What’s the Cost?

Tags

Elimelech, fidelity, Hebrew Scriptures, Matthew, Naomi, Orpah, relationship, Ruth, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today is one of those times when inspiration is very easy to come by, just from about five minutes with the Scripture texts from the daily lectionary. See if you find the story from the Hebrew Scriptures consonant with the Christian gospel. To me it’s a “no brainer” with a most important shared theme.

First we have the story of a time of famine when Elimelech and his wife Naomi moved with their two sons from Bethlehem of Judah to the plateau of Moab. Fast forward ten years and learn that Elimelech and his two sons have died. Naomi is left with two Moabite daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, (sound familiar?) when she learns that the famine is over in her native land and she decides to go home. Custom would allow her daughters-in-law to stay in their homeland and possibly marry again. When Naomi makes ready to return to Judah the Scriptures say that Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth stayed with her. When Naomi protests, urging Ruth to stay with her own people in her own land, we have the famous response of Ruth who says: Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you! For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people and your God, my God. And so it was recorded in the Book of Ruth.

Today’s gospel is similarly familiar. When Jesus is asked (MT 22:34-40) which commandment in the Law is the greatest he responds with what we know (and Jesus had learned in his youth) as “the Great Commandment.” You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.

So it seems that today is a good day to reflect on the seamlessness of the two statements of Jesus, comprising our most essential work in life. How well am I loving God as I love my neighbor and do I see love of neighbor as constitutive of my love for God? Ruth is an icon of fidelity to family – even an inherited family – and it seems that her love of her mother-in-law encompasses all the relationships that Naomi has held in her heart during her sojourn in Moab, including her willingness to embrace Naomi’s deepest spiritual beliefs. Am I willing to let go of my needs and wants and maybe even some cherished practices in service to relationship? Will I allow myself to be changed by love – even to a deeper relationship with God?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where Were the Women?

Tags

ancestry, Dorothy Day, genealogy, Hebrew Scriptures, Jesus, Mary, outcasts, Rahab, Ruth, Tamar, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, women

It’s always fascinating to read commentaries about historical figures, especially those from very long ago when fact or accurate reporting wasn’t always the most important part of the story. Legend is sometimes so much more inviting! I find this sometimes true especially in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Today’s gospel reading is the familiar text of the genealogy of Jesus from the first chapter of Matthew, almost universally dreaded by first-time lectors because of so many unfamiliar names. I always read it with interest, wishing I could trace my ancestry further back than I am able – even if not 14 or 42 generations as in Matthew’s recounting. I never skip any of the names (I may need to read them aloud at some point!) and always note the fact that there are only four women named: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Mary, the mother of Jesus. All “outsiders” in ways that affect the “family line” they also appear, upon research, to be strong, sometimes wily, women – worthy of attention and, yes, admiration. At the mercy of culture and patriarchy, it is a wonder they survived. One wonders at the reason for their inclusion in the list. I must conclude that it is because their lives were not at all ordinary, as well as the fact that they figured into the lives of some significant men. Something in me says that there must’ve been others who were notable – maybe just not carriers of the family line of Jesus.

Things are different now; women are more central to world events. But as I read and pondered the stories again this morning of these four, I am drawn to reflect on women of our own time, “outcasts” in some way, living on the margins of society, who have been or are now instrumental in shifting the consciousness of a culture or a nation – or maybe just the town or family in which they live. Perhaps I’ll start my own list today. The first name that comes to me is Dorothy Day. A good start indeed!