November 8, 2009
Back to the Future
- Ruth 3:1-5
- Ruth Moore
I obviously love preaching from the Book of Ruth. The name Ruth in Hebrew means friend or companion. I also just recently learned that it means vision of beauty. All three definitions give me something to strive for! (Some more than others) The Ruth from the bible is also an example for me on how to live my life. This Ruth is not just a caricature of womanly piety or a model of femininity—which is good, because I don’t fit that model very well. Instead, I would describe her as substantial, complicated and someone who seeks out meaning in her life with a kind of quiet resolve. She plays a very substantial role in God’s plan for Israel and God’s plan for redemption for all of us.
I don’t know how many of you have seen the movie “Back to the Future.” It came out in 1985 which was before some of you were born. But in this movie the actor Michael J. Fox plays the part of Marty McFly, a typical American teenager of the eighties who is accidentally sent back to 1955—which I must point out is before even I was born. He is sent back to 1955 in a plutonium-powered DeLorean car time machine invented by a slightly mad scientist. During his often hysterical and always amazing trip back in time, Marty must make certain his teenage parents-to-be meet and fall in love—so he can get back to the future. The 2009 movie “Seventeen Again” with Zac Efron has the same premise—going back in time to ensure the future. Our scripture passages today take us back into the past so we can see how God ensures our future through the lives, loves and giving of ordinary yet faithful women.
Some people think the Bible is irrelevant today because its stories come out of centuries long gone and because it seems to stand facing the past. It’s preoccupied with people and events in the history of Israel or the church. Why should we care about that? Well, I think we should care about that because the Bible’s preoccupation with the past is also at the same time a preoccupation with the future. “Christians live out of the past but into the future, and the relationship between the two is an important one. The story of Ruth seems a simple ‘once upon a time’ kind of tale. Two women in dire circumstances remain loyal to each other and find happiness through the love and generosity of Boaz. But the conclusion to the story points forward rather than backward. Boaz and Ruth belong not only to Israel’s past, but to the future God has in mind for Israel and for all humankind.” (1) A story of widows with no surviving children becomes a story of birth because Obed the “child of destiny” is born. Obed is the grandfather of David, Israel’s greatest king and the one to whom Jesus can trace his lineage. A struggle to survive becomes the means by which God restores hope to these women and to Israel’s future unborn generations. The book of Ruth affirms that God works through surprising people, in unexpected ways, in order to bring restoration, redemption and a more secure future to God’s people.
The story of the scribes in Mark 12 also points us to the future. It reminds us that those who work only to secure their own positions but neglect to recognize God’s presence in their lives live only in the present. They do not acknowledge God’s care for them in the past or God’s participation in their future. Jesus is talking about scribes and wealthy people, but sometimes I think he is talking about me. Because when Jesus goes on and talks about the widow, I feel like he is asking me how much I am willing to give. How much am I willing to give of myself and to give of my money to this body of Christ we call Northminster? How much I am willing to give to help God in his plans for restoration and redemption? What Jesus is asking us is difficult. He is talking about the giving of ourselves—all of ourselves—in this story about the widow. Her coins represent a faith-filled offering that is found in giving all of who we are and all that we hope to become to God. Jesus calls his disciples to notice that this widow gives all that she has—literally it can be translated that she gives the “whole of her life”—to the temple. Here is a woman who doesn’t play it safe like I usually do. She did not, and she could not, hold anything back from God.
And you know neither did Jesus. He didn’t play it safe; he didn’t hold anything back from God. The widow gave away all that she had; and according to the Gospel of Mark within a few days after leaving that temple, Jesus would also give everything away. “Look at her,” Jesus says, “take a good hard look . . . because her sacrifice is a picture of what you are going to see God do in me.” Jesus is on the way to giving “the whole of his life” for a world that is broken, greedy, and focused only on the present and only on itself. The widow is pointing to the future sacrifice of Jesus. She is pointing to the future that God also calls the church to be and do—to give its life, its whole life for the sake of those who in many ways really don’t deserve such a gift. God works through surprising people, in unexpected ways, in order to bring restoration, redemption and a more secure future to God’s people.
The Book of Ruth is a family story. It’s the story about a family in trouble. A widow and her Moabite daughter-in-law are heading back to Naomi’s hometown with no money, no men to protect them and a future that looks bleak. Naomi has asked Ruth not to come with her and to go back to her own people. But Ruth says to Naomi in one of the most beloved speeches in the Bible, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you. Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people and your God will be my God.” (Ruth 1:16) So they leave together for Israel.
As William Willimon reminds us, “To be in any family is to venture forth like Naomi and Ruth, without guarantees for the future, with only the confidence that the future, even the worst of futures, is bearable when we bear it with one another.” Ruth’s son becomes the grandfather of King David of Israel. So Ruth, a foreign, Moabite woman, through the twisting and turning of God’s providence, is in the blood line, the genealogy of Jesus of Bethlehem. She plays an important role in keeping alive the promise and covenant of God to Israel and she helps bring it to fruition. Ruth, through her loyalty and faithfulness to Naomi, finds a surprisingly open future.
Something new and revolutionary is taking place here. The boundaries of God’s kingdom are being expanded. Rejection has moved to redemption.
Jesus gave his whole life for the redemption of all people. He gave his whole life to break down unjust structures that destroy those on the margins—the widows, the poor, the sick, the lonely, and the powerless. Jesus gave his whole life so people like Ruth would not be marginalized, so the stranger and alien would be welcomed, so that all would be welcomed and cared for by a generous God and His people.
There are ups and downs in our lives. There are the struggles of unemployment or underemployment. Maybe your marriage is struggling. Maybe your job is sucking the life out of you. Maybe you’re sick or facing surgery. Maybe someone you love is aging and needs more of your care. But perhaps a new opportunity has just opened up. Maybe your child actually passed her algebra test this week. Maybe you’re going to be able to get away for a weekend after all. Maybe all of your children are going to be with you this Thanksgiving.
We need to be looking for the surprises in our lives, to look for richness in ordinary and unlikely places and to be looking to a future that is open to possibilities. Why? Because just like in the life of Ruth, God is at work in surprising and unexpected ways. He is working toward redemption and restoration and he is doing it one day, and one person, at a time. We see this in the life of Jesus. When we state the central tenants of our faith we affirm a mystery that is the essence of generosity and love. Christ has died: he has given up his whole life, everything he had, all he had to live on. Christ is risen: he gives us the power to stand free from all the false attachments of this age like wealth and power. Christ will come again: he will complete the generous acts that he has begun.
And he will complete them through people like us. One day at a time. One act of kindness at a time. One card of sympathy. One hug in the hallway on the way to your office. One check in the offering plate on Sunday. One afternoon painting a Habitat house. One night or many nights sitting vigil by a bedside. One afternoon spent cleaning the sanctuary. One Sunday morning bringing food for the barrels. One evening of passing out candy in the parking lot. One morning answering the phones in the office. God works through surprising people and in unexpected ways in order to bring restoration, redemption and a more secure future to God’s people.
Christians are people of the past, the present and the future. Our scriptures take us back so we can see how God works to ensure our future. We remember our past; we learn from it, it informs our present and our future. We live in the present and God works through us every day—in the world, in our hearts, in our church, among people and through life’s circumstances. But we are also people of the future. Look at us—we are building for the future. We’re planning for the future. We are working now and planning now to ensure the future of this body of Christ. Just like the widow and just like Ruth we are putting our trust and our lives in the hands of a God who loves us. We’re not doing it passively—we are active in the process—but we are working toward a future through Christ so that God’s just, peaceable and loving rule in the world can be realized. God works through surprising people, in unexpected ways, in order to bring restoration, redemption and a more secure future to God’s people.
May it be so? Amen.
Resources
Quote #1 is from Texts for Preaching Year B, Proper 27.
e-Sermons.com – Commitment Beyond Calculation by William G. Carter
e-Sermons.com – Expanding the Boundaries by John A. Struma
e-Sermons.com – From Rejection to Redemption by Zen W. Holmes, Jr.
Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 4, Proper 27