I’ve spoken before about wanting to hear good news when we come to church. I’ve spoken before about beginning a sermon with the ending. Both of these things are happening today. Let us hear the good news. God is kind. We heard last week about the Hebrew word hesed. It describes what God is like. It’s usually translated as steadfast love or loving kindness. We sang “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” last week, and the words of the chorus are taken from Lamentations 3:22-24: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases/ His mercies never come to an end/ They are new every morning/Great is your faithfulness/The Lord is my portion, says my soul/Therefore I will hope in him.” With God, we are never without hope. We left our story with Naomi telling the women of Bethlehem to call her Mara (bitter) rather than Naomi (beautiful, pleasant) because, as she said, “The Almighty has dealt bitterly with me…I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.” We said that while Naomi was speaking those words, Ruth was standing beside her, and she might well have been thinking, “What about me??” This young widow had pledged herself to her widowed mother-in-law after all. Where you go, I will go, where you lodge, I will lodge, your people will be my people. Ruth had also, of course, pledged herself to Naomi’s God – the God of Abraham (who also left his home), Isaac, and Jacob. The God who had delivered (or redeemed and held onto that) his people from slavery. The God who had brought his people out of a situation from which they were unable to extricate themselves. We are looking at the loving kindness of God today. We are singing praise to God for it. We are coming to the Lord’s table to give thanks for it. We are asking God to make us agents of God’s hesed. Just like Ruth. Just like Boaz. Let’s ask for God’s help as we continue with the story. Times are difficult for Ruth and Naomi as our chapter begins. It was the beginning of the barley harvest, and they’re in a town literally called House of Bread. They have no field, no right to any land. We don’t even know where they’re living. Ruth shows herself to be resourceful and courageous. A foreign woman going out into fields in which she is a stranger. She says to her mother-in-law, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain, behind someone in whose sight I may find favour.” Naomi tells her, “Go, my daughter.” A hint of belonging, even in Naomi’s emptiness. Here's the thing. God has a heart for those who are empty. It is not for nothing that Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” God has a heart for those in need, which is all of us. Matthew has Jesus saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” You can have lots of money/property/stuff and be empty, after all. Ruth has pledged herself to the God of Israel, but she doesn’t sit at home, waiting for a blessing. She goes out looking. (It reminds me of the story that’s told of a man who went up on the roof of his house in the middle of a flood. A boat came by. The man refused to get in, saying he was waiting on God to save him. A raft came by, a helicopter even. Man said, “I’m waiting on God to save me so he can have all the glory.” The man drowns. When he meets God, he’s all, “Why didn’t you save me?” God says, “I sent a boat, a raft, a helicopter…”) Ruth is in need of someone to show her favour. God has a heart for the vulnerable. The outsider, the foreigner, the widow, the orphan. Laws about making sure that everyone was provided sounded like this: “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow; so that the Lord may bless you in all your undertakings. When you beat your olive trees, do not strip what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.” (Deut 24:19-20) Do not look to wring every last bit of profit out of it so that others are left without. Remember who the provider is. Remember that all I am and have is of God. Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, God tells his people, and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. (Deut 24:17) It's never been about doing what is right in our own eyes, but doing what is right in God’s eyes and reflecting God’s ways. “As it happened,” we read, “she came to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.” (2:3) The original here reads something like “by chance she chanced upon the part of the field belonging to Boaz.” We know that in God it is not simply chance. Ruth and Naomi are facing an unknown future. The future is by nature unknown. The question may be asked, “How can we have trust in God in the middle of uncertainty?” The answer is, because we have seen God’s hand at work in the past. God’s hand is at work here, though it’s not obvious. Oftentimes, the obviousness of God’s hand at work in our lives becomes apparent only when we look back. By chance, within a week of arriving in Toronto from Montreal in 1994, a certain young woman took a position through a temp agency at the office I worked at. Look at where God’s hand has led us. By chance, Nicole and I walked through the doors of Blythwood Road Baptist in March of 2002. Chance? Look at where God’s hand has led us together. Boaz was a relative of Elimelech. He’s called a prominent, rich man. Other translations describe him as worthy, a man of noble character, a mighty man of excellence. A man who took God’s commands seriously and wanted to show God’s kindness. He comes to the field from Bethlehem with the greeting, “The Lord be with you.” “The Lord bless you,” comes the answer. Bringing God into it right from the greeting. While this might have been a standard greeting, its significance isn’t to want the Lord to be with someone we meet. The peace of the Lord be with you (even if we don’t say it). The lovingkindness of the Lord be with you. Imagine praying that for everyone we came across. It might even change how we interact with them! “To whom does this woman belong?” asks Boaz. Where does she fit in, in other words? The answer comes back, she’s the Moabite who came back with Naomi from Moab (did I mention she was from Moab?). In other words, she doesn’t fit in anywhere, really. She doesn’t really belong. Except she does now. She belongs here now. “Now listen, my daughter…” Boaz tells her. You’re one of the family now. Bit of an age difference between the two as well. Same word that Naomi uses for Ruth. We’re not told what Boaz looks like. We’re not told what Ruth looks like either. In an age where image means so much, what we look like, how we curate our lives online, these two are possessed of an inner beauty. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with being objectively beautiful or classically handsome. Youth possesses a beauty of its own; enjoy it, young people. Just remember your creator in the days of your youth. Our creator is the God of hesed. Boaz treats her with kindness, and this is beautiful. “Now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Keep your eyes on the field that is being reaped, and follow behind them. I have ordered the young men not to bother you. If you get thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.” Ruth has found favour. She asks Boaz why, and we can’t help but think of other recipients of God’s favour who marvelled at why (How can this be, that the mother of my Lord comes to me, said Elizabeth to Mary before Jesus’ birth – because this is always heading toward Jesus). Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. May the Lord reward you for your deeds and may you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!” (2:11-12) Then Ruth said, “May I continue to find favour in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoke kindly to your servant, even though I am not one of your servants.” (2:13) Ruth is reminding Boaz and us here that we are called to make the favour of God known with our acts and words of favour. You’ve spoken to my heart, she says literally. “I’m not even one of your servants,” she says, though maybe she could become something more… They say game recognizes game. I say hesed recognizes hesed. Kindness recognizes kindness. The spirit of Christ in me recognizes the spirit of Christ in you, brother and sister. Acts of loving kindness are spurring more acts of loving kindness. It’s an upward spiral of hesed. The generosity of Boaz is superabundant. Boaz told his young men, “Let her glean even among the standing sheaves, and do not reproach her. You must also pull out some handfuls for her from the bundles, and leave them for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.” (2:15-16) Ruth comes home that night with an ephah of barley. Enough to last Ruth and Naomi a week or so. It’s a lot of barley she’s carrying. Naomi’s lament turns to blessing. “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” (2:19) Ruth has encountered the kindness of God as it was reflected in Boaz, and she tells her mother-in-law the good news. “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.” Naomi speaks what might rightly be considered the crux of the whole story. I mean crux quite literally as in the good news of the cross: “Blessed be he by the Lord, whose kindness (hesed) has not forsaken the living or the dead.” (2:20) The steadfast love of the Lord; the lovingkindness of the Lord, has not forsaken the living or the dead. Thanks be to God! Ruth will continue to work in Boaz’s field for the duration of the barley and wheat harvest. Around 7 weeks. The two women are ok for now, but what about that long-term security for which Naomi prayed? This final piece of news about Boaz for today. “The man is a relative of ours; one of our nearest kin.” (2:20) This means a relative with the right to redeem. To restore people who were forced into slavery, or family property that had been lost. For the ancient Israelites, their delivery from Egypt was God’s great act of redemption. For us who are on the other side of the cross, I can’t help but remember Jesus walking along the road to Emmaus with two of his followers, on the day he was raised, interpreting the things about himself in all the scriptures. Our redeemer. The one who has freed us, forgiven us, restored us, made us whole. The one under whose wings we rest. Our security. Our peace. The one to whom we belong. What might Jesus have said about this story to those two people on the road to Emmaus? They didn’t recognize Jesus before they sat down to eat. In our story today, Boaz shares bread and wine with Ruth. Who does this remind us of? Jesus doesn’t just share bread; he is our bread. The table is a place of welcome, of acceptance, of belonging, of commitment to a new way of living and being in our Redeemer Christ Jesus. May it be so for us today. Amen