Musical Prelude and Service.

Ruth 1:1-18 & Mark 12:28-34
The words of Ruth are very well known. A few of them have been repeated frequently. Some of this has become very popular at weddings. “Wherever you may go, I will follow.”It hits with a powerful impact. It can and often does come across as extremely romantic.
Now I really don’t want to be the person who ruins people’s wedding memories, but if we read within its total literary context; these words hit with a different feeing. At least for me.
Ruth is a Moabite widow who is declaring her intent to remain committed to her widowed Jewish Mother-in-Law. She has a choice to make: to remain a widow in Moab – a land experiencing a devastating drought and famine – or she can remain with her childless widow and return to Israel, where Naomi and her husband left to escape a different famine. Where will Ruth place her hope? Where will she set her expectations for her future?
This is still incredibly powerful, but perhaps the romance is scaled back a little bit. I will admit to being reluctant to speculate any further about Ruth and Naomi’s relationship.
But this story of Ruth and Naomi is used to explain how Ruth is the grandmother of David, the coming famed King of the Jews. The line of David, which Christians proclaim leads to Jesus the Messiah, begins with this choice by a widowed Moabite who leaves her country to travel in hope of survival to another country. To live as the stranger and outsider in a new land.
What is she prepared to sacrifice; to compromise, to endure along the way to find peace and shelter?
What are we seeking to learn when we read scripture? Perhaps another way to ask that question is, are we challenged to see the world with fresh eyes after experiencing the stories in scripture? Are we challenged and inspired?
We live in a world that constantly tells us to fear the stranger; to vigorously protect what we have because others are looking to take it from you.
And yet, scripture keeps telling us to love our neighbour. Scripture keeps telling stories about the stranger and encouraging us to empathize with the outsider seeking a new home.
In Mark, a scribe asks Jesus what the most important commandment is. Jesus recites what is called the Shema; a prayer from the book of Deuteronomy. He adds a commandment from Leviticus about loving your neighbour.
This is a friendly conversation between a scribe and Jesus, with both men congratulating the other and Jesus saying the scribe is close to the kingdom of heaven.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind.
Love your neighbour as you love yourself.
Love. Love God, love your neighbour, love yourself.
Jesus sets things out pretty clearly, and no one is about to argue within. There are no exceptions offered to this rule. We don’t hear love your neighbour, unless you don’t think they belong there. Not, love your neighbour unless they seem to have received unfair treatment. Love our neighbour as you love yourself.
Perhaps we struggle to truly love ourselves. We struggle to see ourselves as God sees us. As beloved children of God. Do we really recognize ourselves as seen by God; worthy of God’s utmost devotion and sacrifice?
I will admit to struggling with some aspects of the story of Ruth. The fact Ruth feels it is necessary to give up her culture, her family, her religion to remain with Naomi troubles me. In a world where we have acknowledged the dehumanizing and destructive results of our government and our churches forcing indigenous children to sacrifice their languages, their traditional beliefs their families, it is challenging to hold this story up as a beautiful example of love.
And yet, this story is a clear-eyes account of two women devoted to one another as they journey from near catastrophe to new opportunities, new love and new life.
We hear more about Ruth and Naomi next week, so I don’t want to dwell too much on the complete story, but as I reflect on my difficulties with this story, I am left with the recognition that Ruth is a grown woman who makes a choice in the direction her life will take. The children taken from their families and placed in residential schools were given absolutely no choice.
God continues to work in our lives and in the world. Opportunities are opened for us, and we are asked to make choices. We can say no. We can say yes. And new paths are opened for us, and God will continue to craft the world around us based on the decisions we make.
Ruth will find herself gleaning from the fields of Boaz. Difficult and often painful work to keep her and Naomi alive. But an opportunity provided by Jewish law that is meant to ensure those with nothing are at least given a chance. One can say it is the bare minimum that could be done, but it is still there.
Jewish law demands that they welcome the stranger, remembering that they too were once the stranger, the outsider.
Remember where you come from. Remember where you have been and what you have done. And in doing so consider how you view and treat the strangers, your neighbours, when you meet them. Love God, love yourself, love your neighbour.
The line of David. The line of kings of Israel originates with a migrant widow. One of the strangers that scriptures, Jewish law, calls on us to welcome and feed.
For we Christians, the line of David where the Messiah – the Christ comes from, is started with a woman escaping a famine and seeking to begin a new life in a new country. She is welcomed, if not initially warmly, by that country. She is not told to turn around and go back to where she came from.
If we see ourselves as beloved, and by extension see our neighbour, the stranger in the same light; how can we not love them? Love is more than a feeling. It is an action. It is a decision. Love yourself. Love your neighbour. Love God.
How do we choose to learn from scripture? Are we ready to let scripture open our eyes to new ways of seeing ourselves and the world? Are we ready to open ourselves to new experiences and new ways of relating to those who come int our lives? Can we welcome them, celebrate their presence and love them?
It’s our choice. How close to the kingdom of God are we willing to get? Amen
Rev. Warner Bloomfield

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789