“Traveling with Ruth: Celebration” Ruth 4: 1-17

Ruth is an odd book in the Bible. It was probably included in the cannon of books in the Bible because it stood in such stark contrast to other books like Ezra and Nehemiah, that taught that the Israelites should only marry insiders - folks like them. Yet, here is Ruth, who not only interacted with insiders, but married one and is now preparing to marry another with Boaz. 

We are now in our final week of our sermon series about traveling with Ruth. We have walked with her through grief, hostility and fidelity. We have seen how God has been present in the midst of all circumstances. Now, now, we are entering with Ruth into a period of celebration.

Boaz and Ruth have fallen in love. But there is one thing that stands in the way - Boaz is not next in line to marry Ruth. While Ruth herself cannot hold any property because she is a woman, whoever marries her will inherit what was her late husband’s. So Boaz needs to be diplomatic in reaching out to those next in line to see if they want to marry Ruth.

So Boaz went to where deals were stuck in ancient society - the city gate. He gives the man the opportunity to claim what is his - a parcel of land belonging to Elmilech and his sons, however there is a catch - if he claims the land he also gets Ruth’s hand in marriage. 

The kinsman couldn’t have that. He couldn’t risk being affiliated with an outsider, a Moabite, so he passed on his chance on the land. He passed over his opportunity and handed it on to Boaz, who gladly claimed the land and Ruth’s hand in marriage. And then the men at the city gate, men who knew all about Ruth being an outsider, did a funny thing - they blessed Ruth, telling Boaz that they wished that she be like Rachel and Leah, the mothers of the twelve tribes of Israel, who built up their people.

And that is exactly what happened! Ruth gave birth to a son named Obed - servant of God. The women of the city rejoiced with Naomi that though she was once without a male heir, now had kin to call her own because of this blessing. And Obed became the father of Jesse and Jesse the father of King David, placing Ruth directly in the lineage of Jesus.

There is a Hebrew word that describes the love that Boaz had for Ruth. It didn’t start out as a romantic love, but instead as hessed - loving kindness, loyalty, love in action. Friends, we need more hessed in our world today. While it is wonderful to have love that is passion or emotion, we need more folks showing love in the world. Folks who are living out the love of their faith in the world.

For Boaz, hessed seemed to go against the priestly way of keeping insiders and outsiders separate. But because he was willing to take a God given and God blessed risk, we see that God had a different vision for the people of God then what they thought. This hessed , this risk, allowed for the lineage of Jesus, friends. Let that sink in. There is no place that God is not at work, even when other’s discount it, even when other’s turn down opportunities, the question for us is where does God want us to live into hessed, putting the love of Christ into action, taking a risk for the Gospel.

Its perhaps easiest to show love, kindness, and loyalty to those we like. So how can we shine the love of God in our family? How can we be kind to one another, purposefully? Now I am not nieve. It is not always easy to love our family and we all have hiccups along the way. But if we can’t love our families, the gift and blessing that God gave us, then how can we love strangers? Perhaps another way to ask this question would be how can we appreciate the family we have and not take them for grant it?

I’ve been at far too my funerals, brothers and sisters, littered with “if only”. If only I would have told him that when he was alive. If only I would have made more time for her before now. Now is the time, dear friends, to show love and kindness to our families. 

Then let’s take it out a bit further. How can we show loving kindness to our church family? How can we use the gifts we have been given to bless others in the body of Christ. There was a woman at my first appointment who had the gift of words of encouragement. Whenever there was a stumbling block or hiccup in ministry, should would pull me aside with a word from scripture to lift up my spirits as well as others. I knew another man who had the gift of prayer - when he said that he would pray for you, you knew that he meant it. Another person would do things for others - he would often show up to help them chop wood or do other odd jobs. We each are blessed with ways to help one another. Are we using our gifts to build one another up with loving kindness, or not?

And what about our neighbors and strangers that do not yet know Jesus? How can we show loving kindness to them? During Lent my parents and I went to go see Jonah at Sight and Sound and one of the things that struck me the most was while Jonah certainly had a message from the Lord, he didn’t have the heart of the Lord while delivering it - he wanted people to suffer. He wanted to think himself better than then. That is not loving kindness, friends. When we talk with folks that don’t know Jesus are we speaking in love or hate? Are we seeking the best for them and their future or are we trying to make ourselves feel superior to them?

Right before Easter, we had a funeral for a dear colleague that lost her battle with cancer. During the time of witness one person stood up and said she knew me both before and after I accepted Christ and she loved me either way. Will that be our testimony as well, brothers and sisters? That we loved people both who did and did not know the Lord? That we let the light of Christ shine through us in all circumstances?

The book of Ruth is a book of questions. Questions that help us to examine ourselves and what we believe about God. Questions like - what does loving kindness look like for us? When have we experienced such love and how did it reflect Jesus Christ to us? Where is God in the midst of the unknown? How do we know that God is never absent in our lives? How can we remember that God is at work in the world every day? In what ways are God’s plan full of surprises?

Here’ the thing - if someone who have told that Ruth would become the great grandmother of King David, they probably would have laughed and said there’s no way, she isn’t an Israelite. She is an outsider. But God took that outsider and made her an insider, not just for the sake of Israel, but for the sake of the plan of salvation that will come through Jesus Christ. 

We don’t get to choose who God uses or in what ways. Therefore, we should treat everyone with loving kindness, for they may just be part of God’s great plans for drawing the world closer to the Kingdom of God. Amen.