We come once more to the middle of another week in which I invite you to set aside some time today for prayer and reflection on our own lives and church community, as well as for others in the wider community and further afield
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Ruth 1
Your people will be my people and your God my God
Naomi was making the right decision to go home to Bethlehem, but she had not dealt with the wrong decision she and her husband had made. It was most unfortunate that she faced the triple tragedy of the loss of the three most important people in her life in a very short space of time.
No-one, absolutely no-one can experience such a traumatic loss without very serious struggles to adjust to the new painful reality. However, at least in Bethlehem she would have friends or extended family members who would have tried to assist her, but to face these deaths in another country was particularly difficult so far from home. Naomi planned to compound her past failure by seeking to cover up what had happened in Moab by seeking to persuade her daughters-in-law to stay behind in their land and return to their families.
In Old Testament law the Jewish people had been told by God not to live in these territories where the lifestyles were inconsistent with the faith they proclaimed and most importantly not to marry outside their Jewish faith. Naomi’s two sons when of marriageable age had only Moabite girls to choose from! What else could they have done in that culture and context? I have a conviction that Orpah and Ruth had adopted the Jewish faith as their own when they married into this family.
This is only my reading of the situation –it is not explicitly stated as fact in the Bible, but it would explain the reactions of the young women especially Ruth later in this passage. Unfortunately, Naomi wants them to go home so that she does not have to explain why she had two Moabite daughters-in-law. This was a wrong motivation and her counsel was deeply suspect at a time when these two young widows, probably in their late teenage years, were mourning the loss of their husbands. Their willingness to go with Naomi to Bethlehem at potentially great personal cost is amazing.
However, the focus in this section of the story is not on Naomi, or on Orpah the daughter-in-law who chooses to go home, but on Ruth. Ruth 1:16-18 states: But Ruth replied, ‘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. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.’ 18 When Naomi realised that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
The easy option for Ruth would have been to go back home to her parents as well. But her faith in God in this situation is both inspirational and challenging to us today.
It is inspirational: There is no hopeless situation when God is at work. We may not be able to see a way out of our difficulties, but He is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine… (Ephesians 3:20). Many of us today are struggling with the consequences of the Covid-19 virus pandemic. Whether it is our physical, emotional or mental health it is for some of us a new situation that we feel out of our depth to cope with. Here this courageous young woman displays a maturity beyond her years. As a relatively new believer in God she takes Him at His Word and will in time see that faith vindicated. Let us pray for the gift of faith in God or as a Christian a strengthened faith to trust God to get us through this difficult time.
It is challenging: The ‘elephant in the room’ here is that in addition to the crisis all are facing, Ruth goes to Bethlehem as a person with a different ethnicity without any assurance she will be welcomed by others in that community. We know the gist of the story looking back, but in real time Ruth may have had some genuine fears of how welcome she would be in that conservative Jewish cultural context.
Fast forward more than three thousand years, humankind has made far too little progress in promoting racial equality. Recent events and the stories some of us have listened to of the lived experience of Black people in our midst are distressing. The challenge to face going forward is this: will we keep listening and not just move onto the ‘next’ issue. Will we also pray asking God how we can play our own part individually in changing our communities for good in the coming days?
Our song for reflection is: ‘We’ll walk the land’
Pointers for Prayer
• We praise God for the reduction in numbers of people contracting the Covid-19 virus and a consequent decline in the numbers of deaths in our country. We are deeply grateful to the NHS and Social Care staff who continue to support those who have contracted this illness. However, we also pray for wisdom for the Governments in our country as health care services that have been put on hold are restarted enabling doctors’ surgeries and dental practices to reopen.
• We pray for wisdom for our Police Forces, together with local Government and legal authorities, when decisions are taken regarding matters of law and order at the present time including encouraging better practice from a minority who ignore the lock down guidance and in policing demonstrations and other responses following the killing of George Floyd on 25 May in Minneapolis. We pray that as a society each of us may be more aware of the need to oppose racism and ensure that Black Lives Matter.
• We pray for those teaching in our schools, colleges and universities, seeking to prepare for the next academic year at a time when the future is so unclear, together with young people and their families attempting to juggle work and family life alongside supporting their children in their school work.
• We pray for employers and employees in so many workplaces with deep concerns how their work might take place safely in the coming months. We also remember those now out of work and young people seeking to gain their first jobs that each might find a place of work that fits their gifts and experience.
• We continue to pray for the families that have been bereaved and ask for God’s strength and comfort in their time of sorrow.
• We remember those who are unwell and pray for God’s healing and restoration of health and strength. We particular pray for Claire and the Marshall family as Bill’s health has declined rapidly in the last few days. We give thanks that Nina G is now home from hospital and for Jeanne P having her 85th birthday this week.
• We pray for those struggling with continuing isolation in their homes or residential homes and older members of the church in particular who are finding the strains of recent months particularly difficult.
• We pray for ourselves and our families and our own specific needs; also that we always make time each day to read His word and spend time in His presence in prayer.
• We pray in advance for the online meetings and activities for all ages in our church family throughout this week and the service next Sunday.
Brian Talbot