Ruth 1:1-18/Mark 12:28-34
November 3, 2024
“Where you lead, I will follow.
Anywhere that you tell me to.
If you need, you need me to be with you.
I will follow where you lead.”
If you’ve ever watched the show, The
Gilmore Girls, you may recognize these lyrics. They are the chorus of the
show’s theme song, and they narrate the opening montage of a show that depicts
the life of a mother and daughter who are closer than close. Carole King sings
the theme song, and while her voice is recognizable some folks may not realize
that this song was originally released on King’s album, Tapestry.
Tapestry was on heavy
rotation in my house when it was first released in the early 1970’s, and I still consider it to be one of the
greatest albums ever. Carole King didn’t write this song. It was written by a
couple, and the original lyrics were meant to portray a woman who follows her
man wherever he may lead. King rewrote the lyrics for The Gilmore Girls
to reflect more the relationship of a mother and daughter rather than a man and
a woman.
While the lyrics may not have been
inspired by the words we read in the Book of Ruth, they do resonate with them,
especially considering that our words from the Book of Ruth are set in the
context of a mother and daughter relationship – or, more specifically, a
mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship.
The opening verses of chapter one
set the scene. There is a famine in the land of Bethlehem in Judah, and
Bethlehem, which translates to “House of Bread” has no bread to offer anyone.
Famine creates understandable desperation and desperation creates refugees. The
very real threat of starvation forced people who would otherwise never leave
their homeland are forced to leave their homelands and their homes and seek a
chance at life elsewhere. This was the reality for Elimelech, a man of
Bethlehem. Elimelech was married to Naomi, and they had two sons, Mahlon and
Chilion. Elimelech, Naomi, and their boys set off for the country of Moab. Moab
was not suffering from devastating famine, and there was a chance there to survive,
to live, maybe even to thrive.
At first they seemed to thrive just
as they had hoped. Mahlon and Chilion grew up. They married two young women of
Moab, Orpah and Ruth. Life must have surely seemed good. But life has seasons
of sadness and sorrow, and the sorrowful season fell upon the family once more.
Elimelech died and left Naomi a widow. Yet, even in the midst of her grief, she
knew that at least she had her sons and daughters-in-law. She was protected and
safe … until both of her sons died, leaving behind their wives as well as their
mother. Now they were three widows, and the world was often very cruel to
widows.
Naomi is despondent. She is grieving
and she is angry. She sets her face to return to Bethlehem, her homeland. The
world was cruel to widows in Bethlehem as well, but maybe there would be family
or neighbors who remembered her. Maybe she would have a better chance at
protection back home than she would in her adopted country. She tells Orpah and
Ruth to go back to their mothers’ houses. And she offers them a blessing.
“May the Lord deal kindly with you,
as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find
security, each of you in the house of your husband.”
You see Orpah and Ruth still had a
chance. They still had the opportunity to marry and bear children. There was
still hope for them, a chance at life ahead of them. So, she bids them to go
back and find that life among their own people. All three of them wept at their
impending separation. But whereas Orpah saw sense and did what Naomi requested,
and returned to her mother’s house, Ruth would not leave Naomi.
Naomi argues with Ruth. What do you
think is going to happen, Ruth? Do you think that its possible for me to marry
again, to have more sons for you to marry? Will you wait for years while these imagined
sons grow up? Would you put off marrying again for the sake of this husband and
these sons who will not come? But Ruth wasn’t budging. She would not be moved.
She would not leave her mother-in-law. She tells Naomi,
“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 I will be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more
as well, if even death parts me from you!”
These are probably the best known
words from this entire book. They are often read at wedding ceremonies to
emphasize the commitment being made between the couple. “Where you go, I will
go. Where you lodge, I will lodge,” and so on. While they certainly speak to
the depth of commitment being pledged between two people who are marrying, I
think they are even more profound as a pledge from this young woman to an older
woman, a daughter-in-law to a mother-in-law, a young widow to an older one.
It probably would have made much
more sense for Ruth to return home, just as Orpah did. No one would have
faulted her for it, just as no one faulted Orpah. It seemed to be the absolute
right thing to do. Why should Ruth leave her homeland, leave her family of
origin to follow her mother-in-law to a strange land and make her way there?
But maybe Ruth understood that the requirements of love sometimes turn common
sense on its head. Maybe Ruth understood that Naomi needed her more than ever,
despite Naomi’s protests that she did not. Perhaps Ruth understood that loving
her mother-in-law meant more than just words. Loving her mother-in-law meant
walking the same road Naomi walked, literally and figuratively.
Ruth understood that love is a verb.
She put her love for Naomi into action. She committed to stay with her, to
stand by her, to abide with her until only death could part them. And surely
Ruth knew that what she was committing to would not be easy. She was choosing
to walk the path of the unknown and the uncertain. There was no guarantee of
protection at the end of their journey to Bethlehem. There was no guarantee or
certainty that, to paraphrase Julian of Norwich, all would be well and all
would be exceedingly well. But Ruth seemed to understand what so many of us
still struggle to do, love is not about feeling, it is about the walk. And Ruth
was ready to walk.
Perhaps it is a leap to say that
Ruth embodied the words that Jesus would speak centuries later. And it is
certainly only speculation that Jesus would have had Ruth in mind when he spoke
those words. When the scribe came to Jesus and asked him which commandment was
the greatest of all, Jesus was speaking more from Deuteronomy than the Book of
Ruth.
“’Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God,
the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second
is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Isn’t that what Ruth did? Isn’t that
how she loved Naomi? I know that it can be argued that Ruth did not know the
God of Israel, although she would pledge herself to the Lord when she pledged
her life to the older woman. Ruth was a Moabite. She grew up worshipping other
gods. Certainly it is possible that when Ruth married into Naomi’s family, she
pledged herself to the Lord at that time. We don’t know. But her actions, her
embodied and active love, reflected the love of God that Jesus spoke of. And it
certainly reflected loving her neighbor as herself.
So, I would argue that even if Ruth
did not yet officially know the Lord, she knew the Lord because
she loved in the way of the greatest commandment that Jesus quoted. She loved
with her whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. And she loved her neighbor as
herself.
These were two grief-stricken,
devastated widows who had no protection in that culture outside of men, but
Ruth pledged her life to her mother-in-law, not because it would be easy but
because Ruth knew just how hard it could and would be.
And isn’t that the message that
Jesus proclaimed again and again? Following him, following him on the path of
sacrifice and service was not easy. It was never going to be easy. The path of
love that Jesus walked was a narrow path, a thorny and crooked path. It
required a commitment to love, to sacrifice and serve, even when loving was the
hardest possible thing to do, and sacrifice could require giving up life
itself. That’s what Ruth did when she stayed with Naomi. And isn’t that what
Jesus did and does with us? Isn’t this commitment of love the commitment that
God makes to us, to the world, through Jesus?
Doesn’t God covenant to be our God,
to love us, to stand by us, to not fail or fall away from us, no matter how
many times we do just that in response? Isn’t this the grace of God that covers
us?
“You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all you mind, and with
all your strength, … and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Where you go, I will go; where you
lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
May we be like Ruth. Thanks be to
God.
Let all of God’s children say,
“Alleluia.”
Amen.
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