Ruth: Character Makes A Legacy - Kyle Hanawalt

SPEAKER NOTES

Today, I want to take us to a part of the Bible that has always had a special place in my heart - The book of Ruth. The reason Ruth has always been so meaningful to me is that when I was a young adult I used to help out with a Single Mom’s group called Ruth and Naomi. Sometimes I would play with kids, every Christmas my wife and I would help as waiters for their Christmas party.
This Single Mom’s group Ruth and Naomi, which was named after the main characters from this book of the Bible, always to me, at least from the parts that I got to see, it felt like the best of humanity. The best of what a faith community could offer. A living community picture of what Jesus would want. The single mothers finding support, help, care, celebration.

I actually was aware of this group before I ever personally read the book of Ruth. But, my experience has always helped inform my read of the book of Ruth. And honestly, Ruth is kind of awesome

So the book of Ruth opens up with a Famine in Israel, which leads to Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons to leave and go to Moab in search of better harvest. Soon after arriving Elimelech dies. But his sons Mary two moabite girls, Orpah and Ruth. After 10 years both sons die, leaving all three women widows. Naomi decides to return home to Bethlehem in search of help. Her daughters-in-law accompany her at first. SLIDE: RUTH 1 SCRIPTURE But, after urging them to go back to their people, Orpah leaves, but Ruth “clung to her”, proclaiming what has become the quintessential Hebrew statement of commitment “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” Back in Bethlehem, Naomi and Ruth are faced with the challenge of living alone as two single women. Ruth goes to gather grain behind harvesters in a field that just happened to belong to Boaz, a relative of Naomi’s. Boaz turns out to be a very generous man who helps Ruth, and in turn Ruth helps Naomi. Ruth catches Boaz’ eye and as a relative, Boaz had the right to buy land that belonged to Naomi’s deceased husband, and in the process would also acquire Ruth as his wife. Boaz acquires the land and everything that belonged to Elimelech, including Ruth and Naomi. He marries Ruth, they have child named Obed, who “was the father of Jesse, the father of David” (one of the most important figures in Jewish history -- he would become king) SLIDE: RUTH PAINTING Now, on the surface this story is powerful It is a picture of love and loyalty, in which Ruth commits to the care of her mother in law. Where two women who have no power, and no real pathway of hope, find the help they need. It’s a message of God’s care for the poor, widows. Amazing.

But, Ruth is even more awesome when you dive into the context First off, it is a book that stars a Woman, it’s named after a women, the protagonist, the hero is a women. The majority of the dialogue is between two women. It passes what is known as the The Bechdel test. Which is a test that asks whether a work features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. A test that a shocking amount of modern storytelling fails. In a time, and a culture that is hyper patriarchal To have a Female centric book as a part of the authoritative Hebrew texts, is nothing short of shocking.
From our culture, we read Ruth and see all sorts of things that feel like it’s reinforcing the patriarchy, it feels sexist, Boaz purchases the right to marry Ruth, by buying the land that her Father-in-law owned. However, from the context of the Ancient near eastern world, compared to the other writings and spiritual traditions of this time, the existance of and the story of Ruth would have been experienced as down right radically feminist.
It is one of many signposts in the Bible that speak to God’s heart and vision of empowering, and uplifting women Secondly, the fact the protagonist of our story is a foreigner to Israel, and not just any foreigner a Moabite is an incredibly powerful thing The Moabites were among the most detested of all foreigners. In the mind of the ancient Isrealites there was not supposed to be any such thing as a “Good Moabite.” Moab was Israel's most hated enemy. So the last thing that we would expect is a story of a woman from that country, Ruth, behaving with affection toward an Israelite, Naomi, much less behaving with a level of loyalty and goodness that was thought to be the sole province of the Israelites alone. The story of Ruth reminds us that virtue is found everywhere and in all people. In talking about this Theologian Timothy Simpson said. Often this kind of observation gets translated into a hackneyed, secular speech about how nice diversity is, but this isn’t promoting multiculturalism the way that businesses do. Rather, God raises up Ruth and many others like her in order to erode our smugness and satisfaction about our own sense of blessedness... Ruth brings us down to earth, because we can’t imagine God giving her a special place in preferment to us, given who she is and where is from. But God does precisely this with Ruth, thus teaching us that we both be humble in our own presumptions, but also teaching us to be watchful and expectant of what God will do next.

All of that is awesome! However, I have found the most powerful thing about the book of Ruth. Is why most scholars believe it was written in the first place. Scholars suggest that although the story of Ruth was passed down orally for years, it was not actually written down until the time of Ruth’s great grandson, David. The book appears to have been written to defend David’s right to be king. He was Ruth the Moabtie’s great-grandson. And the law didn’t permit any descendant of a Moabite to join Israel, down to the tenth generation. Let alone be King. It seems that ethnicity of David’s great-grandmother was being used to illegitimize him.
But, the story of Ruth that we have in scripture, is at it’s heart about how Ruth and in turn David are worthy, because of her Character. Which is why in the at the end of the book we get this affirmation of Ruth SLIDE: RUTH 4 SCRIPTURE 4:11 “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home (Ruth) like Rachel and Leah,(the matriarchs of Israel) who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.” SLIDE: RUTH PAINTING We see that although, the cultural expectations would say that Ruth and David shouldn’t be accepted, the character of Ruth and how she cared for Naomi, her character is what most mattered

This attack of David. That seems to have created the need for the Book of Ruth to exist. I think it’s almost akin to modern day political Attack Ads -- SLIDE: JUSTIN TREUDEAU MEME there were attack ads coming at David -- attempting to illegitimize him.
SLIDE: WHAT ABOUT THE SCANDAL Well, what about this scandal of your ancestor Ruth the Moabite?! This whole thing feels very familiar to me today, the election season we are in has no shortage of attack ads trying to undermine and illegitimate others. But, the story of ruth does something quite beautiful: quite poetic. It is not just covering up who his great grandmother was, it’s not apologizing and distancing himself from it. No, it’s Turns the coin on the attack. SLIDE: IT’S NOT A SCANDAL it takes this liability, that his great-grandmother was a Moabite, and makes it the best part of his legacy. That David lives in a legacy of Character. David lives in a legacy of one who does what is right, and through their actions show their worthiness. That’s what makes David a worthy leader, it’s not that he checks all the boxes off what his culture would say makes him worthy. What makes him a worthy leader is character. And for that he stands on the shoulders of Ruth, he is living a legacy of Character.

SLIDE: RUTH - DAVID - JESUS And this is even more powerful to me today, because Jesus is in the legacy too, Jesus is in the line of David, and thus in the line of Ruth.

Jesus is, really, the most powerful picture of the legacy of Ruth -- in particular, her self-sacrificial love on Naomi’s behalf As Vince talked about last week, Jesus saw his destiny as being a sufferer, a victim, an outsider, as being aligned with the powerless, like Ruth -- and that was a scandal to the religious elite of his day, who had become corrupted by the desire for power and might and status and strength -- but to Jesus, this wasn’t a scandal, this was the heart of the God he had come to show humanity: self-sacrificial love --

It is the legacy of qualities like those Ruth shows that helped set the stage for who David and Jesus were, any suggestion of scandal from some attack ad because Ruth didn’t fit what was expected or wasn’t the status quo is irrelevant -- what matters was her character -- that’s what makes a legacy! SLIDE: CHARACTER

I wonder if this helps us today I think we all experience attack ads Something that makes you feel illigitimized, lesser, feel a bit like a failure, or maybe just a little unworthy of love, unworthy of acceptance, unworthy of purpose Usually, these are tied to where we have come from, the worldviews that were instilled in us when we were young. Sometimes they come from the voices of other people, maybe our parents or someone from where we grew up or sometimes they come from the voice in our head.
Things that undermine us, like those opposing David attempted to undermine him because of his Moabite Great-Grandmother. BUT they miss the point of what matters most: character

I wonder what attack ads you’ve had thrown at you?? What about the fact that you’re not married? What about the fact that you don’t have kids? What about the fact that you don’t work a high paying or culturally prestigious job? What about the fact that you haven’t bought a house yet? What about the fact that your kids aren’t in every great program? What about the fact that you’re married to that person (someone that doesn’t align with your background) What about the fact that your parents are disappointed with your life choices? What about the fact that you think so differently from the rest of your family?

(Pause) So, I grew up pretty immersed in American Christian culture, my Grandfather was a pastor, my parents were pastors So for me, many of the attack ads I’ve had to wrestle with have to do with religion and beliefs The culture I grew up in had some pretty strong messaging around who was in and who was out in terms of faith and acceptance from God.
And this weighed pretty heavy on me early on in my life. I felt a lot of pressure in my culture to be very clear on what was in and what was out, and to work really hard to bring anyone who was out in, and make sure anyone who was in, didn’t fall out. Now I recently came to a realization that this cultural pressure did something strange to me. It lead me to grow comfortable in violating my conscience You see, the messaging that I begin to internalize, told me that my reservation, my discomfort in this in vs out approach was just my fear. That I was afraid to stand out, afraid to speak up for Jesus, afraid of what others would think of me, or even more painful, the messaging that I internalize told me that my reservations were actually a ploy of the Devil that I had to resist. So, when I pulled a bait and switch on my friends from school to get them to come to my youth group’s “outreach”. Telling them, “it’s just pizza and hanging out, that’s it.” When I did know that wasn’t it, we were hoping to use pizza to win them over to faith in Jesus. And as I would feel the discomfort rise up in me as I was recruiting them, I would hear a voice of that internalized message, that this was just my fear.
Or when I had a friend in high school tell me he was gay, and ask me if I thought God would still accept him. And I heard the voice of that internalized message of my culture telling me that I had to stand up and tell him what was in and what was out. And as I wrestles feeling such pain and discomfort with that. That voice told me that what I was feeling was fear, afraid to stand up and say the hard truth. That I had to push past my discomfort. And worse yet, maybe my reservation was some ploy of the devil to lead me astray. So I told this friend, no It wasn’t ok for him to be gay, that God very much disapproved of him. And recently reflecting on all of this, it hit me like a ton of bricks, that discomfort I felt, that reservation I felt, was not fear, was not the devil. It was my conscience, telling me. NOOOOOO STOP, don’t do that. This isn’t right. And the truth is today, I think God lives in my conscience more than in the attack ads, and I have gotten better at listening to my conscience, and to God. It was probably about 10 years ago now that I personally came to the conclusion that I believed God was a God of embrace and inclusion, and if anything was an act of fear, or an act of evil that it was my voice of exclusion to my gay friend all those years ago. my conscience finally feels at peace in, I feel God blessing and affirming me in this conclusion. But, I still, to this day, experience attack ads.
Some times from other people, who tell me that I am dishonoring God in my effort to honor my LGBTQ friends. But, most often, its that voice that had so much power in my youth, that I feel come into my mind and tell me that “I am disgracing my culture’s legacy” I am disgracing what my grandfather and parent stood for But the truth is, like David claiming the legacy of Ruth, I actually believe myself to be standing on my culture’s legacy -- because this legacy is not about maintaining what has come before me or living up to expectations, it is about character I think I am standing in the legacy of my Grandfather’s Character - who was fired from his job teaching at a Christian College because he pushed for integration of the schools payer meetings in the 60’s and called out the administration as unfaithful followers of Jesus for even question whether black families should be welcomed I think I am standing on the legacy of my Parents Character who fought for the affirmation of women in church leadership even though the culture around them told them that they were betraying God’s natural order. So, when I hear those attack ads telling me that I am betraying what my legacy has built, I feel charge, like on a spiritual level, to claim my efforts to pursue my conscious, to pursue what I feel God leading me towards, in comminicating welcome and love to my LGBTQ friends, I am standing on the shoulders of my legacy, a legacy of Character.

Pause

So, there are a few things I want to leave you with Application SLIDE: APPLICATION SLIDE: Like Ruth, Proudly pursue justice and mercy I don’t think I am unique, I think there are all sorts of ways that messages that we internalize the messages we received when we were young. Messages that feel in tension with our conscience. Messages that confuse what is a live well lived, and in this I have found the word of the prophet Micah helpful. He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Ruth shows us the kind of legacy we want to stand on. Pursue justice and mercy, . SLIDE: Ask for God’s help managing attack ads to turn the coin To experience attack ads is to be human. Attack ads from others or attack ads from the voice in your head. But what does God see when he looks at you? He sees the way you’ve lived like Ruth -- with character, for higher values -- for faithfulness, for loyalty, for love, for sacrificing yourself for other people or for higher purposes -- he sees the way you haven’t turned your back on your conscience Ask God to speak to you this way… to encourage you… you need it! Man, have I needed it! because I regularly feel conflicted, cynical, angry, beaten down, exhausted, confused, etc., etc…. [maybe expand...] I also pray Proverbs 26:2 all the time over myself (learned this from Dave Schmelzer) "Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse will not land on its intended victim." SLIDE: Prioritize character The challenge behind all of this is how character is actually built -- for Ruth, or for any of us Ruth goes through an incredibly hard set of circumstances, and when that happens, it can either ruin people or transform them -- plunge them into bitterness or build their character. Ruth was transformed -- by making courageous choices even in the midst of her pain, she became a person of immense character, whom David and Jesus were proud to be associated with
And we can do the same -- we can see our character transformed by the hardest things that happen to us; they don’t have to ruin us -- if we prioritize character Expand? Tie back to your story -- how the hardship of it has transformed your character?

Stand with me