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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?]
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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.
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