Faithful?

 
   This week we are blessed by the hearing of Ruth's story.  It is a wonderful story of faith and love, kinship and redefining family lines.  One of the most quoted verses about faithfulness and love is found in Ruth, and surprisingly it is not spoken between a man and woman, but between a mother and her daughter-in-law. 

Ruth and Naomi, Marc Chagall*

Where you go, I will go;
   where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
   and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die—
   there will I be buried.

What is astonishing about these words spoken by Ruth is that there is nothing for her where Naomi is going.  The men have all died, and the women are now helpless.  It would be better for Ruth to stay in her homeland and find another husband who can provide for her.  

     As many in-law jokes and negative images as there are today (movies like Meet the Fockers and others come to mind) this is a totally different picture and model of what familial relationships mean.  These two women clung to each other when they had nothing else.  And in their faithfulness to each other they find a deep friendship in the midst of the bitterness of life.

     Now of course there is the love portion of the story - Ruth and Boaz, the 'guardian-redeemer' for Naomi.  The Levirite law in scripture provides for a man's widow by ensuring that any living male relatives will marry her and so she will be provided for.  Yet when Boaz goes to the guardian-redeemer (who remains nameless) he cannot marry Ruth for fear that any children they have will take inheritance away from the children he already has, and so the way is made for Boaz to marry Ruth. They have a son, named Obed, who becomes the father of Jesse, who becomes the father of David, King David, who is the ancestor to Jesus. 

     Three times now, in the last three weeks, God has worked through women - the least powerful and lowest in society - to bring about God's will.  Not only that, but Rahab and Ruth are people outside God's covenant with Israel.  Ruth is a Moabite and Rahab was a Canaanite living in Jericho, and these two outsiders become the descendants of Jesus.

     As we talked about last week with God's call of Gideon, God isn't necessarily looking for the best trained or most highly qualified individuals to work in the world, God simply needs a willing heart.  And the beautiful thing is that in the willingness, we are made perfect through our own guardian-redeemer, Jesus.

     When you feel like your faith or willingness is faltering, remember Ruth's words of faithfulness and fidelity, remember her strength and courage, and most of all, remember Christ your guardian-redeemer, whose faith makes ours possible.  So where is God calling you to be faithful?

     

*Chagall, Marc, 1887-1985. Ruth and Naomi, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55328 [retrieved November 5, 2013]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clicks2006/4150846200/.