Ruth 1:1-18

I am confident that in pulpits across the country and in our state today, preachers are telling their congregations how to vote on Tuesday. If you read the Northwestern yesterday, you know that Bishop Robert Morlino has ordered all priests in the Dioceses of Madison to play a recorded homily in Mass today. In it, the Bishop is telling the worshipers how to vote on the Proposed Constitutional Amendment to ban civil unions and marriage. Oh, some days I wish I had that kind of authority! (Sigh)

I will, of course, not be telling you how to vote. I will be happy to tell you how I am voting. In fact, if you were here a couple of weeks ago when Ralph and I preached about the proposed amendment to the state Constitution, and if you read the paper today or watched a bit of channel 10 this week, you know that Ralph and I will be voting no to writing discrimination into our Constitution. And, if you picked up a reprint of my sermon from a few years ago on the death penalty, you'll also know I am voting no on that one too. (There are copies of both those sermons in the narthex.) Although the IRS keeps me from talking about candidates, I do want to urge you to vote. Prayerfully, thoughtfully, wisely, vote on Tuesday. Express your convictions and your faith through your citizenship. Many, many people will be doing that on Tuesday, Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, Greens, independents, and libertarians and brand new young voters or immigrants now citizens voting for the first time, along with those who have voted in every election every year since they were permitted to vote.

Please, vote on Tuesday. Vote YOUR faith and values.

Now on to some more faith and values - those found in the story of Ruth. I'll be weaving the thoughts of my meditation throughout the scripture reading today.

The book of Ruth is an artful story, well-written and carefully constructed. Some aspects of it suggest that it is a story polished by generations of retelling.

Many scholars believe that although this story is set during the more ancient time of the Judges, the book of Ruth was written later during the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah as a subtle piece of propaganda in protest against the racist policies of the times. In the face of an edict that all foreign wives were to be sent back to their native land, the story shows that God's favor came to Israel through a mixed marriage and a foreign wife who is as faithful and righteous as a Jew.

The story begins this way: ¹ Long ago when the judges ruled Israel, there was a shortage of food in the land. So a man named Elimelech left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to live in the country of Moab with his wife and his two sons. His wife was named Naomi, and his two sons were named Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathahites from Bethlehem in Judah. When they came to Moab, they settled there.

Long ago. Once upon a time. Way back when the judges ruled there was a famine in Bethlehem. Bethlehem. Yes, think of Christmas, we'll get to that later. But more to the point, think of what the name of that town means - House of Bread - no food in the House of Bread. It's a reversal. In the place where there ought to be plenty, there is want. So they leave, this family. They hear that in a foreign land there is food.

So father, mother and two sons become immigrants, go to the land of Moab. Travel to the land of the other, the foreigner, where they become other and strangers themselves, this family, mom and dad - Elimelech and Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Kilion.

Now, strangers in a strange land find food, find blessings, find life, find love . . . and sorrow: ³ Then Naomi's husband, Elimelech, died, and she was left with her two sons. ⁴ These sons married women from Moab. One was named Orpah, and the other was named Ruth.

Life and death. Sorrow and joy. Food and famine. Plenty and want. Strangers become family. Loss and gain. Loneliness and love.

At least the widow Naomi finds some comfort that her sons have found partners. Oh, to be sure, they are Moabites, they are foreign girls, but they are good people. Perhaps they will soon give her a grandchild. But this was not to be.

More death. Loss upon loss. More want, more sorrow. . Now they are left, the three of them, the old widow and the two young ones. The mother and the daughters-in-law. Three Widows. Low in the social hierarchy. Where does one find comfort when one feels so abandoned? How do you survive when all the loss seems greater than you can bear?

Home. Home. There is bread again in the House of Bread. When pain and sorrow are your constant companions, a familiar place, a place where everyone knows you, is a place of comfort and hope. It would be a long journey, but with courage they would go. Naomi and the young women. These ones who had become dear as daughters to her, they would all go together. Yes, that would be good. Until, until, she thinks better of it. The scene is poignant. Trudging along the road, these three widows, woman linked by their common grief come to a crossroads:

⁷ Naomi and her daughters-in-law left the place where they had lived and started back to the land of Judah. ⁸ But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back home, each of you to your own mother's house. May the Lord be as kind to you as you have been to me and my sons who are now dead. ⁹ May the Lord give you another happy home and a new husband."

Orpah returns to her family, her country, her people. Naomi returns to her family, her country, her people. Ruth chooses a new family, a new country, a new people. Love and loyalty, bravery and hope weave their way through this tale.

History has not always been kind to Orpah - the quitter, the one who couldn't stick it out with Naomi. That's really not fair. Who is to say who made the better choice. It was just a different choice. Orpah returns home, widowed after marrying an immigrant. The story does not tell us what happened to her. We hope she finds happiness again.

If you read the rest of the book of Ruth - and I recommend it. It is not long and the story is great - you'll find that things look up when Naomi and Ruth arrive back in Bethlehem. After some interesting twists and turns, Ruth and Boaz get married. Boaz, the hometown boy married a foreigner, and a Moabite, at that! After all, the scriptures clearly and overtly command that the Moabites be shunned and rejected by the Hebrew people. What was he thinking? How did this scandalous affair end up on the Bible, of all places?

Ah, but wait, here we see God - again - working in amazing ways. From this mixed marriage comes a child. A child, as it turns out, that is in the direct family line leading to the great King David and eventually to that other little baby born in Bethlehem, Jesus the Christ. To the religious and cultural purists of that time, this story is a challenge. God will not be limited by their narrow viewpoint. To the religious and cultural purists of our time, this story is a challenge. God will not be limited by our narrow viewpoint.

So what might this story say to us today? The story calls us to courage to see that God will work in places we never imagined. In what we call God forsaken places.

The story of Ruth calls us to be more inclusive. Who are the "Moabites" in our lives? Who is it that we are excluding from our personal lives or from our life here in the church? Who do we see as strangers and foreigners, but God sees as precious children? Who might we be rejecting when God has plans to use him or her in profound ways in bringing God's will about?

The "Moabites" will vary for each of us. For you, it may be people who have different political ideas from yours. It may be little children through whom God is working and speaking. Our "Moabites" might it be teens whom we have stereotyped or categorized. It may be people of color. For some it is people who are poor. For others it is immigrants or Native Americans. Is it gays and lesbians that you find difficult to fully welcome? Have some of us failed to open our hearts to our Hmong brothers and sisters and other refugees in our midst?

Ruth invites us to open our hearts and minds. Ruth invites us to break down the walls that divide us. Ruth invites us to be willing to be surprised by God's work being done in places our narrow thinking might least expect it. It is a scandalous story meant to contradict our scandalous times of narrow thinking. Amen.