Maybe he said it and maybe he didn’t, but Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth had this advice:
To fully immerse oneself spiritually and morally, read with the bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.
In Barth’s day this was particularly important because he was reading his bible and newspaper during the rise of the Third Reich. This led him to write the Barmen Declaration which argued that the church’s commitment to Jesus meant it must oppose the German Führer. Barth mailed this document to Hitler himself.
Reading scripture and news in tandem is an interesting experience in any age, and it has never been easier. Last week I attended a training session for potential interim Lutheran pastors and I noticed all of us were reading the bible and the hourly news round-up on our smart phones.
And those of us who were following bible and news media last week were on a spiritual and emotional roller coaster.
On the one hand, the Narrative Lectionary leads us to the book of Ruth, one of my favorite tales in all of scripture. This is the story of ordinary folks much like us who come from opposing tribes but struggling to survive a famine. For women like Naomi and Ruth, the struggle is intensified because of iron-clad social customs that severely limit the resources of widowed women. But Ruth, a Moabite, a foreigner from a despised tribe, makes an iron-clad commitment to her Jewish mother-in-law and to her God.
“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! – Ruth 1:16-17
What a beautiful declaration of commitment.
These are the words Martha and I said to each other when we decided to live our lives together, and no doubt you made the same promise to someone very close to you.
It’s the kind of commitment that says, no way I’ll ever leave you. Whenever you go to bed at the end of the day, there will I be passed out in the recliner in front of the television. Whenever you rise in the morning to brush your teeth, there will I be lurking in the corner of the bathroom mirror. Even in death we will share the same cemetery real estate. So don’t even think of pressing me to turn away from you.
Ruth’s commitment to Naomi is even more remarkable because the two women are from vastly different tribes which tend to look upon each other as despicable enemies. Ruth is a Moabite and Naomi, her mother-in-law, is a Judahite.
From our point of view, it’s hard to imagine just how immense are the tribal and ethnic differences between the two women.
“Israel’s story of Moab’s origins disparages them,” writes Karen Strand Winslow, professor emeritus of biblical studies at Azuza Pacific Seminary.
“In Genesis 19, we learn that the nations of Moab and Ammon descended from the sons of Lot and his daughters, who feared they could never have children any other way after surviving the destruction of Sodom. Throughout much of their history … Moab was Israel’s enemy. The legal ruling against these nations proscribes any ‘Ammonite or Moabite [to] be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation …’ (Deuteronomy 23:3).
That’s a lot of enmity to overcome. But due to Ruth’s steadfast love, she and Naomi shed ethnic prejudices and become inseparable. BFF’s forever.
There are so many reasons to love this little scroll of Ruth.
But the smart phones that brought us Ruth last week also brought us face-to-face with horrific developments in the Middle East.
A week ago Saturday, on Shabbat when Jews were observing a day of rest, the terrorist organization Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel from Gaza, firing deadly rockets into Israel, sending soldiers across the border, killing more than 1,300 people and seizing at least 100 hostages. Some 260 persons attending a techno festival in Israel were gunned down by Hamas terrorists. Also reported were stories of Hamas militants breaking into Israeli homes and slaughtering families, including children and babies.
This was a surprise attack on the level of 9/11, and the genocidal slaughter of innocent people is and continues to be incomprehensible.
It’s also unfathomable why Hamas would launch attacks on Israel that would force an Israeli counter-attack on Gaza that will result in the deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including children.
As we read the story of Ruth, we may find ourselves personally involved because it’s about common folks like us, struggling to overcome social challenges to survive and to get along.
And news from Israel is also personal because so many of our neighbors are mourning loved ones or fearful for their safety.
Now Israel is initiating a full scale invasion of Gaza to – as Prime Minister Netanyahu declares – kill all Hamas terrorists and eliminate Hamas forever. And we grieve for the thousands of Palestinians who will be caught in the crossfire. Yesterday, Israel ordered 1.1 million Gaza residents to leave their homes, despite the United Nations warning that forced relocation would have “devastating humanitarian consequences.”
Was all this suffering and death by Gaza civilians anticipated by Hamas when they attacked Israel last week? If Hamas accepted this horror as an acceptable consequence of killing Israelis, then they are cruel and self-deluded beyond belief.
Two months ago Martha and I were in Jerusalem and crossed the imposing border wall into Palestine. As we toured the Church of the Nativity, it occurred to me that many of the Palestinians in Bethlehem are Christians, Greek and Coptic Orthodox nuns, priests, and workers. In fact, so many of the Palestinians Martha and I have known across the years are Christians, including Quaker relief workers, ecumenical staff, Christian clergy, and ordinary dwellers. It is too simplistic to say the conflict is between Jews and Muslims. In fact, most of the people of Israel and Palestine are human beings from many backgrounds who, like us, live out their days in hope.
According to the Bible Project, the story of Ruth is a BIG message in a SHORT story. It shows how God is constructing God’s grand story out of the small, seemingly inconsequential stories of everyday people. This little story is intentionally framed at the beginning and end by the larger storyline of the Bible. Ruth shows how God is at work in the day to day activities of average people. All the characters face life’s normal challenges (death, moving, lack of financial resources, familial responsibilities, etc.) and find God is weaving a story of redemption out of all the details. The Book of Ruth encourages us to view our day-to-day lives as part of God’s bigger plan for our lives and world.
So with that in mind, let us go to God in prayer.
God of the people, your servant Ruth showed great love when she clung to Naomi. Teach us how to overcome enmity between us. Teach us to show great compassion, and to turn to you when we are in need. Amen.
We pray for the day to day people, the innocent civilians on both sides of the horror and ask for God’s mercy and protection.
We pray in the words of Rabbi Michael Adam Latz:
My hope is that one day
the children of Isaac
and the children of Ishmael
will come together
and tell the extremists
to go take a hike
so we can eat
hummus and dates
and watch our
children frolic together.
We pray in the words of the Psalm (46:8-10)
Come, behold the works of the LORD;
See what desolations he has brought on the eartgh;
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
He burns the shields with fire.
Be still and know that I am God!
And with Israel and Palestine in our hearts, let us pray in the words of Martin Luther King Jr.:
Lord, help us to realize that humanity was created to shine like the stars and live on through all eternity. Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace.
Help us to walk together,
Pray together,
Sing together,
And live together
Until that day
When all God’s children …
Will rejoice in one common
Band of humanity
In the reign of our Lord and Of our God, we pray.
Amen.
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