God's People: Ruth


But Ruth said,

 “Do not press 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!” ~ Ruth 1:16-17
What I notice first and foremost about Ruth's speech to Naomi is the form of it: it is in verse, like poetry. We'll see this again and again, most dramatically perhaps in Hannah's song, which comes tomorrow, and later with Mary's Magnificat in the Gospel of Luke.

 One of the things that tends to happen in Old Testament  Biblical narratives is that speeches that are important - meant to stand out - are in verse. So what Ruth says here bears some weight.

 And through her poetic speech, she is connected to women like Hannah and Mary: women who came from humble origins; women who ended up being mothers in surprising ways; women who moved the story of God and God's people forward in ways no one would have expected.

 Unlike Orpah, Ruth behaved in a way that was not expected. She breaks tradition. She remains fiercely loyal to a woman who has no blood ties to her - a woman who isn't even part of her tribe. She remains loyal to a women who was an alien in Ruth's land and who brings Ruth now to be an alien in her land.

 You cannot read Ruth's story without seeing in it God's breaking down barriers that we create: tribal barriers, religious barriers, national barriers.

 You cannot read Ruth's story without seeing God's care for the alien.

 Several years ago, during the beginning of the national attention to our current refugee crisis, I remember seeing signs of protesters in Arizona that said: "Not our children. Not our problem."

 I could not help but think of Ruth and Naomi. They refused to be defined by blood or nation. They took on each other's problems when no one expected them to.

 And all I can pray is that all of us remain as fiercely loyal to each other and to those who need it as much as these two women did.

 Prayer: God of the alien, remind us that your family exceeds our expectations and tribes and identities. Amen.

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