Ruth 1.1-22
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land,
and a man from Bethlehem in Judah,
together with his wife and two sons,
went to live for a while in the country of Moab.
The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name Naomi,
and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion.
They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah.
And they went to Moab and lived there.
Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.
They married Moabite women,
one named Orpah and the other Ruth.
After they had lived there about ten years,
both Mahlon and Kilion also died,
and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
When she heard in Moab
that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them,
Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.
With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living
and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go back, each of you, to your mother's home.
May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me.
May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.
Then she kissed them and they wept aloud
and said to her, We will go back with you to your people.
But Naomi said, Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me?
Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands?
Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband.
Even if I thought there was still hope for me—
even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons—
would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them?
No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you,
because the LORD's hand has gone out against me!
At this they wept again.
Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth clung to her.
Look, said Naomi, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods.
Go back with her.
But Ruth replied, Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.
Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.
Your people will be my people and your God my God.
Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.
May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.
When Naomi realised that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem.
When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them,
and the women exclaimed, Can this be Naomi?
Don't call me Naomi, she told them.
Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.
I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi?
The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.
So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law,
arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
READER. Lord, open our eyes
PEOPLE that we may see wonderful things in your word.
There is a letter in our family papers
written in the 1900s to my great grandfather from his cousin
a single lady, on her own, no prospect of marriage
and in need of help.
A difficult letter to write.
At that time there was no social welfare system,
no pension, no rent allowances nor anything like that.
People depended on their family networks.
I hope my great grandfather responded generously to that letter.
People still struggle even with family support and social welfare provision.
The book of Ruth addresses the insecurity and vulnerability of widows
in a very readable and moving way.
Its setting is that very modern state of affairs
described in Judges 21.25
“In those days there was no king in Israel.
Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
What was right in their own eyes was often plain wrong,
not least the wrong done to vulnerable women
as in Judges 21 immediately preceding
where women are kidnapped and forcibly married.
We should tremble for Western society with our false freedoms,
where everyone does what is right in their own eyes.
But the Book of Ruth which follows Judges
is like the sun shining through on a cloudy day.
Everyone did what was right in their own eyes and there was no king,
but here are ordinary folk in those days
seeking to do what is right in God’s eyes.
Vulnerable ordinary folk acting with great loving-kindness
and in chapter 4 pointing forward to when it would not be the judges ruling
but great King David and then a greater king.
The key word here is the Hebrew word “hesed”.
It refers to the settled loving kindness of God, his steadfast covenant love
and in Ruth where the word “kind” or “kindness” is used
it is derived from that Hebrew word.
We focus today on the loving-kindness in Naomi’s life.
Some suggest the family should never have left Bethlehem
even though there was a famine
but we must be careful not to read things into the bible passage which are not actually there.
The writer simply tells us what happened.
There was a famine.
Elimelech did what any husband and father would do.
He went to look for food outside Israel in the land of Moab.
The writer does not point out, although many preachers have since
that becoming an emigrant was a bad thing, he should have trusted God more.
The only trace of blame or shame
comes from Naomi’s wonderfully honest words.
“I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty.
Why call me Naomi? [which means my fair one]
The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
But even there, it is more an honest expression of what has happened and how she feels
than an acknowledgement that they should have done something else years before.
You see,
“should have” is a phrase we should use sparingly about ourselves or others.
If you are in trouble, don’t beat yourself up about the past
and what you should have or shouldn’t have done.
Rather, like Naomi express your bitterness and honesty
and, like Naomi, bring the LORD into it
and as the story unfolds, don’t leave your bitterness as the defining statement of your life
because the one who calls herself “bitter” Marah at the end of chapter one
will under her proper name of Naomi be richly blessed by the end of chapter four.
The one who says she is empty will be filled up.
It has been well said that
"pain is inevitable but misery is optional".
Openly express your pain, but don’t let it fester into misery.
Years ago I was very annoyed about aspects of my ministry.
Annoyed and alone. Isolated without close support from the church at large.
I wrote letters to two people within the Presbyterian church structure
and I could have signed the letters Marah, bitter.
I wanted them to know how bad I felt it was.
As soon as I posted those letters I felt better,
still in pain but not miserable
not that the situation had suddenly changed,
but that like Naomi, I had for once been open and honest about my feelings.
I was not pretending any more on that issue,
I was not bottling it up, I was bringing it into the light
Just as sunlight and fresh air promote healings of our body's infections
so Naomi's honesty acted to expose her wounds to the healing agency of God.
But healing will never happen when we keep covering up.
A parent cannot bring comfort or help to a child when the sore spot is covered up.
Are you wanting to change your name to Marah-Bitter?
Are you running on empty?
Hold on to this today that God is loving-kind and your story is not yet finished.
and don’t bottle up your bitterness
otherwise it will poison you.
From my bible reading notes this very morning:
“The world can be a painful place.
The psalms are tenaciously honest in uncovering a wide range of human emotions.
Not everything we feel is praiseworthy
but it is better to be honest about the negatives
rather than suppress them and allow them to fester.”
For all her bitterness Naomi was wonderfully and truly loving-kind to Ruth.
She did not demand that Ruth should love her.
She let her go.
C Day Lewis has written about his experience as a father
seeing his son grow up and grow away from him.
He notices him after a school football match, walking away from him,
joining the other boys, a bit uncertain, but the father knows he has to let him go.
“I have had worse partings, but none that so
gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps it is roughly
saying what God alone could perfectly, show -
how selfhood begins with a walking away,
and love is proved in the letting go.”
Love basically means wanting what is best for the other person
even if that means us letting go.
Sometimes we think we love someone
but we really want what will be good for us, not for them.
It is a common cause of strain in relationships:
the desire to control, to smother
going under the pretence of loving the other person.
Maybe you have seen the Ben Stiller comedy “The Trouble about Mary”
where he thinks as do a lot of other men, that he really loves Mary
but actually he has been stalking her.
The drama resolves when he realises that it has been all about him
and not about her, and he walks away, letting go.
This is so sad, and he cries out loud.
Then she comes after him.
First she says that he has forgotten his keys
and then she says something else …
I won’t spoil the plot for you.
Enough to say that when we learn to let go
we may find that the other person will love us back freely,
which is what Naomi found.
She had urged her daughters in law to leave her.
It would be better for them in their own country.
They would have a chance of new marriages
and much more security than she could offer.
Orpah kissed her, a dutiful daughter in law’s farewell …
but Ruth clung to her.
Naomi’s refusal to smother and control and Ruth’s free response
shows us the difference that true love makes.
It’s the difference between a Christian church and a cult.
If you leave a church, it can be sad for those left behind,
but if the church is true to Christ and has the spirit of Christ
there will be freedom, people will try not to condemn the person leaving.
By contrast a cult may make much of the 'love' practised by its members,
but let anyone dare to leave, that is a different story.
The same thing applies to disagreements within a church.
True love brings acceptance, an agreement to disagree on inessentials
a respect for people's different preferences and practices.
In a cult, there is no room for dissent;
all must believe the same as the leader in every detail;
you will be loved if you conform,
but if you step out of line, you will suddenly find no freedom, no respect, no acceptance.
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land,
and a man from Bethlehem in Judah,
together with his wife and two sons,
went to live for a while in the country of Moab.
The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name Naomi,
and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion.
They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah.
And they went to Moab and lived there.
Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.
They married Moabite women,
one named Orpah and the other Ruth.
After they had lived there about ten years,
both Mahlon and Kilion also died,
and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
When she heard in Moab
that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them,
Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.
With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living
and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go back, each of you, to your mother's home.
May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me.
May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.
Then she kissed them and they wept aloud
and said to her, We will go back with you to your people.
But Naomi said, Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me?
Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands?
Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband.
Even if I thought there was still hope for me—
even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons—
would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them?
No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you,
because the LORD's hand has gone out against me!
At this they wept again.
Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth clung to her.
Look, said Naomi, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods.
Go back with her.
But Ruth replied, Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.
Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.
Your people will be my people and your God my God.
Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.
May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.
When Naomi realised that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem.
When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them,
and the women exclaimed, Can this be Naomi?
Don't call me Naomi, she told them.
Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.
I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi?
The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.
So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law,
arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
READER. Lord, open our eyes
PEOPLE that we may see wonderful things in your word.
There is a letter in our family papers
written in the 1900s to my great grandfather from his cousin
a single lady, on her own, no prospect of marriage
and in need of help.
A difficult letter to write.
At that time there was no social welfare system,
no pension, no rent allowances nor anything like that.
People depended on their family networks.
I hope my great grandfather responded generously to that letter.
People still struggle even with family support and social welfare provision.
The book of Ruth addresses the insecurity and vulnerability of widows
in a very readable and moving way.
Its setting is that very modern state of affairs
described in Judges 21.25
“In those days there was no king in Israel.
Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
What was right in their own eyes was often plain wrong,
not least the wrong done to vulnerable women
as in Judges 21 immediately preceding
where women are kidnapped and forcibly married.
We should tremble for Western society with our false freedoms,
where everyone does what is right in their own eyes.
But the Book of Ruth which follows Judges
is like the sun shining through on a cloudy day.
Everyone did what was right in their own eyes and there was no king,
but here are ordinary folk in those days
seeking to do what is right in God’s eyes.
Vulnerable ordinary folk acting with great loving-kindness
and in chapter 4 pointing forward to when it would not be the judges ruling
but great King David and then a greater king.
The key word here is the Hebrew word “hesed”.
It refers to the settled loving kindness of God, his steadfast covenant love
and in Ruth where the word “kind” or “kindness” is used
it is derived from that Hebrew word.
We focus today on the loving-kindness in Naomi’s life.
Some suggest the family should never have left Bethlehem
even though there was a famine
but we must be careful not to read things into the bible passage which are not actually there.
The writer simply tells us what happened.
There was a famine.
Elimelech did what any husband and father would do.
He went to look for food outside Israel in the land of Moab.
The writer does not point out, although many preachers have since
that becoming an emigrant was a bad thing, he should have trusted God more.
The only trace of blame or shame
comes from Naomi’s wonderfully honest words.
“I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty.
Why call me Naomi? [which means my fair one]
The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
But even there, it is more an honest expression of what has happened and how she feels
than an acknowledgement that they should have done something else years before.
You see,
“should have” is a phrase we should use sparingly about ourselves or others.
If you are in trouble, don’t beat yourself up about the past
and what you should have or shouldn’t have done.
Rather, like Naomi express your bitterness and honesty
and, like Naomi, bring the LORD into it
and as the story unfolds, don’t leave your bitterness as the defining statement of your life
because the one who calls herself “bitter” Marah at the end of chapter one
will under her proper name of Naomi be richly blessed by the end of chapter four.
The one who says she is empty will be filled up.
It has been well said that
"pain is inevitable but misery is optional".
Openly express your pain, but don’t let it fester into misery.
Years ago I was very annoyed about aspects of my ministry.
Annoyed and alone. Isolated without close support from the church at large.
I wrote letters to two people within the Presbyterian church structure
and I could have signed the letters Marah, bitter.
I wanted them to know how bad I felt it was.
As soon as I posted those letters I felt better,
still in pain but not miserable
not that the situation had suddenly changed,
but that like Naomi, I had for once been open and honest about my feelings.
I was not pretending any more on that issue,
I was not bottling it up, I was bringing it into the light
Just as sunlight and fresh air promote healings of our body's infections
so Naomi's honesty acted to expose her wounds to the healing agency of God.
But healing will never happen when we keep covering up.
A parent cannot bring comfort or help to a child when the sore spot is covered up.
Are you wanting to change your name to Marah-Bitter?
Are you running on empty?
Hold on to this today that God is loving-kind and your story is not yet finished.
and don’t bottle up your bitterness
otherwise it will poison you.
From my bible reading notes this very morning:
“The world can be a painful place.
The psalms are tenaciously honest in uncovering a wide range of human emotions.
Not everything we feel is praiseworthy
but it is better to be honest about the negatives
rather than suppress them and allow them to fester.”
For all her bitterness Naomi was wonderfully and truly loving-kind to Ruth.
She did not demand that Ruth should love her.
She let her go.
C Day Lewis has written about his experience as a father
seeing his son grow up and grow away from him.
He notices him after a school football match, walking away from him,
joining the other boys, a bit uncertain, but the father knows he has to let him go.
“I have had worse partings, but none that so
gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps it is roughly
saying what God alone could perfectly, show -
how selfhood begins with a walking away,
and love is proved in the letting go.”
Love basically means wanting what is best for the other person
even if that means us letting go.
Sometimes we think we love someone
but we really want what will be good for us, not for them.
It is a common cause of strain in relationships:
the desire to control, to smother
going under the pretence of loving the other person.
Maybe you have seen the Ben Stiller comedy “The Trouble about Mary”
where he thinks as do a lot of other men, that he really loves Mary
but actually he has been stalking her.
The drama resolves when he realises that it has been all about him
and not about her, and he walks away, letting go.
This is so sad, and he cries out loud.
Then she comes after him.
First she says that he has forgotten his keys
and then she says something else …
I won’t spoil the plot for you.
Enough to say that when we learn to let go
we may find that the other person will love us back freely,
which is what Naomi found.
She had urged her daughters in law to leave her.
It would be better for them in their own country.
They would have a chance of new marriages
and much more security than she could offer.
Orpah kissed her, a dutiful daughter in law’s farewell …
but Ruth clung to her.
Naomi’s refusal to smother and control and Ruth’s free response
shows us the difference that true love makes.
It’s the difference between a Christian church and a cult.
If you leave a church, it can be sad for those left behind,
but if the church is true to Christ and has the spirit of Christ
there will be freedom, people will try not to condemn the person leaving.
By contrast a cult may make much of the 'love' practised by its members,
but let anyone dare to leave, that is a different story.
The same thing applies to disagreements within a church.
True love brings acceptance, an agreement to disagree on inessentials
a respect for people's different preferences and practices.
In a cult, there is no room for dissent;
all must believe the same as the leader in every detail;
you will be loved if you conform,
but if you step out of line, you will suddenly find no freedom, no respect, no acceptance.
What Naomi showed was unconditional love, that did not seek its own.
and Ruth freely responded with her loving kindness.
We shall see next time what happens to these women,
so vulnerable yet showing loving/kindness.
Who rules in our lives?
Do we just do what is right in our own eyes
or do we have a King?
Do we care for the vulnerable?
and Ruth freely responded with her loving kindness.
We shall see next time what happens to these women,
so vulnerable yet showing loving/kindness.
Who rules in our lives?
Do we just do what is right in our own eyes
or do we have a King?
Do we care for the vulnerable?
How do we deal with our bitterness?
If we don’t face up to it, it will fester.
Is our love “smother love”
our love that is proved in the letting go?
Lets pray that we in our troubles we may demonstrate and know such “hesed.”
Father God we celebrate the kindness of ordinary people
and we celebrate your loving kindness above all
which as Lamentations 3.19-21 remind us
never fails.
Your compassions are new every morning.
Great is your faithfulness.
Teach us the meaning of true loving kindness
which desires the best for another
and not what would be best for us
Help us to let go that we may receive
Coming empty
may we go filled with every blessing you have for us
and through us to others.
As we have thought today about a vulnerable widow in a strange land
and another widow willing to befriend Naomi and go with her
away from the security of her own homeland
so let us pray for people may be grieving, isolated and with a difficult future.
As we have thought today about a vulnerable widow in a strange land
and another widow willing to befriend Naomi and go with her
away from the security of her own homeland
so let us pray for people may be grieving, isolated and with a difficult future.
We think also of people from other countries now coming to Ireland looking for a new start.
May every different ethnic group find a Christian welcome;
we bring also our questions, our reservations,
our fears about such changes in our society.
May there be a welcome and help for such folk that is wise, right and gracious.
As the story of Ruth ended happily after a tragic beginnings
so may the stories of many lives work together for good
especially-as we and other Christian people demonstrate
so may the stories of many lives work together for good
especially-as we and other Christian people demonstrate
the loving kindness you shower on us in loving kindness to others.
May your Spirit guide us in understanding this story today.
May King Jesus, a descendant by the flesh from Ruth, be King in our lives.
May King Jesus, a descendant by the flesh from Ruth, be King in our lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment