Advent Week 2: December 8, 2024
The Rev. Megan Collins
The story we’ll be reading today isn’t one we usually read during Advent or Christmas.
There are no angels singing in a multitude.
There are no shepherds or big shiny stars.
There is not even an appearance from John the Baptist, whose words are a little strange but he still usually shows up in our Advent readings, so it feels like Christmas.
Today, there won’t be any of that. In this passage, you’ll hear the tragic story of one woman in the Bible. It starts when her family runs out of food so they have to leave home to go find a place they can survive. Not long after they get there, her husband dies. More time goes by, and both her sons die. She is consumed with grief and despair. In the depths of her pain, she pushes everyone in her life away from her.
What on earth does it have to do with Christmas?
It turns out, it has everything to do with Christmas.
Let’s read Ruth 1:
Ruth 1
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth.
This is the beginning of Naomi’s story, as we know it. We can hope that perhaps the times leading up to this part of her life weren’t quite so tragic. When we meet her, she is married and has two sons, but then things quickly fall apart. Because Bethlehem has run out of food, she flees with her family to the country of Moab to survive. She would do anything to save her family, even if it meant leaving her home and becoming a foreigner. But after they have settled into their new home in Moab, her husband dies. Not only is she grieving, but also In this time in history as a widow, Naomi would need someone to provide for her. She would now have to rely on her two sons to financially care for her. Her two sons stay, and they each get married. Then ten years later, tragedy strikes again.
When they had lived there for about ten years, both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons or her husband.
So much loss. So much insecurity. The three women decide to return to Naomi’s home in Bethlehem because they heard that the famine had finally ended.
Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had had consideration for his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back each of you to your mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband.’ Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud.They said to her, ‘No, we will return with you to your people.’ But Naomi said, ‘Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.’Then they wept aloud again.
Before they get too far, Naomi decides to send her daughter in laws back to stay in their home in Moab. She can’t provide for them. She doesn’t have other sons they could marry. It’s just her. If they go home, the womens’ families could care for them. They could even get married again, which for women in their time, was their best shot at a sustainable life. The daughters say they want to stay with her, but Naomi pushes them away. She tells them to turn back. She doesn’t want to pull them any further into her tragedy. It would be better for her to be alone and them to go find a better life. She will only be a burden to them. In her despair, she pushes away the only people she has left.
Orpah leaves. But Ruth does not. Ruth is determined to stay.
Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
So she said, ‘See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’ But Ruth said,
‘Do not press me to leave you
or to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die—
there will I be buried.
May the Lord do thus and so to me,
and more as well,
if even death parts me from you!’
Ruth stays - or more accurately, Ruth adamantly refuses to leave. She forces her way into Naomi’s life. She is determined to enter into the mess and the tragedy and be in it with her, even though it was a sacrifice. That’s quite a daughter in law. Naomi is grateful, right? Her gratitude turns things around, she feels a little better? No.
When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.
So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them; and the women said, ‘Is this Naomi?’ She said to them,
‘Call me no longer Naomi,
call me Mara,
for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me.
I went away full,
but the Lord has brought me back empty;
why call me Naomi
when the Lord has dealt harshly with me,
and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?’
So Naomi returned together with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came back with her from the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Naomi is still deeply in her despair. She goes so far as to change her name to reflect her pain. She can’t have been pleasant to be around. But still, Ruth stays. Ruth clings to Naomi, even in her bitterness and her grief. That’s the end of our passage. It's a tragic story, a beautiful story. But again, what does it have to do with Christmas? Everything.
It’s not because Ruth and Naomi went to Bethlehem, where Jesus would be born.
It’s not even because Ruth is in the lineage of Jesus, which she is.
It has everything to do with Christmas because Ruth fully entered into the mess of Naomi’s life, the pain and the struggle, and refused to leave, even though she could, even though it was a sacrifice. Ruth shows us here what the incarnation means.
The incarnation is what we celebrate at Christmas, when God chose to enter into our mess. When God met us in our pain and our struggle, and refused to leave, even though God could, even though it was a sacrifice. God came to us, as Jesus Christ, born in a stable, to be “God with us.” Ruth clung to Naomi. God clings to us. Like Ruth, God has simply refused to leave, even though we, like Naomi,,often try to push God away. Ironically, sometimes in the moments we need God the most, we push the hardest. When we are at the bottom, when we are overcome by our brokenness, when life feels impossible, sometimes we run right to God. Sometimes, we push God away instead. Then God says to us what Ruth said to Naomi,
‘Do not press me to leave you
or to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
where you lodge, I will lodge;
That’s the incarnation. God moving in with us, here . . . and God’s not leaving.
We’re in a sermon series during Advent called Words for the Beginning. The idea behind the series is that in all of the beginnings we find ourselves in, whether they are good ones, or bad ones, there are some things we need to remember. Last week we were reminded that, in whatever beginning you are in, you are a blessing. This week the truth we need to remember is this: we can’t go alone.
Whatever path you’re on, right now, you can’t go alone.
Whatever new chapter and new season you are beginning, whether it’s a good one, or a terrible one, you can’t go alone.
You can’t go without God.
God says “where you go, I will go.”
Whether you want God to be there or not, God is coming with you.
It reminds me of Psalm 139, which says
Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night’,
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
At your highest points and your lowest points, God is there.
Even if you hide in the dark, you look up, and there’s God.
You can’t go without God.
You also can’t go without other people.
It’s so easy to be like Naomi, to push other people away, especially when you’re struggling. Maybe you’re afraid your pain will be a burden to the people who love you. Maybe you’ve tried to rely on people before, and they disappointed you, and you got hurt. Maybe you don’t feel like you can trust anyone with your pain. But you can’t go alone. God is going to cling to you, whether you want God to or not.
I truly hope you have someone in your life who is like Ruth.
I hope you have someone who just refuses to let go.
I hope you have someone who holds on, even when you are at your lowest, someone who has set up camp in your life and won’t leave, even if you try to push them away.
If you have that person, and you are struggling right now - let them in.
They won’t be perfect. They’ll probably disappoint you at some point. They’ll try their best and still not always get it right. But I can tell you, the Ruths of the world, they are rare. If you have one, let them in to your life. If you don’t have one, there are a few Ruths here, in the church, who are just waiting to be invited in to your life.
You can’t go alone.
The people around you shouldn’t go alone either.
This is what it means for us to love people the way God has loved us. You are called to be a Ruth for someone else. There are people here and in your life who are struggling, who are in pain. Some will let you in, but others will try to push you away. They may not say it directly, they may not say like Noami “turn back” but what they will say is “I’m fine.” or “Don’t worry about it.” Naomi’s, you know who you are, and boy are you hard to take care of sometimes.
We are all called to be like Ruth. When we talk about loving like Jesus, it means we don’t walk away when it’s hard. We don’t worry that someone else’s pain is somehow contagious, that it will bring us down to spend time with them. We don’t shy away from hard conversations, or things that make us uncomfortable. We don’t pretend everything is fine for the people around us, when we know it’s not. Instead, we say “Where you go, I will go;” I’m not leaving. We choose to love, even when it’s uncomfortable, We choose to stay, even when it costs us something. We don’t offer easy answers or platitudes that make us feel better. We offer our presence. We become the unwavering reminder that no one should go alone. We lean into the mess and we hold space for the grief and we speak hope in darkness. We say, “I see you. I hear you. I’m not going anywhere.”
When we do this, we find we aren’t the only ones there. God is there too. God is always with the brokenhearted. God got there way before we did. We just get to the ones who are there as a reminder of God’s love.
I hope you have a Ruth in your life. I hope you let them in.
I hope if you don’t that you’ll take a risk here, and get to know the people who want to walk with you.
I also hope you respond to the call to be a Ruth for someone else. People like that are far too rare.
God came to us in the person of Jesus Christ. That’s what we celebrate at Christmas, that God has decided to cling to us, even when we are a mess. God’s not going anywhere.
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