Saturday, August 26, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Three o’clock in the morning
Naomi had a prominent kinsman named Boaz.
In 1987, after Margaret met Lyman Coleman at a conference for seminary students, she volunteered several of us at Waynesville Christian Church to submit questions for small group discussion of the Book of Ruth. Small groups were just becoming a thing in evangelical churches.
I remember sitting across the table with several others, throwing ideas around. Later we were gratified and proud to see some of our questions incorporated into Lyman Coleman’s Serendipity Bible, which to this day is often an appreciated repository of good ideas for small group conversations.
One possible question came to me in 2023, a little late. But I like it, especially as it fits into the rest of today’s lectionary reading.
What might Boaz have been thinking when he awoke in the middle of the night, while Ruth was sleeping in the field?
* * *
Boaz woke in the middle of the night. An alarm clock would have told him it was 3 in the morning, but he knew instead from the cries of the night watchmen. He thought of Ruth and Naomi and was glad. Again, he rested.
I know what you have done for your mother-in-law after your husband’s death. You have left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and you have come to a people you did not know.
Only sixty or so miles, but a lifetime away. The Moabites and Israelites rarely crossed paths. They did not intermarry, not often. This time they did. Boaz and Ruth bore a son.
The neighbor women gave him his name: at the news that a grandson had been born to Naomi, they called him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David.
And so goes the blood. Rahab (who saved the Israelites in Jericho and later married Joshua) was the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth, one of five women in Jesus’ genealogy, along with Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba and Mary. The stories intertwine and fascinate us, so long distant. With God, a thousand years is as a day.
So, when Jesus calls the Pharisees out for planting themselves on the throne of Moses, he might be seeing through those thousand-year lenses. He seems determined to shame the Pharisees, or at least to protect their congregations from the consequences of their commandments.
Do and observe all things they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but do not practice.
Jesus proceeds to castigate the Pharisees, calling them awful names, accusing them of lying and hypocrisy. He knows his words cut to the quick. He wants them to. After all, the Pharisees go to sleep like everyone else. They wake at 3 in the morning like everyone else, at least to use their bathrooms. When they look out the window at the moon, when they have none of their mob to attend to them, what are they thinking?
Do they, like Boaz, breathe deeply and feel the humility they were born with? Do they look toward heaven, do they feel safe to “be still, and know that I AM God?” What do they say to God in the middle of the night?
Jesus’ words make it hard for them to rest.
They (YOU) tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on peoples’ shoulders, but they (YOU) will not lift a finger to help them. All their (YOUR) works are performed to be seen. They (YOU) widen their (YOUR) phylacteries and lengthen their (YOUR) tassels.
I think I’d be afraid even to go to sleep, no matter how tired I am, if I’m a Pharisee. Listen to the trumpet of Jesus, while the world hears a different sound. March to the drumbeat of God Almighty, while the others just wander around.
Is that me, just a wandering Jew? Holding tight to my tassels and calling others out for not holding onto theirs? What is wrong with me? Jesus says he hears the voice of the Supernatural singing, like only those who know Him can.
I hear nothing.
Stay up just a little longer, son, and you will hear me. My voice is clear. You will hear, as Simeon heard, and I will give you rest.
Simeon’s Moment by Ron DiCianni
The Pharisee looks over at his black robe, hanging beside his bed. He thinks of the services he’ll attend in the morning, with all the other brothers, and can’t quite remember what God just offered him. He closes his eyes. He is restless. His mind is full of commandments. He cannot turn away.
The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
(Ruth 2-4, Psalm 128, Matthew 23)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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