Rev. Eric Lundquist
Scripture | Ruth 2:14 – 23 (Walter Alter Translation)
And Boaz said to her at mealtime, “Come here and eat of the bread and dip your crust in vinegar.” And she sat alongside the reapers, and he bundled together roasted grain for her, and she ate and was sated and left some over. And she rose to glean and Boaz charged his lads, saying, “Among the sheaves, too, she may glean, and you shall not harass her. And also she may certainly take her share from the loose ears of grain and glean, and you shall not chide her.” And she gleaned in the field till evening and beat out what she had gleaned, and it came out to almost an ephah of barley. And she carried it and came to the town, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. And she took out and gave to her what she had left over after being sated. And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today and where did you work? May he who recognized you be blessed!” And she told her mother-in-law how she had worked with him, and she said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.: And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed is he to the Lord, Who has not forsaken His kindness with the living and with the dead!” And Naomi said to her, “The man is related to us, he is of redeeming kin.” And Ruth the Moabite said, “Moreover, he said to me, to the lads who are mine shall you cling until they finish all the harvest that is mine,” And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good my daughter, that you shall go out with his young women, and that they not trouble you in another field.” And she clung to Boaz’s young women to glean till the barley harvest and the wheat harvest were finished. And she stayed with her mother-in-law.
Today finds us in the marvelous Old Testament book of Ruth. My Old Testament professor in seminary reminded us again and again that we need to understand that when the ancient Hebrews and Jews wanted to make a point, they told a story. And that’s important to here with this particular book.
I don’t know what Pastor Thanael has told you about this book. I do understand that today is the second installment of a four-part series in the book. But since it helps me to understand a Biblical book’s background and history, and the aforementioned “point,” I’ll briefly share what my understanding is.
Ruth is set in the early history of the history of Judea, around the time of the judges who ruled the nation. The unknown author makes an effort to make their presentation consistent with that era, but there are certain word usages and structures that actually place it after the Babylonian captivity and exile. Books like Esther and Ruth were popular writings of that time, with Ruth set in the era of the Judges and Esther set during the exile itself.
The confusion as to dating does extend to Ruth in at least one version of the Septuagint and some versions of the early Christian Bible physically placed just after Kings.
So, as you know from the earlier parts of the series, during a time of famine in their hometown of Bethlehem, Elimelech (Hebrew meaning: “my God is King”), his wife Naomi (Heb: “Sweet or pleasant”) and their children Mahlon (Heb: “sickness”) and Chilion (Heb: “destruction”) become economic refugees to the plains of Moab. The family’s ten-year sojourn there is full of difficulty. Elimelech dies, Mahlon and Chilion marry local women, Orpah (Heb: “nape”) and Ruth (Heb: unclear, possibly “friendship,” or “fertile”). The story doesn’t tell us which one married which, that’s not important to the point of the story. It is important at this point to note that the Moabites have always been particular enemies of the Judeans, but that’s just on the unstated background of the book,
Then Mahlon and Chilion die. Orpah goes back to her Moab family home, Ruth partners with Naomi and the two widows’ journey on to Bethlehem, Naomi’s home town. They arrive just in time for the barley harvest, which brings us to our reading today.
We are presented with a Bethlehem that is rather bucolic, more a farming village, a small town surrounded with fields and agriculture. Just prior to our text, Ruth is gleaning in the fields belonging to Boaz, a wealthy landowner of the town. Boaz takes notice of the young woman gleaning and is told of her, her relationship with Naomi, and understands that he is a shirttail relative of a sort to the young woman.
In this ancient Judea, there is nothing like our modern public welfare system. So, when a family’s provider dies, there is little to take their place. But it just won’t do to see widows and orphans die from starvation and traditions rose to help those who have little or nothing.
Gleaning is one of these. The Hebrew Bible has quite a number of passages, before and after the time set in Ruth that encourages farmers and vintners and orchard growers not to pick every last grain. So, passages in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Job and others tell them that they’ve a responsibility to those less fortunate, the widows, orphans, displaced economic refugees and others. They are reminded to leave something behind so that these might have something themselves to eat and so survive.
Boaz sees what Ruth is up to. The Bethlehem on the era is small enough that once he is told of Ruth’s reason for being in the fields, he also feels a further obligation to her as a kinsman of sort to sweeten the deal. Life is good, the harvest is bountiful, there is enough to go around and make a good living growing crops, so why not?
But in this little extra for the sort-of-relative Ruth, Boaz may feel a bit of another obligation tradition among these people. It was their tradition and obligation to ensure that family names and wealth pass along to the next generation. For example, debts are to be forgiven in jubilee years and real property sold returned to the family that sold it. Jubilee was honored more in its breach than as a practice, but related obligations remained strong.
For example, when a man dies with no heir, but leaves a widow, it becomes the responsibility of the man’s most senior brother to marry his brother’s widow. By the time of this story, that tradition had grown so that where there were no brothers, most any relative would do.
Boaz’s action in ensuring Ruth and through Ruth, his kinswoman Naomi gets just a little more, says something about the generosity encouraged by some of the oldest writings of our common faith. Indeed, the line in our passage about Ruth’s efforts note that not only was she full from the lunch provided her, with more to spare to take home, she was also able to bring the best part of an “ephah” –the equivalent of about a bushel, or 35 liters home with her.
So, in just one day, through the generosity encouraged by our common biblical texts, Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi manage to pull themselves up from utter poverty, to the comfort enabled by full bellies with enough to eat for days intact.
Traditional gleaning is gone. Most of us are unable to find a real connection with the farms which were close at hand. But through donations of food to our pantries and other services that ensure others may be fed, we find today not just the moral, but perhaps the actual equivalent. We’ve found, especially during this time of pandemic, that we’ve been able to feed others who cannot feed themselves and even that we have been able to lift many children out of the pit of poverty through our own traditions of civic giving.
The Christ we follow tells us that part of following him consists of also being kind to the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the sick and the imprisoned. Just as he defeated death through his resurrection, so might each one of us be a part of resurrecting lives lost in hunger, poverty, and homelessness.
Let us pray: Dear Lord, the writings and traditions you have left your people, as well as the exhortations of your own son, our savior, tells each one of us about our obligation as expressed by your Son, our savior, to show our love and devotion to you through caring for those who cannot completely care for themselves. Amen.