What’s your greatest fear?… Anyone here afraid of spiders? I used to be afraid of spiders. I’m ok with them now, but for a while…. Well I remember once in college I woke up in my old dorm and there was a garden spider on top of my covers, about 10 or so inches from my head. He was looking at me and I was looking at him and we were both frozen…. I moved… rather quickly in whatever direction he wasn’t.… He felt of me as I did of him and moved in another direction. After I felt a little safer, I stripped the bed and ruffled through my clothes, which were everywhere anyway…. (I was in college) So after feeling sure that he had returned to haunting Miss Muffet or whatever he wanted to do. I took a shower and got dressed, remembering on that very cold morning to put on long johns and I headed to my Old Testament Survey class at 8:00am.
Rev. Chuck Hodges, campus minister and professor of this class was dealing with the transmission of Biblical stories through their telling for each generation. He was dealing with Exodus when I felt something move, something tickled my knee, the inside part, and it was only moving more…Well you’ve put it together by now… I barely had my hand up asking to be excused before I was out the door, moving down the hall and taking off my pants along the way in front of Jane England’s history and political science class. I suppose I was making a little noise along the way to the restroom, because everyone else in that hall quieted down as I passed. And so I made it to the restroom… in my long-johns and after rolling them up from the ankle found the spider. I wish I could tell you that I set him free… but that would be a lie. And besides my initial swat way back in Chuck Hodges classroom had pretty well flattened him.
So is anyone afraid of spiders? What about snakes? I have a snake story too… but who doesn’t? I’ll save it for another day. We all have fears: fears of heights, fears of closed in places, fears of dentist. I have a friend who dreads pregnancy not because of the fear of giving birth, but because of the needles she would face in the hospital.
Fear can be paralyzing or it can lead to panic? I hate to confess this as a pastor but I still have an inclination of fear, whenever I am with a dying person, a person who will be passing at any given time. I remember when my grandmother was dying, for a few days she would experience stomach pains and when she did she would groan and move a bit and I thought she was dying then, and it took everything I had not to go running into the hall but to stay with her.
One of the reasons that I made myself stay was because in seminary I learned that likely the greatest fear of one who is dying is that he or she will be left alone and forgotten. But I have come to believe that that fear, of being alone, of being forgotten is not only terrifying for those who are dying but also for those who are living. I would wager that if you and I could talk deeply enough and candidly enough that that would be a common fear.
Our texts today from Ruth is one of my favorite stories in the Old Testament, and it is a story of God’s provision in the life of Naomi and Ruth through a kinsman-redeemer to insure that they are not forgotten and they are not alone. It is an ironic story because it centers around a gentile woman. It is a prophetic story because it foreshadows the work of Jesus Christ, our kinsmen redeemer. It is also… a love story, for ultimately that is the antidote of this common fear.
While your turning to Ruth chapter 4 let me tell you a little about what’s been going on prior. Naomi had moved with her husband and two sons to Moab. Her two sons married Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah. Naomi’s husband and sons died and so she prepared to return to Judah to find relief from the famine. She freed her son’s wives from going with her. Orpah with much appreciation accepted her release and stayed in Moab. Ruth replied with that famous passage that is so often spoken in weddings or moments of great loyalty and affection. “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." And so they return to Judah.
There they find Boaz who they desire to be the kinsman-redeemer. The Kinsmen redeemer functioned differently in different situations. In this case Naomi wished to sell a piece of land and in order to keep the land in the family and keep her name and her husband’s name with the land, a family member needed to purchase the land. In this case, not only did the purchase of the land, but the care of a new wife… Ruth, who had made her intentions for Boaz clear. Still the procedure must be followed properly and although Boaz desires to be with Ruth as well, he follows the custom of Judah and seeks out the kinsman-redeemer prior to himself and that is where we pick up the story.
Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat there. When the kinsman-redeemer he had mentioned came along, Boaz said, "Come over here, my friend, and sit down." So he went over and sat down. Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, "Sit here," and they did so. Then he said to the kinsman-redeemer, "Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you [1] will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line." "I will redeem it," he said. Then Boaz said, "On the day you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire [2] the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property." At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, "Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it." (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.) So the kinsman-redeemer said to Boaz, "Buy it yourself." And he removed his sandal. Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, "Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion and Mahlon. I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from the town records. Today you are witnesses!" Then the elders and all those at the gate said, "We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah." So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi: "Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth." Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. The women living there said, "Naomi has a son." And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
I wonder what the first kinsmen-redeemer thought as he heard of this offer. Well if there is anything you want in this culture its land. Land is not just a matter of wealth it’s a matter of provision. This is still a place where people live off the land. And moreover if you desire to have a large family with many children you must have land on which to settle them. So the first kinsmen-redeemer accepts the land. And then Boaz throws in the catch… a woman… Ruth… she comes with the land for she is Naomi’s daughter and they both must be cared for that is the role of a kinsmen-redeemer.
I can’t help but wonder if Boaz is just hoping against hope. Maybe he downplayed the quality of the land, or maybe even Ruth. Naah, I believe Boaz is a man of integrity and he plays by the rules…. And I’m sure his heart lept and the man’s quick refusal after hearing of Ruth. And all the elders were there to hear and to bear witness of this man’s desire not to be the kinsman redeemer. And so Boaz turns to the elders and finds their blessing and marries Ruth as we have read, they bear a son, Obed. And Naomi holds and blesses her grandson. And all the women bless Naomi and tell her that Ruth has been as good to her as seven sons. And as our mental picture of this story begins to fade with Naomi holding Obed, the writer tells us that Obed, is a pretty important guy. He is the father of Jesse, who is the father of King David, the greatest king of all Israel, and is the lineage from which Jesus will come.
Now wait…. Did we read that right? David’s father is Jesse…. Jesse’s father is Obed. Obed’s father is Boaz and Obed’s mother… is Ruth… a Moabite, a Gentile. Wait now! Listen…. I’m all for God including whomever he will in his work and his plan but this is a little far fetched don’t you think? Maybe the writer is saying that Ruth was Obed’s caregiver… his nanny... that… that is an appropriate role for this woman! Right? Maybe we can chock this up to an error of a scribe. How ‘bout we call this a spurious text. Unless the account is true and that God is not really concerned… with our nationality, or our heritage, or our skin color, or our social status, or even… get ready… our religion. Unless what really matters to God above all that superficial stuff, is that we know him and that as we know him he will empower us to things for him and for the kingdom that we couldn’t imagine. You see that is the scandal of this story. The irony of Ruth is not merely her redemption but that God in that redemption will use the most ridiculous of characters as he makes them part of his family.
Because God just seems to love to stand the world on its head, to spring out of every sophisticated and systematic box we can put God in. So much so, that he would be born in a stable, raised by a carpenter, have harlots and fisherman for friends, and would die humiliated on a cross. And in doing that, God in Christ became our kinsman-redeemer, purchasing us as Peter says, not with corruptible gold or silver but by the life of his own blood. So that we could be the ridiculous instruments of grace, and peace, and mercy, and love that would impact the world for generations. And ultimately so… we wouldn’t be alone.
God became our kinsman redeemer, so that we would be surrounded by the love of each other, the family of God, so that when we celebrate the birth of a child, the marriage of brother, the wedding anniversary of couple, we would celebrate together. And likewise when we mourn the destruction of a storm, or the breakup of a family, or the death of beloved friend… we do it together.
You see not only is this a story of God’s provision of a kinsman-redeemer, and not only is it a story of great irony in protest to exclusivity, and not only is it a foreshadowing of God’s work in Christ…. It is ultimately a love story… for everyone who fears being alone, and fears being forgotten, for everyone who wants to be in the family… of God.
So listen, be afraid of elevators if you want to, or even tight spaces, or heck… you can even be afraid of spiders…. But if your faith is in God and you’ve embraced our kinsman redeemer Christ, then take heart and find comfort in knowing that you will never be alone.
