“So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When they came together, the Lord made her
conceive, and she bore a son….then Naomi [Ruth’s mother] took the child and
laid him in her bosom, and became her nurse.
The women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, ‘A son has been
born to Naomi.’ They named him Obed; he
became the father of Jesse, the father of David.”
Ruth 4:13, 16-17
The verses above, from our
Old Testament reading for November 11, are the “happy ending” to the story of
Ruth. It’s a complicated story which
begins in tragedy, with the widowed Naomi and her widowed Moabite
daughter-in-law Ruth making their way to Bethlehem (which literally means
“house of bread”) to try to eke out a living.
Ruth makes her way to the fields to glean whatever grain is left behind
by Boaz’ servants. As it happens, she
finds her way to the field of Boaz, a member of Naomi’s extended family. Boaz treats Ruth kindly and, as the saying
goes, the rest is history – important history, too, because among the
descendants of Ruth and Boaz are David, son of Jesse, who will go on to become
the great king of Israel.
On the first Sunday of
November, at Emanuel United Church of Christ we remember the names of our
departed loved ones, those who have passed from this life to enter the Church
Triumphant. Behind the names printed in
the bulletin are stories – funny stories, sad stories, complicated stories, and
perhaps some stories that to this day have unresolved loose ends. Many of these stories will never appear in a
printed family history or a printed history of the church, but they still
helped to shape who we are today. These
are our family stories, and the stories of our church.
It is wonderful to consider
that the history of God’s people, the “great story” of Israel and of the
church, include small, lovely stories such as the book of Ruth. The same can be said of our stories – our
family stories, our church stories. The
history of God’s people is not a closed book, but is still being written – and
our family stories and the stories of Emanuel Church are part of it. May God grant that our family stories, and
the story of Emanuel Church, continue to give glory to God for generations to
come.
See you in church –
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