Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 27 October 2013
by Captain Michael Ramsay.
by Captain Michael Ramsay.
Moving can be an interesting time. New places can be very different from old places. I remember when we moved from Victoria to the prairies. We moved in the summer and we noticed how nice and warm Winnipeg was – much warmer than summers in Victoria. I also remember seeing all of these man-made lakes around the city. These really perplexed me. We would look at them: they would be beautiful but there were signs all over them that said ‘no swimming’, ‘no boating’, ‘don’t go in the water’, etc. I wondered why do they have all of these man-made lakes if you can’t swim in them or you can’t boat on them? Do you know what the lakes are for? When Winter struck we found out what they are for: they were outdoor ice rinks. I come from a city where we only get snow once every four years or so and it usually only lasts for at the very most a week. Who of us from there had ever heard of, let alone experienced, an outdoor ice rink?
Also we brought our children into pre-school in Winnipeg in their boots and coats from the wet coast and were rewarded with a note home explaining to us that those are nice but they aren’t real coats and boots: these might be good for rain but in Winnipeg they need to be good for temperatures down to –40c. I remember then calling home and explaining to someone how cold it was in Winnipeg and the Vancouver or Vancouver Island native thought of the coldest temperature that they could think of and they actually asked me: how cold is it there… -5c? At –5c in Winnipeg, I explain, people are wearing shorts. This was a little bit different from Victoria.
Another thing that was different and that is really quite a blessing is the sunlight. On the prairies here you can experience weeks straight with great sunlight and without any real clouds. That is really a welcome change from the Pacific North Wet where you can seemingly have cloud cover for a month or more straight. Every part of our country has such unique beauty and when and wherever you move there are a number of things to get used to, no matter where you go.
In our story today we read about a lady who emigrates from Judah to Moab with her husband and her sons and then her husband and sons unexpectedly pass away and she returns to Judah with her daughter – a new immigrant to a new country. The book of Ruth relays some of their experiences upon coming to Judah. We know in this day and age that immigrating to Canada can come with it’s own challenges, especially for some people. Immigrating to Bethlehem in Judah at the time Ruth did bring some serious perils with it but that was not the full extent of Ruth and Naomi’s difficulties.
Women did not have all the rights and responsibilities in those societies then as they do in our country today. Widows found even less provision for them: they could be quite vulnerable; childless widows would be even more vulnerable; childless, immigrant widows would be very vulnerable. That is exactly what Ruth is as our story develops today.
We read about how Naomi and her husband left their home in Bethlehem in Judah when things were bad – there was a famine – and they went to the country of Moab, looking for a better life. Things may have been going well for a while. Naomi and her husband Elimelech raise their family; their sons, Mahlon and Chilion, grow up and get married. And then as providence would have it Naomi’s husband, her oldest son and her youngest son all die. Elimelech, Mahlon, Chilion all die. Now this would be bad enough in this time and place if your husband and all your children died. In that day and age, that was almost the only way that a woman would be provided for. Naomi couldn’t just go and get a job at 7-11 or at the bank. Also remember that there were no old age pensions in ancient Judah or ancient Moab – your only retirement plan was your sons. They were who provided for you in your old age. Now Naomi all of a sudden has nothing and not only does she have nothing but she has two daughters-in-law, who also have nothing and Naomi has some responsibility to provide for them.[1] It is in this situation that Naomi decides to pack it all up in Moab and head back to Bethlehem in Judah. It is in this situation that Naomi says, Ruth 1:13, “…No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the LORD has been against me” and Ruth 1:20-21, “She said to them, ‘Call me no longer Naomi [which means pleasant], call me Mara [which means bitter] for the Almighty [Shaddai] has dealt bitterly with me. I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty; why call me [pleasant] Naomi when the LORD has dealt harshly with me, and the Almighty [Shaddai] has brought calamity upon me?”
Two questions that arise for us quite naturally today then are these:[2]
1) Are Naomi’s accusations toward God valid: did God forsake her?
2) Do we ever reproach God in a similar manner because we feel like God has forsaken us?
Are Naomi’s accusations valid? Naomi was married. There was a famine in her home country so she and her husband felt they had to flee to a foreign land. When they got there, there were no ‘good Judean women’ for her sons to marry so they – quite contrary to Israelite law – married foreigners (cf. Deuteronomy 7:3, 23:3). Then, all of a sudden, she has nothing: her husband and sons die and she is a foreigner with no job, no income, no support, no noted life savings, no children, no foreseeable future but she does have her deceased sons foreign wives to support. And as we noted when we were reading Genesis 38 about Judah and Tamar the other week, Naomi also may have some responsibility –if at all possible - to provide a son for a husband to each of her daughter-in-laws.[3] Naomi is totally despondent, saying: “the hand of the Lord is against me”; “the Lord has dealt bitterly with me”; “I went away full but the LORD brought me back empty”; “the LORD has dealt harshly with me”; “the Almighty has brought calamity upon me.”
Do we ever feel this way? Does our life ever seem to collapse around us? I have heard stories lately of friends either near or far who have lost homes, who have lost fathers, who have lost mothers, who have lost jobs, who have lost pets, who have lost their health, who have been completely overwhelmed with life that tears well up in their eyes. There are some of us here today who are right in the middle of this. There are people here today who are like Naomi and Ruth and who are like Job looking over the horizon to see yet more messengers coming with yet more unwanted news. There are some here today who when the phone rings, don’t want to answer it for fear of what news awaits them. Do you ever get to the point where you don’t want to see anyone for you know that they can’t possibly be bringing any good news? Do you ever get to the point where you are so vulnerable that even the slightest thing now will just seemingly melt away your last drop of strength and do you ever get to the point where you are tempted to ask God to just snuff out your light altogether? Do you ever get to the point where your heart cries out with Naomi’s: “the hand of the Lord is against me”; “the Lord has dealt bitterly with me”; “I went away full but the LORD brought me back empty”; “the LORD has dealt harshly with me”; “the Almighty has brought calamity upon me”? Do you ever find yourself there?
There have honestly been days when I am so overwhelmed by the demands on me from ministry, from family, from everyone else’s problems and from my own, that when I receive an email from headquarters demanding some seemingly frivolous report to be written, requiring some seemingly meaningless hoop to be jumped through, or some requesting seemingly onerous task be done in some seemingly unreasonable time, that I can be tempted to even question whether in deed the Lord really did call me to ministry in The Salvation Army? If He really called me then why would it seem at times that “the hand of the Lord is against me”; “the Lord has dealt bitterly with me”; “I went away full but the LORD brought me back empty”; “the LORD has dealt harshly with me”; “the Almighty has brought calamity upon me” and what can I do about it?
What could Naomi and Ruth do about it?[4] While Naomi reproached God and returned home, Ruth is a different story.[5] Ruth – far from turning on God – turns towards God. Ruth sticks by Naomi, her deceased husband’s mother. Naomi - even in her bitter unpleasant state - is used by God, as an evangelist, to bring Ruth to salvation. And Ruth is not only brought to salvation, Ruth is brought by God, through Naomi to Rahab’s –whom we met last week – son.[6] And Ruth was chosen by God to be the great grandmother of Kind David. And Ruth was chosen by God to be an ancestor of Jesus who is the Christ, the Messiah, the Saviour of the whole world. God when Ruth was at her lowest point, God pointed her to this great salvation for Ruth, for Naomi and for ultimately the whole world.[7]
Look how Ruth responds to the same calamity that befalls Naomi. Look how Ruth responds. Instead of heading home complaining bitterly to God about how He is treating her, she follows God and her mother-in-law, Naomi into the unknown future with a strong declaration of faith. Naomi tries to discourage Ruth from following her into this future but Ruth replies, Verse 17 “Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” And Verse 16, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” Ruth follows God into the Promised Land. Ruth experiences salvation.
So here is the thing. Naomi turned from pleasant to bitter and God still saved her.[8] Romans 3:3,4a, “What if some were [even] unfaithful will their unfaithfulness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means!” Hebrews 13:5, God says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”; Romans 10:13, “Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved;” also Acts 2:21. And Ruth -even more- Ruth experiences the joy of that salvation in the midst of her calamity for Ruth moreover chooses not to suffer that bitterness for Ruth chooses to turn God when life seemed to turn on her. With Ruth and with Naomi and with us and with our Lord, it is like that poem, ‘Footprints’, that was read recently at the funeral service for Agnes Gerlack; the variously attributed poem reads:
One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.
This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You'd walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."
He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testing.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."
And that is the same with us today, no matter what is weighing us down, no matter what struggles we have, no matter if everything seems to be falling apart around us, no matter what trials and tribulations come our way, no matter what, the Lord is there with me and Lord is there with you and exactly when things seem to be the darkest then as we look we will notice that there is the light of God to show us the way; just when things seem the most difficult, there will always be our Lord carrying us through.
We don’t need to be bitter like Naomi. We don’t need to submit ourselves to the pain of bitterness in the midst of life’s very real struggles. We don’t need to worry (cf. Matthew 6:19-34). Jesus loves us. God loves us and God promises us that He will never leave us nor forsake us and just when things seem to be their most challenging, just when we can’t possibly move forward one more step at all, just then there is God right in the middle of our trials with us, carrying us on His shoulders towards His Salvation both for now and forever.
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[1] Cf. Thomas W. Mann, “Ruth 4: Between Text and Sermon,” Interpretation 64 (2010).
[2] Cf. Martha L. Moore-Keish, “Ruth 2,” Interpretation 64 (2010).She phrases the relevant questions as ‘where is God?’ and ‘where are we?’
[3] Captain Michael Ramsay, “Thanksgiving at Judah’s House,” Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army (Sheepspeak.com: Swift Current, SK: 13 October 2013): http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/10/thanksgiving-at-judahs-house.html
[4] Cf. Athalya Brenner, “From Ruth to the ‘Global Woman’: Social and Legal Aspects,” Interpretation 64, no. 2 (April 2010): 163 for a good discussion of possible motivations God may have provided.
[5] Cf. Kathleen A. Robertson Farmer, Ruth in Niw Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 2, ed. Leander E. Keck, et. al (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1998), 907 What is lost in the English translations is Ruth's tone of indignation. She is incensed that she would be asked to leave, or forsake, her mother-in-law.
[6] Captain Michael Ramsay, “Rahab the Redeemed (Joshua 2&6, Hebrews 11:31, James 2:25),” Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army (Sheepspeak.com: Swift Current, SK: 20 October 2013): http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2011/09/rahab-redeemed-joshua-2-hebrews-1131.html
[7] Cf. Jessica Tate, “Ruth 1:6-22: Between Text and Sermon,” Interpretation 64 (2010)
[8] Cf. Peter Lau, “Ruth 1:1-18,” The Expository Times 121, no. 1 (2009): 27-28.
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