Ruth 3 : the Hallmark version

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June 30th 2024, Santa Cruz Lutheran Church, Tucson, Arizona.

First Reading: Ruth 3

Canticle: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 8:7-15

Gospel: Mark 5:21-43

In the third chapter of Ruth, she asks Boaz to ‘spread his cloak’ over her. In the fifth chapter of the gospel of Mark, a woman with a hemorrhage touches the hem of Jesus’ cloak and through her faith she is healed.

[In both cases, what is really going on is that the people in the story are under the protection, that is, covered by the sheltering and healing garment, of divine providence. Can this be our story too?]

—-///-////-//

Back in New York years ago, I used to be the standards and practices screener for the Odyssey channel. It doesn’t sound like much except it means I was the enforcer of standards, the censor, for what is now the Hallmark Channel, which meant I watched the television programming, especially the religious programming, but also other programming on the Odyssey channel, which became Hallmark Channel, which is now best known for the Hallmark movie, especially the Hallmark Christmas movie, which is shown over and over beginning around Halloween or possibly the Fourth of July. 

In that movie, titles vary, as do actors and characters, but the essential story remains the same. If you tune in to the Odyssey channel, excuse me, the Hallmark Channel, five minutes before the hour you see that she has finally met the right guy, there will be grandchildren and grandma is happy; now you go off for five minutes to wait through the commercials and the movie begins again; and there is what is called a ‘meet cute’: you introduced to her, the woman who it’s high time she got married, and the guy, and they have some sort of connection which can be fairly eccentric. 

Then you can go to dinner, then come back nearly 2 hours later for the last five minutes and you see the happy ending again. In between is a mild conflict or complication that must be resolved. Eventually that is resolved, there will be grandchildren, and grandma is happy. So: boy meets girl, boy gets girl. 

This ‘boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back’ formula, in the famous words of the Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn, is a tried and true way to tell a story.

Well here we are in chapter 3 of Ruth and it is definitely the in- between time, because we’ve had at last the ‘meet cute’ but unlike the Hollywood version or the Hallmark version, they had actually known something about each other before and developed some respect, her for him and him for her. 

Attentive readers will recall the story so far: Ruth accompanied her mother-in-law Naomi back to Naomi’s hometown after both had lost their husbands. They hope to find a home again where once Naomi lived and had family. It is harvest time. Ruth begins to glean in the fields to gather something to eat. Providentially, she gleans in the field of Boaz, a near kinsman of Naomi, who notices her. He admires Ruth’s steadfast loyalty and care for her mother-in-law, and extends his protection to her, allowing her to glean in the field he owns, then sharing the noonday meal with her, and finally undertakes to execute the duty, and exercise the right, of a near kinsman, and takes her to wife.

Now, it occurred to me that this is not the least weird nor the most weird of all the many ‘meet cutes’ - or courtships - in the Old Testament. If you look at the way the relationships begin, look at the guy who labored seven years for the daughter he didn’t get and then another seven years for that daughter and then another seven years… so he ended up with both sisters, Rachel and Leah. And don’t get me started on Samson. 

These are descendants of those people. It all seems crazy, but somehow God works with these people. God works in these people, through these people, and the result is something beyond just their relationship or even just a romantic movie. 

In fact it has a meaning for all of us. I think the ‘takeaway’ for the book of Ruth generally is the inclusiveness of God: you’ve got in this case the redemption, but basically the takeaway is that God includes them and you and me and everyone in  his family. And as Samuel Goldwyn might say, “Include me in.” 

We see this total outsider, Ruth, who becomes a member of the family that is the people of God: in her case it’s the people of God who are ancient Israel. 

Sarah and I just watched an old movie called ‘Crazy Rich Asians,’ which begins when the guy and the girl are already dating and have been dating for at least a year. They have passed the ‘meet cute’ moment whatever that might’ve been. They have met each other, they are someone involved, but they have yet to encounter that necessary complication, that conflict, which drives the plot forward to the happy ending, so that there will be grandchildren and grandma will be happy and it’s about time. 

[To our joy many characters who decorate the story are actually a lot more fun than him and her, couple number one. This is often the case: when you watch “Much Ado About Nothing” by Shakespeare, you realize that couple number one is nowhere near as much fun as the comic relief, couple number two. Not to mention the supporting characters. Often, it’s just like that.] 

The main point is that God loves us and all the rigamarole in between meeting and the resolution, the conflicts and the complications, shows us just how it is that God loves us. How it is that two total strangers can become family, and not just their own small human family, but part of the whole wide family of God. 

It is much more difficult for us outside the story, which after all, we know, ends happily, to get ahold of and to trust the promise, in that we are just learning to see the length to which God will go and has gone and has succeeded in going, to invite us and incorporate us and bring us and welcome us into the family of God. 

God has brought us into his family. That is the best story; it is a true story. And we are here today to celebrate because it is true. 

Woman touching Jesus' hem, fresco, Catacomb ofSaints Peter and Marcellinus, 3rd century http://edgeofenclosure.org/proper8b.html Mark 5:25-34 Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’ Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, “Who touched me?” ’ He looked all round to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.’

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John Leech

November 1 at 7:35pm ·

733 pm during World Series game nov1 first xmas related commercial aaagh

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Diane   Hallmark channel started showing 24-7 holiday movies a few days ago. Last year, I think they ran into January. Do you have any idea how many really bad holiday movies there are? Yikes!

Like · Reply · November 2 at 6:02am

John Leech The hallmark movie plot : she finally meets the right man. Grandma is happy.

Like · Reply · 1 · November 2 at 8:25am

John Leech The hallmark Christmas movie plot: she finally meets the right man, just in time for Christmas. Grandma is very happy.

Like · Reply · November 2 at 8:26am

Diane  Got it in one, unless it's the equal opportunity version where the guy is looking for the right woman! LOL

Like · Reply · November 2 at 8:26am

The story of Ruth that we read today is a lot like a Hallmark Channel movie - at first glance. A capable woman meets a righteous man, marries him, settles down, and they have a child. Grandma is happy. 

But the story did not start that way. The four-episode story of Ruth begins with a much graver situation than you'll find in any Hallmark movie.

As the story begins a woman leaves her hometown of Bethlehem - where there is no bread: it's a time of famine - and travels with her husband and her two sons across a couple of boundaries. They cross the valley of the Jordan to an unlikely place, the unfriended land of Moab. But there is food there. And her sons find wives. But her husband dies and after ten years her sons die as well. She is left, in that ancient patriarchal culture, without male support. Husbands and sons were the security for women. Without them the woman - the women - fall to the bottom of society.

The woman hears that the famine is over in her homeland, and so she makes plans to return. Her daughters-in-law accompany her part of the way but she discourages them. She has no husband and no prospect of sons. She cannot hold out hope to them that, in-laws as they are - but now to become foreigners in a strange land - they would find any comfort there.

Orpah goes back. Fair enough. Ruth surprises her mother-in-law and vows to continue with her, to stay in relationship with her, and indeed to adopt her homeland and her family - and her God - as her own. So forsaking all others she goes with the older widow on her journey.

And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

When they arrive it is early spring. The barley harvest is beginning. It's the first sign of hope, as episode one closes.

In episode two, the women of Bethlehem welcome home their relative, Naomi. But Naomi is bitter at this point and sees no happy way out of her circumstance. Bereft of husband and sons, and prospect of a child, she has little left. Except Ruth.

Ruth with permission from her mother-in-law becomes a gleaner, one of the poor ones following the harvesters as they reap the grain. And she is seen. The owner of the field approaches, speaks his appreciation of all she has done. She has taken care of her mother-in-law, leaving all her other support behind her. He blesses her for seeking protection under the wings of God.

The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.

The man, Boaz, sees that Ruth has placed her total trust in God. He praises that. And he looks after her that day and sees that she does not go home empty-handed. Naomi is glad to hear how the day went for Ruth and indeed notices that the owner of the field was none other than her own close relative. A hopeful ending to episode two.

Episode three begins some weeks later as the harvest season is coming to a close. Naomi, now in much better spirits, has come up with an idea. And so Ruth seeks out Boaz - and the upshot is here in today's reading. She seeks shelter under his wing - for life. And in episode four, we get the happy ending. Ruth and Boaz marry, and Naomi gets a grandchild.

But remember where we started and see the story as a whole. The book began with six characters, three men and three women, only two of whom survive to the second chapter. From exile the older woman returns to her own land, and with her comes a woman who is seeking safety, shelter, and a new home in a place she has never been before. God bless you, says a new friend, for what you have done. And the story turns away from famine, scarcity, and sorrow to abundance, fullness, and joy.

That is the story of Ruth - an immigrant and a widow - who found a welcome in the household of God, among the people of God in a place she had never known, that now she would make her home.

Questions I am asked and challenged by:

What do you do to make a home of a place you have never been before? And what do you do to make your place a home for the alien, the widow, the stranger, and those seeking a new life in a place they have never been before?

Ten or eleven years ago at the bishop's conference on the border (organized by Tom Buechele) some one asked if there were any Bible passages about borders and migration. Three came to mind, right away:

"My father was a wandering Aramean,..." or, as the King James has it, "A Syrian ready to perish was my father,..." (Dt 26.5) This is the story of how Jacob, patriarch of the Hebrew people, migrated to a foreign land in a time of famine.

"You were strangers once in Egypt...." (Dt 10.19) "Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt."
 This is an admonishment to the people of Israel to extend hospitality to foreigners. And even, at Passover, to welcome them into their homes for the family dinner on an equal footing with themselves.

And the kicker:

"I was a stranger and you welcomed me." (Mt 25.35) Jesus at the final gathering of all peoples responds with welcome to those who have been welcoming...



When I first came to southern Arizona eleven years ago I had to find ways to make it home. One advantage I had was a bit of history of my own from long ago: my grandfather was a forest ranger in the Arizona territory before the first world war. And my future parents-in-law met at the University of Arizona. But family connections are not enough. I had to get to know the place, the land, the fauna and flora. And I had to get to know the story of Arizona, the stories of the people who live here.

Those stories are many, and carry on. Among them are many stories of people who have come to Arizona for work, for family, or to start a new and better life. There are people who have fled war, civil strife, or natural disaster. Famine. And there are those who find here a fresh start in a place of abundance. They are welcomed. There are some who are greeted with an attitude of scarcity, of not sharing. (Where I once lived in another state, we called this "closing the door behind you" as all of us had been immigrants not long since.)

The story of Ruth - of Naomi and Boaz and the people of Bethlehem - gives us hope. It gives us a story of welcome and hospitality. It gives us in quiet ways a story of how God can work with what we have - even if it is only two women who stick together in hard times - and make a new thing begin.

How do we make something bloom in the desert? How do we make ourselves at home in a new time or a new place? How do we begin to welcome home those who have been long away? Or those who have never been under our roof before?

And how do we celebrate the welcome of God to all of us as God welcomes us into his house, his hospitality, and we find shelter under his wings?



8 November 2015
Twenty Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 27

Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17
Psalm 127
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44


Notes for a sermon given at St. John's Episcopal Church, Bisbee, Arizona. JRL+