Title: Making God Real

Scriptures: Ruth 1:1-18, Mark 12:28-34

11/2/03 21st Sunday after Pentecost

Rev. Joy R. Haertig

Most commentators believe that the book of Ruth was written in the fourth century BCE as protest against the prevailing hostility between the Moabites and the Israelites. Israelites were forbidden to marry Moabites and a Moabite was not allowed into the temple. The book of Ruth advocates an attitude of tolerance toward people of other nations. (Miriam, Mary and Me by Lois Miriam Wilson).

A poignant prayer from a little girl begins, “Dear God, who draws the lines around the countries?” The book of Ruth is one of God’s answers to that question. We draw the lines and God ignores them. Holy Ground and sacred relationships rarely follow our self-inflicted boundaries.

In the reading from Mark we are told by Jesus that the two greatest commandments are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, and secondly, to love your neighbor as yourself. When you consider all the details of a religion like Judaism or Christianity – it always moves me to consider how these two commandments truly do sum up the core of these great faiths, and how powerful they are in our lives when intentionally practiced. (Every religion has the second commandment as central, the wording may be different but the meaning remains the same.)

The story of Ruth is a reflection of what these two great commandments might look like when they are lived out in one’s daily life.

Ruth discovered what devotion and covenant meant through her relationship with her mother-in-law Naomi. (Faith is often fleshed out in the day-to-day realities of our relationships. It is difficult to understand what it means to have a “covenant” with God if one has never experienced that level of commitment in some form in ones life.)

In Naomi, Ruth found a home – not a place with walls and a floor but a relationship of belonging where she was respected and cared for. This connection gave her a since of clarity and confidence in difficult times. It gave her a sense of rootedness to something larger than her own life and deep enough to keep her steady as they walked into an unknown future. What she experienced in her relationship with her mother-in-law is what we can know with God as we learn to love God with our whole being. When we nurture a relationship with God through prayer and meditation we find a power we can lean into, a power that can ground us through the various seasons of our lives.

When Ruth promises herself to Naomi with those beautiful words: “Where you go, I will go, where you lodge, I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God”, we see how God’s holy presence and guidance knows no boundaries of place or time, race or creed. Ruth and Naomi are no longer Moabite and Israelite, they are human beings bound to one another across all manmade lines. (Consider the relationships you have known about or experienced that cross our manmade lines of class/race/creed/religion or country. Consider the impact they have had in helping break down prejudices and even hatred.)

As the story continues, Ruth and Naomi return to Judah and eventually Ruth will marry again into Naomi’s family and become the grandmother to King David (which also puts her in Jesus’ genealogy as well).

We must never underestimate the power and role of our human relationships in helping us understand and experience a relationship with God. And we must not underestimate the impact those relationships will have on the generations to come. The story of Ruth and Naomi is more than just a nice story – it is the story of redemption between two people and in turn between nations. It reflects the impact love of God and love of neighbor can have as a grassroots vehicle of peace and reconciliation.

All Saints Day Sunday is a good day to remember those who have died and those still living that have helped you see, understand and experience the two great commandments of love and devotion for God, and love of neighbor and self.

We are here today because of people who have dared to embody their love of God and neighbor in their daily living. We are here today because of those who have dared to raise their voices, made bold decisions; that prayed and taught and lived with integrity and compassion. Who are the people that make God’s love real for you? Who are the people whose understanding and love of neighbor stretches far and wide? (I invite you to shout out those names now!)

It is good to remember and give thanks for people and experiences that bring faith to life and life to faith so that these great commandments become more than just a nice idea. As we recall these people in our minds and hearts – let us affirm that they chose to embody God’s way not only out of love for God, but out of love for future generations as well.

United Methodist pastor, Vance P. Ross writes: “When God has blessed us to experience and understand what is necessary for the Spirit-led life, failure to share it is a heinous wrong. It robs others of fulfilling their God-given potential. It seeks convenience rather than conviction.”

Along with the candles in memory of loved ones that have died, we have also lit candles in celebration of babies that have been born. We are the ones whose names might be called out in the years to come by some of the babies that were named today- Are we convicted enough in our faith to make sure that it gets passed on by how we live our lives?

What are the two greatest commandments? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. And the second is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. On this All Saints Day Sunday we give thanks for those who have lived (and are living) these commandments not as rules but as an attitude and way of life; and in so embodying God’s love in this way, have changed our lives and our world. Amen.