Throughout Lent we are reflecting on what it means to be God-seeking people and asking honest questions to deepen our faith and understanding.
As we thought about these midweek services, we decided to do two things – first, it’s always wise to return to God’s Word, so Pastor Jonathan and I are taking turns looking at God-seeking people who we meet there in Scripture. Second, we always want to remember that we are created for relationship, and one of the ways we build relationship with each other is to listen to our stories, so we are going to take turns telling our own stories of seeking God. And finally, in our last week together, we’re going to invite you to have conversation together and share your own stories of seeking God.
Tonight, we’re going to meet Ruth. And we’ll begin with a reading from the Book of Ruth:
1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
6 Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had considered his people and given them food. 7 So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. 8 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, but Ruth clung to her.
15 So she said, “See, 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
or 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—
there will I be buried.
May the Lord do thus and so to me,
and more as well,
if even death parts me from you!”
18 When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.
Word of God, Word of Life. Thanks be to God.
So, what do you know already about Ruth? (accept answers from the congregation)
She was a woman.
She wasn’t an Israelite; she was a Moabite – from Moab, a region across the Dead Sea to the east of Bethlehem and Judah. So, she was a foreigner and even an enemy of Israel.
She didn’t worship the God of Israel. She worshiped a tribal god named Chemosh (Kamōš).
Naomi’s husband took her and their sons to Moab because there was a famine in Israel. The sons married Moabite women. One was Ruth and another was named Orpah. But after ten years the sons also died. So Ruth was a widow. And at that time, she was childless, too.
But she’s one of the five women named in the genealogy or family tree of Jesus that Matthew includes in his gospel. Ruth becomes the great-grandmother of King David.
Tonight, we heard the first part of her story.
Of the famine.
Of her becoming a widow.
And of her decision to leave her homeland, to leave her god, and to follow her Israelite mother-in-law into a strange land.
These verses also tell the story of Ruth’s confession:
Where you go, I will go;
Where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
One of the questions we are asking this season is, “Who will you listen to?”
So, what do you know already about Ruth? (accept answers from the congregation)
She was a woman.
She wasn’t an Israelite; she was a Moabite – from Moab, a region across the Dead Sea to the east of Bethlehem and Judah. So, she was a foreigner and even an enemy of Israel.
She didn’t worship the God of Israel. She worshiped a tribal god named Chemosh (Kamōš).
Naomi’s husband took her and their sons to Moab because there was a famine in Israel. The sons married Moabite women. One was Ruth and another was named Orpah. But after ten years the sons also died. So Ruth was a widow. And at that time, she was childless, too.
But she’s one of the five women named in the genealogy or family tree of Jesus that Matthew includes in his gospel. Ruth becomes the great-grandmother of King David.
Tonight, we heard the first part of her story.
Of the famine.
Of her becoming a widow.
And of her decision to leave her homeland, to leave her god, and to follow her Israelite mother-in-law into a strange land.
These verses also tell the story of Ruth’s confession:
Where you go, I will go;
Where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
One of the questions we are asking this season is, “Who will you listen to?”
The Benedictine author Joan Chittister (chi·tuh·str) writing about Ruth, Orpha and Naomi describes Ruth as one who “seek[s] God beyond the boundaries of the past.”[i] She did not listen only to voices of tradition and culture, but she listened to God who is a “God of becomings” – a God of possibility.
As I reflected on Ruth’s story, I thought of another young woman from the Middle East who sought a life unbounded by the past – Malala Yusafzai (yoo·suhf·zai). Malala was born in Pakistan in the part of what would have been known as the Persian empire in the ancient world.
Malala’s father was a schoolteacher who wanted his daughter to have access to education the same as boys in their country. But when the Taliban (ta·luh·ban) took control of her town in 2008, when she was 11, they said that girls could no longer go to school.
Malala spoke out against the discrimination, and four years later, in 2012, she was shot in the head by a masked gunman who wanted to silence her. Thankfully, she survived, and Malala went on to create a nonprofit that works to gain access to education for all girls. In 2014 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and in 2020 she graduated from Oxford University in England. [ii]
Both Ruth and Malala – young women of different faiths– sought lives beyond the boundaries of the past, of their cultures and what was familiar.
In her story about Ruth, Chittister writes about the difference between willed change and unwilled change, saying that “willed change is what I seek and shape” while “unwilled change is what seeks me and reshapes me”.[iii]
What do we know about change? (accept answers from the congregation)
Scary. Disruptive. Disorienting. Uncomfortable.
But change can be hopeful, too, and change opens us to new experiences and understandings and cracks us open to God in new ways.[iv]
This Lent, may we remain open and curious to how the changes in our lives are helping us encounter God in new ways, and may we center God’s voice in our lives.
[i] Joan D. Chittister, OSB. The Story of Ruth: Twelve Moments in Every Woman’s Life. 25.
[ii] “Malala’s story”. Malala Fund. https://malala.org/malalas-story?sc=footer, accessed 3/1/2023
[iii] Chittister, 18.
[iv] ibid.
As I reflected on Ruth’s story, I thought of another young woman from the Middle East who sought a life unbounded by the past – Malala Yusafzai (yoo·suhf·zai). Malala was born in Pakistan in the part of what would have been known as the Persian empire in the ancient world.
Malala’s father was a schoolteacher who wanted his daughter to have access to education the same as boys in their country. But when the Taliban (ta·luh·ban) took control of her town in 2008, when she was 11, they said that girls could no longer go to school.
Malala spoke out against the discrimination, and four years later, in 2012, she was shot in the head by a masked gunman who wanted to silence her. Thankfully, she survived, and Malala went on to create a nonprofit that works to gain access to education for all girls. In 2014 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and in 2020 she graduated from Oxford University in England. [ii]
Both Ruth and Malala – young women of different faiths– sought lives beyond the boundaries of the past, of their cultures and what was familiar.
In her story about Ruth, Chittister writes about the difference between willed change and unwilled change, saying that “willed change is what I seek and shape” while “unwilled change is what seeks me and reshapes me”.[iii]
What do we know about change? (accept answers from the congregation)
Scary. Disruptive. Disorienting. Uncomfortable.
But change can be hopeful, too, and change opens us to new experiences and understandings and cracks us open to God in new ways.[iv]
This Lent, may we remain open and curious to how the changes in our lives are helping us encounter God in new ways, and may we center God’s voice in our lives.
[i] Joan D. Chittister, OSB. The Story of Ruth: Twelve Moments in Every Woman’s Life. 25.
[ii] “Malala’s story”. Malala Fund. https://malala.org/malalas-story?sc=footer, accessed 3/1/2023
[iii] Chittister, 18.
[iv] ibid.
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