Rev. Dr. M. Taylor Bach

Ruth 1:3-5; 15-18 Mark 12:28-34

Many years ago as an English teacher in a high school, my students could always remember the first line of Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities. Probably some of you can, too, even to this day. The line is& “It was the best of times and it was the worst of times.” In the Biblical story that we are discussing this morning, that line would be a good introduction as well. The story is about Naomi and her daughter-in-law named Ruth. Naomi if you remember was an interesting character. She was born and raised in Bethlehem. A famine came about so Naomi, her husband and two sons went to the country of Moab. Her sons both married while there. One daughter-in-law was named&I am having a hard time saying it for some reason because there is something interesting about it. Orpah. The catch with it is that Oprah's (the TV star) aunt wanted to name Oprah after this daughter-in-law but she misspelled it. So forever, we now pronounce the name OPRAH. At any rate, the other daughter-in-law was Ruth. This was the best of times. They had plenty of food. They had plenty of happiness in their family. Then tragedy struck. We don't know what kind of disease it was or whether it was an act of war or violence or what. But Naomi's husband was killed and the two sons died. So there was Naomi left with their two daughters-in-law. She decided that it would be important for her to go back to Bethlehem. She had family there. There would maybe be some security there. So she started on a journey. As she started back, one of the daughters-in-law, Orpah, decided not to go with her, that she would go back to her family and perhaps she could get another husband and remarry. But Ruth was different. Ruth loved Naomi and was very loyal to her. In fact, the passage that Joanie read is the famous passage quoting Ruth&”Don't urge me to leave you (She really loved Naomi.) or to turn back from you. Where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die. And there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me be it ever so severely if anything but death separates you and me.” Now, that is love of a daughter-in-law for a mother-in-law.

They went back to Bethlehem with Naomi, the mother, looking after Ruth, the daughter-in-law. They were now impoverished because support came through the males. So they had no finances whatsoever. There was a custom with the family farmers in that area. As they sent out their workers, they would always instruct the workers to leave some grain behind so that the poor could come along and pick it up and therefore have something to eat. So Naomi sent Ruth to go pick up this left-behind grain which was a demeaning task. It didn't feel good to be one of these poor people walking behind and picking up the grain. Naomi sent Ruth to Boaz's farm because Boaz was a relative. As the story goes, Boaz noticed Ruth. He liked how she looked. He instructed his workers to leave a little extra grain behind for her and therefore, he was taking care of them to a higher degree. Naomi noticed his fascination with Ruth and said, “Hum. Maybe I could get the two of you together. Maybe I could play Cupid.” So she instructed Ruth on how to get together with Boaz. Boaz was a very honorable man however. As they were introduced and got together, he said, “Now there is a law that when a relative dies, the brother or nearest relative is to bear children with the remaining sister-in-law and therefore keep the family name going. There is a closer relative than me who should be marrying Ruth to keep the family going.” He approached that man and that man said, “I don't want her. You take her.” My wife has a saying that she introduced me to and that is that “people's rejection is God's protection”. So if a human rejects you, you can think &OK, that is God protecting me in some way. It certainly worked out that way well for Ruth because as she was rejected by this closer relative, then that freed up Boaz to marry her and provide for her. This is one of the Biblical stories with a happy ending. They married each other and lived happily ever after. In fact, they had a son named Obed and that son became the ancestor of King David and Jesus Christ. In the Messianic line, this story is extremely important and that is why it got included in the Bible.

The point of the story according to Biblical scholars is to focus on the loyalty of Ruth, the loyalty of this daughter-in-law to her mother-in-law, the loyalty of Ruth to her mother-in-law's family. As a Moabite, she was from the clan of Lot who was not looked upon highly by the rest of the Jews. So in a sense, she could have been overlooked or rejected. But Naomi loved her and she was loyal to Naomi. The lesson here of loyalty is extremely important.

There are other lessons in this story that we all need to know, too. One lesson is that a crisis will occur in every family. When that happens in our faith family, we need to turn to God and remain loyal to our faith family in some way. In every church, there will at times be a crisis and the key thing is that the members stay loyal. As Ruth was loyal to Naomi, the members of the church should stay loyal to that church. There is a phenomena happening right now in Christendom. And that is that people are leaving the church and developing what we call a smorgasbord religion. They are going around and picking a little bit from this church and a little bit from that one. And if they don't like what this church has to offer, they will go over and find another church and they will stay with that one for a while. If they don't like what that one has to offer, they will go to the smorgasbord and pick another church. In other words, there is little to no loyalty today. It is all about me. What can I get from this church? What are they doing for me? What will they provide for me? As I read about this and thought about this story in the Bible, I couldn't help but recall President John Kennedy's words, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” I was thinking that really applies to our churches. “Ask not what the church is going to do for you but what you can do for your church.” The church will do a lot for you. It gives you a place for ministry. It helps you identify your talents and abilities. It gives you a family to connect with. If you had a dysfunctional family, hopefully in the church, you will find a more healthy family. So it will meet needs. It will provide you with fellowship. It will provide you with fun. It will provide you with connections. There is much that a church can do for you. But it is very important that you find your ministry in the church and you figure out what you can do for your church. And if there is a problem, be part of the solution. Rather than abandoning your church, help fix it. That is a part of loyalty. As I've thought about all of this, I've thought that in my long life, I've gone through the best of times and I've gone through the worst of times. I've had very great learnings in this life. If I could pass on anything to you it would be this. That in the best of times, you credit God. In the worst of times, you lean on God and you stay loyal to the church that loves you and supports you.