and that ideal, this and that discipline, this and that opportunity, only serves to spread ourselves thinner, not deeper. We’re called to go deeper."  

I pray that we may all go deeper.

-David Shumaker