Sunday, August 19, 2018

God uses the least qualified. Are you still surprised?

Ruth 4

Why is the book of Ruth in the Bible?
I started three weeks ago by pointing out all the obstacles the book of Ruth faced in ever making it into the Bible: A story of a heroine in a world run by men; a moral about loving kindness for a mother-in-law to whom Ruth had no legal obligation; a story about a foreigner who was not part of the tribe. It’s one of those things that may well have happened and then dissolved into obscurity; the great-grandmother of King David who nobody talked about, as it might betray his royal blood.
And, yet, for exactly those reasons, it is so powerful that the book of Ruth persists. This is about a foreigner whose audacity to stay by Naomi’s side changed history. This is about a woman, who was property, and yet shows us a model for how to live in dark and dangerous times. This is a story that reads well today, in spite of the many and obvious differences between our society and theirs, precisely because of the unlikelihood of it all—because there are so many little, seemingly insignificant, people who do little things that make all the difference.
Ruth loved Naomi. Naomi advised Ruth. Boaz worked within the rules of the society, subtly influencing the unnamed next-of-kin to give up his inheritance, which included Ruth. All of these are little things that change the lives of all those involved, but they also suggest something about how God works through people. It’s rarely dramatic shifts, conversion experiences like Saul’s, or experiences more dramatic still, as it was with Jonah. More often, God moves just behind the scenes, subtly stirring hearts in a direction we will never see. Ruth has no idea of her part in all this, but she doesn’t have to see the big picture. Instead, because of her actions, not only does she save her mother-in-law from a life of poverty and death in obscurity, she also becomes great-grandmother to David, the great king of Israel. In that way, she becomes a central figure in the bloodline that eventually leads to Jesus.
Just a little person, doing little acts out of love.
Ruth was a Moabite, a Gentile, and the Moabites, like the Samaritans in Jesus’ time, did not get along particularly well with the Israelites. They worshiped different gods, had different customs, and simply didn't think much of one another. This is the perpetual history of the Holy Land, stretching from before Ruth’s time all the way to today. Some things change and some do not. To that point, the idea that a Moabite woman would become a central player in the genealogy that leads us to King David is incredibly unexpected; the fact that she enters the scene because of her own care and love for her mother-in-law is a huge cultural surprise; and that she is given over to an Israelite who sees past her heritage and values her for her commitment is nothing short of miraculous.
It’s also a reminder that God only ever seems to use the least and the last and the lowly. It’s the same story over and over again. Ruth was a woman. Ruth was a foreigner. Ruth was a Gentile. Ruth was everything she was not supposed to be to change the world, but change the world she did. The tradition of God choosing the least continues to live on in her descendents. She would become great-grandmother to David, who was the youngest of many sons; not the strongest, not even the smartest. He also proved susceptible to weakness in his power, messing everything up terribly with Bathsheba, who also ends up in that genealogy leading to Jesus. God continues to work through the smallest, the victims, and the outsiders.
Ruth’s great-great grandson was Solomon, who had all the power, prestige, and wealth of a royal bloodline, in a way the completion of everything that Ruth was not, and, yet, it is with Solomon that everything falls apart, the kingdom is eventually split, the reign of kings ended. The powerful people we like leading us seem only ever to undo the good work done by little people, acting out of kindness and love. Power corrupts, and Ruth has none of it.
Ruth is a reminder about this aspect of human nature. We so often choose the wrong people to lead us, forsaking virtue for fear. All the while, God continues to lift up the Ruths of the world, and forever they are being shouted down by those in authority. So many of these are women: Mary Magdalene, Shiphrah and Puah, Hannah, and Esther; every one of them overcoming societal biases to change the course of history. God would uses the anonymous more than kings, more than the strong or the rich.
God’s methodology is backwards and inefficient, because it is not about efficiency; it is about love. God does not use the powerful, because the powerful make idols of themselves, forsaking the love that lives inside of them, forgetting what it means to be a child and have that childlike faith. For Ruth, and the heritage of lovable losers and societal rejects who follow, there is nothing to fall back on but that love that persists in spite of every conquering authority who tries to snuff it out. How many of our biblical heroes are foreigners? Women? Gentiles? Are the youngest? The least ready? Have sinned badly?
Not only are they not perfect; they tend to be pretty much the worst choices of all. As the parent of a four-year-old, everything reminds me a Moana quote in one way or another, so here is one that seems particularly apropos for Ruth. In the movie, Moana has just sailed across the ocean to find Maui, the demigod, to help her return the heart of the ocean. She approaches Maui and tells him, “My people didn’t send me, the ocean did.”
Maui responds, “The ocean? Makes sense, you’re what? Eight? Can’t sail… Obvious choice.”
Yes! That is it. That’s exactly who “the ocean” will choose, because it’s exactly who God will choose—the least, last, lowly, little, or dead[1]. God doesn’t choose with eyes like ours, because God is not interested in short term results. God is only interested with love winning the day in the end.
What does this mean for us? Well, I don’t have a lot of confidence that it will help us pick better leadership; after all, nobody runs for office on a platform of having the least experience, but I do think it has to influence the way we look at one another. We need to listen to those less powerful than us, hear their stories, let them resonate within us; not out of some magnanimous charity, or any sense that we are doing them a favor and giving a hand-up, but because God continues to speak through ones such as these.
We simply will never know where we are being led if we don’t listen to these voices from the margins. God does surprising things through people like Ruth, but they are surprising to us only because we lack the imagination to believe that people like Ruth are capable of making a difference. God lacks our biases. The book of Ruth is a reminder that God is much better at this than us. God chooses better than us—the  Moabite, the woman—who happens to be the best one to demonstrate what true love looks like. Ruth’s love for Naomi is a hint, just a hint. Some days that’s all we get; some days that’s all we need.


[1] Robert Farrar Capon

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