Daniel Mason’s 2023 novel North Woods is a survey of American history told from the perspective of a single house in the woods of New England. Each chapter follows a new generation of people inhabiting the space: growing, grieving, building, tearing down and traveling through time. When I finished the book this past fall, I felt small, in an interconnected rather than insignificant way.
Time is vast. It is so tempting to think within false limits: the hours of each day, the lives of the people immediately surrounding us. Our sorrows and opportunities can feel uniquely significant. We can easily forget the ancestors that have passed through the spaces we currently inhabit, the shoulders we stand on.
Today’s Scripture lesson offers us an opportunity to zoom out. Reading Ruth in Advent is a way to open our eyes to see how God acts through time — and what God’s action asks of us.
Looking to the margins
At the beginning of Ruth, readers are introduced to the dire situation of Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi, two widows without sons facing an uncertain and bleak future. Ruth decides to follow Naomi to Israel out of loyalty and love. As a Moabitess, Ruth knew she would be especially rejected by many Israelites due to Moab’s origins (Genesis 19:30-38), religious practices (human sacrifice to Chemosh; Numbers 21:29), and frequent hostility against Israel (Numbers 21-22; Judges 3:12-3). Naomi, on the other hand, was past the age of bearing children, a critical cultural role for women in the ancient Near East. As a result, both women faced an uncertain and bleak future: without standing in the community, without legal representation, without a respectable source of income, they were utterly dependent on the kindness of others for their survival.
They find such kindness in Boaz, whose actions show compassion (Ruth 4:10), give Naomi’s family a future, and show his respect for God’s laws: he’s a man of selfless character.
The interesting thing about this book is that God is hardly mentioned. Yet, God’s presence and purpose are evident in the text. Boaz’s compassion for Ruth and Naomi reflects God’s rescuing and saving love for the marginalized and disenfranchised; Ruth’s care for Naomi reflects God’s sacrificial, loyal love for God’s people. Both characters make key choices to prioritize faithfulness and love, but they live into the roles that God has laid out for them. The Book of Ruth explores the interplay between God’s purpose and human decisions.
The resulting story is one of redemption and hope, and let’s not lose focus on the key players in this drama. God cares for two women, two widows, one a foreigner and the other too old to bear children. These are people on the margins, people who were overlooked, and God brings them into the center of the narrative as examples of faithfulness. The ending verses of Ruth (in addition to the opening chapters of Luke) show that these women, along with Boaz, play a part in the legacy of King David and Jesus. Thus, Jesus’s story is humanity’s story, fully inclusive of Gentiles like Ruth (Matthew 1:5).
God acting through time
In Ruth, we see a story of redemption, loyalty and love. We see a story of God centering people who are typically undervalued. The characters and what they represent are so important that God includes them in the genealogy of Christ. This is a story of not only how God acts locally but also throughout time, layering story over story like pieces of a puzzle to build something more significant than its parts.
This piece of Christ’s history allows us to think about our lives with perspective. How do we seek to be like Boaz – to follow God’s commands and care for those in need of care and compassion? How do we seek to be like Ruth – to embrace self-sacrificing love? How do we follow God’s imperative to center those who are in the margins?
All of these questions are central to the Christian faith, but in Advent, they take on a new lens. For Advent is a time when we linger in the death of the world. The days are long. The sunsets come early. The leaves fall. In Advent, we can grieve for all the ways we fail to live into the examples of Ruth and Boaz. It’s good to linger here, to face reality honestly, knowing that we will not be left in our grief, knowing that God-with-us is coming: a star is on the horizon. There is hope. Just as God did not abandon Ruth nor Naomi, God will not abandon us. Time will pass. We will age and change, eventually leaving this earth. Generations will come and grow and age and pass. But that truth will remain: God is with us, all of us.
Questions for discussion
- How can the lineage of David and Jesus help you enhance your congregation’s Advent and Christmas celebrations in light of current tensions regarding race and immigration?
- How do God’s good purposes interplay with human decisions in Ruth and Boaz’s story? In your life? In the world?
- Reflect on the meaning of the name Ruth, “compassionate,” “sorrowful for the plight of another.” Who is a “Ruth” to you?
- Ruth and Naomi were widows who depended on the compassion of others. Review ways your church or community organizations minister to widows in your area. How can you help?
- Who are your spiritual ancestors? What lessons did you gather from them? Who is coming after you? What are you trying to teach them – how are going about it?
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