Redemption from Below
Steven E. Webster, Certified Lay Speaker
Preaching at University United Methodist Church
Sunday, November 12, 2006 following the November Elections and the adoption of the anti-same-gender marriage amendment to the Wisconsin Consitution
Mark 12: 38-44 and Ruth 3: 1-5; 4: 13-17 


 It is the role of preachers to delve into what John Wesley, quoting scripture, called “the Oracles of God” and try to divine from the scriptures what God might be telling us today. The scripture readings which the church’s common lectionary assigns us to read today are from Mark’s Gospel and the Book of Ruth. I did not pick these scripture readings--but I believe they are appropriate to our current circumstances.

The issue of who should be allowed to marry whom has been a hot button political issue since ancient times. One of the more shameful events recorded in the Bible occurs after the return of the Jewish people from exile in Babylon. In their attempt to rebuild the Jewish nation, Ezra and Nehemiah sought to "purify" the people by forcing the divorce of Jewish men from foreign wives and exiling these women and their children. In a patriarchal society where women and children were highly dependent on men, this was very cruel legislation that must have caused much suffering and hardship.

Ezra and Nehemiah's marriage legislation specifically named Moabite women for exclusion from marriage to Jewish men. Many scholars would date the Book of Ruth to this same period--they see this story as the Parable of Ruth, the Good Moabite, a story which is a subtle, but direct protest against the anti-foreigner bigotry exhibited by Ezra and Nehemiah. The story tellers who gave us the Book of Ruth the Good Moabite had the same purpose as Jesus when he told the Parable of the Good Samaritan, for Samaritans, like Moabites were objects of nationalistic bigotry. 
 
Just as Ezra and Nehemiah feared that the "purity" of society and the institution of marriage was threatened by the inclusion of foreigners, people in the United States as late as the 1960's outlawed inter-racial marriage and now outlaw same gender marriage. But there are people in and outside of the church who, like the author of the Book of Ruth, raise a protest against this bigotry and proclaim that "love makes a family." 
 
We heard from chapter one of the Book of Ruth last Sunday--During a famine a Jewish family, Naomi, her husband and sons had migrated from Israel to Moab where food was more plentiful. There Naomi's sons married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. Tragedy struck, and Naomi's husband and sons died leaving the three women as childless widows. Following ancient custom Orpah returned to the care of her mother's family, but Ruth, because of her love for her mother-in-law Naomi defied custom and migrated with Naomi back to Israel. There is that wonderful passage, sometimes used in modern day weddings where Ruth pledges her loyalty 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; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die and 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 and Naomi were destitute widows in a society without Social Security. Naomi expresses total despair. Naomi complains about how God has treated her: "Call me no more, Naomi (which means "pleasant"), but call me Mara ("bitter one"), for God has dealt bitterly with me. I went away full, but God has brought me back empty." 
 
  We know from scripture that even in ancient Israel there was a type of welfare system for the poor. There was a law in Hebrew scriptures that required landowners to deliberately leave part of the grain harvest in the fields where poor people were to be allowed to "glean" to gather the grain left behind in the fields for themselves. While the older Naomi passively sat at home bitter and depressed, Ruth went to work gleaning enough grain to feed both herself and Naomi. Her love, family loyalty to Naomi and hard work is noticed by a wealthy landowner, Boaz, whose fields Ruth is gleaning. 
 
When Naomi has had the good meal Ruth’s hard work provided, she learns that Ruth has gleaned in the field of Boaz and her mood suddenly changes. No longer depressed and feeling sorry for herself, Naomi hatches a plan. . . 
 
Naomi is aware of another form social security in ancient Israel--it was the duty of redemption in extended families. A redeemer was a relative with the duty of recovering the lost property or freedom of a family member fallen on hard times. A redeemer also had the responsibility to marry the childless widow of his male relative in order to preserve the family line of the deceased as well as to provide the security of children to the widow. As Pastor JungJa told us last week, this form of marriage is known by scholars as "levirate marriage" which, in English, means "brother-in-law" marriage because of the duty of brothers-in-law to marry their bothers' widows. This is just another example of how the legal definitions and structures of marriage have continually changed over time. 
 
The passage we read from chapter 3 of Ruth today provides a bit of comic relief. The Hebrew language used in these verses is full of sexual puns and innuendo. Naomi instructs Ruth to bathe and annoint herself, get dressed in her best clothes and go down to the threshing floor where Boaz is celebrating the harvest feast that night. She is to wait until Boaz has gotten a little bit drunk, and to snuggle up to him in the dark. This is Naomi's plan to get Ruth married. 
 
We learn that Boaz admires and respects Ruth for her hard work and family loyalty and he seems to be a perfect gentleman. Whatever it was that happened in the dark on the threshing floor (and the scripture is deliberately unclear about that)--Boaz sets about the next day to arrange a proper marriage. Boaz and Ruth have a baby--and by custom the baby is not only Ruth's, but the otherwise childless Naomi's as well. The story ends happily for the two widows--the bitter Naomi is Pleasant again--and we learn at the end that Ruth's great grandson will be Israel's greatest King--David whom Christians would honor as the ancestor of Jesus. 
 
That was the quick version of the story that glosses over some fine points. Although law and custom were patriarchal and male centered, it is interesting that this story actually focuses more on the women and their actions. Yes, Boaz plays an important role--that of the family redeemer, but in many respects it is Ruth who acts as the real redeemer--it is her love, loyalty, and hard work that is key to turning around a hopeless situation. 
 
Ruth was "just a woman"--and a Moabite at that. Moabites had unsavory origins according to Hebrew tradition being descended from the incestuous union of Lot and his daughters. Alluding to Naomi's stealthy plan to lure Boaz into marriage, the scriptures even compare Ruth to another childless widow in King David's family tree, Tamar, who used deception and feigned prostitution to trick her father-in-law, Judah, into acting the part of redeemer and providing her a child. The scriptures don't stop there--the Gospel of Matthew tells us that Boaz's mother was the famous prostitute Rahab, a hero in the Book of Joshua whom the Book of Hebrews praises for her faith and whom the Epistle of James honors for her good works. 
 
What are powerful men like Ezra and Nehemiah who want to promote the purity of marriage and the nation to do with a God who works this way?  Maybe they need to ban the Bible as unsuitable literature.
 
God, it seems, turns everything upside down. As Jesus said, the first shall be last and the last first and the prostitutes are getting into God's Kindom ahead of the "right sort of people." 
 
In the Gospel reading today Jesus talks about prominent, wealthy, respected religious leaders who turn out to be hypocrites, and poor helpless widows who turn out to be real, if unsung, heroes. It is the small gifts of poor widows that better honor God then the wealth of the those whose show of religion covers their dishonest deeds. It is ironic that the week before last, just before the election, the world witnessed the downfall of the Rev. Ted Haggard, President of the National Association of Evangelicals and a man with White House “access” who was exposed by a former male prostitute Haggard had used, named Mike Jones. Jones could no longer tolerate the hypocrisy of a prominent minister who led his state's campaign against marriage equality for lesbians and gays while breaking his own marriage vows living "on the down low," leading the life of a closeted homosexual. 
 
There is a story of reversal here--things being turned upside down. Mike Jones, former prostitute, may be no hero. But he has been open and seemingly honest in his dealings with the media. I listened last night, through the magic of the internet, to a talk radio show in which Mike Jones spoke to an audience in Colorado Springs, the city where Ted Haggard's 14,000 member church is located. Several members of Ted Haggard's church called in. They all thanked Jones for coming forward to expose their pastor. They all said he was welcome to attend their church and none of them attacked him for being gay. One woman said she had once been a member of Ted Haggard's church--she said she got pregnant at age 17 and her pastor, Ted Haggard treated her in a very judgmental way when that was not what she needed. She saw justice in what Jones had done. 
 
Mike Jones hoped that he could stop the anti-gay marriage amendment that Haggard was promoting in Colorado. Jones was no political operative, and he had no idea whether exposing Ted Haggard was the "smart political thing to do." All he knew was that a man he knew to be a hypocrite was hurting his lesbian and gay friends. Unfortunately the anti-gay marriage amendments passed in Colorado and Wisconsin and every state it was proposed except for one, Arizona. Maybe Jones' revelation backfired. 
 
But something else backfired--one of the Republican leaders of our legislature speaking on public TV on Friday admitted what many of us knew--these anti-gay marriage amendments were a political ploy to bring out more voters who would vote to keep Republicans in power. This Wisconsin Republican leader, and others admitted that their ploy backfired. Their party lost power because they were viewed as corrupt and hypocritical from the national level on down. Republican Presidential strategist Karl Rove himself told Time Magazine, and I quote:
"The profile of corruption in the exit polls was bigger than I'd expected, Abramoff, lobbying, Foley and Haggard added to the general distaste that people have for all things Washington, and it just reached critical mass." 

 
On election day, the honesty of a prostitute may have triumphed over the deceptions of the powerful. Scripture warns us in many ways not to put our faith in the wealthy and powerful--whatever their political party and pretensions to purity and holiness may be. I believe that one lesson that this strange episode in American history should teach all Christians, whether Evangelical, Mainline or Catholic is that we should not align the gospel with one political party, Democratic, Republican, Green or Libertarian. Christians should not be seeking political power for its own sake and bragging about their "access" and influence and Monday morning phone calls with the White House. We need first of all to be loyal to the simple Gospel of Jesus who proclaimed God's rule in human affairs by aligning himself with the poor and the despised, not the wealthy and powerful. As former White House aid David Kuo seems to say--no government is worthy of Christian support that does not care for the poorest in society. Jesus' own story repeats a theme throughout scripture a theme of redemption coming not from those on the top of society--redemption comes from below. 
 
Let us pray: 
Help us to understand the message you would give us today. As you taught Naomi, teach us not to be bitter and despairing. Give us the faith, loving kindness and determination of Ruth. Help us to see through the eyes of Jesus who had more respect for the low and despised than for the high and mighty. 
 
Amen. 


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