Redemption

Posted by Webmaster on November 8, 2009 under Sermons | Be the First to Comment

[This sermon was written and delivered by Presiding Priest Ruth Monette.]

Father Markus spent much of November on a study leave (we assume he wrote amazing Advent sermons so you might want to pencil in some church time if you’ve been away). I filled in, but I’m more – experimental with my sermons than he is. In other words, I couldn’t email your webmaster my sermons, because what I wrote on paper wasn’t what actually came out of my mouth. Besides, every sermon is a mix of preparation, carefully planned thoughts, wordsmithed phrases, and the movement of the Holy Spirit. So instead of the text of my sermon, here are some thoughts about what I preached on. Or maybe just what I thought I was preaching on.

The Book of Ruth is short. Check it out – I like reading it here or here. Read it! We’ll be here. No, really – go right now. You’ll be done before your coffee gets cold. Okay, if you don’t want to go, I should warn you: the rest of this contains spoilers.

There are lots of themes packed into this short little book of the Bible, but the one I got excited about this week was redemption. You see, Ruth is not the “right sort” of people. As I explained in my sermon:

The Moabites aren’t just another tribe living in what we now call the Middle East. The Moabites are to the Israelites what Kentuckians are to Hoosiers and what West Virginians are to pretty much the rest of the United States. I don’t think there is quite a Canadian equivalent for this: but in the US, as far as I could tell, growing up there, every state had another state they made fun of. For us Hoosiers (that’s folks from Indiana), it was Kentucky. As far as we were concerned, the residents of our nearest Southern neighbour were dumb, backwoods hicks whose sexual mores were to be questioned. Kentuckians didn’t think this way about themselves, but they might think so about those West Virginians or maybe people from Arkansas. So the dispute with the Moabites was much like this — the Israelites looked down upon them because they were the descendants of Lot and his daughter’s incestuous union.

So for Ruth to become the grandmother of King David is a story about the “wrong sort” of people being the ones that God chooses. God redeems the things that the world casts aside.

The Book of Ruth isn’t just a story about Ruth — it’s also (and some would say more so) a story about Naomi. In Naomi’s life, things go from bad to worse: there’s a famine so her family immigrates to Moab. (Remember Moab is like Kentucky*; hicks live there. It’s not where you want to move to.) And then her sons marry Moabite women instead of good Israelite women. And then her husband dies. And then her sons die. And she’s left with nothing and no one to protect her, except Ruth. Naomi is left destitute, bitter, and empty. She goes from being a woman with a place and a role in society to being a woman alone in poverty. Through Ruth’s relationship with Boaz, Naomi is given back her status in society; she’s redeemed. God doesn’t abandon a hopeless case, but redeems a bitter, old woman.

What’s happening in the story here has to do with the practices of Levirate marriage. There are some good resources on that subject here. In essence, Ruth and Boaz offer their first child as a kind of replacement heir for Naomi’s sons. This give Naomi a place – she’s the “mother” of Obed.

(It is probably worth mentioning that this is a story that takes place in a patriarchal society with limited roles for women; although it is a story about women, it doesn’t seek to shake up the patriarchy.)

I’m struck by the fact that it was through Ruth the Moabite that Naomi is redeemed. If she’d returned to Bethlehem on her own, this story’s ending wouldn’t have happened. So I’m struck by the fact that God values people the rest of us would write off and values them so highly that they become vehicles for further redemption in the world.

The example of Ruth reminds us that even the most scandalous among us can be redeemed and bear redemption into the world. The example of Naomi reminds us that sometimes redemption arrives in shapes and persons we never planned to meet or to love.

*Actually, I kind of like Kentucky, but I’m not a natural-born Hoosier.

[Presiding Priest Ruth Monette delivered this sermon on November 6, 2009.]

A Poor Widow Put in Two Small Copper Coins

Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog | Be the First to Comment

Mark 12:38-44 ~ Reading for November 8, 2009

Teaching in the temple, Jesus said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honour at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”