Love that is unconditional, unbreakable, and unstoppable

Ruth 1

            In our reading today, I would hazard to guess that every farmer only heard “They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest,” at which point every one of you started thinking about what you need to be getting ready in the next few weeks. This isn’t bad, actually. The book of Ruth is a story about fullness and emptiness; it’s about a great revolution—barrenness into new birth, bitterness into joy, death into new life.

            Given all that, it’s also not surprising that this is a story about a couple of women. As you all probably know, women are badly underrepresented in the Bible, so when they do appear it tends to be pretty important that we pay attention. I mean, if their story was important enough to make it through all the men making all these edits and decisions about what made it into the Bible, then it must really be important.

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            For most of us, there are two verses in Ruth that are familiar, and they appear here in the first chapter.

‘Do not press me to leave you
   or to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
   where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
   and your God my God.
¹⁷ Where you die, I will die—
   there will I be buried.
May the Lord do thus and so to me,
   and more as well,
if even death parts me from you!’ 

            Great verses. Very apropos for weddings. Also, we should note, said by a daughter-in-law to her mother-in-law, who has no rights, no property, is homeless, destitute, and forced to migrate back to her homeland. It is no small thing that Ruth makes this declaration to a person who has nothing, because there can be no alternative motives here: This is a promise made out of love. The most jaded person in the world would struggle to find another motivation for Ruth’s actions. She simply cares about her mother-in-law.

            It’s a cynical world out there with plenty of self-interest to go around. Heck, many of our systems of economics and government are built on the assumption of self-interest. It is normal to expect people to act in the way that serves them best. Yet, we believe in a God who we know in Jesus Christ who calls disciples by asking them to come and die. This is the exact opposite of self-interest. Unfortunately, given our natural human inclinations, it seems as if acting for ourselves actually pits us against Jesus; it makes us anti-Christ. Ruth is this wonderful example of what this might look like in practice. She defies cynicism.

As Christians, we are called to love all, of course, but specifically, we are told to care for the lost sheep, the poor, and the sick, because those are who Jesus sought out, specifically. Jesus rarely said take of everyone; he tended to say, “Take care of the most vulnerable.” Start there, then work backward toward those who need it least. This is the history of the Bible in a nutshell, actually. Care for the littlest, because God chooses the littlest in David, rather than the smartest or strongest. Care for the barren, because God chooses the barren in Sarah and Hannah. Care for the dummies, because God chooses cowards like Jonah, and excuse-makers like Moses, and betrayers like Peter, and murderers like Saul. Care for these and many others, whom the world calls losers, not because they need our charity but because God chooses them.

            God chooses Naomi and Ruth. I don’t know how this book got in the Bible. Think of all the men who could have buried this book—councils almost exclusively made of men, scribes, overwhelmingly men. Think of the odds stacked against us ever reading this book. Think of how persistent God’s spirit had to be to continue to speak this story to a bunch of dummy dudes, who were given this Spirit-led task of putting the Bible together for us today. Most often, I like to let scripture stand on its own, but this is one of those cases where we should stand and admire the fact that we have this story at all. How badly must God want us to hear these words for it to exist at all!

             Having said all that, we had better take Ruth’s decision to stay with Naomi seriously. She embodies God’s love for us in that decision. We need stories like these, because it reminds us of the height and depth of what love truly is--not just attraction, not something for which we are paid back, not even dedication to raising children or taking care of others. God’s love is unconditional, unbreakable, and unstoppable. Ruth will follow Naomi to the end of the earth, not because Naomi has anything Ruth needs or wants but simply because she loves her.

            I daresay people would have found this strange. Ruth was supposed to find another man to take care of her. She had no real bond with Naomi any longer; their clan was gone, dead with her husband and father-in-law. This was not the way that the world worked in those days; it was not the law of the land. The God’s love trumps the laws of the land, every day of the week. The love of God obliterates concerns for order and exceeds our expectations. This story sets the stage for Jesus, because it shows us just a hint of the love that knows no boundaries that we know in Jesus Christ.

            Where Ruth’s love bucks social conventions, Jesus’ love rises above laws and customs. In fact, in Jesus, the law becomes love. When a person comes to Jesus and says, “Teacher, what is the most important part of the law?” Jesus doesn’t say, “Oh, it’s all important, read it all!” and he doesn’t say, “Do not do this,” or “Do not do that.” No! Jesus responds by saying that the most important command of the law is love! He doesn’t lead with condemnation; he doesn’t tell us “Don’t!” he tells us “Do!” Do love. Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself, Jesus says. All that business about being set apart? The whole holiness code—that stuff in Leviticus and elsewhere—in Jesus it no longer exists, not just because Jesus decided that had run its course, but because God, having come to earth in human form, made love the law of the land.

            That’s not to say there aren’t rules. Love is simply the positive side of the commandments: Love your neighbor by not stealing from him; love your neighbor by not abusing her. And, yet, in Jesus, the whole perspective is changed, because we, like Ruth, understand that this isn’t about us anymore. It is about Jesus, dying that death, rising to save us, freeing us to love our neighbor free from boundaries. This is why Paul picks all this up and says, “There is no Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free, but all are one in Christ Jesus,” because there is absolutely nothing keeping us from one another anymore.

            You could be fooled when you turn on the news. Let’s be frank, governments can do what governments want. Society can say, as it did in Ruth’s time, that women had no value, that certain people are not welcome, and that the law of the clan is the law of the land. The clan comes first--society can say that. But the kingdom of God will not, cannot, has not, and never will abide that. In the kingdom of God, the clan does not come first; the insiders do not get preference; the outsider does. In the kingdom of God, the least are the greatest; the women, who had no power, are made powerful beyond reckoning. In the kingdom of God, the alien and the wanderer, the people like Ruth and Naomi, are given their rightful place at the foot of the throne. In the kingdom of God, love trumps fear.

            There’s a reason this story made it in the Bible. Firstly, it’s to show us what love is: a commitment made not out of selfish ambition or gain but simply for the sake of another person who needs it. Then, this is a story about a broken world, filled with little people who are seemingly insignificant, but who play a vital role in the history of the faith, nonetheless. How many Ruths are there in the world? How many Naomis? How many people without anybody to care for them? How many people who willingly, selflessly, give of themselves for the sake of others? These are not nursery rhymes; these are stories that get lived out every day, because God’s love is not some theoretical thing out there in the universe; it is here with us, moving amongst us, saving us, yes, and freeing us to love one another as God first loves us.