Two
weeks ago when we read the introduction to this book of Ruth, I suggested that
Naomi’s story is our story. Like Naomi, at some point in our lives, each of us
experiences some kind of loss. We
find ourselves isolated from family, friend, or neighbor; or we find ourselves
hungering for spiritual, intellectual, physical or emotional nourishment; or we
are embittered by hardship; or we are despairing in grief. Naomi’s story is our
story because each of us, at some point in our lives, needs redemption. We need to be reclaimed and restored to
wholeness. We need to be
re-filled.
Today
we read excerpts from the book of Ruth to hear the essence of this
story—Naomi’s story, Ruth’s story, Boaz’s story, our story, God’s story. One of the themes that emerges in
today’s reading is hospitality.
Naomi’s redemption occurs through Ruth and Boaz’s acts of hospitality
towards her. Our redemption occurs
through God’s hospitality. And I
think that’s a fitting theme for us to explore since our mission statement
emphasizes hospitality. We are a welcoming community of faith
seeking to help every person discover God’s transforming love as we proclaim
the good news!
Hospitality—According
to Webster’s New World College Dictionary,
hospitality is the act, practice, or quality of being receptive or open to
favor the health, growth and comfort of new arrivals. The thesaurus tool in
Word offers these synonyms for hospitality: welcome, warmth, kindness,
generosity.
“Normally
we associate hospitality with being able to offer something tangible, like food
or shelter.”[1]
At the beginning of their
journey out of Moab and towards Bethlehem, Naomi experiences Ruth’s gift of
hospitality. “Where you go I’ll
go. Where you stay, I’ll
stay. When you move, I’ll
move. I will follow you. Yeah, I will follow you.”[2]
Ruth “offers the only thing she has . . . her continued presence.”[3]
Through
Ruth we see that the ability to practice hospitality does not depend upon
wealth or possessions. Instead it depends upon the giver’s desire to be
generous with whatever he or she has to offer. What do we have to offer? Our time?
Several members and friends of this congregation are homebound. How might we extend hospitality to them
through our presence and our time?
When we are unable to get out—due to weather or our own physical
conditions, we could call them and chat on the phone. When possible, we could visit them face-to-face. Whether initiating a new or nourishing
a previously formed relationship, offering our time to someone who may be
lonely is an act of hospitality.
What
else do we have to offer? Our
energy? This summer we will host a
Heartland Presbytery traveling day camp.
Monday through Friday, June 17 – 21, 8 hours a day, we will share God’s
love through activities and Bible stories about how Jesus calls people in the
Bible and us to be his disciples.
Each day the day-campers will learn and play. What energy can you offer
prior to the day camp? Planning
energy? Coordinating volunteers
energy? Advertising energy? Pre-registering energy? What energy can you offer the week of
day camp extending hospitality to children in our community? Welcoming energy? Conversational energy? Singing energy? Storytelling energy? Outside water play energy? Crafting
energy? Cooking or serving snacks
energy? Or just “chilling out”
together energy?
What
else do we have to offer? Our
prayers? I believe prayer makes a
difference—both in the lives of those who are prayed for and in the lives of
those who pray. Practicing
hospitality by praying . . . I invite you to pray—by name—for each person on
our prayer list. But don’t stop
there. I invite you to pray for
people you like and want to hang around with. I invite you to pray for people who get under your skin, or
on your nerves. I invite you to
pray for people we overlook and for those who look past us.
Like
Ruth, we can practice hospitality by giving what we have to offer—our continued
presence through our time, our energy, and our prayers.
But
Ruth is not the only model of hospitality in this story—Naomi’s story, Ruth’s
story, Boaz’s story, our story, God’s story. Through Boaz, “a man prominent and rich,”[4] Naomi and Ruth experience
hospitality and redemption. A wealthy landowner, Boaz has fields full and ready
for harvest when Ruth and Naomi arrive from Moab. Through Moses, God had
commanded the newly-forming Hebrew community to practice gleaning. This practice provided food for those
who—due to circumstances beyond their control—found themselves dependent on the
largesse of others. Rather than
completely stripping the fields bare of crops—rather than going through the
fields with a fine-tooth comb—the workers left what was dropped on the
ground. And they left the outer
edges of the field alone—not harvesting there at all. So those who had no way of growing their own food and no way
of securing food through monetary or barter transactions would glean—picking up
the leftovers and harvesting outer edges of the fields.
Boaz,
a pillar of the community, opens his fields for gleaning, but he goes beyond
minimum expectations and lives into the spirit of the law. Extending his protection to Ruth, the
outsider, the foreigner, the Moabite enemy, Boaz explicitly orders his workmen
not to harass or bother her. He
gives her unlimited access to water as she works through the heat of the
day. Not read in our selection but
included in the story, at noon, Boaz offers table fellowship to Ruth as he
invites her to share his lunch.
And he commands his harvesters to do a sloppy job near her—to
deliberately drop grains and to leave areas un-harvested where she is working. So Ruth brings home to Naomi a full
sack of barley—a veritable feast!
Boaz, “a man prominent and rich,”[5]
gives generously from his possessions—his land. And his hospitality doesn’t
stop there. Acting as a covenant redeemer, he purchases Elimelech’s property,
securing a future for both Naomi and Ruth. Boaz, “a man prominent and rich,”[6] gives generously of his wealth
to reverse Naomi’s ill-fortune.
From
what largesse can we extend hospitality?
Our church facility? . . .
For over 80 years we have invited scouts—1st Boy Scouts and
then Cub Scouts to use our building as their home-base. For a couple of decades
we have opened our doors to Pre-schoolers each weekday. And this fall, we are hosting a grief
support group in our building. To
whom else might we extend our hospitality through the use of our facility?
From
what largesse can we extend hospitality?
Our financial resources? . . . We may not consider ourselves to be like
Boaz—men and women, prominent and rich—but compared to most of the world’s
inhabitants, we are wealthy. How
can we use our own financial resources to extend hospitality? We can financially support the mission
of this church—— We are a welcoming community of faith seeking to help every person
discover God’s transforming love as we proclaim the good news! We can make gifts to grow disciples in
this congregation, supporting faith development, teaching the good news. We can make gifts to extend our
hospitality to community children—children in our congregation and outside it,
children of different ages, different ethnicities, and from varying faith
traditions. We can financially
support our partnership with Heartland for the traveling summer day camp. We can make financial gifts to extend
our hospitality to those who find themselves forced by circumstances beyond
their control to glean what they can from the bounty of others. We can support our partnership with
Paola Association of Christian Action—by giving to PACA’s full range of
services. We can make financial gifts to extend our hospitality to our brothers
and sisters recovering from tornados, hurricanes, and other destructive acts of
nature. We can support our partnership with Presbyterian Disaster
Assistance. Supporting these
partnerships, we follow Jesus’ Great Commandment—Go, make disciples.
This
story—Naomi’s story, Ruth’s story, Boaz’s story—is our story, and it is God’s
story. Ruth and Boaz mirror God’s
hospitality to all of us. Like
Ruth, God gives of God’s self. In
creating this marvelous world and in sustaining it, God gives his energy from
before the beginning of time until after the end of time. In Jesus the Christ,
God gives his life so that we may be reconciled with God and enjoy his presence
for all time. As with Ruth, God’s hospitality comes in his faithful
presence. Like Boaz, God gives
generously from his own abundance.
God invites each of us—even when we think we have made ourselves
outsiders, foreigners, or enemies of God—God invites each of us into his
presence. God offers us a place at
his table, inviting us to share in the bread of life and the cup of
salvation. God invites us to be
washed clean and to be claimed in waters of baptism as God’s very own
children. God drops grains of
grace all around us, so that like Ruth, our basket overflows with God’s
goodness and mercy. As with Naomi,
God does not leave us empty and bitter.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God fills us with his abundant
grace—transforming us into his joyful, faithful people. Thanks be to God! May we reflect and extend God’s hospitality.
Amen.
[1]
Martin B. Covenhaver. “Ruth 3: 1 –
5; 4: 13 - 17 Pastoral
Perspective.” Feasting on the Word.
Year B. vol. 4. Ed by David L Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor Louisville:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2009, p. 268.
[2] “I Will Follow” Chris
Tomlin | Jason Ingram | Reuben Morgan, © 2010 SHOUT! Music. CCLI Song # 5806878,
CCLI License # 669361
[3]
Martin B. Covenhaver. “Ruth 3: 1 –
5; 4: 13 - 17 Pastoral
Perspective.” Feasting on the Word.
Year B. vol. 4. Ed by David L Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor Louisville:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2009, p. 268.
[4]
Ruth 2: 1 (Common English Bible)
[5]
Ruth 2: 1 (Common English Bible)
[6]
Ruth 2: 1 (Common English Bible)
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