November 11, 2018 (Remembrance Sunday) – Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17
Long Looked for Day of Peace
Lectionary 32B [Remembrance Sunday] – November 11, 2018
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
We have a happy ending in the story of Ruth and Naomi today.
Naomi and Ruth return to the land of Judah, both widowed, and both now without children.
Their situation is precarious –
widows without children lived a very tenuous life in the ancient world.
Ruth, though, remains true to her commitment to care for Naomi no matter what.
She takes action, and goes to glean grain in the barley fields.
Gleaning was a way of providing welfare in ancient Israel –
there were laws that ensured that the poor could collect leftover grain in the field.
It was hard work and still left you living from day to day, and only for the time of the harvest.
After that, your future was once again unknown.
Ruth takes action and goes to the fields, and by chance finds herself in a field of
Naomi’s relative, a good man named Boaz.
When Boaz discovers that the woman gleaning in his field is Ruth the Moabite,
the foreign woman who has been so faithful to his relative Naomi,
he is very generous to her and makes sure she is safe and that
she returns with plenty of barley.
When Naomi finds all this out, she is delighted – and now it is time for Naomi to take action.
She devises a scheme by which Ruth and Boaz will be brought together in marriage.
The scheme works!
Ruth and Boaz marry, they have a child named Obed, Ruth and Naomi’s futures are secured,
and, as I mentioned last week, Obed is grandfather to King David,
Israel’s most famous king.
One of many interesting things in this story is how God is at work in it.
For the most part, God does not act directly in the story to bring about its conclusion.
It is not one of those biblical stories where God speaks directly to people,
or where God is clearly the main actor.
Naomi, for sure, attributes her misfortunes as being directly from the hand of God.
“The LORD has dealt harshly with me,” she says,
“the Almighty has brought calamity upon me.”
Those are legitimate feelings, for sure, and probably everyone in this room has
at one point or another felt like that.
But is it true?
Has God really caused her misfortune?
The teller of the story doesn’t seem to think so – or at least never ever says so.
There is only one direct action we are ever told God is responsible for in this story.
Only one thing the teller of the story is confident that God has done:
it’s in our reading this morning.
Can you find it?
Yes! In Chapter 4, verse 13: “The LORD made Ruth conceive, and she bore a son.”
In this story, God works behind the scenes and through people’s faithful actions to
bring about good and blessing.
Maybe this gives the story of Ruth a more contemporary feeling than some biblical stories.
Maybe we can relate to it more.
There is certainly a wide scope for human agency and action in the story.
Ruth makes a decision to stick by Naomi no matter what – and that matters supremely in
the good outcome of the story.
Naomi, too, makes a decision to act and hatch a plan that will secure
the future of the two women,
and that too matters supremely in the good outcome of the story.
And although we don’t hear about it in the readings, Boaz’s goodness and his clever and
faithful actions also matter supremely in the good outcome of the story.
All three take action, and without the committed action of each of the three,
God would not have the opportunity to do what God does in the story,
which is to enable Ruth to conceive.
What you should never forget in the story is that the Israelites and the Moabites are enemies.
In the beginning of the story when Naomi leaves Judah for Moab because of famine,
you know she must be very desperate.
But there, surprise surprise, she finds welcome. She finds wives for her sons.
And after the men in the story tragically die, Naomi discovers that her foreign daughter-in-law
is the most faithful person to her in the story,
worth more than seven sons her friends tells her!
God works quietly through these women to bring peace and blessing and a secure future.
Today we are remembering the end of one of the most calamitous wars in western history.
100 years ago today an armistice was signed that brought an end to the first World War.
In that war, the number of casualties almost defy comprehension.
More than 9 million were killed in combat – 9 million.
That is more than the entire population of Canada in 1918.
Another 21 million were wounded, often grievously.
When it all ended, it was a great day of rejoicing.
As one Canadian mother wrote 100 years ago today to her son serving overseas,
This is a most wonderful day – the long looked for day of peace and
our hearts are full of joy and thanksgiving.
(Quoted in Rosemary Counter, “This Canadian Private Wrote and Saved Hundreds of Letters During the First World War,” MacLeans, www.macleans.ca/history/this-canadian-private-wrote-and-saved-hundreds-of-letters-during-the-first-world-war/)
For sure, it was a long looked for day of peace.
But it was, in the big scheme of things, relatively short lived.
The conflict and the terms of the armistice that was signed “left a simmering bitterness that
Hitler brilliantly manipulated.”
(Adam Hochschild, “The Eleventh Hour,” The New Yorker, November 5, 2018).
Today, though, we remember not just the end of a war, but those who died in it.
Those who made a decision to sacrifice themselves for the well-being of those they loved.
We remember all casualties of war, on both sides, combatants and civilians.
We seek to make a commitment to honour the legacy of those who died by
committing ourselves to things that make for peace.
In our personal relationships – and in our work relationships.
In our communities.
And perhaps especially in these incendiary times in our rhetoric on social media.
In a time when it is becoming increasingly easy to draw the lines between enemies and friends and to reinforce the differences between people – let us refuse to do that,
as a way of honouring those who died in armed conflict.
Let us remember today not only the staggering toll of war – as we should –
let us also remember the story of two women long ago.
Two women who were supposed to be enemies but who instead worked together to
secure a better future for them both.
And who, unknowingly, secured a better future for Israel as ancestors of David,
and ultimately secured a better future for the world as ancestors of Jesus.
With the teller of the story, let us affirm that God was at work in that.
With the teller of the story, let us not affirm that our enemies are God’s enemies.
With the teller of the story, let us not be too quick to assign blame for tragedy and
violence to God.
With the teller of the story, let us affirm that our actions matter, that our loyalty to
one another as human beings matter.
Let us affirm that God has a good ending in mind for us and for our planet.
Let us affirm that God is quietly at work, working for reconciliation and peace,
through the choices we make and the things we do.
And together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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