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Sermon - The Meaning of Ruth - 5th November 2006
St Alban's Epping 7:00 am, 8:00am & 10:00am
Readings: Ruth 1:1-18; Psalm 146; Hebrews 9:11-15; Mark 12:13-17, 28-34
The book of Ruth contains an artistically constructed, kaleidoscopic story that is more like an extended parable than a historical report. The story is told with extreme economy (a style that includes deliberate gaps or silences that leave many details unexplained) and with a characteristic disregard for historical or political details. The narrator uses symbolic names, such as the names of Naomi’s sons, signifying in advance that they are not long for this world. Mahlon sounds like the disease that hit the Egyptians before the exodus and Chilion seems to come from the root of the Hebrew word “to perish”. The narrator also uses word play, such as puns and double meanings, and the purposeful repetition of words and phrases to highlight themes and underline ambiguities. The style of the author is marked by the conscious use of multiple levels of meaning in the story.
In form and function, the book of Ruth closely resembles both the book of Jonah and the story Nathan tells to David to convict him of his sin in relation to Bathsheba and Uriah, without something similar to Nathan’s accusation, “You are the man!” at the end. Like Nathan’s story and like Jonah, the book of Ruth has the power of revealing to us how we are rather than as we think we ought to be. But unlike Nathan’s story, Ruth and Jonah are not presented to us by a prophet who is willing and able to tell us who we are within the action of the story.
The challenge for use in this story as it is in Jonah, is in the area of identification. We can rather easily argue that Jonah was a personification of the Jewish audience to whom the book itself was addressed. Israel itself is symbolized in Jonah’s person, a stubborn and self-isolating Israel that is always occupied with itself, evading the actual will of God and unaware that God loves other peoples just as much as Israel itself. But which of the characters in the book of Ruth can be said to mirror the people of God?
Generations of interpreters have held up the character of Ruth as a model of morality. Like the Good Samaritan in Luke’s gospel, Ruth is an attractive character from an ethnic group that was despised and rejected by those who considered themselves to be the people of God. Ruth’s attractiveness tempts us to say, “We ought to be or act like this.” But for us to “go and do likewise”, as wise as it may be, never comes to an audience with the force of Nathan’s story. Nathan’s “you are the man!” has power because it uses the mirror of the story to reveal David to himself. But seeing ourselves mirrored in the character for whom the book of Ruth is named will not lead us either to repentance or to hope for our own salvation.
The repetition of key terms in the book of Ruth encourages us to consider Naomi as the character who most closely mirrors the attitudes and experiences of the people of God, including both Israel and the church. Repetition indicates that “redemption” is a key concern in the story of Ruth. The book is only eighty-five verses long, but the word” “redeem” and its derivatives “redeemer,” “redemption” are used some twenty-three times. Asking who or what is redeemed leads to the discovery that Naomi is the recipient of redemption in this story.
On a superficial level, we might say that the story of Ruth is about redemption defined in a secular manner, as the restoration of property to its original owners or as the healing of a break in a branch of a family tree. The final scene in the story in chapter 4 however, hints at a deeper level of meaning. For we read in verse “They named him Obed: he became the father of Jesse, the father of David. We discover just before that, that Naomi is to be’ “redeemed” through Ruth having a child by Boaz the child whose conception was said to have been given by the lord. The women of Bethlehem, who know how bitter Naomi has been about the emptiness of her life, tell us that this “redeemer” will “restore” or “reverse” Naomi’s “life” which is often translated “soul”.
Reversal is the essence of redemption. Within the story world Naomi is the primary object of redemption. It is Naomi whose life is turned around, whose feelings of bitterness, emptiness and hopelessness are reversed. Ruth’s faithfulness is only the instrument God uses to accomplish Naomi’s redemption.
If the story told in the book of Ruth is to be redemptive for the people of God, us Christians, then the people of God must identify themselves with the one who is redeemed. The story of Ruth becomes a story of redemption for Israel and the Church only if we can be persuaded to believe that the redemptive efforts made by God on Naomi’s behalf will be made by God on Israel’s behalf as well.
Ruth, the outsider, the Moabite, a representative of a group that in Deuteronomy 23, the Israelites are told not to admit to “the assembly of the lord,” is the agent or tool God uses to bring about the redemption of Israel and Naomi. The parable-like form of the story encourages us to see not just that we ought to be like Ruth but that we are like Naomi. Then, when we see ourselves reflected in the story as we really are, rather than as we think we ought to be, the good news comes to us as God revealing our shortcomings.
If we look at the story of Ruth as a story of redemption then we will assume that the story is primarily concerned with the faithfulness of God rather than with the faithfulness of the people of God. In Ruth, redemption is based on grace, not merit. Redemption is not a reward given to Naomi because of her exemplary behaviour. God chooses to redeem those who seem to have done little to deserve redemption. Furthermore, God chooses to use those who seem unqualified according to human standards of judgment to accomplish God’s purposes in the world. The attractiveness of the outcast “other” in the story, whether they be they Samaritan or Moabite should serve primarily to convict us of our own repeated failures to recognize the despised “other” in our community be it in the Church or the secular society, as being an agent of God’s redemptive activity in the world. Remember what is said in Hebrews;
“Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
“Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O†Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’”
This sermon composed using the New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol II, Abington, Nashville, 1998.