Podcast Summaries

passing by. So Boaz said, come over friend, sit down here. And he went over and sat down. Then Boaz took ten men of the elders of the city and said, sit down here. So they sat down. He then said to the next of kin, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our kinsman, Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of it and say, buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me so I may know. For there is no one prior to you to redeem it and I come after you. So he said, I will redeem it. Then Boaz said, the day you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi, you are also acquiring Ruth, the Moabite, the widow of the dead man, to maintain the dead man's name on his inheritance. At this, the next of kin said, I cannot redeem it for myself without damaging my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it. Now this was a custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging. To confirm a transaction, one party took off a sandal and gave it to the other. This was a manner of attesting in Israel. So when the next of kin said, no, Boaz, acquire it for yourself, he took off his sandal. Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, today you are witnesses that I have acquired from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilean and Marlon. I have also acquired Ruth, the Moabite, the wife of the belonging to Chilean and Marlon. I have also acquired Ruth, the Moabite, the wife of Marlon to be my wife, to maintain the dead man's name on his inheritance in order that the name of the dead man may not be cut off from his kindred and from the gate of his native place. Today you are witnesses. Then all the people here at the gate, along with the elders, said, we are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you produce children in Ephrathah and bestow a name in Bethlehem. And through the children that the Lord will give you by this young woman, may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Thank you, Mark. Steve, am I on at your end? Nearly. Excellent. Brilliant. This is great. Do have the Bible open, page 269 to 270, Old Testament section of the church Bibles in the chairs in front of you or near you. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you that it is alive and active in our hearts. And I pray now that you would help us to hear from you and to apply it to our lives. Amen. Well, it's mid-November. I don't need me to tell you that. In the vicarage, Christmas begins, according to my daughter, on the 1st of November, which I'm always quite resistant about until about this time when I'm like, I really ought to start thinking about Christmas, at least from a church point of view, if not from a home point of view. But I know some people kind of get ready more quickly and certainly the adverts try and get us to be ready very early. So has anybody already watched their kind of, I must watch this every year, Christmas movie? No? Okay. Who has a, I must watch this every year, Christmas movie? And there's, yeah, lots of you. Okay, brilliant. Fine. My must watch every year Christmas movie is very cliched. It's love, actually. I never cease to be moved by the stories of the eight kind of families, collections of people featured in it. And what I particularly love about that film is that it shows us what love looks like in a variety of different situations. There's the love of a sister for a brother with very complex additional needs. There's the love of a wife who can overcome her husband's transgression. There's the love of a father for his young, bereaved stepson and so on. Not all of the people featured perhaps as laudable as some of those ones, but in lots of different ways it highlights love that is extraordinary. So much so that it takes our breath away. And whether we see it on a screen or read it in a novel or experience it in our own lives, deep love, I think, always surprises us. And as Julie said, we've been journeying over the last few weeks with Ruth and Naomi and Boaz as we've explored that short book in the Old Testament. And I know that not all of you have kind of been here for each of the weeks when we've been looking at it. But last week we left, no, two weeks ago, last week was Remembrance Sunday, two weeks ago we left the story on a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of chapter three. And it looked really hopeful that there was going to be change afoot for Naomi and Ruth. And Boaz has said these lovely, beautiful words to Ruth. He says, may you be blessed, my daughter. I will do for you all that you ask. That's chapter three, verses 10 to 11. And Ruth has asked Boaz to be the redeemer of their family. I'll remind us what that means in just a moment. But there's a snag. The snag is that Boaz knows of somebody else, another man in Bethlehem, who had more of a right and a responsibility to be the redeemer of Naomi's family than he did. And so that man needed to be consulted before any firm decisions were made. Two weeks ago, I described the book of Ruth as a love story, and I do stand by that. But the more we look at it, and particularly we see this in chapter four, it's not primarily a romantic love story. What it is, is a beautiful demonstration of familial love, love within families, close and more widely. And it shows us what love and responsibility look like when you put them together. It shows us how dutiful, respectful love for those in need and who deserve it can make a difference, not just to our immediate family in the here and now, but to generations who will follow. And last time in chapter three, I drew out the fact that despite the fact that they were on their own in a secluded place in the middle of the night, Boaz and Ruth act completely honorably towards each other. And what we get in chapter four is their motives for doing that. It seems that they're doing it primarily because of their shared love and their responsibility towards Naomi. So Naomi is as important in the book of Ruth as Ruth is, possibly more important. And it's not really, we don't get from the narrative about any possible attraction towards one another. They act in the way that they do because they both love Naomi. And chapter four tells us what happened the morning after at the town gate of Bethlehem where the legal decisions were made. And it would be the same as if we were going to a register office or perhaps a solicitor's office. And there's a contrast between chapter three and chapter four in terms of posture. So the emphasis in chapter three is Boaz and Ruth are lying down together. We get that, the writer of this book emphasizes that several times that they were lying down with all of its additional connotations of that posture. And here at the beginning of chapter four, Boaz is very clearly sitting down.

invites his friend, this other man, to sit down with him. And then the 10 elders of the town are also sat down with him as well, witnessing this legal conversation and transaction. And so the situation is explained. There's another man in Bethlehem who is more closely related to Naomi than Boaz is. And so that man is the next of kin. I think it's fascinating that this man is unnamed. Usually men in scripture that get as many kind of words about them as this man does are named, but this man is not named. But he has the right to say that he wants to acquire the land around Bethlehem, you know, whatever it was, a few fields that belonged to Naomi's late husband, Elimelech. But the important thing that Boaz points out to him is that in doing so, in acquiring that land, he also has to acquire Ruth and Naomi as dependents. Indeed, the honorable thing to do would be to acquire Ruth as his wife in order to hopefully enable her to bear children to continue that family line. I spoke a couple of weeks ago about women and kind of how the Bible sort of culture presents them as sort of almost as property to be sort of passed around and bartered with. And I'm not going to kind of go into that again. But just being clear that this is a particular sort of way of doing things. There's some cultural stuff that doesn't translate across that well for us, perhaps. But the important thing to remember is that actually in all of this, it's about honoring Naomi and Ruth and making sure that they are provided for and protected. And it looks like this unnamed next of kin is going to say, yes, I'll have the land. That would be brilliant. And then when he realizes it comes with kind of Ruth and Naomi, he says, oh, no, I can't. It will damage my own inheritance. I'm not quite sure to what extent how that would have been the case, but we can just let that one lie. And so as the next nearest next of kin, Boaz can step up. He's the next closest relative of Naomi's. And so he's duty bound indeed to step up and to shoulder the responsibility for these two women. And so to seal the deal, the unnamed man gives Boaz his sandals. And then Boaz gives a speech which concludes with these words. He says, I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Marlon, to be my wife, to maintain the dead man's name on his inheritance in order that the name of the dead may not be cut off from his kindred and from the gate of his native place today, you are witnesses. And so actually that is the clue about the extraordinary love that's being demonstrated here by Boaz. He actually is honoring and showing his love for Elimelech, a man who he hadn't seen for a long time and who'd now died, but presumably who he grew up with in Bethlehem in this relatively small community before Naomi and Elimelech went to Moab to escape the famine. And he's showing as well love and respect for Elimelech's sons, Marlon and Chilion, even though they would have probably been very small children when the family went to Moab. And now they've both died. And yet Boaz is showing the love and respect for his kin, for these kinsmen, and translating it into love and respect for the two women who remain, Naomi and Ruth. And Ruth is described as a young woman. She is the seed of hope if the family line of Elimelech is going to continue. Boaz wants Naomi to be honored by the provision of a grandson for her who will take her family name onwards into the future and offer her protection for the rest of her life. Naomi has a need and Boaz through Ruth can help to provide it. And one of the great privileges of being a vicar is that I get to talk to lots of you and many of you are sort of really honest and open in sharing things with me that are kind of going on for you in your lives. And I know that many of you now and in the past and will in the future care above and beyond for relatives in need. And I know what a toll that takes on you. And if that is you right now and you're in the midst of some really complicated stuff or you're just feeling really weary, let me say to you, well done and keep going because that kind of love and devotion for family members, for close friends, for maybe fairly distant relatives but who don't have anyone else to look after them is often undervalued and definitely under celebrated in our society. And I think we should be totally cheering each other on as we faithfully tend to the physical, the emotional, the practical needs of people in our sphere of influence who need extra care, maybe because of age or health or circumstance. And what I don't want anybody to hear is a sense of guilt if there are things that you can't do. Because clearly having good boundaries and understanding what we can offer and what is appropriate for us to offer and what medical professionals need to do or people in residential homes who can give sort of 24 hour care for some people who need it. It is okay. In fact, it's right and good to make use of other aspects of care. But we still as people close to those who need that extra support can still give so much. And that giving is extraordinary. And the love that is being shown by you and many others is extraordinary. And you're reflecting something of the love of God into this world as you do that. And I believe that your faithfulness will have implications for good far beyond what you can see or imagine. You don't need me to tell you that romantic love is not a universal experience. Some people by choice or by circumstance will never love someone else in that way. But everyone is born into a family. Might be a tiny family, just possibly that baby and the woman who birthed them. And sadly for some children, it's not appropriate for them to grow up with members of their birth family. But the intention within our society, at least, is that every child is cared for and nurtured within the context of a family of some shape or size, whether they are biologically related or not. Families matter. Families matter to God. And the Bible is essentially one long story about God's family. And the words of the people of Bethlehem in Ruth chapter 4 remind us of that. And what seems to happen is that after this legal contract has been made and the sandal has been passed over, I think from the text, it reads like there's this spontaneous prayer of blessing prayed over Boaz and Ruth by the people who've witnessed it. It says, then all the people who were at the gate, along with the elders, said, we are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. And may you produce children in Ephrathah and bestow a name in Bethlehem. And through the children that the Lord will give you by this young woman, may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah. What they're praying is that God would make Ruth to be like Rachel and Leah. You can read about Rachel and Leah and their husband. They both had the same husband. He was called Jacob. He was the son of Abraham. And no, he wasn't. He was the son of Isaac. And you can read their story in Genesis 28 through to 35 and get their backstory. But essentially, they

produced along with two other women, their servants, the twelve sons of Jacob. And those twelve sons went on to become the founding men of the twelve tribes of Israel, massively significant in the Old Testament. But Rachel and Leah had a really complicated relationship with each other and both of them had a complicated relationship with Jacob, to whom they were married. And Rachel initially was barren and waited many years to have children, but in the end God blessed her with two sons, Joseph of the coloured coat, and Benjamin, the youngest of the twelve sons of Jacob. So hold that in your mind. I also want to draw attention to a word that might have sounded unfamiliar to you in that prayer of blessing from Ruth 4. It's Ephathra. Ephathra is both a region and also a descriptive term in Hebrew. So it's a region, it's the area around Bethlehem, a centre of agriculture. It was a fertile land. And so that word Ephathra literally means fruitful or abundant. And when people heard that word, they would have thought of the geographical area, but they also would have thought about God's blessing and provision for his people, the way that God provides growth and fruitfulness. And I find this fascinating, but were you to flip back to Genesis 35, you would note that the place where Rachel died, giving birth to Benjamin, is Ephathra. It's named as that place. So whether or not they realise it, the people of Bethlehem are prophetically declaring that the child that God will bless to Boaz and Ruth will be an important one in God's covenant people and their narrative. And next week I'll be saying a little bit more about this as we think about generosity as a theme across the whole of the book of Ruth. But their son Obed ends up being the grandfather of King David, a vitally important figure in Old Testament history. And then in that same family tree, that same line, many generations later comes Jesus, the one who will offer not just to redeem members of his family, but the whole world. But before we think that that family, the family that kind of began with Rachel and Leah and Jacob was more special or more holy than others, we need to think again because their lives were really complicated and there was a lot of dysfunction within their family tree. And the prayer of blessing over Ruth and Boaz also mentions a few other people within Jacob's family, mentions Judah, Tamar and Perez. And were you to want to read their story, you could find it in Genesis 38. Judah is the fourth son of Leah, so he's the fourth of the twelve sons of Jacob, the twelve tribes of Israel. And later Tamar becomes his daughter-in-law, she marries one of Judah's sons, he has two sons. And there's a complicated turn of events. Tamar's husband dies and then Judah's other son dies. Is this starting to sound familiar? And in desperation to keep the family line going, Tamar becomes pregnant by Judah. She does that by dressing up and pretending to be a prostitute, so he doesn't know who she is. And they end up having twin sons called Perez and Sarah. I mean, talk about messy. I mean, we all have messy families, don't we? But I just love that there's kind of, there's so much dysfunction within the narrative of God's people. And yet the people of Bethlehem are remembering this complex part of the history of God's family and they're linking it to the union of Boaz and Ruth. Clearly there are some differences. We know Boaz and Ruth acted honorably at the threshing floor and their family line is going to be continued by dutiful devotion, not by deceptive manipulation. But nonetheless, it seems like it's another example of God making a way where it seemed like there was no way. And next week we're going to think a bit more about Matthew chapter 1 and the genealogy of Jesus, which is told dating back from Abraham all the way through to Jesus. And there are five women who are mentioned in that genealogy in Matthew 1. Usually we'd be expecting there to be zero women mentioned in it. And the women, see if you recognize any of these names, are Tamar, Rahab, also a prostitute, Ruth, the outsider from Moab, Bathsheba, who David committed adultery with, and Mary, also mentioned in that genealogy, are Judah, Perez, Boaz, Obed, Boaz and Obed, and many others. And all of those people's stories combine into one long family history which stretches all the way back to the beginning and takes us all the way to Jesus and beyond. And so we today in 21st century Bristol, in our own messy and dysfunctional families, are caught up into this bigger story and invited to demonstrate the same extraordinary love that we see time and time and time again through the pages of the Bible. And so whatever it is that you are facing today and in your own family and with those whom you see as family, may God give you the strength to keep on loving them. Keep on serving. Keep on with those selfless acts of compassion. Not that are going to send you beyond the edge of what you can cope with or beyond boundaries that need to be retained. But keep on with the compassion and the kindness because all of that will be used by God for his good purposes in ways that we may never see or realize during our lifetimes. So well done, good and faithful servants. Keep going. Thanks Gemma. Let's just have a moment, shall we, as we enter into our prayer time now.