"An Unlikely Redemption"

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November 11, 2012

Old Testament Reading:  Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17

¹Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, I need to seek some security for you, so that it may be well with you. ²Now here is our kinsman Boaz, with whose young women you have been working. See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. ³Now wash and anoint yourself, and put on your best clothes and go down to the threshing floor; but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴When he lies down, observe the place where he lies; then, go and uncover his feet and lie down; and he will tell you what to do." ⁵She said to her, "All that you tell me I will do."

4:13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When they came together, the LORD made her conceive, and she bore a son. ¹⁴Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin; and may his name be renowned in Israel! ¹⁵He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him." ¹⁶Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom, and became his nurse. ¹⁷The women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, "A son has been born to Naomi." They named him Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Sermon: “An Unlikely Redemption”

When we left Ruth and Naomi last week, they were clinging to one another and heading toward Bethlehem from Moab, searching for food.  But, y’all there just weren’t any McDonald’s serving up camel burgers in that desert.  There was no International House of Mannacakes, not even a Pik-N-Fig.  They were starving. 

But as they arrived in Bethlehem (which had the hopeful meaning of “House of Bread”), their eyes were filled with the golden rows of a promising barley harvest.  Remember that it was the law for Israelites to not glean all the way to edge of their fields, but instead to leave some for the foreigner and widow.  They fit the bill.

Somehow, that long road with Ruth by her side seemed to have lifted Naomi beyond the notion that her name should be Bitterness.  Now, her focus was on putting one foot in front of the other and surviving, for both of them. 

She directed Ruth to the fields of Boaz, a distant relative, hoping he would show extra compassion on her.  He certainly did: this kinsman-redeemer as he’s called, fed her from his own table, and then selected the best sheaves of grain for her to take to her mother-in-law. 

It is a testament to one too many Disney movies that we assume he did all this because he found her pretty.  Ruth was cunning and brave, risking herself greatly to provide for Naomi once again.

We see this in the next scene of the story: Naomi asks Ruth to go down to where Boaz slept, on the “threshing floor.” 

I once saw a billboard in Atlanta that advertised a Christian Women’s Conference called “The Threshing Floor.”  It is slightly disturbing, though, to realize that a threshing floor in those days, where workers separated grain but also relaxed after a hard days’ work, had more to do with certain establishments like one sees driving through Fayetteville on Bragg Boulevard, than with a place of worship and morality.  If picking in a field alone as a woman was risky behavior, entering the threshing floor alone was nearly reckless, proved by the fact that Ruth had to sneak out so no one would see her there.

But desperate times called for desperate measures.  Ruth went to Boaz, uncovered his feet, and layed down.  Boaz awoke shocked to find her there.  He said, ‘Who are you?’ And she answered, ‘I am Ruth, your servant; spread your cloak over your servant, for you are next-of-kin.’   

Like the law requiring society to provide for orphans, widows and foreigners, another law required the next-of-kin (a male) to provide for his female relatives if no closer kin was living.  You see, Yahweh designed this community to care for each other.  Boaz hesitated a little, saying he’d check it over and be sure he really was the next-of-kin and then did so:  the next day he went to the elders and claimed his right to redeem. 

With all the romance of a board meeting, ten elders decided that, as next-of-kin, Boaz could redeem his claim on any land belonging to Naomi, oh, and Ruth became his property, too.  He actually used the language of “acquired” to describe taking Ruth to be his wife.  Fellas, I don’t recommend using that language on an Anniversary Card!  “20 years ago, I acquired you, honey!  Aren’t you pleased??”

But what was a business transaction became a powerful ending to our story: redemption was everywhere.  Ruth and Naomi were redeemed out of poverty and grief.  Boaz was redeemed out of living only for himself.  And, through the child of Ruth and Boaz, who was of the line of David and thus of the line of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we were all redeemed. 

The popular reading of this text has us focusing on Boaz as the kinsman-redeemer.  He was this.  But our story began with a woman who clung on when life was hopeless, and our story ends with her receiving new life.

The neighborhood ladies said it best when they spoke to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a next-of-kin!; and may his name be renowned in Israel! ¹⁵He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him.”  Those eager neighborhood ladies also gave that little baby boy a name: Obed.  It means worshipper.

There are many who had a hand in the unlikely redemption found in Ruth’s story.  But whether we celebrate Naomi’s grit and will to survive, or Ruth’s steadfast, brave devotion, or Boaz’s generosity, or the neighborhood’s contagious joy, they all have one source.  The One we worship.  The One the baby Obed in his very name points us to: Christ, our Redeemer. 

Let us never think we are capable of redeeming ourselves.  But let us also never think we do not have a hand in the redemption of another: especially those left most vulnerable in this world. 

The smiles of people served through the Mission to Cameron this week shine of redeemed humanity.  As I sat with one of the women we served in her trailer in Carolina Lakes, she told me about all the children she had taken in during her lifetime.  While working at Pinelake Nursing Home in Carthage, she noticed two small children, a boy and a girl who were always hovering nearby.  It turns out they lived in a drain pipe.  So she took them in, working extra shifts to earn the money to support them.  She acted as their next-of-kin, bringing redemption.   And when we replaced her door and windows, and put underpinning around to keep out the cold, we acted as hers. 

All she could tell me, over and over, was how blessed she was.  When redemption runs that deep, it overflows into the lives of everyone you meet.

For we are all next of kin to each other.  Each of us, through the Holy Spirit, has a hand in the redemption of this world, and each of us will forever belong to the loving family we call the Body of Christ.  Like the neighborhood women, we proclaim with joyful praise and compassionate service: “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left us this day without a next-of-kin!”  Amen.