Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday December 11, 2022 – 3rd Sunday in Advent
Scripture Reading: Ruth 1:1-18
(Note: this Advent, we are exploring the stories from Jesus’s family tree recounted in Matthew 1:1-17 – specifically the stories of the 5 women who are named there. Each week, one woman is going to visit us, share her story, and offer a blessing to the newborn child lying in a manger.)
I had three great loves in my life.
I am Ruth, the Moabite woman. I was born in the land of Moab, and I died far from my birthplace in the land of Judah.
When I was young, my parents married me to Chilion. Our neighbours thought that this was a strange choice – after all, he was the son of migrants, the son of people who had left their home because of drought and famine. His family had no roots in Moab – on our wedding day, his only guests were his parents and his brother.
Chilion was my first great love – the love of my girlhood. We had seen each other around our village, and we were the ones who had approached our parents to ask to be wed. Once my parents saw that we were genuine in our affection for each other, they agreed.
And oh, we were happy together, but we had such little time together. Only a few years after our marriage, Chilion woke up with a fever one morning, and by the next morning he was dead.
I thought that my heart would be buried along with his body. The sobs and the grief felt like they would choke the life out of me.
But gradually I rediscovered the beautiful world around me. The song returned to my heart and I began to notice the flowers again. I owe so much of this to Naomi, Chilion’s mother. She was grieving both of her sons as well as her husband who had all died from the same fever; and yet she still had a space in her heart to hold me tenderly.
Naomi was my second great love.
When our mourning period had ended, she announced that she was going to return to the land of Judah. Word had reached her that the rains had begun to fall again, and there was food to be found in her homeland, and without her husband or her sons, she had nothing to keep her in the land of Moab.
She came to me and to my sister-in-law Orpah and told us that we should return to our parents’ homes. She wasn’t going to be able to provide for us any longer; and since we were still young, maybe our families would be able to find new husbands for us.
Orpah went, but I couldn’t bear to be separated from Naomi. No one in my family loved me the way that she did; and I couldn’t imagine loving another husband more than I loved Naomi.
I told her that I would go where she went and that I would stay where she stayed. I told her that her people would be my people, and that her God would be my God. I told her that I would be buried in the same place where she was buried so that even in death we would be together.
We made the journey together to Bethlehem in the land of Judah. We lay together at nighttime, and were companions for each other along the way. Despite the difficulty of that travel, and despite our vulnerability as two women traveling together, those months stand out in my memory as a time of beauty and of love.
It was not long after we reached Bethlehem that I met my third great love, Boaz. He was a kind man, and a good man. He didn’t harvest his field right to the edge, so that people like us who needed food would be able to glean from the edges. He offered employment to people who needed it. He made sure that anyone who was vulnerable was safe. He did everything that our God commanded of him, and more.
And when he came to Naomi and offered to marry me, and to give the two of us a home, how could we refuse? I went to Naomi and told her that I felt like I was abandoning her, and abandoning the love that we shared. She held my shoulders, and looked me in the eyes, and said, “My Dear, you have so much love in your heart to give. Your love for Boaz doesn’t mean that you have any less love for me.”
And now I offer you the same, my child. You carry my blood in you. My marriage to Boaz was blessed with children. Our son Obed became the father of Jesse, and I lived to see the birth of Jesse’s son David who would become the king of all of Israel and Judah. And you, my child, you are the descendant of David.
I offer you the blessing of love. Know that you are loved by the people around you, and know that you are loved by our God. May this love that you receive flow through you, and become the love that you give. May your love for the whole world be abundant and unconditional; and may your heart always dance in the pattern of love. And may our God make it so. Amen.
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