Photo credit: Tijs van Leur, used with permission via Unsplash
We find Ruth and Naomi this morning in a world stripped bare. It doesn’t take long – just five short verses – and Naomi’s life is filled, and then emptied out. And there they are – three women bereft – on their own –and journeying through wilderness. I want to invite us to spend some time this morning with Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth – right where they are – in this world stripped bare – to see what they see – to listen to what they say to each other – and to watch how they manage to take the next step forward.[1]
It really doesn’t take long. At the start of the scripture, we meet Naomi and her husband Elimilech and their two sons, happy in their homeland. But then there’s a famine in Judah so they travel as refugees to Moab. They settle there. Elmilech dies. Naomi’s sons marry two Moabite women – Ruth and Orpah – and then those sons die.
And there these three women are... bereft.
There is, of course, the deep personal loss. They have lost husbands and sons. But the implications for their own survival are even more profound.[2] Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth live in a patriarchal world. Power is structured around maintaining the power and property of men. Women have next to no legal status. They can’t own property. In some aspects of their culture, women are considered to be property. In their world, a woman leaves her father’s house to go to her husband’s house – to provide an heir and some back-up heirs – so that property can be passed down father to son. Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth are three women alone “in a world defined by male relationships [and power.]”[3] With no man in their life, in their world, their prospects are bleak. Theirs is a world stripped bare.
Naomi looks around. She gets that. She hears that the famine back in her homeland has ended, and so she decides to return to Bethlehem, in Judah. Together, with her daughters-in-law Orpah and Ruth, they undertake the perilous journey to Bethlehem. Now I say “perilous” because it’s about a 70-75 mile journey. They would likely have been on foot. It would have taken them 7-10 days. It’s a wilderness road. And they are three women out on the road alone, vulnerable to the violence of strangers.
They journey on, and a couple days in, they stop. It’s a hot, dry, and dusty day. Naomi sits down on a rock, takes a deep breath, and she says, “My daughters... you need to go back. Things are bleak for me; they are not as bleak for you. It makes far more sense for you to return to your mother’s house than to wander through this desert with me. Best case... if we survive and get there... I’m not going to find a husband at my age. And even if I did, are you going to wait for me to have sons, and for them to grow, so that you can marry. You will be strangers in a strange land – refugees, immigrants – with even less protection than you have in Moab – which isn’t much. Go.”
What Naomi says is sensible, practical. She understands how the systems work. She knows what is at stake – their very lives. “My daughters, the way you survive is to go home – leave me to face this alone.”
Naomi does one more thing – she blesses them – and she uses that Hebrew word that I’ve told you about before. Do you remember? Hesed – it is God’s unshakeoffable love for God’s people.[4] It’s often translated “steadfast love.” It’s central to the Hebrew Scriptures – an essential part of who God is. God accompanies God’s people for good, always there, always loving, never giving up.
Here, though, it’s translated “kindness” – if you grew up with the King James version – you’ve heard it translated as “lovingkindess.” God’s lovingkindness for God’s people. I read one writer who said that “kindness” is a “feeble” translation for the word.[5] But I like what it adds – so long as we don’t lose sight of the unshakeoffable part. God’s unshakeoffable Hesed is expressed in “God’s acts of unlimited grace and mercy.”[6] It is the way that God looks at us, in love, and wants only our good and our well-being. And, that lovingkindess is unshakeoffable. God’s love and kindness and faithfulness never relent.
And so Naomi says to Orpah and Ruth – “May God show you this hesed – this kindness – that you have shown to me.” She blesses them with the same unshakeoffable kindness they have shown to her – God’s unshakeoffable kindness – as she has experienced it in them. How lovely.
Orpah listens to Naomi, and follows her advice. She does the sensible thing. They weep as Orpah kisses Naomi and then returns to her mother’s house. Scripture makes no judgment on that. In this world stripped bare, it is the sensible thing.
Ruth, though. Ruth listens to what Naomi says. She takes is all in. She sees what Naomi sees. Ruth, too, knows how the world works – how the systems work – she knows her place and her peril within those systems Ruth may feel it even more acutely than Naomi. They are women with little power in a patriarchal world, on a desert road. And this desert road is taking Ruth to a land where she’ll be a stranger, a refugee– even more vulnerable to a culture she does not know.
Ruth sees what Naomi sees, and Ruth... sees something more. Ruth sees the hesed – Naomi speaks that word in blessing, and Ruth feels it in her bones. In this world stripped bare, Ruth sees God’s unshakeoffable love and kindness – and she chooses to ground their lives in that. She chooses to live that out. And so she says, “Don’t tell me to leave. Where you go, I will go. Where you dwell, I will dwell. Your people will be my people; your God, my God. As God is my witness, may nothing but death ever separate us, and even then... even then...”
Notice this remarkable thing that Ruth does: She stays. Ruth stays.[7] Ruth sees Naomi, hears Naomi articulate reasonably the peril they are in with thein systems that would do them harm. In this world stripped bare, in the midst of Naomi’s raw and aching pain, Ruth stays.
What an amazing scripture to read on this Meet Your Deacon Sunday. This is, after all, what deacons do. They show up and they stay – in the midst of the pain – they are right there:
· When we’re sick or recovering from surgery, the Deacons say, Don’t worry about meals, we’ve got you covered.
· When we can’t get to a doctor’s appointment, the Deacons say – We’ve got that too – we’ll find you a ride.
· The Deacons gather this Deacons Fund so that when times are tough, they can say, “Here, we hope this helps.”
In those toughest moments in life, they lead and guide our hesed – our unshakeoffable love and kindness in the midst of the toughest parts of life.
And then even, in death, they come alongside our family, as we grieve together, and as we grieve and give thanks, they are there ready to refresh us, to sustain us. They stay, right there in the midst.
Unshakeoffable lovingkindess.
Right now, we’re in the midst of our stewardship season – our Annual Giving season – and we’re thinking about abundance – God’s abundance. Look at how that plays out in this morning’s Scripture. Here they are in this world stripped bare. Naomi looks and honestly assesses their existing situation. She understands the systems at work in the world, names the details of how they grind away. She sees all that and sees the scarcity.
Ruth sees all that – but Ruth sees something more. Ruth sees the hesed – not only God’s unshakeoffable lovingkindness – but heir own. They have come this far – and Ruth speaks into being how they will move forward together. Ruth sees what Naomi is saying, and Ruth sees more. Ruth sees an abundance of hesed – unshakeoffable love and kindness – God’s and theirs – and she grounds their life in that: “Where you go I will go.” And they do – Go.
Now, our Scripture this morning didn’t go this far – but they’ll continue on their journey; they’ll survive; they’ll actually begin to create abundance; they’ll enlist help and partners; negotiate and transform the systems; and the story will end with Ruth having a child who will be the grandfather of King David. They discover together that God has provided more than they thought they had.[8]
But I’m getting ahead of myself. This morning, here we are – in this moment – with Naomi – sitting on a rock – grieving and fearful of what will happen next.
This week, there are lots of folks who are grieving and fearful of what happens next. (Now maybe that’s not you – and if it’s not – I invite you to listen in – and help me hold space for those who are hurting.) The hurt is real – and the fear is not unreasonable.
This week, Americans elected a candidate who has told us what he will do. This is no mystery.
· The president-elect – throughout the campaign, and long before that – has been breathing threats of violence. He has named enemies and declared his will for revenge.
· He continues to target the most vulnerable in our midst.
· He has signaled a move toward authoritarian rule that disdains constitutional checks and balances and norms.
We know the oppressive systems at work in the world. We do our work here to learn about structural systems of racism, to see our role in those, and to join in the work of dismantling. We name the power-over that harms so many in systems that embody misogyny, xenophobia, transphobia.
The American people have – with a clear margin – voted to give this man more power in and over these systems. We are not naïve; we can’t pretend we don’t know what that means. We can’t not see the work that will lie ahead. The healthy thing about fear is that it can alert us to danger. But at the same time, we don’t ever want it to control us. We don’t want to let it paralyze us.
So in the midst of this week of tumult. Let me say this. Let me name some things that have not changed this week.
Nothing this week has changed who God is. God created everything that is, and has loved every bit of creation from the very beginning, all the way up till now, all the way out into forever. God is good. God desires good for all creation and for every person – particularly the most vulnerable in our midst – and God’s unshakeoffable love never relents. It is a part of who God is. God’s steadfast love is stronger than any power that would do us harm. God’s steadfast love endures forever. Nothing this week has changed that.
Nothing this week has changed who God is in Jesus Christ. God, more powerful than any power, loves us so much, that God came to us in Jesus Christ – setting aside that power and entering into the whole of life – all the suffering, all the joy, allthe struggle. Jesus came in the midst of us and said, “The Spirit is upon me to bring good news for the poor, healing for all our brokenness, release to the captive, freedom to all the oppressed, and forgiveness for every debt.” In Jesus Christ, God entered into every bit of life, even unto death – and then, in Resurrection, has brought us out into new, abundant life – sharing with us the power to live together and to thrive together and to transform the world.
Nothing this week has changed who we are in Jesus Christ. We say again and again – we are created in the image of God – each and all of us God’s own beloved. We are created for hesed – to embody and thrive in God’s unshakeoffable love and kindness – to embody that for the healing and liberation of the world. The gospels tell us that in Jesus Christ, the Word became flesh and came to dwell in us – full of grace and truth.
Nothing this week has changed what we are created to do and be in the Body of Christ. The Belhar Confession reminds us that we are created to stand in this world where Jesus stands – with the poor, and the vulnerable, and the hurting. In the Body of Christ, “The Spirit is upon us to bring good news for the poor, healing for all our brokenness, release to the captive, freedom to all the oppressed, and forgiveness for every debt.”
Nothing this week has changed any of that.
Now, I know, I know – we’re hurting after this week – and we... you... may just want to sit on that rock with Naomi for a while and grieve. And you know what? Go ahead and do that. Grieve what you are grieving. And, as we sit there on that rock to do the grieving and the healing – let’s do it with this awareness: The more privilege that any of us have, the sooner we have to get up off that rock, and seek out the vulnerable, and go and stand where Jesus stands. That is who we are – that’s an essential part of what we mean when we say, “Together we serve.”
In the tumult of this week,
I am inviting us to ground ourselves in hesed –
to look with clear eyes and loving hearts at the world around us –
to see the most vulnerable in the midst – and to stand with them –
to name our own vulnerability – but also our courage and our strength – and, then, in the tumult of the world,
to choose to ground ourselves in God’s unshakeoffable lovingkindess – God’s unrelenting desire and power for good.
Out on that wilderness road, Naomi and Ruth find themselves in a world stripped bare. They are honest about the world around them, the way power-over works, and Ruth says to Naomi: Where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people. Your God my God.” They choose the strength and power of hesed.
Maybe they sit there for a while longer – catch their breath, rest their weary legs, share cool sips of water. But the stakes are high, and so, Ruth takes Naomi by the hand, and they get up off that rock, and in the strength of God’s unshakeoffable lovingkindness, they set off back down that road... together.
© 2024 Scott Clark
[1] For general background on this text and the Book of Ruth, see Kathleen A. Robertson Farmer, “The Book of Ruth,” New Interpreters’ Bible Commentary, vol. ii (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1998), pp. 899-912; Patricia K. Tull, Commentary in Connections, Year B, vol. 3 (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press, 2020), pp. 439-41; Renita Weems, Just a Sister Away: Understanding the Timeless Connection Between Women Today and Women in the Bible (Warner Books, New York: 1988, update 2005), pp.37-51;
[2] Weems, pp.40-43; Tull, p.440.
[3] Weems, p.40.
[4] I learned the translation of hesed as “unshakeoffable love” from Rev. Eugenia Gamble – pastor, mentor, and friend.
[5] See Farmer, p.904.
[6] Farmer, p.904.
[7] See Tull, p.440 (“Ruth communicates presence. She refuses to leave... She stays.”).
[8] I acknowledge that this not an adequate summary of Ruth 2-3. A more-thorough discussion would need to also explore the power dynamics between Naomi and Ruth, particularly in light of Ruth’s vulnerability as a stranger in this new land (where Naomi is at home).
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