Women of the OT, Part 2: Ruth

 WE GATHER 

PRELUDE 

BRINGING IN THE LIGHT OF CHRIST 

WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS 

*HYMN Trust and Obey UMH# 467 v 1, 2, 4 

*CALL TO WORSHIP 

L: Happy are those who follow the ways of the Lord. 

P: God’s ways are just and merciful. 

L: Those who follow God’s ways are continually nourished in faith. P: In all that they do, they prosper. 

L: Come, let us open our hearts to God’s compassionate love. 

P: Let us celebrate God’s mercy and justice. AMEN. 

*OPENING PRAYER (IN UNISON) 

Lord, be with us this day, helping us to put our priorities in order; so that we may faithfully serve you by serving your people. Heal our spirits. Enable us to follow your ways all the days of our lives. AMEN. 

*HYMN Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise UMH# 103 

WE PROCLAIM GOD'S WORD 

CHILDREN’S CHAT 

OLD TESTAMENT READING 

Ruth 1: 8-17 

 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back each of you to your mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9 The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband.” Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. 10 They said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” 11 But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? 12 Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, 13 would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.” 14 Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

15 So she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth said,

“Do not press me to leave you,
    to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
    where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people
    and your God my God.

17 

Where you die, I will die,
    and there will I be buried.
May the Lord do thus to me,
    and more as well,
if even death parts me from you!”

MUSICAL INTERLUDE AND OFFERING 

NEW TESTAMENT READING 

Mark 9: 33-37 

33 Then they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34 But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. 35 He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 Then he took a little child and put it among them, and taking it in his arms he said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

Reader: The Living Word of God for the people of God. 

People: Thanks be to God. 

MESSAGE "Women in the Old Testament, Part 2: Ruth" Pastor Natalie 

Friends, we’re now in our second week of this sermon series I’ve put together about women in the Old Testament. As it so happens, in this season our revised common lectionary lifted up three different stories that highlight prominent, influential women in the OT, so I’m drawing that out, while looking at these stories alongside the teachings of Jesus.

The story I’m lifting up this morning is among my favorites to preach about, as I hope you’ll see. It’s a very short story, only four chapters. This is also another one of those fun stories to read if you’re familiar with biblical Hebrew, because there’s a significant amount of word play thrown in there by the author to drive home the point. It’s important for us to remember that every story we read in scripture is authored. It doesn’t mean the story isn’t “true”, and our fear of undermining the authority of scripture often keeps us from exploring it deeper. But a story like Ruth isn’t meant to be a straight up historical account. The author chose every word, and every detail, to teach the reader something about people, and something about God.

This is a story about a family. We have a mom, a dad, and two sons, and they all live together in Bethlehem. Mom’s name is Naomi, which means “pleasant”. Dad’s name is Elimelech, which means “God is my king”. Just a nice, righteous, Jewish family living in a nice house in a nice town. Think of them like June and Ward Cleaver. That is, until the author introduces their two sons, and instead of getting Wally and the Beaver, we get Mahlon and Chillion, made up names that we really see nowhere but in this story, and for good reason, because those words mean “sickness” and “spent”. Oh dear. I’m not sure why, but I have a bad feeling about them.

A famine happens in Bethlehem–ironic, because Bethlehem means “house of bread”--and this family is forced to seek refuge in a foreign land. They find the resources they need to survive in a country called Moab, which means “from the Father”. Hmm. They continue living their lives in Moab, and Mahlon and Chillion marry Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth. Fun fact: Oprah Winfrey was named after the Orpah in this story. Her mom goofed and put the “r” in the wrong place.

So, good for this family, they managed to thrive despite adversity. That is, until Elimelech dies. Then Sickness and Spent live up to their names and they die, too. Maybe their parents should have picked different names. Regardless, This makes Naomi a childless widow in a foreign land, with two widowed daughters in law. She hears that the famine has ended in the House of Bread, and she decides she’ll have her best chance at survival if she goes back home to Bethlehem to be near her extended family. She packs up to leave Moab, and since Ruth and Orpah are from their, she urges them to stay in Moab and return to their parents’ homes. We see that these three women have a very strong bond and a ton of grief between them, because they hug and cry together before Orpah decides to listen to Naomi’s advice and return to her blood family. Orpah means “fawn”. Maybe the author is implying she’s a people pleaser? Sometimes that’s the best way to get by, especially for a vulnerable woman.

But Ruth refuses. She breaks out these lines that we now frequently use in wedding ceremonies, but they were actually first spoken from a young woman to her mother in law: where you go, I’ll go. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God.

Ruth means “friend”.

Back in her home city, Bethlehem, Naomi is spared from starvation, but she feels gutted by her losses. She gives up her name, feeling like it’s not her anymore, and asks everyone to call her Mara, which means “bitter”. What she’s feeling is the kind of grief that changes your whole identity. Everything about the person she was before is dead now. And that might have been true for her for the rest of her time on this mortal coil if she had gone back to Bethlehem alone, like she planned. But she’s not alone, she has her Friend, Ruth. We have hope in this life not just because we hold on to our memories of the Elimelechs that have gone before us, the ones who taught us that God is in charge, but because we have one another.

The first thing Ruth does in this new home is find a job, and Divine providence carries the whole rest of this story thereafter. While at her new job, picking barley, Ruth meets Boaz, whose name means “strength”. Boaz is one of Naomi’s last living relatives. He’s kind, rich, and single, and exactly the kind of guy that has all the ladies swiping right on Tinder. Boaz is exceptionally protective of Ruth, and gets her all the food and water she needs, as well as protection from anyone who would harm her, which is worth its weight in gold for a widow in a foreign land. Ruth takes this huge haul of barley home to Naomi, and shares with her that they have food for days, and that she met a real hottie named Boaz. Naomi’s ears perk up when she hears that Bethlehem’s most eligible bachelor gave some significant attention to Ruth, and she decides to seize this moment.

Naomi sends Ruth in her Sunday Best to meet Boaz for an impromptu date night, at their place of work, after Boaz has had his dinner and his wine and is feeling like his friendliest self. It’s “that scene” from your favorite rom-com, where the guy realizes the girl in front of him was the girl for him all along…except with this bonkers moment where she spends the night hugging his feet. You know, whatever, I’m sure if you put it in a script Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant could make it look romantic.

And it sure does the trick, because the next morning Boaz declares his intention to marry Ruth. He also discovers that Naomi is the only appropriate person left to inherit this one plot of land left behind by a deceased relative. Ruth and Boaz run off into the sunset, get married, and have a baby named Obed, which means “servant of God.”

Switching tracks for just a second, this week we get our Gospel story from Mark, our most succinct evangelist. Unlike the author of Ruth, he’s not interested in telling you a story full of symbolism and detail, he wants to get straight to the point. This story is Mark’s version of the “let the little children come to me” passage that most of us are more familiar reading from Matthew’s Gospel. But Mark puts a very different pin on it. Before the kid came into the plot, Jesus was breaking up a squabble between his disciples, who were fighting about which one of them is “the best”. You’d think by now the disciples would know Jesus well enough to know that arguing about supremacy isn’t a great way to gain his favor, but here we are. Jesus, of course, uses this fight as an opportunity to teach the disciples an important lesson, and then he finds a nearby toddler to make this point: Do you want to know who the best person here is? It’s this little rugrat. He’s going to lead all of us someday, so if you can’t honor him, don’t even bother talking to me.

And as always, Jesus’ teachings aren’t necessarily easy to hear, but they lead us to holiness. Because the way forward as a family, as a society, as a church, as a people, is hardly ever found among men with fragile egos, but among our little ones. The only Church worth creating is the one they will inherit.

The same is very much true for Ruth and Naomi’s story. The little child born at the very end of that story, Obed, the “servant of God”, is the path to healing, to a bright future, and to Jesus. Obed goes on to become the father of Jesse, and then the grandfather of King David. And in Jesus’ birth narrative in Matthew’s Gospel, Boaz and Obed are both named in the lineage that brings us Jesus, born in Bethlehem. It’s the little ones that bring Jesus in among us. Without them, we’re Mara, “bitter”, and hopeless. But when we put the focus on them, where it should be, we find ourselves restored to Naomi, to “pleasant”, and our stories live on.

May it be so for us.

Amen.

*HYMN My Hope Is Built UMH# 368 

WE RESPOND 

JOYS & CONCERNS 

PASTORAL PRAYER 

Lord God, we offer now our prayers for ourselves and for each other.

We pray for those who have to work hard to provide for their families in sometimes back-breaking situations, in dangerous places, for uncaring employers.

We pray for the poor and the homeless, the refugee, for those exiled from their homelands, for the hungry and the unloved.  May we reflect the grace of Boaz as we offer what we can to help.

We pray for our families and friends, and for all those in need at this present time:-

Today, Lord, we give thanks for the generosity of others, for all who share of their time, their possessions and themselves.  We pray for a generosity of spirit, that we might offer the gifts you have given us for the good of those in need.

Lord of Glory, hear our prayer.

THE LORD’S PRAYER 

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. 

*HYMN Blest Be the Tie that Binds UMH# 557 v1, 2, 4 

SENDING FORTH WITH BLESSING 

POSTLUDE