NATURE'S MYSTICAL HEALING POWER

I remember sitting in the Old Testament Biblical Studies class, and under the guidance and wisdom of O/T professor Marion Taylor, the topic of the day was the Book of Ruth.   It only shows up in the Revised Common Lectionary once every three years and seldom is it used as a starting point for sermons.  The Book of Ruth is, without a doubt, the greatest short story in the Old Testament, as it lays out life lessons around life’s challenges, about grappling with death and loss, and embracing life’s “new normal”. 

  Let us take a look as to how the story of Ruth opens, (it is only four chapters in length), and then perhaps the life lessons will become clearer for us.

In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.  So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab.  The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion.  They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth.  After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

 The Bible is full of short stories, and as someone once noted, “everyone, including God loves a good story.  Stories such as the Book of Ruth make up about two thirds of the Bible as it is important to note that God has chosen this literary form as the dominant theme by which to speak to us.

As Naomi grapples with her great loss, first her husband, then her two sons, she comes to the decision to return to Jerusalem.  The famine has ended, food is once again plentiful.  However, Noami gives her two daughter-in-laws “permission” to stay in the land of Moab, listen again to the story ...

Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home.   May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me.  May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”

Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”

As I read this story, what stands out for me is the sadness, the weeping and the love that Naomi had for the widows of her two sons.   Naomi’s daughter-in-laws do not want to leave her, which would constitute another great loss of friendship and companionship as all three widows are united in their grief.

Naomi’s daughter-in-law Orpah kisses Naomi and sets out to return to her own family, but Ruth, Naomi’s other daughter-in-law is adamant that she will not leave Naomi.  Listen as the story unfolds...

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.  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.”  When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.  So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem.

I never really fully understood the Book of Ruth and that day sitting in the Old Testament Biblical Studies, as Dr. Taylor brought the story “alive” for us, and pondered her observation that this little book, four chapters long, is a model for how short stories ought to be written and it could also be applied to sermons, how to make them succinct and to the point.   

It wasn’t until a few years into ministry, the Parish of Minto & Chipman, (and this was the part about ministry that they can’t teach in Seminary), that the people in the pews, over time, would become more than parishoners they would become friends. 

Over the years in my first parish, I officiated at many funerals.  Many of those who had died were of course parishioners.  Some people I didn’t have the chance to get to know, but I did get to know their families.  Others were, as in the case of my first funeral as a newly ordained deacon, total strangers that I had not met, but were Anglicans and the family thought it important to have an Anglican funeral.  However many families had become friends, and in a deeper sense of friendship, as we got to know each other through times of sickness, tragedy and also death.

When thinking or speaking or writing about death and grief, the ad for Farmer’s Insurance which declares, “We know a thing or two because we have seen a thing or two” is always in the forefront on my thoughts.  Listen again as the story continues ...

When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.  I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”  

So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

Those verses really came home to me many years after graduating from Seminary.  I was sitting at the kitchen table, having a glass of cold well water, so very different from city tap water, as a Mother spoke of her grief.   The year before her husband had died after a long battle with cancer.  He was a quiet man who reminded me of my own father who also died from cancer.  We became friends probably because we were both introverts, (which some may find difficult to believe) but we didn’t “need” to talk.  We would often just sit in silence.

A year later her son died from complications from a kidney transplant.  As this Mother reflected on her loss, prompted by my words that I had no idea of the depth of her loss and her grief, she simply said, “I just feel empty.”

She added that feelings of emptiness after the death of her husband and the death of her son were totally different.   She couldn’t really put it in words other that repeating, “I just feel so empty, but losing my son is a different kind of empty” echoing the words of Ruth.

There are many life lessons learned in ministry, and while Seminary gave me a foundation upon which to build, it was the people in the pews, and many who, as one person said, “Would only ever be caught dead in church” that really taught me about life, death, grief and resilience.

The story of Ruth models to us the importance of relationships and is powerfuly underscored by Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi.  I have been deeply moved many times in ministry watching how family and friends rally to support those who are grieving.   The first lesson for me was the importance of friendships in such times.   Death often brings out the best, and sadly, the worst in families, but there is no better prescription for grief than having a “friend” a person who is able to be there in quiet support.   Henry Nouwen says it best I think ...

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.  The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”

It is beyond my ability to imagine the numbers of people grieving right now because of this Pandemic, and not just those who died “alone” in ICU’s, but others who have died from other illnesses.  It boggles my mind as to how the social distancing complicates that sorrow and grief and the ability to show physical support, offer love, and even give a hug. 

Throughout the story of Ruth, the importance of faithful love in human relationships is powerfully underscored by Ruth’s unswerving and selfless devotion to desolate and “empty” Naomi.

What I find most interesting in revisiting the Book of Ruth, is how in these times of refugees and migrants, (which, if you’ve noticed has disappeared from the news cycle) it is to be noted that Ruth was not Jewish but a Moabite yet God used  Ruth as an instrument in the unfolding history of redemption.

It is also interesting in this time of upheaval in regards to the protests of Black Lives Matter that the Book of Ruth again underscores that in God’s eyes, participation in the coming kingdom of God is decided, not by blood and birth, colour or creed, but by the conformity of one’s life to the will of God through the “obedience that comes from faith."

Watch, O Lord, with those who wake, or watch, or weep tonight, 

and give Your angels and saints charge over those who sleep.

Tend Your sick ones, O Lord Christ.

Rest Your weary ones.

Bless Your dying ones.

Soothe Your suffering ones.

Pity Your afflicted ones.

Shield Your joyous ones, 

and all for Your love's sake. 

Amen.