WHERE YOU GO, I WILL GO TOO

 Ruth 1: 1-18

Charles J. Tomlin, June 13th, 2021

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Series: The Roots of God’s Justice 10/20

 

Some of the most popular music comes out of places like Nashville, Tennessee and Austin, Texas.   It is Country music that is best known for colorful lyrics.

 Former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, who served until 1980, was a country music fan.  He delighted in recounting the titles of his favorite songs.  

Among them were, "When the Phone Don't Ring, You'll Know It's Me,"

"Walk Out Backwards, So I'll Think You're Coming In,"

and "My Wife Ran Off with My Best Friend, and I Sure Do Miss Him."

These gems were found in an album titled   "Songs I Learned at My Mother's Knee, and at Other Joints."

One very sentimental and popular country song by Michael Martin Murphy, written back in 1987 was entitled, "A Long Line of Love."  It tells of a young man who is getting married.  His sweetheart asks him if he thinks they can make it.  His answer is "I come from a long line of love."

Then he talks about his parents' marriage and his grandparents' and at the end of each refrain he sings, "Forever's in my heart and in my blood...I come from a long line of love."

I’m not trying to be flippant or frivolous with you, when I say that that Jesus himself, comes from a long line of love.  Now, of course, we might not even know about this story of Ruth had she not been the great grandmother of King David, the most important King in the Hebrew Bible.  This relationship to David also makes Ruth one the ancestors of Jesus.  Interestingly, Ruth wasn’t born Jewish.  She was a Moabite who had converted through marriage. But that’s getting ahead of the story.  

THE LORD HAS TURNED AGAINST ME. (v. 13)

The story of Ruth began when a Jewish family of four, the husband, Elimelech; the wife, Naomi; and their two sons, had to leave Israel because of economic difficulties. They were like so many immigrants today, who have to move because of natural or economic problems in their land.    In this case, as it was often in the ancient world, a  famine had spread throughout their land, and food was scarce.    So Elimelech and Naomi packed up a small U-Haul and moved to Moab (part of today’s Jordan), where there was more food.

Not long after Elimelech died unexpectedly, both sons had married local women in Moab, but then tragedy struck again.  Both Naomi’s son’s died.  All this happened within a relatively short span of time.  

As you can imagine, Naomi was devastated.  Opportunities for women in that day and time were practically non-existent.   Naomi was left all alone in a foreign country.   All she had left were two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah.  How would she and how would they survive?  Naomi expressed it most tragically: ‘the hand of the Lord has been against me’.

While this is certainly not a desirable idea to entertain, it’s certainly how life can seem sometimes.   Jesus himself, the most beautiful of all humans beings who ever lived upon the earth expressed the same kind of feeling,  “My God, why, why have you forsaken me!”    Although we now know that God didn’t forsake Jesus on the cross, but that God was in Jesus on the cross, we can also know that God wasn’t against Naomi either.   But it certainly can seem that way.   There are many times in life it can seem to be, just as Helen Reddy used to sing with her child, “It’s you and me against the world!”   It can indeed seem, especially when bad things happen to us, that life is stacked against us or is caving in on us and that nobody cares.  

While we can all feel this way, especially when tragedy strikes, this is certainly not a place we need to stay for long.   The human spirit needs to see, know and find purpose in life, no matter what happens to us.   We need to be able see make meaning, see hope and to find purpose, especially out of the most tragic things that can happen to us.   However, trying to find a purpose or meaning does not mean, like some say, that ‘everything happens for a reason’.  

We hear well-meaning people say something like this often, don’t we?   It might even seem that Naomi is saying something like this too, when she said, ‘God’s hand was against her’.    I know that by saying that God is doing this, we often try to say that God is in control, that God cares, even when it doesn’t seem like it; or that life can go on and we can still find hope, even when bad things happen.   I think those things all be true, but it still isn’t true to say that everything happens for a reason. 

While there is certainly an ultimate purpose to life discovered the God of the Bible; namely, that God creates life and life is good and can be wonderful and purposeful, this doesn’t mean that there is a purpose for everything under the sun.   While Ecclesiastes does say rather poetically that there is  ‘time for everything under the sun’,  it doesn’t say nor mean there’s a reason for everything.   There’s a big difference in saying that.   Even when Ecclesiastes says there is a ‘time for everything under the sun’, it leaves out a lot of things too.   There certainly isn’t a good time or reason for sin, for rape, for incest, for abuse, for murder or for hate, is there?   These things, and many other things happen, just like the death of a child are things that can happen and do happen, but these kinds of happenings can’t be made to be reasonable or God’s plan for what is supposed to go on under the sun.  

What we all know is part of God’s plan is freedom.   Adam and Eve where given great freedom when God created the world and said, ‘here it is’!   “You can have everything but this one tree!”  That’s mine!  But it you try to make what’s mine, thine, bad things can and will happen.   What this story means is that since humans, like life are created to be free, life must also be allowed to be random, have the freedom to choose, in a way that allows for accidents to happen.   The story of the Bible is not a story of a God who ‘controls’ the world, but it’s the story of this God who creates the world freely, then interrupts and disrupts things from time to time, to keep the world going in the in a free, good, and ultimately right and just direction.    In other words life in this world must have freedom because this freedom is what allows life to have such great potential and possibility.   As a philosopher once argued years ago,  after a great earthquake flattened the city of Libson: ‘This is the best of all possible worlds’.   In other words, you simply can’t have a physical world in a physical universe unless it is allowed to quake and stay in balance.  

While I don’t think that this is the only possible world, I do agree that you can’t have a physical world like we now know without allowing for randomness, accidents, the unintentional, or suffering and pain.    You can only invite the potential of great good in our world by also inviting the possibility of what can be bad, and sometimes very bad.   Just like God creates the world out of chaos of nothingness, we humans are called to join with God in this purpose-making and purpose giving.    This means that there’s isn’t already a purpose for everything, but that can join with God in making something out of the worst that can happen.   Life is good, and it is full of great potential and possibility, but we still have to join with God finding or making it happen.      

Now, I know you weren’t in for a philosophical discussion, but what Naomi says forces us to think about it.   Since God is the ultimate creator of life, and everything that is ultimately goes back to God, it can be said that God allows or uses evil to achieve God’s purposes.   We can all understand where Naomi was coming from, but I don’t think we need to stay where she was.   That’s exactly what this whole story is ultimately about.  This is where Naomi was, but it was Ruth’s devotion and determination that begins to take them both to whole new place and gives them meaning and hope that had been lost in all that had happened to them.

 

 

WHERE YOU GO, I WILL GO...  (v. 16)

Nothing in this story makes sense, just like nothing in life really makes sense, until you come to what happens next.   Do you see it?   After Naomi suffers so much loss in her life, the only viable option is for her to return to her hometown and hope there would be a place for her somewhere among her relatives.

Thus, Naomi and her two daughters-in-law set out for the land of Judah.   But as the three widows began their journey, it occurred to Naomi that it might be better for her daughters-in-law to remain in their own country.   She’s already moved to thinking beyond herself, so now, encourages them to go back home.  They were still young; they could find new husbands and have the security she could not give them.    Naomi loved her daughters-in-law, and she wanted to see them happy.    So Naomi kissed them, told them to go back, as the three women all wept.

However, Ruth and Orpah, her daughters-in-law, still wanted to stay with Naomi. They protested, but Naomi knew they would not be so well accepted by her relatives in her home country.  They were foreigners.  The law was very clear about this.   No Moabite could enter the household of faith even after ten generations.   If her daughters-in-law remained with her, they would never be accepted among her people.   

So once again, Naomi encouraged her daughters-in-law to stay in their homeland.  She told them that it was absurd for them to follow her, "Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?" she asked.   Orpah then decided that her mother-in-law was right.  It would be best for her to remain in her own country.   She decides to go back.

Ruth, however, still wants to remain with Naomi.  Ruth loved Naomi deeply.  When Orpah kisses, Ruth hugs and clings.   Then, it is in this context that Ruth spoke some of the most beautiful words in the Bible and in all of literature.  You still hear this text quoted a lot at weddings.  Ruth refuses to leave her mother-in-law, saying: "Do not force 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 my God.    Where you die, I will die-- there will I be buried.  May the LORD do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!" (16-17 NRS)

Here, in these most beautiful words, we find only way any human being can made meaning and purposes, in potentially meaningless, random and accidental world.   Love.   It is with this love story that RUTH responds to Naomi’s tragic situation and it’s also how we are also called to give and make meaning in our lives.   It’s all about love; faithful, loyal, devoted and lasting love.   

Years ago, before I was old enough too young to explain or understand all that life or love was about, there was a great tear-jerker movie that came out in the movies, with exactly this kind of title, “Love Story”.   The movie became one of the most popular movies of all time, telling the story of a couple who fall in love, but their parents didn’t approve.  They decide to marry anyway, making many sacrifices just so they can be together in their marriage, until one day, they discover that Jenny, the young wife can have children and is terminally ill.   But Oliver, the young husband, sacrifices everything to stay with her up until the end.   And when the end comes, your heart breaks too, especially when he gave that finally line that went, ‘Love means never having to say you’re sorry’. 

That movie received a lot of criticism from Christians, because the young people went against the wishes of their parents to get married and most everyone knows, true love means saying you’re sorry many, many times.   But what was true and what came through in that popular book, which became one of the most popular movies of all time, and what caused most everybody in the theaters to cry when it came to the end, was the most important message of life.  Life is still at it’s best, even when it is at its worst, because life is about the faithfulness and loyalty of a love that cares for stays by another, even though the worst possible things that could happen.   In this very tragedy, and in all this hurt, you discover what both life and love is really about.   And that was just in a book or in a movie.

In a simple, but true love story, a three-year-old girl became very ill.  She was so critically ill that she had to stay in the hospital for many months.  In all those months, her mother never once left her hospital bed.  A petite woman, weighing little more than ninety pounds, this mother stayed right with her daughter day and night, displaying an amazing strength which inspired her family and friends.

Eventually the little girl recovered. Once she was home, everyone asked her mother how she had done it.  How could anyone have the strength to do what she did? The young mother smiled warmly, and told her questioners, "She's my child. I love her more than breathing.  She needed me. She needed me as never before. I had to do it. I had to be there for her!" (Rodney Jones and Gerald Uelmen, SUPREME FOLLY, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1990), pp. 151-1532).

That's love, isn't it?  It’s the kind of love that makes life worth living.  It’s not the kind of love that says: "I love you for what you can do for me." Or "I'll love you as long as it is convenient." No. It's, the kind of love that says, “I'll love you no matter what. I'll always be there.”   In a world that constantly spins around, sometimes appearing that life goes nowhere, faithful, loyal, and devoted love, is the true ‘cream that keeps coming to the top’.

In the classic Russian novel by Leo Tolstoy, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, a young student murders two people for their money.   He rationalizes his crime by telling himself, first, that Napoleon killed thousands and became a hero; second, that his victims were unimportant people; and third, that he would use the money to further his career for the good of humanity.

Most of the story, however, is taken up not with the crime but with the young student's punishment, not from without but from within.   Guilt rages inside him, and his body, mind, and spirit grind away at each other wearing him down.  However, there is a young girl, Sonia, who loves this young murderer.  Hers is a rare kind of love. It is not cheap sentiment.   It’s a love that works positively in and on him.   First of all, her love drives him to confess that he is the murderer.  She tells him he must repent to try and express and resolve his guilt.  He does.  He kisses the ground he has stained with human blood and cries out his confession to the four corners of the earth.

Finally, he is convicted of his crimes and he’s sent off to Siberia, suffering from tuberculosis and pneumonia.  But the story doesn't end there. The girl, Sonia, follows him over the hard miles to Siberia.  Throughout his long nine-year sentence, she stays by his side.  She keeps them both alive by scrounging whatever food she can find. Her love never quits.   

When you get to the end of this great story, you realize that Tolstoy’s novel isn’t just about CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, but it’s really about life.   Love is not only what redeemed this sinner, but loyal, faithful and devoted love the only thing that redeems life itself.  

 

SHE WAS DETERMINED TO GO (18)

I think that, other than being a story connected with the family tree of a king, that the other reason this very ordinary story is in the Bible is because, love is the only thing that makes life worth living.   We can see in the same ‘determination’ Ruth has to selflessly remain with her mother-in-law, during her time of need, that we see reflected in who Jesus is, what Paul preaches, and what the rest of the Bible is basically about.

            When Hollywood today tells stories of love, I wonder if how much they can still get to this point?   When couples spend all kinds of money to have big weddings, in grand venues, rather than in churches, I wonderful if they understand what love is really about?   Even when couples use these most beautiful words of Ruth in their own wedding ceremony, expressing Ruth’s loyal love,  I wonder if they realize how Ruth had really nothing gain for herself, and everything to lose.   It’s hard to make sense of such dogged, determined, and sometimes dangerous love.   True love is seldom understood, and remains a mystery, until it’s lived out, day by day, hour by hour, and minute by minute.   

Later in this story, as it’s told rest of this book, after they get to back to Judah, arriving in Bethlehem, a relative of Naomi's named Boaz noticed the young Ruth gathering grain.  She was different from the other women, more graceful, he thought   Naomi decided to play the match-maker and fixed her daughter-in-law up with Boaz.   When you read story, you’ll find Ruth’s determination showing up again, even in ways that are too R rated for Worship.   I dare you to get you a modern translation and read it for yourself.

But what’s most amazing in this whole story of determined love and loyalty is how meaning and purpose comes from it, to bless the world with hope.   After the wedding, Ruth bore a son in Bethlehem, named Obed, and as you might know, Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of King David, and David was eventually an ancestor of another baby boy born in Bethlehem, many years later named Jesus.    Isn't it interesting that in the ancestry of Jesus there is a Moabite woman, who grew up under another god?   She is here, not only in our Bible, but she is here because of her love and loyalty that transcends all religions, and can even teach Jews and Christians a thing or too about who God is, who humans are, and who Jesus is.   Now, can’t you see, why I say that Jesus came from a long line of love?

Before we go, let me share one more story.   Some time ago, there appeared in Guideposts a story about a woman named Virginia Duran, who was born in a migrant worker camp in central California.  Her father was in jail, and her mother could not afford her. There was a doctor in the area, also named Virginia, who made sure that there was enough food for the young girl and her mother. That's why her mother named her Virginia: after the doctor who helped feed, clothe and pay the rent for them. As Virginia grew, her family moved, so she eventually lost contact with that caring doctor.

Years later, when Virginia was grown, she was visiting Mexico and saw a picture of a poor girl in the newspaper.  At that moment Virginia realized that, if it hadn't been for that one doctor many years before, she could have ended up like the girl in that picture.   So, when Virginia went home she told her sister about the picture.  She had decided that she wanted to do something to help poor children. The two sisters traveled to Mexico and found a dusty village filled with migrant children.  Many of the children's parents were unwed teenagers or alcoholics. Many of the children were also malnourished and sick.  Virginia and her sister helped as many of these children as they could.   Today they have 35 children in their care.

One day, as Virginia was taking care of the children,  she suddenly remembered something she had long forgotten.  Doctor Virginia once told her that she, the doctor, had been rescued by a wealthy woman herself.  That woman had also been saved from poverty by yet another woman, who had been rescued by another woman ” back six generations.  All of these women lived in the west, and all were surrogate mothers for children who desperately needed love.  Interestingly, all of the women were named Virginia.  "You're the seventh in a long line," the doctor told her. "And someday, you'll do as much for someone else." (Virginia Duran, "Someday, You'll Do As Much," GUIDEPOSTS, May 1994, pp. 16-19).

Virginia Duran was in a long line of love.  So was Jesus. So are you and I.   I know a lot of people who talk about love, but what counts is how we show and live it.  This is the kind of love that makes life count and worth living, even can be a very dangerous, difficult and sometimes dissappointing world.   

Do you know about this kind of faithfully devoted, and loyal love?  This is the true love that says to another,  "I love you ”,  “I care about you”,  not only because I need you but because you are you, and because you need me.  I will be with you, wherever you go, even to the very end."   That, is human love as reflected from God's love. This is why, as the human race, even if we don’t realize it, we all come from a long line of love."   Amen.