In the story of Ruth we meet a strong, devout woman from the land of Moab. Not Israelite, not Jewish, but from a nation east of the Red Sea whom the Israelites had battled a number of times over the course of a thousand years. Ruth’s story, on its own, is memorable and wonderful, but what we did not hear this morning are the closing words of her story (Ruth 4: 17-21): according to tradition, this Moabite woman, Ruth, was the great-grandmother of King David – and as such, in the family lineage of Jesus as well.
Maybe it’s just because I live
in such an intensely divided and divisive point in history that the inclusion
of such a story in scripture strikes me as remarkable. I would have thought that any story that
suggested that King David - such a towering figure in our Judaeo-Christian
faith history - was anything less than 100% Jewish by birth, would have been
left on the cutting room floor when the decisions were being made as to which books
would and would not be regarded as sacred texts.
But in the Hebrew Scriptures,
and in the Chrisitan Bible, there it is: the book of Ruth; and from the reading
I have done I cannot find any point in our faith history when this beautiful,
boundary-breaking story is on the outside of the canon of scripture looking in.
From Ruth’s story, I want to
lift up two themes and a challenge: Ruth as a story of women; Ruth as an
intercultural story; and the enduring power of Ruth, for anyone willing to take
up her cause.
First, we engage Ruth
as a story of women.
About
a decade ago, my kids introduced me to something called the Bechdel Test, which
names the following three criteria for evaluating a movie: (1) it has to have
at least two female characters, with names, who (2) who talk to each other,
about (3) something besides a man. You
would be absolutely astonished at how many movies, from the classics of the
silver screen to new releases today, fail the test. Figures from 2022 indicated that while 57% of
movies now pass all three standards, roughly 11% of movies do not even pass one
of the three. And while it’s not exactly the same thing, if you go online to do
academic research, including religious research, you will likely find what I
find: that a solid 7 out of 10 articles, blogs and books are by male authors,
even with the wide-open spaces of the internet.
We are, and have been
for a long, long time, surrounded by a pervasive sense that says that men’s voices
and narratives are of greater importance than women’s. Theirs are the stories that get crafted for
the big screen, feeding and being fed by worldwide patriarchy. Though we know of matriarchal societies,
particularly amongst Indigenous peoples, most formally recorded history is
dominated by the words and actions of men, and their sons – particularly the
first-born sons – carry the mantle of inheritance, agency, and power over the
lives of others.
All this, once more,
makes me impressed that the story of Ruth, written some 2500 years ago is even in
the Bible. In the words of the late Roman Catholic Feminist scholar, Dr. Alice
Laffey (p.209), “despite the patriarchal setting of the story, the women’s
courage is outstanding. Orpah was
willing to leave her homeland to be with her mother-in-law; Ruth insisted
on doing so. Naomi wanted to
leave her daughters-in-law in Moab, even though that would mean going back
alone to Israel and a future alone.” By
her inner conviction and unshakeable stubbornness, Ruth willfully reaches past barriers
of culture and gender to express the greatest possible loyalty to Naomi: “wherever
you may go, I will follow; your people will be my people and your God, my God.” That strength of resolve pushes this story to
the front of the Bechdel test, as women talk to women and take life-changing
steps founded solely in those female to female relationships.
Second, we look at Ruth as
an intercultural story.
Though the story of Ruth is set three
generations before King David, the evidence is strong that it was written much later,
as the Jewish exiles returned from seventy long years of exile in Babylonia. Now that they were returning home, the people
had some difficult decisions to make. Jerusalem,
and the Temple, would need to be rebuilt along with their whole social
structure. In such a time of rebuilding,
as they tried to shape their identity, how would they relate to people of other
nationalities?
Two prophets writing at the
time, Ezra and Nehemiah, were clear on the matter. Ezra was particularly strident about this: there
was to be no intermarriage between the Jews and non-Jews like the Moabites,
there were to be no treaties between the peoples, and there was no reasonable pathway
for a non-Jew to become part of the faith.
Amidst of these strong
objections to the Moabites, the story of Ruth emerged, challenging the
hard-line by telling of the devotion of a Moabite girl to her Jewish
mother-in-law. In addition to its relatable theme of
devotion, this story is a corrective to the thoughts of the day about
outsiders. Yes, the law of the Torah had always commanded the Israelites to pay
attention to the needs of widows, orphans and foreigners, but in the case of
foreigners there was no pathway for them to become a full part of the people of
Israel. The book of Ruth stands up to that and says, “why
not? Even King David’s grandmother was a
Moabite, and what are you going to do about it?”
Curiously, the book of Ruth barely
even mentions God, but throughout this story we continuously see the actions of
a living, engaged God. Ruth is a story of courage, devotion, fidelity, honour
and inclusion, pushing against notions that God’s love is exclusive and
small. I find it to be a healthy thing
that this intercultural perspective of Ruth, and the more exclusive and
isolationist perspective of Nehemiah and Ezra are both included in scripture, it wasn’t a binary, winner-take-all choice
between one perspective or another. Rather, these two very different approaches
are held in tension within our Judaeo-Christian sacred text. For healthy spirituality, my friends, can hold
such things in tension, teasing the heart and mind into action. {And… as of
October 19th, the BC Election results were split down the middle
with no clear governing party, so we too will need to “hold things in tension”
as differing ideologies find a path to governance!}
Ruth is a story of women, and
a story of interculturalism. We now consider the challenge: how to allow the
message of Ruth to keep speaking.
As I read the story of Ruth as
a story of women, I am proud that The United Church of Canada has been ordaining
women to Ministry since the Rev Lydia Gruchy of Kelvington, Saskatchewan was
ordained in 1936. The Very Rev, the Hon.
Dr Lois Wilson, eventually ordained as the rules for women’s ordination
became less strict, became the first female Moderator in 1980, and was
Moderator during my first summer in ministry. As a young adult of the Church, I
learned how important it was to watch the gendering of language, long before “political
correctness” was a thing. And for those
of us who remain active in mainline Churches in Canada in the year 2024, it remains
our task to tell the world around us that there is such a thing as Christian
faith that does not subordinate women to men.
As a follower of Jesus Christ, I engage sacred texts about Ruth and
Naomi, Mary and Martha, the Samaritan woman at the well and the ever-faithful
Mary Magdalene. As a follower of Jesus
Christ, I carry a responsibility to uphold the importance of women’s lives,
women’s stories, and women’s power to choose what happens to their bodies.
And, thinking of the obstacles
that Ruth faced to make her home in a land different from her own, the Church
has a critical role to play in countering the scourge of racism. In addition to the work being done nationally
by The United Church of Canada through the 40 Days of Anti Racism, there is
work being done on this locally by the South Okanagan Immigrant and Community
Services. I want to get to know them and
find out how we can come alongside their efforts, as true advocates for a
Canada that is open to people from all nations, cultures and religious
perspectives. I celebrate that the communities in which we
live have significant populations from India, Portugal, Mexico and elsewhere,
and I lament that in the province of British Columbia, racism has been on the
rise, significantly, in recent years. As
followers of Jesus, who repeatedly interacted with all manner of people he was
told would ruin his reputation, who regularly crossed religious and ethnic
barriers, we are called to be leaders in this work in our time and place.
I love the story of Ruth, a
story of a woman from Moab who played a pivotal role in our fabric of faith. I am so glad it is part of our faith history,
and continues to spur us to be our best selves, to truly be the steadfastly
inclusive body of Christ. And with that,
I invite you to remain seated as our voices sing her song of faith: “Wherever
you may go, I will follow.”
References:
Berlin, Adele. “The Story of
Ruth.” https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/hebrew-bible/the-story-of-ruth/
Bible Project. “Ruth” – video
overview. https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/ruth/
Bronner, Leila. “Ruth and
Lovingkindness.” https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/ruth-and-lovingkindness/
Guzik, David. “Nehemiah’s
Reforms.” https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/nehemiah-13/
Hamann, Bella. “The Biblical
Bechdel.” https://www.andrews.edu/life/student-movement/issues/2023-03-09/ideas-biblical-bechdel-how-much-are-women-respected-in-the-bible.html#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20the%20only%20book,Naomi%20have%20about%20finding%20food).
Kai, David. “Wherever you
will go, I will follow” © 1996, More Voices #216
Laffey, Alice L. An
Introduction to the Old Testament: A Feminist Perspective. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988.
Livius.org “Moab.” https://www.livius.org/articles/place/moab/
South Okanagan Immigrant and
Community Services. https://soics.ca/anti-racism/
The United Church of Canada. “Forty
Days for Engagement on Anti-Racism”. https://united-church.ca/social-action/justice-initiatives/anti-racism/40-days-engagement-anti-racism
Wikipedia. “Ezra-Nehemiah”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra%E2%80%93Nehemiah
Wilson, Lois – memorial service
https://www.youtube.com/live/TPRqkbxQUL8
© 2024, Rev Greg Wooley,
Osoyoos-Oliver United Church Pastoral Charge.