Ruth: The Miniseries: Act 3
By Ken Wilson
Ch 1; During a time of famine Naomi & Elimelech move from Bethlehem in Judah to Moab with two sons, who marry Ruth & Orpah. All three women are widowed while living in Moab. Upon hearing that the famine in Israel is over, Naomi decides to return to Bethlehem in Judah, her ancestral home. Ruth, in loyalty to her mother-in-law, returns with Naomi. [Theme: transition from mentality of Moab--poverty-emptiness-bleakness--to a land of fullness & God's provision]
Ch 2 features main character Ruth, a woman with no social standing: a widow without blood relation in a foreign-to-her-land, Israel, which is none-too-fond of her homeland Moab. Reduced to gleaning from field of Boaz, who "just happens" to be a relative of Naomi's dead husband; which makes a potential "kinsman-redeemers" [male relative of a deceased man who marries his widow to continue his name.] Boaz treats Ruth with kindness, having heard of her loyalty to Naomi, but shows no interest in becoming her kinsman-redeemer [i.e. husband]
"One day Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, should I not try to find a home for you, where you will be well provided for?" 3:1
Narrator is making a point to emphasize Naomi's concern for Ruth.
This is a male dominated society, where worst thing that could happen to a man was not to die, but to die without children, sons in particular, to carry on his name. Immortality achieved only through one's offspring and Naomi's husband died without any surviving. So you expect the focus to be concern for keeping Elimelech's name alive. But narrator frames the story around Naomi's concern to keep Ruth alive. One powerless woman looking out for another.
Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor (3:2)
Remember, Naomi & Ruth came from a land of famine, into Israel, which is being delivered from famine by this harvest. Winnowing is final step in harvest. Like harvest itself, it depends on things outside of human control, like wind. Winnowing happens in evening when cool breezes come off sea: toss mixture of straw, debris, barley in air and the breeze blows the lighter material farther, leaving the heavier barley to fall nearby on threshing floor. Naomi continues…
Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don't let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do." (3: 3-4)
A daring proposal. Ruth has only one thing to her name: her name. Naomi is proposing that she put her reputation at risk by doing what might be easily misinterpreted in a culture where extra burdens on women to be circumspect: to lie down next to a sleeping man who is not her husband, hoping he will not take advantage of her, hoping her daring deed won't be found out, hoping (we infer) that Boaz will know what to do and will perhaps take Ruth as a future wife.
Also a psychological turning point marked here: washing, perfuming, and putting on a clean robe were actions to mark end of mourning period. Naomi, mother of Ruth's dead husband, was saying to her daughter-in-law: it's time to get on with your life and move on.
And that always feels risky, moving on. So, immense social risk and psychological risk for Ruth to go with this proposal.
"I will do whatever you say," Ruth answered. So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do. (3: 5-6)
Everything about this book has to do with the loyalty of companions.
Companions: people walking through life together, trusting each other. Steadfast love & faithfulness. Loyal love, rooted in trust.
Ruth's willingness to leave her family behind to follow Naomi--to move from familiar-comfortable, to the unfamiliar-uncomfortable--is a story as old as Abraham, whom God called to do just that.
God seeks our companionship: loyal love, rooted in trust. A God willing to leave his familiar territory behind for our territory. A God willing, even to come to us, with a human face.
"Jesus went up the mountain, summoned those he wanted…So they came to him…they were to be his companions" (See Mark 3:13)
This pattern is already here in book of Ruth: Naomi demonstrates concern for Ruth; then invites Ruth to take a risk, rooted in trust, the glue of companionship.
In the same way, Jesus demonstrates God's concern for us, summons us to take a risk, for the sake of companionship.
When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile.
Another of those moments in story when something "just happens."
In Chapter 2, Ruth "just happened" to glean in the field of Boaz, who just happened to be a relative of her deceased father-in-law. Now,
Boaz "just happened" to lie down at far end of grain pile. Out of sight of others, perfect place for Ruth to execute her daring plan. Naomi isn't the only one looking out for Ruth. God is looking out for Ruth.
Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. In the middle of the night something startled the man, [his own snoring?] and he turned and discovered a woman lying at his feet. "Who are you?" he asked. "I am your servant Ruth," she said. "Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer."
Now it's Ruth's turn to be daring. Naomi didn't tell her what to say, she's making this up on the spot. Ruth does what we so often fail to do because we lack the nerve. She asks for what she wants: marry me! Become my kinsman-redeemer!
Faith spelled R-I-S-K and Ruth is taking one. Risk requires N-E-R-V-E and Ruth musters it. And her risk-taking nerve, which is faith, is expressed by her simple willingness to A-S-K for what she wants.
This, it turns out, is a principle of the kingdom of our kinsman-redeemer, Jesus of Nazareth. He says to us, "Ask and it will be given to you" [Ask, seek, knock….]
Faith, expressed in taking a risk, showing a little nerve, leads us to ask. Faith is how we walk out of the mentality of Moab in the divine fullness. Not by shrinking back in fear, but by rising up in boldness to ask for what we want and need, to lay bare our heart's desire.
This is the dramatic tension of the struggle of faith over fear.
"The LORD bless you, my daughter," he replied. "This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. And now, my daughter, don't be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character. (3:10-11)
This at last explains why Boaz, though in line to be a kinsman redeemer didn't offer himself as one to Ruth earlier: He thought himself too old to be wanted by Ruth.
What a great result from Ruth's perspective! Rejection by Boaz was a real possibility. He might have been shocked to discover a foreign woman laying near him in middle of the night. He might have been concerned about his own reputation. He might have outed her boldness and presented it to others as brazenness to protect his own reputation as a person of high moral character.
Instead he acts as though honored by her request. And then quickly he reassures her, knowing how vulnerable she is.
But with the relief, a note of tension:
Although it is true that I am near of kin, there is a kinsman-redeemer nearer than I. Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to redeem, good; let him redeem. But if he is not willing, as surely as the LORD lives I will do it. Lie here until morning." (3:12-13)
You can cut the tension of this scene with a knife. The sexual tension of a young widow laying alone with an older man not her husband in a culture that didn't allow such a thing, and for good reason.
The tension of "maybe." What both of them seem to want badly is not yet a done deal. There may be someone else with a higher claim to be her kinsman redeemer. (Like putting in a bid for a house you really want in a bull market for house sales….)
"So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized; and he said, "Don't let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor." He also said, "Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out." When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and put it on her. Then he went back to town. When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, "How did it go, my daughter?" Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her and added, "He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, 'Don't go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.'" Then Naomi said, "Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today."
Chapter three leaves us lying in the tension that Ruth felt that night and the next morning: the tension of waiting.
Between the promise of fullness and it's fulfillment, there always seems to be this interval. This time for lying still, not knowing what the morning will bring. And then when it arrives, waiting some more.
Every promise, every blessing, every fulfillment seems to require it's waiting period. If faith is spelled r-i-s-k, and, a-s-k, it is also spelled w-a-i-t. Wait, not like you wait in a line, killing time, but wait with hopeful expectation, like a woman with child waits for the birth.
We're in the middle--we hope it's the middle and not the beginning--of an economic downturn. Waiting for Big3 to respond to new market-place with products that people will want to buy when gas costs 3.69. Waiting to see if Bill Gates foundation will purchase the Pfizer facilities and get a pharmaceutical company back in Ann Arbor. Waiting to see if we've hit bottom of housing bubble bust.
Perhaps you are in a personal time of waiting for some promise to be fulfilled in your own life. [You've done everything you can, like Ruth did--gleaning for food in field of Boaz, taking this daring midnight exploit to let her intentions be known; but the outcome doesn't depend entirely on you, just like the threshing of barley requires human action and the action of the wind, working together.]
Perhaps like Ruth, you've decided a time of mourning is over after a crushing loss, and risky as it feels to do so, it's time to move on, but you don't have a clue what you're moving on into.
Perhaps you sense a call from God in your life. To take a risk in ministry, a relationship, business, schooling, career change. You've already placed your bet; now you're waiting to see how it turns out.
This is what faith requires. From time to time, in order to move forward you have to be willing to bet the farm. In 1993, we bet the farm as a church by moving from rented facilities in Ypsilanti, to a church facility in Milan--20 minutes away, driving through cornfields, to a community very unlike our own. Did our due diligence, placed our bet, and first Sunday, long drive down to see if anyone would show up. Many of you showed up.
We moved from a time of famine, into a time of plenty and thrived in Milan. Then God called us to bet the farm again; having planted a church in Milan, to return this time to Ann Arbor.
Not knowing if there was a place for us here, people gave, we did our due diligence, and then this building, marvelously became available. And we moved in and set up shop.
Then Jesus said, "I want you to humbly bear my transforming presence into the heart of Ann Arbor…." Not just to gather the already connected, but to seek the disconnected. Yes, in left leaning, liberal, to use that word, secular, Ann Arbor.
"Lord! Not many Vineyards are doing that successfully! Vineyards thrive in suburbs & small towns. We're a hit in the Bible belt where people are looking for something that's not their father's Oldsmobile. But the heart of Ann Arbor? To do that would mean betting the farm!" Bet the farm.
I am fully aware that what we are attempting is a stretch. An evangelical church, for sake of gospel, emphasizing justice, because that's how Jesus framed the gospel of the kingdom; pressing out issues like environmental stewardship, because it has become a global concern and the gospel addressed global conerns.
At the same time that we develop small groups, invest in children's ministry and youth ministry, and Bible Study, and all the things that are also central to our mission and ministry. To value spiritual experience in ways we've learned, but also in new ways…
Preserve the core, expand the boundaries and trust that the center will hold, and that together we can penetrate a new mission field, see a harvest among those who expect the worst from a church….
I am fully aware that, for the sake of the gospel, you sometimes have to make moves that aren't understood by other evangelicals. But I am convinced that it's necessary. That we can't be evangelical--committed to cause of gospel expanding into unexplored territory--if we're not willing to take that risk.
Invigorating, I know. Exciting at times. But also nerve wracking. Misquotes appearing causing concerns.
But like Naomi knew Boaz, we know our kinsman-redeemer. And he will do his part. "Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today."
Naomi knew something about the heart, the intentions of Boaz: that he was a man who would do his part with diligence.
Not one of these kinsman-redeemers with talk and no walk. Promises and no follow through.
Perhaps you've had a Boaz or two in your life who made promises but never followed through.
God is inviting us today, to trust our kinsman-redeemer. To live in that sacred space between the promise and the fulfillment, trusting that our kinsman redeemer is a man of his word and will not rest and will not get distracted and will not lose interest, until the matter settled….