Scripture Ruth 1:8-18, 22; Ruth 2:1-16
Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return, each to your mother’s house. May the Holy One deal kindly with you, as you have done with the dead and with me. The Saving God grant that you may find security, each in the house of your own husband.” Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. They said to her, “We will return with you to your people.” Then Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Are there yet sons in my belly that may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to be with a man. Let me say I have hope and even was with a man tonight and give birth to sons. Would you then wait and hope until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Saving God has turned against me.” Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; go back after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Do not press me to forsake you or to turn back from following you.
Where you go, I will go,
where you abide, I will abide;
your people shall be my people,
and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die,
there will I be buried.
May the Holy One of Old
do thus and more to me,
if even death parts me from you.”
When Naomi saw that Ruth had strengthened herself to go with her, she ceased speaking to her… So Naomi returned with Ruth the Moabite woman, her daughter-in-law, with her; she was the one who came back from the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Now Naomi had a relative through her husband, a warrior-hearted man of worth, from the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain, behind someone in whose eyes I may find favor.” Naomi said to her, “Go, my daughter.” And she went, and came and gleaned in the field behind the reapers. As it happened, she happened upon the part of the field that belonged to Boaz, who was from Elimelech’s family. Then suddenly, Boaz came from Bethlehem. He said to the reapers, “God be with you.” They answered, “God bless you.” Then Boaz said to his boy stationed over the reapers, “To whom does this girl belong?” The boy stationed over the reapers answered, “She is the Moabite, the one who returned with Naomi from the country of Moab. She said, ‘Please, let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the reapers.’ So, she came, and she has been standing from the morning until now, only resting in the shelter a little.” Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Have you not heard, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither leave this one, thus you will cling to my girls. Keep your eyes on the field that is being reaped, and follow after them [the girls]. Have I not commanded the boys not to touch you? When you thirst, go to the vessels and drink from what the boys have drawn.” Then she fell on her face and bowed down to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you would distinguish me, as I am a foreigner?” And Boaz answered and said to her, “It has been told to me, all that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband, that you have forsaken your mother and father and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before yesterday. May the Holy One of Old reward your works, and may you have a full recompense from the Holy One, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.” Then Ruth said, “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and have spoken to the heart to your slave woman, and I, I am not one of your slave women.” Boaz said to her when it was time to eat, “Draw near, and eat from this bread, and dip your piece in the vinegar.” And she sat beside the reapers, and he handed her some roasted grain; and she ate and was satisfied, and she had some left over. When Ruth got up to glean, Boaz commanded his boys saying, “She may even glean between the sheaves, and do not humiliate her. You must also pull out some for her from the bundles, and leave them for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.”
Sermon
The Book of Ruth is a beloved tale of a heroine with a heart of gold, who eventually finds her way from destitution and sorrow to joy and plenty. You might even call it a “happily-ever-after” story, like something from Disney, with Ruth as one of their princesses.
But it’s a story far deeper than that. First of all, it is a story of grief. We begin with a family that must escape famine. The first grief is the loss of home, and the need to go to Moab as refugees. Moab is not treated kindly by the scriptures. In Psalm 60, God is quoted as saying, “Moab is my washbasin.” God describes the land and its people in humiliating terms. The flight to Moab was, on its own, a disheartening journey, to be forced to take.
For a moment, it seems as if all will be well. They are settled, and the sons Mahlon and Chilion take Moabite women to be their wives. But the father, Elimelech, dies. The sons die. All the expectation—of children for the two Moabite women, of grandchildren for Elimelech and Naomi—all that is lost. Grief, among other things, is the disappearance of the future you were sure lay ahead.
The names in the book of Ruth do a lot of the heavy lifting. Mahlon, for example, means “sickly,” and Chilion means “wasting.” The ancient reader saw their deaths coming from a mile away. However, the name Elimelech means, My God is King. Whatever else happens in the story, this is still true.
Grief nearly does Naomi in. You heard her bitter words to her daughters-in-law. What, I’m supposed to get pregnant and provide you with sons all over again? That’s not going to happen. The story begins with the emptiness of loss. Loss of home, loss of loved ones, and loss of hope. Loss of that imagined, hoped-for future. Naomi seems ready to sink into this abyss of loss. She wants to be alone. She tries sending Ruth and Orpah away, and they resist. Eventually Orpah gives in, but Ruth stands firm. And then she entreats Naomi with such a powerful a statement of commitment, her words are often used as wedding vows.
“Where you go, I will go, where you abide, I will abide;
your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die, there will I be buried.
May the Holy One of Old do thus and more to me,
if even death parts me from you.”
Naomi relents. It is a quiet journey to Bethlehem, but Naomi is not alone. She remains bitter, and she recognizes that bitterness in herself. When she arrives in Bethlehem and her friends, call her “Naomi,” she stops them. She insists on a name change. Naomi, she explains, means, “pleasant.” But she believes the Saving God has turned away from her, and will not, in fact, save her. And so she wants to go by Mara, which means, Bitter.
We begin with loss, but a journey follows. In ancient literature and new, journeys often signify a change: a change of situation, a change of ability, even a change of outlook can be the outcome of a journey taken for a practical reason, such as, “I should probably go home now.” Yes, Naomi is bitter as chapter 1 ends. But the end of chapter 2 finds her in a different frame of mind entirely.
What impact does the journey have on Ruth and Naomi? First, Naomi has a ready-made community of women who receive her. Though she responds to them with that request that they call her Mara, it seems that they are old friends who will likely stick around and try to bring Naomi back into relationship with them.
Second, the issue of food is addressed. After the two women settle in a place to live, Ruth informs Naomi she’s going out to find them food—not at a store, but by taking advantage of the harvest-time by gleaning. This means she will follow the harvesters and pick up anything that they leave behind. This was a common custom in Biblical times, and it’s a practice that continues today. Listen to the beginning of this story about gleaning on Long Island:
A couple of months ago, I drove with three other women to a farm in Orient, New York. We were dressed warmly because we planned to spend the entire day outdoors, braving the North Fork winds. The air smelled clean after a day’s heavy rain. Each of us brought our own knives and work gloves, and I’d packed snacks.
We pulled up alongside the farm and saw beets and turnips lying on top of the soil, half-harvested cabbages and broccoli, and rows of cauliflower and sprouts. It was exactly what we were looking for. We were there to glean, or gather, surplus crops. To harvest what remains in the fields after farmers are done with market season, and donate it to food banks.[i]
In fact, it was the law in Ruth’s day that farmers should leave food for gleaners, for people like Ruth, who had arrived in Bethlehem with no resources, no sponsor or close family to take them in, and no prospect for employment. In Leviticus we read the law as Moses received it:
“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the Lord your God.” ~Leviticus 23:22
Ruth is both poor and alien—now, she is the immigrant.
The third result of the journey is that it introduces Ruth and Boaz to one another. Ruth has stated her intention to find someone in whose eyes she might find favor. This is a delicate way of saying: someone who might see her, appreciate her, perhaps even desire her, and therefore, open a path to safety and stability for both women. By chance, by serendipity, by the hand of God, Ruth gleans in the field belonging to Boaz. The text describes him as a “warrior-hearted man;” his name means, “In him is strength.” Boaz also happens to be a relative of Elimelech, Ruth’s deceased father-in-law.
Boaz sees Ruth, learns who she is and how she is—a Moabite, loyal, generous-hearted. He approaches her, calling her, “my daughter”—an offer of protection—and immediately arranges things for her comfort and safety. And then he prays for God to bless her. They break bread together.
All this can be read as kindness recognizing and rewarding kindness, but it is hard not to be struck by the care Boaz takes with Ruth. It can also be seen as like recognizing like. Every time I read the Book of Ruth, I recall my mother’s answer to the question, “How did you and dad get together?” And my mother, who had grown up during the Great Depression, with holes in her shoes, and a stolen turkey on her mother’s Thanksgiving table, and lifelong memories of what it was to be hungry, said to me, “I could see that he was a hard worker.” The third impact the journey to Bethlehem has on Ruth and Naomi is the presence of Boaz in their lives, and Ruth and Boaz’s mutual recognition of one another as good and honorable people.
By the end of chapter 2, Ruth has brought home enough barley to feed the two women for weeks. But the true turning point for Naomi is this: she hears Boaz’s name, and her heart breaks open at last. Bitterness disappears. It is replaced by hope. She prays for God to bless Boaz.
Gone is Naomi’s belief that God has cursed her. She sees that God has been guiding her—and Ruth—all along. And now, instead of emptiness, there is food for the body, and hope for the heart, because, by law, there is every chance that Boaz may be able, or even required, to take Ruth as his wife.
By the end of chapter 2, we begin to have confidence that Ruth and Naomi will survive. They have access to both food and the kindness of someone who is able to provide it. This doesn’t mean they are no longer grieving. They both continue to carry deep losses. But now, the weight of the fear that they won’t survive has been lifted. And Naomi once again recognizes that God is, somehow, a part of this journey after all. Naomi can trust in her dead husband’s name, My God is King. Hope has returned. Thanks be to God. Amen.
[i] Isabella Schnee, The Ancient Practice of Gleaning is Still Relevant (San Francisco, California: Stone Pier Press, 2017-2026). https://stonepierpress.org/goodfoodnews/gleaning.