A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

two faces of ruth: assertive

Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17, Preached  November 8, 2009

A henpecked husband was advised by a psychologist to assert himself. "You don't have to let your wife bully you," he said. "Go home and show her you're the boss." The husband decided to take the doctor's advice. He went home, slammed the door, shook his fist in his wife's face, and growled, "From now on you're taking orders from me. I want my supper right now, and when you get it on the table, go upstairs and lay out my clothes. Tonight I am going out with the boys. You are going to stay at home where you belong. Another thing, you know who is going to tie my bow tie?" "I certainly do," said his wife calmly. "The undertaker." Wow, tough crowd.

How much do we take? How much disrespect, how much abuse, humiliation, insults do we accept before we return the disfavor? What is your threshold of pain? Where do you draw the line and demand courtesy, respect? Some people have a very quick trigger. Others last awhile but then let both barrels go. We all have our limit, but the meek hold out longer, and those who are blessedly meek, those who shall inherit the earth, as Jesus said, have within them a fortitude, a fortress. I like what Sir Thomas Browne said about meekness: "Meekness takes injuries like pills, not chewing, but swallowing them down." I take that to mean the meek person is a healthy person, a stronger person than the injury, and by swallowing and not spitting them out, shows that. The meek person however doesn't take the time and energy to chew or to grind in the injury, and shows that even when swallowing the injury, she or he will not be injured.

I am quite sure that we have all heard that there is a difference between weakness and meekness. The weak person simply doesn't want to get involved, doesn't believe he or she has anything worthwhile to offer, displays a lack of firmness, conforming readily, and easily deterred from doing the right. Weakness is not meekness. As A.W. Tozer said, "The meek man (or woman) is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but (she) has stopped being fooled about (her)self. (She) has accepted God's estimate of (her) own life." Weakness perceives others as better and more worthy; meekness sees others as the same as oneself and in the same condition. This condition is dependence on God, which makes equals of all, brothers and sisters before God. "There, but for the grace of God, go I" is the meek person's continual self-acknowledgement when faced with another's bad action.

This is without a doubt one of if not the most difficult acts to accomplish. It is easier to be complicit, go along with, cave in; it is also easier to return fire with fire, to tear into, give in to pain. The spiritually mature person keeps his heart, neither giving it away to one who is "better," nor tearing it out and throwing it in anger at one who is "lesser." No matter how many times we try either, our hearts grow back, none better by being discarded. You must learn to keep your heart instead. It is not yours to lose; it is God's gift to you to keep.

I like the story of the elder, who crippled with arthritis, used to hobble to the services of the church on crutches. It was a great ordeal and required considerable amount of toil and pain. A friend of his observed the faithful attendance and asked, "How do you manage to be at every service?" His answer was, "My heart gets there first, and my old legs just follow after."

Our scripture has this strange case of a woman who while gentle, amazingly kind and loyal toward her mother-in-law also happens to pull off one of the most in your face, bodacious, over the line, almost crimes in the Bible. One moment she is meek and mild Ruth, loyal, loving, gentle; and the next she is hunting down Boaz, getting into bed with him, and "uncovering his feet--"and they named a whole book of the Bible after her. Can this two-faced Ruth, loyal and assertive, really be a model for our Christian walk? Absolutely. What is really important for us to take away from her is that she knows to whom she is loyal and when she must be assertive.

  So what actually happens in this story. Well a couple of background things: In ancient Israel there was a sense in which family, enlarged family, including, cousins, uncles and aunts, etc., should be or could be protectors of members of the family who were economically at risk. But there were guidelines and specific cases and limits to these, for instance, in certain Hebrew laws the next-of-kin had a right and responsibility to purchase back (redeem) a piece of property that is about to go outside the family, or to purchase back (redeem) a relative who had sold himself because of financial difficulty to a resident alien (a non-Jew). However, in our story, the issue really isn't about redeeming a piece of property nor is Ruth or Naomi in danger of becoming enslaved, a non-Jew’s property. It's about being married, but the famous regulation dealing with cases in which a man is to marry his brother’s widow to perpetuate the family law is the law of levirate marriage. This law would not apply here. That’s because Boaz is only “next-of-kin.” He’s not a brother to another brother. Ruth doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on to do what she does that night, and yet she still does it.

That's the background; now let's get to the action. Naomi instructs Ruth to clean up, dress up and perfume up. Ruth was to anoint herself, a reference to the use of oil, or perfume, something that a woman of her limited means would only do infrequently. Naomi is asking Ruth to do something out of the ordinary. Part of the instruction concerns itself with timing. Ruth should go into Boaz after he has eaten and drunk, is feeling contented, and is resting. Ruth doesn't say he should be sleeping, though she certainly would have had to wait until everybody was fast asleep before doing what Naomi says next. Ruth is to lie down next to Boaz and even uncover his feet. As you can easily intuit, a woman present with a man in a public area during the night, much less a woman lying next to a partially unclothed man under such circumstances, was far from customary or accepted practice. Now the term translated "feet" is not the usual Hebrew word for that body part, but a less common synonym better taken as "legs." But it gets "better." Likewise, the verb "to uncover" used here appears in colloquial phrases referring to sexual relations. The overtones throughout this little story of a possible sexual encounter are heard also in the verb to "lie down." And yet there is never any indication of the consummation of such an act; the story is ambiguous, mysterious. After Boaz discovers Ruth in his bed, and after she answers his question as to who she is, she still tells him, nay even instructs him “to spread your cloak over your servant.” Although she probably physically meant she said, the reference to marriage would be clear to Boaz. On top of that, the term translated “cloak” is literally in Hebrew “wing,” as in the wing of a bird, and this word reflects the symbolic Jewish idea that to cover with the wing/garment refers to establishing a marriage bond. So not only is Ruth in Boaz’s bed, and not only does she not have a good legal reason to be there (don’t worry; I know that sounds strange), but she is also asking him to marry her, in so many words.

With so little information about Ruth and Boaz, we are left to fill in the narration holes: Perhaps this was a steamy tryst between mutually desiring persons (Boaz and Ruth seemed to hit it off the first time they met--but Boaz never followed up); or we imagine Ruth as a beautiful but needy young woman forcing herself to relate to a rough, pot-bellied, snaggle-toothed but rich old man for the sake of her mother-in-law; or even a wily, scheming Ruth cooperating with Naomi to compromise and thus force the hand of the most handsome and wealthy bachelor of the community. No matter what actually happened, even if only the minimum occurred, Ruth showing up and lying next to a partially uncovered Boaz stretches the social customs and conventions to a taut drama. This is definitely one of those Bible moments in which the good girl has left the scene. We struggle to see where God is in this; we are challenged to see how these activities could ever intersect with Christian faith. And still by the story's end, it is Ruth's assertiveness that carries the day. About this, there is no ambiguity. Ruth is the heroine, the overcomer, victorious. She is even blessed by the Lord with the birth of a boy, who ends up being King David's grandfather.

So what is the deal? Is this really the Bible? Actually, if you open your Bible at random, you may notice something striking: Female characters abound. These women are the antithesis of what we might expect from a patriarchal Mid-Eastern society. They are not passive, demure, timid and submissive, but active, bold, and assertive. In fact, the pattern begins with the first female character. In Genesis 3, Eve “said,” “saw,” “took,” “ate” and “gave.” (Adam is the subject of only one verb: “he ate.”) The truth is God wants us to be meek, but not passive. There's a difference. We have things to do, to do for God and good. What the story of Ruth is telling us is this: be loving, kind, mild, gentle, sweet, loyal, good, "Christian," but that doesn't excuse you from not doing what is yours to take care of. Be good, but being good means doing good, even if you have to going beyond where things are settled. We need to get something done so God can get something accomplished.

During the 1957 World Series, Yankee catcher, Yogi Berra, noticed that Hank Aaron, who would go on to set the record for most home runs, eclipsing Babe Ruth, had grasped the bat the wrong way. “Turn it around,” he said to Aaron, “so you can see the trademark.” But Hank kept his eye on the pitcher up on the pitcher’s mound. “Didn’t come up here to read. Came up here to hit.” Now that’s it. Think about it. There’s Hank Aaron, some day the greatest home run hitter of all time, standing in the on-deck circle. He’s next up to bat, crunch time, focus time. He looks for his bat, grabs it, and starts his warm up routine. Then he’s walking to the batter’s box. Now a lesser hitter, someone less focused, might have made sure the label was facing the right way, turning the bat this way or that way to get everything aligned. But Aaron knows that doesn’t matter a hill of beans. All that matters is wood bat placed on leather ball. There’s a task at hand, a job to do. And Hank Aaron asserted all his power to get that job, his job, done.

Know who's yours to take care of. Accept what's yours to get done. Your strength and ability may surprise you, but not God. The Lord knows you can do it.

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