Find a “Naomi” and be their “Ruth”. - Ruth 1:1-22
I maintain, the enjoyment of the journey is dependent on the company you keep. If you were to plot “journey enjoyment” and “company kept” on an XY axis grid I hypostasize that there would be a direct correlation between the two regardless of the destination. I believe you could go to Jacksonville Florida and still have a good time depending on the company that you keep. I don’t mean to offend anyone who might be from Jacksonville, Florida. I simply googled the most boring city in the US and Jacksonville, Florida repeatedly won the number 1 spot. I propose if the company you keep makes you laugh, is easy to get along with, and generally has a positive outlook on life you could even enjoy a trip to Jacksonville Florida. Conversely, I believe you could go to Johns Creek, Georgia and still have a bad time depending on the company you keep. I am obviously biased when it comes to Johns Creek, Georgia, but again I simply googled the best city in the US and Johns Creek, Georgia is, statistically speaking, the best. Again, I propose if the company you keep is constantly grumbling and complaining and is pathologically pessimistic you could go to Johns Creek, Georgia and still have a miserable time.
The enjoyment of the journey is dependent on the company you keep. With that in mind, I wonder how much Ruth enjoyed the journey from Maob to Bethlehem. Ruth’s traveling companion was a woman by the name of Naomi. Naomi was not exactly an ideal traveling companion. Years ago, Naomi and her husband Elimelech moved to Moab to escape a famine that was oppressing their hometown of Bethlehem. We get the impression that Naomi and Elimelech were a happy young couple. Later Naomi tells her neighbors, “21 I went away full…”. Likely full of hopes and dreams, full of joy and happiness, maybe even full of blessing, material and otherwise. At that time, I imagine Naomi was the ideal traveling companion. I mean the name Naomi means “pleasant”.
However, while in Moab, this pleasant woman was transformed, and not for the better. The transformation likely began when Naomi’s sons were born. The only thing we know about Naomi’s sons is their names were “2… Mahlon and Kilion”. It is unlikely these were their real name. If they were, then Naomi has a twisted sense of humor. The name Mahlon and Kilion mean “diseased” and “dying”. It is more likely that their names are a reference to the poor health of these two boys than it is a result of a mother’s twisted sense of humor. Raising Mahlon and Kilion likely had a draining effect on Naomi, but at least she still had her husband Elimelech to help, at least for a while. Things got downright devastating when Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, but it wasn’t till Mahlon and Kilion were overcome by disease and death that Naomi became downright bitter. Later that is how Naomi describes herself to her neighbors. She tells them, “20 “Don’t call me Naomi,” …. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. (The name Mara means bitterness). Naomi tells them, 21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” It’s unlikely that even a trip to Johns Creek, Georgia could put a smile on this woman’s face.
Do you know someone like Naomi; someone who used to be pleasant but for various reasons has turned bitter? Maybe they are dealing with, and possible for decades, have delt with a difficult relationship with a family member or are in a toxic relationship with someone outside their family? Maybe their career has stalled or crashed? Maybe their resources are depleted, and they are struggling to get by? Maybe they have been diagnosed with a life changing or a life ending disease? In this fallen world we all live in, there are all sorts of things that can transform a person from pleasant to bitter. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you know a person like Naomi.
Bitter people, like Naomi have a way of sucking the fun out of the room. They are depressing to be around and exhausting to deal with. Can you imagine going on a journey with a bitter old bat like Naomi? Ruth didn’t have to imagine it. Ruth didn’t just know a person like Naomi, she was, by marriage, related to the real thing and that real thing was preparing to go on a journey. “6 When she (Naomi) heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.” Ruth didn’t have to go with Naomi. There was no law that required her to go. God had not commanded her to go. Naomi told her that she didn’t have to go. Naomi told Ruth (and Ruth’s similarly widowed sister-n-law Orpah), “11… Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD’s hand has gone out against me!” See what I mean! If Naomi were one of Winnie the Pooh’s neighbors, she would be Eeyore. Even her goodbyes are full of bitterness.
Ruth’s sister-n-law decides to cut bait and leave, and we don’t blame her one bit for doing it. Ruth, on the other hand, willingly chooses to go on this journey with Naomi. Ruth says, “16… Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.” Would you make this choice? Would you willingly choose to spend time with a person who, like Naomi, is so miserably bitter? Notice I asked if you would “willingly choose” to do this. I am not asking if you would fulfill your vows and stay married to a person you have pledge yourself to. I am not asking if you, out of some sense of duty, perceived obligation, or feeling of guilt would continue to spend time with a person like Naomi. I am asking if you would willingly choose to do so. Because the reality is, unless you have made a till death do us part kind of promise, you don’t have to spend time with bitter people like Naomi.
Ruth willingly chose to go on this journey with Naomi, and her reason for making that choice has everything to do with her God. We don’t know anything about Ruth’s spiritual condition before she makes this now famous “where you go I will go” statement to Naomi. The Moabites were the descendants of Lot so we can, to some extent, imagine that Ruth had at least some knowledge of the one true God. But somewhere along the way Ruth had come to know God; to know Him as both her creator, she called Him “my God” and her redeemer, she called Him capital “LORD”. Ruth willingly chose to go on this journey with Naomi because of her God and her LORD.
Before you decide whether or not you will willingly choose to spend time with a person like Naomi, spend some time reflecting on your God who willingly chose to spend time with you when you were even more unpleasant to be around than a bitter old bat like Naomi . You were far from pleasant when God made that choice, indeed you were beyond bitter. You did more than suck the fun out of the room, you sucked the life out of the room. There was a time when you were dead in your transgressions and sins[1]. You weren’t just depressing to be around, there was a time when your sinful mind was hostile to God.[2] You weren’t just exhausting to deal with, there was a time when you were downright evil.[3] “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners (when we were worse company than a bitter old bat), Christ died for us (Christ willingly chose to spend time with us).”[4] Your God willingly chose to send His Son to join sinners like you and like me on this journey we call life. Your God willingly chose to suffer and die on a cross not simply so that we would have a better outlook on life but so that we might have eternal life. Your God through Word and Sacrament willingly chose to call and gather lost and condemned creatures like us so that we could spend an eternity with our God and our LORD.
When you needed it the most your God willingly chose to spend time with you. And still today your God makes that choice. Let’s face it we have all spent some time acting like a Naomi. We have on occasion sucked the fun out of the room, depressed the people around us, and have exhausted others with our bad attitudes. Sometimes we have valid reasons for acting like a Naomi, sometimes we don’t, sometimes we are just bitter for bitter’s sake. But do you know what our God does for us when we are acting like a Naomi? He sends people, like Ruth, into our lives who are willing to spend some time with us when we are at our worst. Think back to a bitter part of your past and see if there wasn’t someone who spoke a kind word to you, gave you a hug when you needed some display of human affection, or simply shed a tear with you in an attempt to share the burden of your grief. Sometimes our own bitterness makes us blind to the people who are willing to spend some time with us when we are at our worst, but look back, and chances are when you were feeling like a Naomi, God sent you a Ruth.
Having reflected on your God and LORD who chose to spend time with you when you were at your worst so that you could spend eternity with Him, and having also looked back on bitter moments in your past and think about the people God sent to spend time with you, I invite you to once again consider whether or not you will willingly choose to spend time with a Naomi; will you willingly choose to spend time with a person when they are at their worst? You don’t have to. There is no law that demands it of you. Your God does not command you. He simply gives you the opportunity to do for others what He has already done for you.
The enjoyment of the journey is dependent on the company you keep. I will admit it is easier to enjoy the journey if the company you keep makes you laugh, is easy to get along with, and generally has a positive outlook on life. However, there is also great joy in knowing that God is using you to be someone’s Ruth; to be there for someone when they are at their worst and need a companion the most. You know how good it feels to have a Ruth walking beside you when you are feeling like a Naomi. Which is why this week I encourage you, out of gratitude to your God and LORD, to find someone who needs a companion on a difficult journey. This week I encourage you to find a Naomi and be their Ruth. Amen
[1] Ephesians 2:1
[2] Romans 8:7
[3] Ecclesiastes 9:3
[4] Romans 5:8