This sermon was delivered in the November 7, 2021 service at The Kensington in Galesburg, IL.
One of my favorite shows in the history of television has been Gilmore Girls. I love it for myriad reasons. One of the things i love most about it is the theme song- it’s a song by Carole King and the chorus goes like this:
Where you lead, I will follow
Anywhere that you tell me to
If you need, you need me to be with you
I will follow where you lead
It’s no coincidence that one of my favorite verses in the bible is similar. Ruth 1: 16-18 says:
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—
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!
Do those lines sound familiar? In sickness and in health? Til death do us part? Indeed, this vow is where modern marriage vows find their roots. This is the first true set of marriage vows we encounter in the biblical record. But they are not shared at a wedding. They are shared between two women.
At the beginning of this story, Ruth is faced with a major decision. Her husband is dead; her brother-in-law is dead. The only family she has left is her mother-in-law Naomi and her sister-in-law Orpah. Both Ruth and Orpah are Moabites, but Naomi is from Bethlehem in Judah. Yes. That Bethlehem. When Naomi decided to leave Moab and return to Bethlehem, Ruth had to choose- does she stay at home, where she will at least be with her fellow Moabites, or does she follow the only family she knows?
Where you lead...I will follow.
She follows Naomi and gives her this beautiful vow. My seminary professor Dr. Lisa Davison puts it this way, “Without thought to her own well-being, Ruth chose to go to Bethlehem with Naomi. Once there, Ruth did all she could to take care of her companion. She even risked her safety to go and glean in the fields alone, so Naomi could have bread. The society, though, required that they have a male, so that the family land could be inherited.Ruth’s decision to seduce Boaz into marrying her was also risky. She did it out of her love for Naomi; she was the birth mother for a child that would be raised by both of the women. By the end of the story, after he had done his part, Boaz disappears. The scene is of Naomi, the baby, and the women of the town, and we can assume Ruth. The women, in celebration of Naomi’s grandson, proclaim to Naomi that Ruth “your daughter-in-law who loves you, is more to you than seven sons.”
See, Ruth doesn’t just go with Naomi. She devotes herself completely to Naomi’s well being. She works hard to ensure that Naomi has food and shelter. She marries a man that can provide for them both, a man who is rarely in the picture. She gives up her own safety, security, and home all because of her love for Naomi. Truly, I love my mother-out-law, (we don’t use the term in-law), but I’m not sure I’d leave everything to follow her to another country or marry someone random in order to protect her. This is a huge act of love and sacrifice on Ruth’s part. But why?
Why would Ruth sacrifice everything for Naomi? It's quite simple really… LOVE itself.. Love is the reason Ruth went with Naomi. Ruth LOVED Naomi. She loved Naomi more than the idea of staying in Moab. More than her own pride. More than her own happiness. She loved Naomi. And that’s the kind of love that makes a vow. That’s a marriage and forever kind of love, and the vow she made to Naomi was a marriage and forever kind of vow. Did they get married? Well, no. Ruth marries Boaz. But she LOVES Naomi.
Now I’m not here to debate what kind of love this was. I think the story explains that. We don’t have to see all the details to know that this was a kind of love that would drop everything for another person. It doesn’t have to be romantic love, but that also doesn’t mean that it ISN’T romantic love. Whatever kind of love it is, it’s BIG and BOLD and cares about the wellbeing of the other at all costs. That sounds like a marriage kind of love to me- and maybe that’s why these vows are the ones that have been adapted into wedding vows.
And what happens because of this love? Well, Ruth marries Boaz and they have a son. That son is Obed. Obed’s son is Jesse-- as in “Out of the root of Jesse” as described in Isaiah. Because Jesse’s son is David. And From David’s Lineage we get both Mary and Joseph.
These lineages are described in Matthew 1: 2-16 and Luke 3: 23-38, and while there’s some argument about which Joseph is described (one of the Josephs is likely Mary’s father), the fact that these lineages are discussed in the Gospels are important. This is all a means of connecting the gospel stories to the Old Testament in a way that would make sense and would “prove” that Jesus was the messiah. This lineage is why they had to return to Bethlehem for the census, this is why we are told “Born this day in the city of David.”
This lineage matters, and this lineage is possible because Ruth followed Naomi. Ruth’s choice is a pivotal moment in the biblical narrative, and one that is necessary for the gospel accounts of Jesus' birth and lineage to make sense! You see, Ruth chose to look forward instead of
returning to her past. That decision truly changed her life and the lives of countless other people. She chose to move forward in love and in trust, and because of that, the lineage that leads to Jesus can begin. Without Ruth, there is no Joseph and Mary. Without Ruth’s bravery there might have been no Jesus, or at least not the Jesus we know.
And we can’t look too far past the fact that this pivotal moment rests on the shoulders of a young woman. In fact, very often the most pivotal moments in the biblical record are left in the hands of women- Rebekah ensuring the blessing gets passed on to Jacob, Ruth, the midwives who hid first born children from Pharoah’s wrath, Elizabeth and Mary who both mothered important sons, Lydia who led people to baptism. Over and over these stories remind us that God trusted women with important moments.
And here’s the thing. I think the reason God trusted women with these moments has EVERYTHING to do with love. Now I’m not staying that men don’t love. But what I am saying is that for eons, women have been more comfortable with showing their love- in physically and verbally expressing their love in tangible ways. And since God *IS* love, of course it makes sense that God seeks out loving people to take on big moments.
So of course Ruth is trusted with a great lineage- she was willing to move forward in love- to leave her home and follow Naomi to Bethlehem. God saw this great capacity for love and in turn used Ruth’s capacity for love as the anchor of an important lineage.
And I guess that’s what it all comes down to. A big love that’s willing to transcend barriers. A love that’s willing to give up anything for someone else. That’s a love worthy of a great lineage. That’s a love worthy of a beautiful vow. A love that will follow.
Amen.