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“Getting Matters Settled”
Ruth 3:1-4:12
A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley
In the third chapter of Ruth, we find Ruth and Boaz’s relationship, how shall we say, heating up. As we shall see, it is helped along considerably by Naomi’s gentle urging as she continues her path from bitterness to delight. She is able to muster enough strength to encourage Ruth to make some choices about her life and her next steps on her own pursuit of freedom from the bonds of patriarchal slavery.
We often need Naomis in our lives who encourage us to make the right decisions. But with all of Naomi’s urging, it was Ruth who ultimately carried out the deed. She and Boaz made choices which were unusual to say the least and ultimately essential to their own happiness. And as we shall see next week, the choices were central to Naomi’s transformation as well.
Naomi tells Ruth that she wants to help her by devising a plan to win Boaz. The bitter and empty Naomi is being resurrected. She is not being resurrected by God as happens in most other biblical and especially old testament writings. She is being redeemed by Ruth. Naomi says in 3:1, “My daughter, I need to seek some security for you, so that it may be well with you.” Remember how in chapter 1:9 Naomi told both Orpah and Ruth to find security in the house of their future Moabite husbands? Now Naomi can find that same security for Ruth in the kinsman Boaz.
They devise a plan. The men are pounding out the grain from the harvest on the threshing floor and getting drunk. The scene unfolds like an opera libretto. It’s that absurd, but what a story. The end of a harvest always carries with it a party. “Go now, Ruth, take a bath, put on some nice clothes and some perfume and hang out in the shadows until they are all good and drunk. When they pass out, go and uncover Boaz’ feet and lie down next to him and he will show you what to do.” (Wink wink, nod nod). So Ruth does all that she is told by Naomi without objection.
Amid the
drunken snores of the harvesters, Ruth crept up to Boaz and uncovered his
“feet.” Now the Hebrew
word that is translated here as feet is actually a word which refers to the tip
of the toe to the top of the thigh.
Ruth uncovers the whole bottom half of his body and lies down next to
him. At
“Who are
you?” asks Boaz, fumbling around in the dark. Ruth response, “I am Ruth, your
servant; spread your cloak over your servant, for you are my next of kin.” The Hebrew word Ruth uses is go’el. Spread your cloak over me, for you are my go’el, my
redeemer. To spread one’s cloak over a
woman is to take her as a wife. If Boaz
took Ruth as his wife, Ruth would no longer be a widowed foreign servant. She and Naomi could live as redeemed people
in the house of Boaz. Boaz could control
the
Boaz is
flattered by it all. He says in
We don’t know if Ruth was attracted to Boaz or not. We know that Boaz was attracted to Ruth. Ruth’s loyalty always stayed with Naomi. Naomi taught Ruth how to play patriarchy’s game and win.
Ruth was in
an extremely compromising situation which immediately reminds us of Tamar and
of
You see, in the Jewish law called leverite marriage, it was the right and obligation of the nearest kinsman to marry the widow of another kinsman and to have children in the place of the dead husband. And as much as Boaz would like to be that person, he knows that there is someone even closer who must first be consulted.
So he sends Ruth away in the pre-dawn blur of eyes back to Naomi, before the others awake and without having a smudge on her dignity or her record as a worthy woman. He even gave her six measures of barley, which is the price given for a bride.
So Ruth comes to her mother-in-law, Naomi. This formerly bitter woman with no ability to help her is now the imparter of profound wisdom. Ruth unloads her mantle full or barley and watches as more of Naomi’s bitterness turns to pleasure. Naomi says: “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.” Boaz is anxious to by the next of kin.
And settle it he did. He did so in a most comical way that is so strange to our way of doing things. I am sure that our customs and arrangements would seem strange to them also.
He went up
to his unnamed kinsman with the appropriate number of witnesses and said, “hey, Naomi, who has returned from
There we have that word, go’el again also translated as “next of kin”. So the kinsman says, “it sounds good to me. I’ll redeem it. I can always use some more land.” Here is where Boaz throws in the catch. Oh, by the way, if you acquire this land, you are also acquiring the widow Ruth and you must do the next of kin thing with her in order to maintain the dead man’s name on the inheritance.” You see widows and women were often viewed as property. And Boaz saw a way to make the arrangement work for him. At this, the kinsman changes his minds and says: “I cannot redeem it for myself without damaging my own inheritance.” He would have to share his wealth with all of his offspring, including Ruth’s. “Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”
And so it was that Boaz legally received the hand of Ruth along with the property of Naomi and Elimelech. Boaz, Ruth and Naomi settled the tension that started out the book. They got matters settled.
It happened because Boaz made a choice. His choice was not only to marry Ruth, but to also to respect her. He chose not to take advantage of her.
Ruth made
the choice to risk her dignity, her body, her reputation, her means of having a
living all in the name of bringing her and Naomi into a favored place in the
town of
Naomi made the choice to impart her wisdom and the knowledge of the convoluted Jewish laws to Ruth. She chose to act when she could have simply laid back and accepted her lot in life.
It occurs to me that the message of this portion of the book of Ruth is that we are redeemed in large part by the choices we make. We make choices every day. We choose what to wear, what to say, how to act, how to react.
When Jesus said, “you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free”, I believe he meant that we are set free to make the choices we need to make. We are free to make the choices that are in line with God’s plan for us and for the world.
Think about great people who have made choices:
Mahatma Gandhi was a lawyer and could have lived the prosperous life of a British-educated attorney, but instead made the choice to take the salt march and set the Indian people free from British rule.
Dorothy Day made the choice to start the Catholic worker movement in order to feed the hungry and clothe the poor and make the world a bit more just.
Rosa Parks made the choice to sit down at the front of that bus and no longer be mistreated by the lions of segregation.
Thousands of others made the choice not to ride buses in the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Martin
Luther King was a scholarly clergyman who could have had a quiet safe ministry,
but he made a choice to be the trumpet of justice and the conscience of
People who march in picket lines or line the streets, as they did a year ago to try to stop a war that was inevitable and clearly unpopular, did so because they made a choice.
People who join a church or hop onto some political campaign or join some kind of movement do so because they make a choice to do something that will bring healing to themselves and perhaps to someone else, too.
People who purchase scholarships for Nicaraguan children, tithe their income, or serve Meals on Wheels or Loaves and Fishes or Families Moving Forward or participate in some other form of volunteer work make choices about how to use their time and how to spend their resources.
We all make choices every day. Some of them are monumental and some of them are mundane. But how do we know how to make the right choice?
That’s the clincher.
I had a friend in the Baptist Peace Fellowship tell me that the way you know you are being called by God into a new special project is this: It must meet three criteria:
1. It seems impossible.
2. It has a high probability of failure.
3. It is incredibly good news.
It seemed impossible that Ruth or
Naomi could ever do more than simply survive in
What we need to do is make choices that will bring good news to people. The choices that matter the most are often the most difficult for us to absorb and fulfill. But when we do, people are changed. The world is changed. And God is pleased.
Sisters and brothers, we have choices in your lives, even though it seems at times like we don’t.
Remember who you are. Remember that you are fabulous and capable. Remember that even though the road may seem narrow, that you never walk that road alone. God is there beside you. God may appear to you as Naomi did to Ruth. God may appear to you as Dumbledore always seems to appear to Harry Potter when he needs it the most, or how the oracle tells Neo that he needs to make a choice, or how Dory teaches Marlin how to trust each other and Nemo. All great things happen because people make choices. Big choices and small choices.
What choices are you going to make in this life of yours?
That’s the question.
That’s the challenge.
And the choice you make will determine the reward.