Shelter From The Storm
Scripture: Ruth 1
Home is a name, a
word, it is a strong one;
stronger than magician
ever spoke,
or spirit ever
answered to, in the strongest conjuration.
- Charles Dickens, in
Martin Chuzzlewit ("Tschaselwit")
Some geographical names carry a special weight: whenever you
hear the name, you automatically think of the famous sons and daughters came
from there. Plains, Georgia is one example for modern ears. In the same way,
for biblical ears, when a story starts out in Bethlehem, everyone who knows
only the least bit of Scripture listens up. Every child knows: Bethlehem may be
a little town - but it is not just any little town.
That's where the story of Ruth begins. In Bethlehem.
It's an fascinating story: A tiny little book, only four
chapters long, and one of the very few that carries the name of a woman.
It takes us back to ancient times: To the times when the
Judges ruled in Israel, the text says. But these weren't the 'good old times':
without a king or a functioning government, the promised land slipped ever
deeper into chaos. But the most pressing problem was famine!
Names carry great meaning in the Book of Ruth. Bethlehem
literally means the 'house of bread'. But... there is no bread in the house of
bread! Nothing seems right about that. What's happening here - the reader
wonders: Here, not only in our promised land, but in the city with this great
name, where David later would be born and eventually the promised Messiah...
There is no bread in the house of bread. Everything seems wrong about that.
The story zooms from the larger crisis to a personal example
- to the story of Elimelech and his wife Naomi. History is never abstract, but
always personal. The two realize they need to find means to support their
family and seek better opportunities elsewhere. And so they do what so many
family does in their situation: they immigrate to a different country, to find
refuge, and hopefully a better life there.
To Moab, of all the places! Moab has a terrible reputation
for biblical ears. Every child in Israel knows: Moab and Israel go way back...
and not in a good way. Moab: that is the land of Israel's bitter enemies. If
any way possible, you stay away from those people.
Except... when you're desperate and hungry enough, those
family stories suddenly no longer matter - and you seek your fortune even in a
culture you despise.
***
But things don't go turn out quite as expected for our
immigrant family:
First, Naomi's husband dies. Elimelech: Another name that
carries a lot of meaning. "My God is king". And now he is dead. Has
God abandoned her? Noemi is left a widow in a strange land. At this point, she
probably would have turned back home. But in the meantime, their two sons had
gotten married, to local women. They, for once are named right. Mahlon and
Chilean - loosely but memorably translated "Sickly" and
"Caput" - die, too. Ten years after leaving bread-less house of
bread, the family is completely devastated.
John Ahn in his commentary put it like this: "This
immigrant family experiences what most first-generation forced migrants
encounter in times of plight and flight - suffering, loss, hardship, and pain
in a new context - when they made their difficult journey to escape just such
hardship."
It is the perfect storm:
Widowed and childless in a foreign country, Naomi's
situation is absolutely hopeless. There is nothing that keeps her there, except
her grief. And so she prepares herself for this shameful return home.
It is not clear why Naomi tells her daughters-in-law of ten
years to 'go back' - whether it's an excuse to be rid of these foreign
daughters-in-law, whether she was afraid what people would say when she came
home with alien relatives in tow...? Maybe she was afraid they wouldn't even
recognize her as one of their own, or will tell her, go back home...? But
probably it was simply because she cared for them. Noemi knew all too well that
there was nothing she could offer them, no support, but not even food to eat.
Go back to your people, you have a chance to start a new
life... Naomi keeps brushing off her committed her daughters-in-law, and
Finally, Orpah gives in. After a tearful embrace, she kisses her mother-in-law
goodbye.
Ruth, however, doesn't let go of her. Quite literally:
"Ruth clung to her", the text reads. It is the same word that also
appears in the second chapter of the Bible: "Therefore a man leaves his
father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh."
Ruth 'clings' to Naomi - even though she has nothing to
offer her, even though as a foreigner, Ruth has absolutely nothing to expect,
even though in the eyes of the Israelites, there can be nothing like a 'good
Moabite'... And yet, Ruth clings to Naomi and says, "Don't press me to
leave you. Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people
shall be my people, and your God my God."
Ruth clings to her - because Ruth means "Friend".
There are people who have asked: where is God in this story.
Particularly, since God's name is barely mentioned, and when it is, it comes to
us through those bitter words of Naomi. And yet, God is at work in the most
unlikely places, through the most unlikely people: people who, like Ruth, act
as unexpected friends who cling to each other despite all that separates us,
and give each other shelter; and say to each other,what God has said to each
and one of us in our baptism: that we belong to God and we belong to each
other.
Response: From the Belhar Confession
We believe in one
holy, universal Christian church, the unity of the communion of saints of the
entire human family. And we believe that this unity of the people of God must
be manifest and active, in that we love one another; that we give ourselves
willingly and joyfully to one another, that we are share one baptism together,
that we eat of one bread and drink of one cup together, that we confess one
name, one Lord, for one cause, with one hope, which is the height and the
breadth and the depth and the love of Christ, forever and ever. Amen.
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