MPC 20th January 2019.January 20 - Ruth 2 - "How Hearts See"
MPC 20th January 2019.
Peter Kutuzov
How do you decide to like God again?
Different attitudes, from feeling madly in love to hating, but every shade in between. Could be like a cold war Or like a long-distance relationship.
But if God is not far from us, as the Bible says. If he is near. Then it's not because he's far away.
So how do we decide to like God again?
Last week, in Ruth, Elimelech and Naomi had some tunnel vision.
When times got hard. They abandoned their ancestral lands in Bethlehem, exited the promised land, and headed east. All three of which are traditionally NOT good things for an Israelite to do.
And to add to that in the foreign land of Moab, east of the Jordan, among God's traditional enemies, they decide they're willing to let their sons marry Moabite women.
And far from being blessed for this, Elimelech and his sons both die, leaving behind their widows. Naomi, Orpah and Ruth.
A series of short-sighted decisions and the whole family was blind-sided.
Naomi is now a widow living in a foreign country.
She hasn't just had your traditional Facebook bad week. Oh I've cracked the screen on my iPad.
She's lost her sons. She's left her inheritance, sold it on the way out. She can go back home, but to hear her tell it, she's going back to nothing.
Realistically, she knows Ruth and Orpah won't be accepted back in Israel. Foreign women who obviously didn't bring any luck to their husbands.
And as for her relationship with God? She says he's taken away everything. Emptied her pockets, and her heart. And so everything has gone to stereotype so far. You leave the promised land, get cursed. Marry foreign women, receive judgement. Everything you'd expect. Except, Ruth stays. And in a step that just doesn't fit ANY of the standard storylines, returns to Israel with Naomi.
And so into the story comes... hope.
Barley harvest is just beginning...
In a scene switch, we discover the existence of Boaz. A man of means. A man of standing. If you're a Pride and Prejudice fan, this is the kind of man that would make Mrs Bennet wax lyrical about his income of 10,000 pounds a year. And in much the same way as Mrs. Bennet's ears pricked up at the mention of a suitable suitor for her daughters, our ears are meant to prick up at this as well. Maybe there's hope for a change in fortunes for the house of Elimelech?
Well, Ruth isn't sitting around watching Desperate Housewives of Judea, hoping a Mr. Boaz will make her a kept woman.
She gets to work. “Let me go work”, she says to Naomi. This girl's a go-getter.
Now there's plenty of romance to come in this book but the next scene isn't Ruth strolling wistfully through the fields, running her hands through the heads of grain, bathed in soft, golden sunlight... Doing some yoga in the fields hoping to attract a landowner
Girl finds a patch of dirt, walks in, and gets her hands dirty. It's not just hard-working, it's also brave! Now the Jewish law did ban land-owners from re-collecting dropped stalks after harvest, God saying that they needed to leave them for exactly this purpose, so that the poor would be able to clean up the leftovers so as not to starve. But this is the time of the Judges. The darkest patch of Israel's history. If you've got a strong stomach, go back a couple of chapters of how vulnerable individuals were treated in Judean towns at the time.
Ruth's taking a big risk in hoping to find a land owner of good character who'll feel sorry for her.
And it just so happens, that she finds herself in a field owned by Boaz. “Oh, remember, we just told you a couple of verses ago that he's from Elimelech's clan, can I just remind you again that he's from Elimelech's clan?” says the narrator.
And as the day goes on, Boaz himself arrives. In full, good-guy splendour.
“The LORD be with you!” he says. The man who remained in the land promised to him by YHWH, Israel's God and who seems to have been blessed by him quite significantly.
And his men seem like faithful Israelites too, responding, “The LORD bless you”. Or, at least, they know that's the acceptable answer to a faithful man like their master.
Then he notices Ruth. “Whose young woman is that?” Sounds sexist, as if women were owned by men, but you have to understand the culture. He's asking whose protection she's under. Who takes responsibility for her safety and well-being. Because that was a young woman's only guarantee of safety in that culture.
The question is out of concern for her welfare. And as it happens he's rightly worried, because the answer is that she belongs to no-one. No-one of any means, at any rate. Because while the answer is, Naomi... it seems to be Ruth looking after Naomi, not the other way around.
And she's been pulling a full shift, as the foreman reports to Boaz. Gleaning from sunup with just one short rest.
And the fact is not lost on Boaz. He adds up her vulnerability, her work-ethic and her kindness to his relative, and he swings into full-on action.
Stay here, with my men. Stay here, near my young women. I've got everything you need, and you'll be safe here.
It's quite a lot of attention and care to heap on some ethnic refugee beggar skimming the leftovers of your profits from your field. And you can tell it's a bit unusual from Ruth's surprise. “Why have I found such favour in your eyes, me a foreigner?”
And the answer comes, because of her character.
Now some young blokes here might be rolling their eyes, “Oh yeah, she's just got a great 'personality'”. But I don't think this is a case of Boaz swooning over a pretty girl. Ruth is NOT an attractive prospect for a man like Boaz. Economically and socially she's a liability. And as for looks, well the Bible's not backwards in coming forwards when the girl in question has attractive features. Song of Solomon just one example among many of those in the Old Testament.
But no mention of Ruth's appearance being startlingly different to the women who'd have been after Boaz's money for most of his life.
And so he sees a dirty, impoverished, sweaty, foreign widow hasn't exactly just put deodorant on and re-applied her lip gloss.
But do you see the way that she works for her family? Have you heard about her loyalty in the face of poverty? How much she gave up, risked, in loyalty to her mother-in-law?
This kind of character deserves honour, says Boaz.
Now, you get the sense that he'd have treated any foreign widow kindly, but his kindness towards Ruth goes from generous, to over-the-top to almost awkward. Boaz is to kind gestures as Hugh Grant is to explanations of his English awkwardness to his love interests. Bumbling all over himself.
Examples: Don't leave. In fact, stay here. Actually, stay with my servant girls. Drink the water my men draw. And, would you like to come for lunch? Don't harass her. Don't TOUCH her. Don't stop her from taking wheat from the sheaves, she can go where she wants.
Actually, no, wait ... Yes, that's it. PULL OUT some stalks FROM the sheaves and leave them for her. She really has taken his notice. It's ridiculous kindness. Over the top. And Ruth knows it.
She sees his kindness in all its depth, because she thanks Boaz not only for caring for her, but for reassuring and encouraging her. He's not just happy caring for her, he wants her to know that she'll be taken care of.
Back into the story. True to form, Ruth keeps working hard and by the end of the day, she's worked her gleanings into a measure of grain that might have sold for as much as your average fortnightly pay.
With some roasted grain she's saved from lunch. All this, on day one of job hunting.
So when Ruth gets home to Naomi, and she sees what Ruth's brought home... First question? “What's his name?” Boaz.
And Naomi's bitterness cracks. Just melts. As over the top as Boaz's kindness has been, this seemingly instant change of heart from Naomi is even greater.
“The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.”
You see, it's not until we get here that we're privy to just HOW bitter Naomi had been. Just how upset with God she truly was.
Why didn't she mention that she had a rich relative? They're in need of food to survive but when Ruth goes out she didn't even suggest that maybe she should check out Boaz's field.
But not only is he a close relative, he's a redeemer. A guardian. Boaz had the capacity to not only look after Naomi and Ruth, but to restore the entire family line. Now that's a story for the next two weeks, but Naomi KNEW this. This restoration of the family line is what she means by saying kindness to the dead.
But until the ridiculous graciousness of God to her became obvious, when Ruth walked through the door with her precious produce Naomi couldn't bring herself to hope.
Sure, before Ruth came back she couldn't have known for certain whether Boaz would do anything for them, but God's law has provisions for redeemers for exactly this kind of situation. And Naomi hadn't been able to bring herself to hope.
Ruth says, “It's great, he says I can keep gleaning all harvest season.”
And slightly worryingly, Naomi says, “Great, stay with him. Because you could be harmed in another field.” Now, where was that concern when she let Ruth head out on her own at the start of the chapter?
I don't think Naomi is a horrible person. I think she's a really normal person. Like us, in her dark times, she gets tunnel vision. How we remember our situation has more to do with how we're feeling at the time than anything else. Saying I'm going back to nothing when she's got Boaz's number in her phone And sending Ruth out without a warning.
Some research done by Daniela Schiller of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine gives us an insight into the nature of memory.
She says that “What we remember changes each time we recall the event. The slightly changed memory is now embedded as “real”. And it's reconstructed again with the NEXT recall.
"One implication of Schiller's work is that memory isn't like a file in our brain but more like a story that is edited every time we tell it. To each re-telling there are attached emotional details.
"So when the story is altered feelings are also reshaped.”
Naomi sees things differently now. She recalls the same events but not with the same meaning. In her heart, the things that she'd been through had cemented God in her heart as the great big taker. Did you notice her exact words?
He has NOT STOPPED showing his kindness to the living and the dead.
Naomi hasn't just decided that God's being nice again. She's realised, in a moment of clarity, that he never stopped showing his faithful, covenant-keeping kindness.
Even when it wasn't easy to trust God when the famine hit. Even when she lost her husband. Even when she lost her sons. NOW. Now that there's HOPE: she says that God had never stopped showing kindness.
Now she is able to say that the whole time, God had been acting kindly in his covenantal relationship with her family. Despite every bitter she'd been forced to swallow.
This brings to our attention something very important: Hope. The possibility that something we once saw as irredeemable evil could be seen differently. Something so dark that there's no hope that light could have been even present, let alone could good come out of it. That we could one day praise God's goodness, without ignoring it.
Some of us here your story might be that you're shutting God out of your heart. Not necessarily completely. But it's hard to pray. Or you can do it, but you don't feel heard. And if your prayers are answered, it doesn't make you feel like God's face is shining down on you. Because you're not sure if you can trust him. The pain, hinders the trust. Or the distance, hinders the trust.
What if your relationship with God isn't everything that you wish it could be? How much hope do you have that one day you'll see something differently? Naomi was bitter, but there came a time when her perspective on the dark days was that God had never left her. Over the top generosity of God.
You know how some days your head's up, you can see the sky. And you don't just see it, you're able to drink it in. Enjoy it. Other days, you don't even notice it's there. Like, your family say ‘good morning' and you don't even notice... The truth is that in all things, God does work for the good of those who love him.
Amidst pain and suffering. At the times of loneliness
He doesn't say those things are good. Jesus understands being violated and humiliated and assaulted, abandoned too personally to say anything so insensitive. All of them happened to him in extreme fashion on the cross.
But God's genius is that even as those forces of evil do their worst HE is working to destroy their darkness. It's what he did at the cross. There is NO GOOD in people stripping, mocking and murdering Jesus. How could any good could come of something like that? With those who love him. This promise only belongs to those people. The ones he's called to be his own.
But there will be days when our vision will narrow. When the pain will seem only pain, with no hope. And when we will perceive the hard things as arrows thrown by God himself. Our losses as God taking away what we hold dear. Maybe those are the days you're in now.
God knows this. It's why the story of Ruth is there. Naomi couldn't bring herself to hope again. Her heart just wasn't strong enough. She wasn't able. If God had required her to just, “Sort herself out.” Then it wouldn't have happened for her. She couldn't just “Stop being bitter.”
So what do we do? We read stories like Ruth. Knowing that this is how it will end for us. Because of the love that Ruth's great, great, great grandson Jesus has shown to us. Because of his death to destroy death: We too will have our day of plenty. Plenty in relationships. Plenty in rest. Plenty in joy. Though for many of us, today is not that day. Our memories of pain are fresh, and being open to the God who allowed that pain is hard.
And so we join with Paul, who wrote to believers like us: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you”
His prayer for the Ephesians that God would bless them as he had Naomi. With hope. Because there is hope for you, if you trust in Jesus. Even if your heart is closed to God because of the pain. Even if you're open to God but still feel beaten down by the things that are so hard.
Paul prayed: “I pray that ... he may strengthen you ... in your inner being so that [you] ... may have power ... to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:16-18
There is hope, that one day we will see differently. And remember differently.