Ruth’s Redeemer

Scripture: Ruth 4

Sermon: Ruth’s Redeemer

Topics: Advent, risk, redeemer, love, Boaz

Preached: December 12, 2004 am

Rev. Mike Abma

Ruth 4

No sooner had Boaz gone up to the gate and sat down there than the next-of-kin, of whom Boaz had spoken, came passing by. So Boaz said, ‘Come over, friend; sit down here.’ And he went over and sat down.²Then Boaz took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, ‘Sit down here’; so they sat down. ³He then said to the next-of-kin, ‘Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our kinsman Elimelech. ⁴So I thought I would tell you of it, and say: Buy it in the presence of those sitting here, and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it; but if you will not, tell me, so that I may know; for there is no one prior to you to redeem it, and I come after you.’ So he said, ‘I will redeem it.’ ⁵Then Boaz said, ‘The day you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi, you are also acquiring Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead man, to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance.’ ⁶At this, the next-of-kin said, ‘I cannot redeem it for myself without damaging my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.’

7 Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a transaction, one party took off a sandal and gave it to the other; this was the manner of attesting in Israel. ⁸So when the next-of-kin said to Boaz, ‘Acquire it for yourself’, he took off his sandal. ⁹Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, ‘Today you are witnesses that I have acquired from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon.¹⁰I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, to be my wife, to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance, in order that the name of the dead may not be cut off from his kindred and from the gate of his native place; today you are witnesses.’ ¹¹Then all the people who were at the gate, along with the elders, said, ‘We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you produce children in Ephrathah and bestow a name in Bethlehem; ¹²and, through the children that the Lord will give you by this young woman, may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.’

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 neighbourhood 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.

18 Now these are the descendants of Perez: Perez became the father of Hezron, ¹⁹Hezron of Ram, Ram of Amminadab, ²⁰Amminadab of Nahshon, Nahshon of Salmon, ²¹Salmon of Boaz, Boaz of Obed, ²²Obed of Jesse, and Jesse of David.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION

There are a couple of ways to kill a good story.

One is the way of the over-eager editor. This is the person who changes the story by adding some things and taking other things out.

This is what Rabbi Sidney Brichto does in his version of the Bible called the People’s Bible. Rabbi Brichto decided that too many Bible Stories failed to take full advantage of their love scenes. So, to correct this apparent oversight, he added romantic scenes to the story of David and Bathsheba, to the story of Esther and King Xerxes, and to the story of Ruth and Boaz. He added these spiced up love scenes, and he also trimmed whatever seemed extra and boring. For him, nothing was as boring as those long genealogies. So he took out all the genealogies, and tucked them into the back of this Bible as appendices.

The over-eager editor is one way to kill a story.

Then there is the other way to kill a story — the over-eager critic. This is the person who doesn’t actually change the story but who simply tries to get us to read the same old story in a radically new way.

This is the strategy of Danna Fewell and David Gunn’s interpretation of Ruth called Compromising Redemption. This book seems devoted to cutting Naomi, Boaz, and Ruth down to size. Instead of assuming the best about them, they want the reader to assume the worst. In other words, even when it looks like the characters are acting out of caring and altruistic motives, they say, “Bah, humbug, it’s all about what’s in it for them.” They work hard to turn all three characters into self-absorbed figures who live by the modern-motto “it’s all about me.”

The over-eager critic is another way to kill a story.

But you know, a really good story is hard to kill.

And the story of Ruth is a really good story.

Let’s face it, if we were asked to give ‘one’ Old Testament book and ‘one’ New Testament book to some Muslim friends to read to get a taste of the Christian religion, wouldn’t we probably give them one of the gospels from the New Testament and the book of Ruth in the Old.

The story of Ruth is that good.

We didn’t have time to read the whole story, all four chapters, this morning.

And I do not have time to tell you all the ways this story is so beautifully structured and so artfully told. But I hope, at some time this Advent, you are able to read Ruth from beginning to end – even if you are a slow reader, it shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes.

RUTH — A STORY OF RISK-TAKING

We heard the fourth and last chapter.

But to understand this chapter, we do need to know what came before.

So let me summarize the 3 earlier chapters of the story.

Each of the earlier chapters centers around a huge monumental risk that Ruth takes.

Chapter 1 begins with hunger, then death, then despair.

Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons move to Moab during a famine.

While there, Elimelech dies.

After that, the two sons marry Moabite girls: Orpah and Ruth.

Then these two sons die as well.

That leaves 3 childless widows: the aging Naomi, and the Moabite daughters-in-law Orpah and Ruth. For you regular attenders here at Woodlawn, you may be able to see some parallels to the story of Tamar two weeks ago. In that story, there was also the death of 2 sons and the desperate future of a childless widow. The story of Ruth begins with even more desperation: there isn’t one desperate widow but three, and there isn’t a male in sight to continue the family line.

Naomi feels hopeless and worthless. She decides to return to her hometown Bethlehem dressed in black. She has nothing to offer her daughters-in-law: no sons, no future, no safety, no security. So she urges Orpah and Ruth to go home to their mothers in Moab.

Orpah initially stays but then returns. But Ruth refuses to leave.

What a risky decision for Ruth to make. Life with Naomi was a dead-end: no opportunity to find a husband, no way to have legitimate children, no source of security …. Why in the world does Ruth stick with Naomi?

To tell you the truth, we’re not sure why. But she does.

That is monumental Risk Number 1 of chapter 1.

Then there is risk Number 2 in chapter 2.

Naomi and Ruth are back Bethlehem but they are poor – dirt poor. They must literally live off whatever scraps fall from the table, whatever stalks of grain don’t get tied in the sheaves. So when Ruth announces that she is going into the fields to find some food, we know it is a matter of survival. But it is also another huge risk. Ruth was a young woman. She was a foreigner. And she planned to go alone into fields teeming with sweaty young men? There would be no one to protect her. That is risk Number 2 in chapter 2.

Then there is risk number 3 in chapter 3.

Now, already in chapter 2 when Ruth daringly went into the fields alone, she meets Boaz.

More accurately, Boaz notices her. If this was a Hollywood script, Boaz would have noticed her because she was drop-dead gorgeous, with those exotic Moabite could good looks. I’m not saying that Ruth wasn’t beautiful – she may have been — but the story tells us that Boaz notices her for these two reasons:

because of all she had done for her mother-in-law;

and because she took the risk of leaving her homeland to be with Naomi.

Boaz notices her, offers her protection, and makes sure she goes home with a good sack full of grain.

Once Naomi finds out Ruth was in Boaz’s field, she comes to life. Boaz is described as a kinsman or next of kin. The Hebrew word is go’el, which is also translated as “redeemer.” Naomi realizes that her life and the life of Ruth may not be a dead-end after all. Perhaps Boaz was the one to redeem — literally to bring back to life — her family’s property, and honor, and family line?

So Naomi hatches a plan. Chapter 3 is all about Naomi’s daring and dangerous plan for Ruth. Here’s the plan: Ruth was to take off her widow’s clothes, to put on perfume, to dress in her best outfit (remember Tamar) and then go to the threshing floor where Boaz was sleeping in the dead of night. Now here is the part of the plan that we almost need to read twice to believe — Naomi asks Ruth to slip under Boaz’s blanket while he is sleeping. I don’t think I need to explain how big a risk that was. And yet, Ruth listens to her mother-in-law. She does exactly that.

What happens?

If you’re Rabbi Sidney Brichto, you let your imagination run wild and you include a lot more steamy details.

If you’re Fewell and Gunn, you assume Ruth is somehow seducing and entrapping Boaz.

But the text is silent about any steamy details and both Ruth and Boaz are portrayed as honorable.

What does happen is this: even though Boaz is rich and powerful and Ruth is poor and vulnerable, Boaz does not take advantage of her.

He spreads his blanket over Ruth.

That simple action of spreading a blanket over her is a symbol of his offering Ruth protection and love. It is the same image, by the way, that the psalmist uses when describing God spreading his wing of protection and love over us.

BOAZ the RISK TAKER

Now we come to the last chapter, the one we heard read.

Here it is Boaz’s turn to risk. How much will he risk for Ruth?

Well, he first has to deal with a closer relative of Naomi’s who has first rights to Elimelech’s property and thus to Ruth. So Boaz offers this man Elimelech’s field.

It looks like a good deal – free property with few strings attached, only an old childless widow, so this closer kinsman is tempted to take it.

But then Boaz skillfully adds more strings:

“By the way, the field comes with another widow,

Ruth, a young Moabite woman.

By the way, this field comes with these strings attached – the responsibility to be her husband and to father a child with her and to continue Elimelech’s family line through her.”

At this, the closer kinsman redeemer backs out.

In a way, this closer relative adds a certain balance to this story.

At the beginning of the book, Orpah bows out to take the safer road.

Now here, at the end, this closer relative bows out also to take the safer road.

But it is the two risk-takers, Ruth and Boaz, who are left on center stage.

Ruth, the one who is willing to be like a servant to her mother-in-law;

And Boaz, the rich powerful farmer who is willing to tie his future to this poor, childless foreigner –

It is these two characters who show us what covenant love is all about.

Ruth didn’t have to stick with Naomi.

Boaz didn’t have to tie his future to Ruth.

They didn’t have to take any of the risks they took.

But they did. And it made all the difference.

JESUS – KINSMAN REDEEMER

The story ends with a baby in the lap of a grandmother.

It ends with Obed who turns out to be the father of Jesse,

Jesse the father of David,

And David the ancestor of Jesus.

Jesus, the baby, who nestles in the lap of Anna and Simeon.

Jesus, the very incarnation of what covenant looks like –

a redeeming love that did not have to risk,

being born in a stable

or being rejected by his own

or being killed on a cross.

But it was his redeeming love that took these risks.

And it has made all the difference.

For it has turned our own story of darkness into light;

our story of despair into hope;

our story of death into life;

our dead-end tears of sorrow into the tears of joy.

That is what we remember in Advent.

Jesus, the one who looked upon our helpless estate,

And who risked it all to come down

And become the kinsman redeemer of us all.