A few months ago a Dutch woman named Miep Gies (pronounced “Meep Geez”) died at the age of 100. Her death didn’t make international headlines because she was 100—although that’s admirable. Her death was noted because many years ago, she had risked her life by helping Anne Frank’s family avoid capture by the Nazis. For nearly two years, Miep Gies and a few others succeeded in hiding the Franks. But finally the Nazis seized them and hauled the Jewish family off to a concentration camp. But Miep Gies found and kept Anne Frank’s journal and hid it away in a drawer (she never once opened or read it). When the war was over, Anne’s father, Otto, the only member of the Frank family to survive the concentration camp, returned to Amsterdam and Miep Gies gave him his daughter’s journal. He read it and managed to get it published. We know it today as The Diary of Anne Frank.

 

For the rest of her life, Miep Gies refused to call herself a hero, insisting she had done nothing extraordinary. “I’m a very common person,” she would say, “I had no choice.” She went on to explain that if people are allowed to think it takes remarkable qualities to act boldly on behalf of others, few will attempt it. “You don’t have to be a special person to help others who need you,” she declared.

 

Our text this morning is such a story of courage, kindness and risk-taking, all by ordinary people. It’s a story of a poor immigrant family. Naomi and her husband, both Israelites, left Judah due to a famine and moved to Moab, east of the Jordan River, modern day Jordan. While there, their sons married Moabite women. But disaster struck. Naomi’s husband died and her two sons died. So here were three widows—Naomi, and her Moabite daughters-in-laws, Ruth and Orpah. Remember that in this society there was no economic safety net for widows. So theirs is a tragic situation.

 

Naomi decided to go back to Judah for food and survival. Her daughters-in-law started to follow her, and Naomi said, “You’re not obligated. Stay here. You’re young. You can find someone. Don’t worry about me.” Orpah decided to stay in Moab, but Ruth made that beautiful speech that is probably the most famous passage from this book…”where you go, I will go, where you lodge, I will lodge…your people will be my people, your God will be my God, where you die, I will die…” (vv. 16-17). I believe that this is a confession of faith, as Ruth is entering the Jewish faith. She was adopting Naomi’s God as her own (Ruth calls God by God’s covenant name in v. 17: LORD, the words Jewish scribes substituted for “Yahweh”, the covenant name for God, the name they did not feel worthy to take on their lips).

 

So Ruth could have gone her own way, but courageously followed her mother-in-law and her God. And Naomi and Ruth traveled the 50 or 60 miles back to Bethlehem, arriving during the time of barley harvest. Now I wish the orchestra was still up here. I would have them play some romantic ballad, “Love Is A Many Splendored Thing,” or something by Barry Manilow! Because romance enters the picture. Boaz, a wealthy and respected man, took one look at Ruth and went, “Wow!” He gave instructions to the harvesters in the field that generous portions were to be left in the field for the ladies to glean. To make a long story, short, Boaz and Ruth married. They had a baby boy named Obed. Obed grew up and had a little boy named Jesse, who grew up and had lots of little boys, one of whom was named David. Yes, Ruth’s son was the grandfather of King David. That means that Ruth was an ancestor of our Lord Jesus. In fact, she is listed in Matthew’s genealogy (Matthew 1:5). Now I have to tell you. This is a wondrous nugget of truth—that Jesus, though a Jew, had Gentile blood coursing through his veins. And when Jesus died on the cross, the blood he shed was blood shed for all peoples, all races, all nations.  

 

Oh, but there’s more. Ruth wasn’t just a foreigner. There was bad blood between the Moabites and Israelites (Deut. 23:3; 2 Sam 8:2) The best example is Psalm 60:8. In a triumphant mood, the psalmist declares that God allowed victory of Moab, my wash basin. Translated: I was my feet in Moab! Bad blood. Animosity. Ill will. In light of that, consider Boaz’s courage in making sure the poor immigrants had food to eat. But remember that Israelites had been instructed to be kind to the stranger in the land, the immigrant, because we ALL were immigrants once (Exodus 22:21). How amused God must become with our childish fear of people who aren’t like us. And how sad God must be when we assume that people different from us are inferior to us.

 

Do you know that I was a freshman in high school before I had any personal knowledge of or conversation with a person of color? My soon-to-be brother-in-law brought a friend home from college. And you can probably guess my first and only experience with ethnic and cultural diversity. Yes, “I Love Lucy” reruns. Rick Ricardo was Cuban! God is so faithful to use the stories of scripture to stretch us and challenge us beyond our narrow nationalism, our narrow racism and our narrow faith practice, as if the way we worship is the only way.  

 

Think about story of Ruth. In life’s everyday-ness, the unexpected work of God shows up. The courage of Ruth, to obey God and go into a land that was not her own. The courage of Boaz to be kind to and marry a woman of “suspicious” pedigree. What if they had not been obedient to God?  Have you ever pondered how our decisions and choices are crucial in the formation of our character? And crucial in the flow of historical events? Our choices matter. Our faithfulness counts. Our actions have ripple effects, like a rock on a pond surface. And if enough of us are courageous and obedient, those ripples in the pond become tidal waves and tsunamis of God’s Kingdom. Someone has said that the Book of Ruth is an artistic, playful dance between the courageous obedience of humans and the guiding providence of God. And that dance opens up for us a new future, new possibilities, new ways of being in the world.

 

Remember what Miep Gies said. If people are allowed to think it takes remarkable qualities to act boldly on behalf of others, few will attempt it. “You don’t have to be a special person to help others who need you,” she declared. So, there aren’t extraordinary people. Just ordinary people, willing to live in extraordinary ways for God.