Pastor Laura Wright

Somewhere in the cultural rules it is written that good and nice people don’t smash plates on purpose, which does a lot to maintain safety and order in a kitchen, but I think it is a preposterous rule overall. Because what was needed that day was an opportunity.  An opportunity to let the anger have an outlet. A chance to not have to pretend that life is always beautiful and wonderful or that it makes sense.  A chance to take something that represented beauty and let go of it.  A chance to take something that represented the dreams of home and making meals together and entertaining and family, and let those go too.

So the question this narrative of Naomi and Ruth invites us to reflect on is: are we searching for security in the right places? And, if not, where are we going to turn in that search for security?

Did they ask Ruth what she wanted to be called? No, the town took one look at her, and overheard enough of her story, and decided that one thing really mattered.  They chose to define her by the way she was different and in a way that would justify treating her without much dignity.  They could have done otherwise.  They could have asked about her life’s story, or what she was passionate about, what she liked to do, how she passed the time.  But they didn’t.  They could have let her define herself.  They could have asked her what she wanted to be called or how she wanted to be known.  She could have told them that she wanted to be called Ruth the survivor, Ruth the compassionate, Ruth the skydiver…But there was no opportunity for that. Either they didn’t care who she was or didn’t want to know or they didn’t want to have to alter their own set ways or deviate from their presumptions, so they didn’t ask, and instead just called her Ruth the Moabite.

And maybe more than the promise to follow Naomi to a new land, it’s the fact that Ruth makes the promise to do life together with someone so different, someone Ruth was in fact supposed to mistrust and certainly dislike, that we ought to take away from this story, too. For these vows are not simply made for mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws. These are vows that speak of way of life that commits to offering relationship across the lines of cultures, countries, religions, accents, skin color, and social classes. These are vows that we might need to consider making ourselves, to one another.