Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] November 14, 2021 “It’s a Complicated Story” I want to go back and finish the story of Ruth today, but before I proceed, let me recall the first part of the story. Naomi and her husband moved to Moab because there was a famine in Bethlehem. No one would choose to move to Moab. Moabites were among the most hated and despised people in the land. But just like immigrants fleeing terror or starvation anywhere in the world today, it doesn’t matter if they’ll welcome you. You have a family to feed. While they were in Moab, Naomi’s husband died, but she still had two sons. They married two local girls, but with names like Sickly and Caput, it’s not surprising that they died before they had children, leaving their wives Ruth and Orpah both widows and childless. So now the three women have to figure out what to do. Naomi decided to move back to Bethlehem. Ruth pledged her loyalty and fidelity to Naomi and returned with her. Orpah went back to her people. And yes, by the way, the legend is true that Oprah Winfrey was meant to be named Orpah, but it was misspelled on her birth certificate So, remember, Ruth is a Moabite. Moving to Bethlehem, where the people hated and despised Moabites would have been unpleasant, if not downright risky. Ruth’s bigger concern, however, was not for herself but for Naomi because, after all, Ruth’s name means Friend. That’s where we ended our story last time. As I said, Ruth not only loved her friend Naomi. She was willing to love FOR her. You will hear that again today. So, as we continue the story, they have arrived in Bethlehem just in time for the harvest. One way that widows and foreigners could survive was through the practice of gleaning, a form of charity to which they were specifically entitled. This is how it worked: widows and foreigners were allowed to go behind the harvesters and pick up what was left behind. A generous property owner might tell the harvesters to leave some of the heads of grain on the stalk – making it easier to pluck. Others who were maybe less generous would have simply let foreigners pick fallen kernels up off the dirt. Either way, it’s very hard work. So now, listen for the Word of God from the 2nd chapter of the Book of Ruth: Naomi had a respected relative through the family of her husband Elimelech. His name was Boaz, a man of worth. 2 Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field so that I may glean among the ears of grain behind someone in whose eyes I might find favor.” Naomi replied to her, “Go, my daughter.” 3 So she went; she arrived and she gleaned in the field behind the harvesters. By chance, it happened to be the portion of the field that belonged to Boaz who 4 just then arrived from Bethlehem. He said to the harvesters, “May the Lord be with you.” And they said to him, “May the Lord bless you.” “May the Lord, May the Lord…” I’m going to come back to that line. 5 Boaz asked his overseer, “To whom does this young woman belong?” 6 He answered, “She’s a young Moabite woman, the one who returned with Naomi from Moab. 7 She asked, ‘Please let me glean so that I might gather up grain from among the bundles behind the harvesters.’ She arrived and has been on her feet from the morning until now, and has sat down for only a moment.” 8 Boaz went to Ruth and said, “Don’t go glean in another field; don’t go anywhere else. Instead, stay here with my young women. 9 Keep your eyes on the field that they are harvesting and go along after them. I’ve ordered the young men not to assault you. Whenever you are thirsty, go to the jugs and drink from what the young men have filled.” Wait a minute. “I’m not going to let them assault you?!” I’m going to come back to that line too! 10 Then Ruth bowed down, face to the ground, and replied to him, “How is it that I’ve found favor in your eyes, that you notice me? I’m an immigrant.” 11 Boaz responded, “Everything you did for your mother-in-law after your husband’s death has been fully reported to me: that you left behind your father, your mother, and the land of your birth, and came to a people you hadn’t known beforehand. 12 May you receive a rich reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you’ve come to seek refuge. May the Lord reward you for your deed.” “The Lord, The Lord, The Lord…” That’s what Art says every time he asks how much longer it’s going to take to write my sermon. He laughs and says, “Just say The Lord, The Lord, The Lord” and sit down. But, on a serious note, I do want to pause for a moment on the word “Lord.” Dr. Wilda Gafney is an amazing biblical scholar, a PhD from Duke. She was a pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and is now an Episcopal priest and professor at Brite Divinity School. I bring up all these credentials because this is a Black woman who is not to be dismissed when she asks, “Why would we use the word Lord – a male human-slave-holding title – for God?” And it’s not just once in a while. Almost every time the original text says YHWH – or as we say, Yahweh – it is translated The Lord. She rightly asks, Why? The letters YHWH simply express that God’s name is so completely beyond our knowing and too holy to even say that we use these letters as a substitute. But when translated into English, it has almost always been translated “The Lord.” What, she asks, was the process that ended with using the word “Lord” for a God who liberated the people from slavery? She reminds us to ask, Who is translating the scriptures we have learned to receive as words from God? Whose fingerprints and ideologies are on and in the sacred texts you read, proclaim and have proclaimed to you?[1] She argues instead for the ancient biblical and rabbinical practice of using “descriptive expressions for the name of God,” something which can be said for that which cannot. For example, instead of Lord, use the “name” “She Who Is Delight,” or “Mother of Creation,” or “Inscrutable God.” Words or expressions that describe the God who cannot be fully named. If you were here two weeks ago, you may have noticed that when the words of the scripture were projected onto the wall, as I was reading I had changed out the word “lord” for the word “God.” That sometimes-awkward process is part of liberating our minds and hearts and ears from an unconscious bias toward images that uphold, or rather bless the idea that if God is male then male is God. Or if God is lord, then inequality is God-given. Lord just assumes that some people are meant to be held in bondage. Well, wrong. There are ten more sermons in there so I have to move on. But just to point out that in this verse, Dr. Gafney translates YHWH as “The Holy One of Old.” As in, may the Holy One of Old reward your faithfulness. But it could have been May the “God Who Sees” reward your faithfulness, or “She Who Birthed the Earth.”[2] This section from Ruth is completed with verse 13: Ruth told Boaz, “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, sir, because you’ve comforted me and because you’ve spoken kindly to your female servant—even though I’m not one of your female servants.” But Dr. Gafney translates verse 13 this way: Then Ruth said to Boaz, “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord (an accurate description of his position), for you have comforted me and have spoken to the heart of your slave woman, [even though] I am not one of your slave women.” Dr. Gafney is among womanist scholars, Black women scholars, who advocate for using the word slave when that’s what it really meant. People who belonged to other people. Modern scholarship, meaning white scholarship, often prefers to use the word servant in settings like these. But that hides the real dynamic at play here. Don’t whitewash images of people belonging to people. What do you feel when you hear the word servant? What do you feel when you hear the word slave? The intent behind the use of one over the other shouldn’t be to make the listener more comfortable. OK, so I may have gotten a little off track, but that’s because this story is complicated. There are real power dynamics at play here. This isn’t a fairy tale. Not to mention, the story of Ruth also includes some really, um, awkward scenes, including what happens next. Coming up, chapter 3 is the X-rated section. If you go home and read it, first close the door, draw the drapes, and put on some Marvin Gaye. Ready? Naomi told Ruth that Boaz would be down on the threshing floor. “You should bathe, put on some perfume, wear nice clothes, and then go down to the threshing floor. Don’t make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, notice the place where he is lying. Then go, uncover his feet, and lie down. And he will tell you what to do.” To be clear, feet is a euphemism, a prelude to the next chapter when Ruth is pregnant. I was curious how a children’s Bible would handle this passage. I thought, it probably says that Ruth and Boaz dated, got married, had a baby, and lived happily ever after. I checked and all it said about the feet uncovering incident on the winnowing floor was, no kidding, Boaz was “nice to Ruth.” The Book of Ruth really does have a nice happily ever after ending. Ruth, a desperate and despised Moabite who suffered one tragedy after another, is the great-grandmother of King David. Sweet Naomi was no longer Bitter but Sweet again. But easily overlooked in our rush to end the story on a high note are a couple of lines that cry out for us to notice. You know, when someone needs us to help them they don’t usually say, “Help me.” They drop clues, hoping their friends can read between the lines.” And one of those clues is dropped right out in the open. Did you notice? Boaz tells Ruth, 9 Keep your eyes on the field that they are harvesting and go along after them. I’ve ordered the young men not to assault you. Whenever you are thirsty, go to the jugs and drink from what the young men have filled.” Wait. What? Why would Boaz even think to tell his young men not to touch her? Might it not cause us to wonder what would actually happen to a vulnerable young widowed Moabite? This was a dangerous world for women like Ruth. Israelites tended to view foreign women as promiscuous and enticing. Would any of them have cared about her? Or would they have asked, “what was she wearing?” Boaz wouldn’t have stepped in to protect Ruth if he didn’t know what really happened at night. Of course, among the many ironies, is that she then goes to him in the middle of the night. But that’s another, “Wait, what?” Naomi told Ruth to bathe and wear perfume, etc. and lay next to his uncovered feet. Naomi, what are you telling her to do? On its way to a happily ever after ending, these readings, as Dr. Gafney suggests, provide the necessary if unwelcome opportunity to talk about – and not judge – the real-life experiences of foreign women, or anyone who needs to do whatever is necessary to survive. Then, and now. Yesterday was Trans Day of Remembrance, many of whom were assaulted and killed in the only line of work they were allowed - as sex workers trying to survive. It's estimated that half of sex workers in Ukraine are single mothers. "If I don't do this, I'll die." The Book of Ruth rejects judgment, then as today. It explicitly refutes the purity codes of the priestly class against mixed marriages, among other things. These people wouldn’t even allow you to wear a coat made of wool and linen. That’s mixing two fibers. These are the kinds of thing that white supremacists quote. They haven’t read the whole Bible. King David’s great-grandma and Boaz were of two completely different religions and cultures. And Christians, listen up. The genealogy of Jesus from Abraham to King David in the Gospel of Matthew contains only three women. Mixed marriage Ruth, Rahab, commonly thought to make her living from prostitution, and Tamar, one of the most tragically abused women in the Bible.[3] These three exceptionally brave women are named as Jesus’ ancestors. All of which goes to say, I don’t believe religion is meant for the pure and holy, if there even is such a thing. Or meant to make us pure and holy. Rather, I believe religion helps all of us with our own travails and tragedies and travesties of justice, and helps us cope in a complicated world, when disconnected from the pursuit of power and wealth. Religion, when disconnected from the pursuit of power and wealth, should make us more compassionate, more understanding of how difficult it is to be a human being, and especially one who is desperate. And if it doesn’t, then find a new religion. If at the end of worship we don’t leave trying to be more open and loving, we’ve been doing it wrong. If your church tries to tell you who is in and who is out, it’s not a church of Jesus Christ. It’s a club with a tax ID number. You may have heard or even once said, “good Christian boys and girls don’t do things like that.” Well, that means they’ve never read the Book of Ruth. But more importantly, they don’t know at all what it takes to survive in an often very cruel world, only made worse when the cruelty is by religious people. Ruth was brave and courageous. She and Naomi sought creative solutions within a system that severely limited their options. As we shake our heads in disbelief at all she had to do, I can see her look over to us and say, “Don’t judge. It’s complicated.” If only we could look at the struggles of others around us with the same compassion. With a nod that says, “I understand.” And sometimes by offering to help. At other times, it’s more important to simply offer reassurance. For our eyes to communicate, “I know because I’ve been there too.” To say, “may God, She Who Sees, bless you." Wilda C. Gafney, Womanist Midrash and A Woman's Lectionary for the Whole Church
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