Ruth 3: 1-5; 4: 13-17 (links validated 10/1/24a)
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Trusting in God
Many years ago, before the days of electric lights, city streets were illuminated at night by gas lamps. There was no such thing as an electric eye that could detect the coming of nightfall, so all of those lamps had to be lit individually by a lamplighter who would make his way up and down the streets at dusk. One old gentleman, who is long since dead, remembered when he was a young boy watching the lamplighter in his city make his way back and forth down the street. He said, “I watched him bring each lamp to a soft, yellow glow, then move on to the next. After a few minutes, he disappeared into the deepening twilight, and I could no longer make him out. But I would always know where he was by the avenue of light he left behind him.” A later author took that image and wrote, “What a beautiful expression and a true parable of the Christian life! As you make your way down the streets of this life, do your loved ones, your friends — and even those who have yet to come your way — do they all have an unmistakable indication of where you are going by the avenue of light you leave behind? The wise use of money, in life and in death, is but one of the many ways of leaving your trail of light behind. During the fall stewardship appeal […] it’s incumbent upon you that you search your heart for what God would have you do about your gifts to His work — your avenue of light...
Resources from 2021 to 2023
Sermon Starters (Proper 27B)(2021)
From Frederick Buechner’s Peculiar Treasures and his character sketch of Ruth (Harper & Row, 1979, p. 148): “Naomi was nobody’s fool and saw which way the wind was blowing long before Ruth did. She was dead-set on Ruth’s making a good catch for herself, and since it was obvious she had already hooked old Boaz whether she realized it or not, all she had to do was find the right way to reel him in. Naomi gave her instructions. As soon as Boaz had a good supper under his belt and had polished off a nightcap or two, he’d go to the barn to hit the sack. Around midnight, she said, Ruth should slip into the barn and hit the sack, too. If Boaz’s feet just happened to be uncovered somehow, and if she just happened to be close enough to keep them warm, that probably wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world either. But she wasn’t to go too far. Back in Jericho, Boaz’s mother, Rahab, had a rather seamy reputation for going too far professionally, and anything that reminded him of that might scare him off permanently.”
Resources from 2018 to 2020
Proper 27B (2018)
The recent spate of sexual assault allegations against important men (Weinstein, Spacey, Rose, Kavanaugh, et al) and the resultant tsunami of outrage among women leading to the birth of the #metoo movement stand in sharp contrast to the nobility, decency and purity we see in this story. There is no bashfulness about sex in the story of Ruth and Boaz, but it is all so proper and legal and, well, covenantal. Sex figures prominently in the story of redemption, culminating in the story of the Virgin Birth of Jesus, but it’s not about lust or abuse. It’s about men and women acknowledging their sexuality, but channeling it into the God-ordained institution of marriage.Grandmother (Ruth)
Michelangelo included this part of David's (and Jesus') family tree in the lunettes of the Sistine Chapel. The lunette on the south wall contains the names of Salmon, Boaz, and Obed (though Michelangelo records the versions Booz and Obeth). To the left of the name plaque a woman holds close her swaddled child. A breast protrudes through her garment, indicating that she has recently nursed the child. This could be Ruth or Naomi (Ruth 4:16). Either way, this figure group is a very tender one, strangely juxtaposed with the old man who seems to face a carved image of himself.
Resources from 2012 to 2017
Under the Bethlehem Sky: A Brazen Proposal
A now world-famous teenager named Malala angered the Taliban in Pakistan by advocating for girl's education rights. In October, she was shot in the head as she rode a school bus and was taken to Great Britain for medical treatment. Two of her classmates were shot in the same attack, but were not as severely wounded. Last month, they returned to school in Pakistan. They returned to school, knowing that they might be shot again, and even killed. It is a risk they are willing to take in order to have better opportunities for economic survival in the long term. Just how difficult going back to school is in those circumstances was brought too close to our own experience in the school shooting in Connecticut on Friday. I am amazed at the Pakistani teenagers’ courage and likewise, at Ruth's courage...Under the Bethlehem Sky: Redemption
God did not wait till the world was ready, till...nations were at peace. God came when the heavens were unsteady and prisoners cried out for release. God did not wait for the perfect time. God came when the need was deep and great. God dined with sinners in all their grime, turned water into wine. God did not wait till hearts were pure. In joy God came to a tarnished world of sin and doubt. To a world like ours, of anguished shame, God came, And God’s light would not go out. God came to a world that did not mesh to heal its tangles, shield its scorn. In the mystery of the Word made flesh the Maker of the stars was born. We cannot wait till the world is sane to raise our songs with joyful voice, For to share our grief, touch our pain, God came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice
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From Moab to Bethlehem
Perhaps you remember the movie “The Princess Bride.” It begins with a grandfather reading his grandson the story and the movie becomes the enactment of what is being read. We meet two young lovers, Wesley and Buttercup who are separated when an evil prince steals Buttercup and whisks her away to his kingdom. Adventures ensue. We are treated to fencing, fights, giants, pirates, captures and escapes but ultimately true love wins and all live happily ever after. But what interests me is the way the camera pans back to the grandson, the hearer of the story, who occasionally will interrupt with his comments and questions. It’s a clever way to make the point about what it means to really hear a story, to be affected by it and to want something from it...