Welcoming the Stranger

May 21, 2017 National Presbyterian Church Welcoming the Stranger Ruth 2, Deuteronomy and Psalms (see appendix) David Renwick For the next few weeks, we re going to be looking at God s message in 2 short books in the first part of the Bible the Old Testament. One of the books is possibly not that familiar to many of you it s the Book of Nehemiah. It s a book about God s Calling, and the fact that if we re going to accomplish anything of any significance for God then we re going to need prayer and perseverance, as well as just plain good organization! This Sunday, though, we re going to begin with the story in the Book of Ruth. This is a story generally better known, I think, than Nehemiah, though what I want to focus on today is an aspect of the story of Ruth that s often missed: a very specific and deliberate emphasis on welcoming those who are strangers. This is something I hope we all do on a regular basis, and something which our church has done in a specific way in the last ten days as we ve welcomed a refugee family from Syria: an act that the story of Ruth and other stories too, remind us is profoundly Biblical. So, let me set the scene for this biblical act of welcome, by telling Ruth s story very briefly. The story begins about eleven hundred years before the birth of Jesus when there s a famine in the Holy Land. There s no food, and no obvious future and, as people have done for thousands of years, and still do today, at least one family decided to emigrate to move from Bethlehem in the land of Judah, to a new country across the Dead Sea: a land called Moab. Moab was not far away at all from Bethlehem as the crow flies: maybe 25-30 miles; but it was an ocean-away in terms of rain and famine, and cultural and religious differences. Culturally the Moabites were long-time enemies of God s people. And religiously, while we know very little about the God of the Moabites, called Chemosh, what we do know indicates, for example, that child sacrifice was a part of their worship (see 2 Kings 3:27). So this family from Bethlehem, the father (Elimelech), mother (Naomi), and their two sons (Mahlon and Chilion), leave home to seek a new life in this foreign land. And all goes well to begin with until tragedy strikes: the father, Elimelech dies. But then life seems to resume. The boys grow up; they settle in; they marry local girls, named Orpah and Ruth and make a good life Until one day, tragedy strikes again! The two young husbands die, leaving behind three widows with no immediate source of income (the men in the family were the equivalent of Social Security ). Suddenly they re dead and the relatives of Naomi, at least, are far away. It s a tragedy! And the widowed mother in law of the two younger widows, Naomi, has to decide what to do. And she makes the decision to return home, to Bethlehem 1

And Ruth, her daughter-in-law goes with her so the tables are now strangely reversed: Naomi the mother-in-law who emigrated is now back home And Ruth, her widowed daughter-in-law, becomes the immigrant, immigrating to a foreign country from Moab to Judah at a moment of personal crisis. And it s there in Judah -- in this foreign country, that Ruth sets to work. Like many immigrants, starting at the bottom, she works hard in the fields; she picks up the left-over grain once the main reapers have passed by; and so by sheer hard work and sun-blistering labor she provides for herself as well as for her aging mother-in-law, Naomi. And this she does under the protection of a land-owner names Boaz. In fact, when Ruth mentions the name of the landowner and her protector Boaz, to her mother-in-law, Naomi, Naomi realizes that God is at work! Boaz turns out to be some sort of relative, and Naomi immediately turns into a matchmaker. She begins to think that this is the opportunity for Ruth to find a husband, and then to marry, and then to have children!! Which is, in fact, what happens. And more than that: one of the children of Ruth and Boaz, in time, becomes the grandfather of Israel s greatest King: King David a direct ancestor of Jesus himself. And so by the time we get to the end of the story, through all the pain and suffering and grief, unexpectedly, unbelievably, and providentially, everything works together for good (Romans 8:28), and turns out well And this is a great message: the story of Ruth becomes a story about a person of integrity starting at the bottom and rising to the top; a story of God s providence and care through painful times; and a story about God s sovereign plan being fulfilled from generation to generation. And these are lessons for life that we need to know! You and I; all of us. But there s more to the story of Ruth than this: the story also contains what we call a polemic. That is, it s not just a gentle story about faithfulness and providence (though this is a significant part of the story). But it s also a quietly edgy story about immigration, and the example of welcome and embrace given even to those who come from a foreign land and even a foreign god! To be sure, reading the story, we as readers know that Ruth has made a specific commitment to her mother-in-law, Naomi, that she will give allegiance to the God of Israel (Ruth 1:15-17) but many of those in Bethlehem will have no clue about this conversion; or whether it is sincere or skin deep. What they do know, is that her skin is not theirs: she s a Moabite from Moab. In fact, the Book of Ruth is part of an ongoing and ancient and profoundly Biblical debate within the ancient pagan world about What you do with people who are not like you whose values are different from yours? What you do with people who land on your doorstep? And become your neighbors? (whether you want them there or not) How do you deal with aliens, and strangers and immigrants? This is NOT an easy question to resolve, whether inside the Bible or outside, whether in the modern world or the ancient world 2

ON THE ONE HAND, for example, in the Bible, in the ancient world there are a number of books and people in the Bible that have an exclusivism about them, a narrowness, that points in the direction of only sticking with one s own kind, or sticking only with those who hold to specific standards The Book of Nehemiah for example, that we ll look at next week, is one of these (along with Jonah and Nahum), that reveals this kind of an emphasis within the debate. And there s a place for this: there s a time to hunker down and re-group, to separate ourselves from others to retain the faith. There are times when if you don t narrow the focus, then you ll lose whatever makes you distinct: the power of culture and wealth and technology will overwhelm you, and you ll end up no different from the society around you, with a Christian veneer laid on top of an empty shell. And this is something we all readily admit on a secular level. For example, every Olympic athlete knows this to be true and practices it! If you want to do something exceptional, and become something special, then you re going to have to become exclusive: picking and choosing your friends, your schedule, when and whether you go to the gym or the track or the pool or not. And if you don t, then, to be sure, you can still be one of the crowd, but you ll never excel, never stand out from the crowd never win the medal! In Israel s case, the most disastrous example of not being exclusive when you needed to be, of being so open that the culture of the world became the culture of God s people, and the distinctive faith of Israel got lost in the shuffle, comes from King Solomon 4 generations after Ruth -- Solomon was supposed to be wise but he clearly ignored the message of Genesis 2 for marriage: one man, one woman ending up with a thousand wives (1 Kings 11:1-8)! But more foolish than that, Solomon also ignored the message of Moses in Exodus (34:16), that inter-marriage with people of other religions would almost inevitably compromise one s faith: and in Israel, his marriages did precisely this. In Jerusalem itself, he not only built a temple to the God of Israel, but he also built temples to the gods of his wives Astarte and Milcom and Molech and Chemosh (the god of the Moabites). And, what followed in the next three centuries was predictable: a huge decline in faithfulness to God in Israel, leading to the disintegration of the nation, and then and the destruction of Jerusalem in 587BC. So, there s a time a God-sanctioned time to re-group, and pull the troops together, re-focus with a tight-knit faith, and moral standards, to achieve a greater purpose. And the Bible argues for us to be wise and disciplined about this. BUT, that s only one side of the coin. There s another side too. Because, in the Bible it s also clear that there s a time to open the gates wider, and without fear to let the other, the stranger in. And this we see not only in the teaching of Moses, and in the teaching of David in the Psalms, but in the teaching of Jesus himself. Each of these great leaders (Moses, David, Jesus) by the way, were not only immigrants at some point in their lives, but refugees, fleeing for their lives: 3

Moses for 40 years, fleeing from Pharaoh, king of Egypt David from King Saul and Jesus as a baby fleeing with his parents from King Herod For Moses and David, the motivation for their teaching is very clear: THIS IS WHAT GOD IS LIKE! God pays attention to, and takes care of those on the fringes of society: the poor, the widows, the orphans and then, the strangers. And, therefore, so must we. Let me read some key verse from Moses in Deuteronomy, and David in the Psalms: The Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. [Deuteronomy10.17-18] 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 your God may bless you in all your undertakings. [Deuteronomy 24.19] Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan, and the widow of justice. [Deuteronomy 27.19] The Lord watches over the strangers [Psalm 146.9] Father of orphans and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. [Psalm 68.5] These are repeated themes in the Bible in fact, God s particular interest and passion for strangers and aliens and foreigners is mentioned well over 100 times in the Bible, and Jesus picks up on this Old Testament theme, in a number of ways. For Example, quite to the surprise of his followers, on a number of occasions, Jesus praises people who are not part of the people of Israel: a Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:22f); and a Centurion from the hated occupying armies of Rome (Luke 7:1-10). And, in one of his most famous stories, the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), the hero turns out to be not only a foreigner but a heretic: a believer in another religion: a Samaritan (see John 4:19-22). And in one of his final stories, Jesus teaches about caring for others, specifically mentioning the need to care for strangers or foreigners (Mathew 25:31, 34-36). When the Son of Man comes in his glory he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats... 34Then the king will say to those at his right hand, Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. What I have left out of this list on purpose, of course, is the statement Jesus makes in the middle: I was a STRANGER (a foreigner or immigrant) and you welcomed me 4

Just like Boaz, welcoming and urging his community to welcome Ruth who explicitly points out that she is a foreigner, and who is stunned that Boaz should reach out to her and care, Jesus tells us to welcome the stranger! These are her words to Boaz in response, in Ruth 2:10 Why have I found favor in your sight -- that you should take notice of me, she says to Boaz, when I am a foreigner a stranger: In the Greek version of the Old testament, the word for foreigner is XENOS, the same word used in Matthew 25 for stranger, and from which we get our English word, xenophobia a word that the Oxford English Dictionary defines as "deep-rooted fear towards foreigners," and Webster s as "fear of the unfamiliar." In fact the more closely you read Ruth, especially chapters 1 and 2, the more you see that God tries to drive home this message about welcoming strangers and foreigners by repeatedly emphasizing the fact that Ruth is very much a foreigner: she s Ruth the Moabite seven times (1:22, 2:2, 2:6, 2:21; 4:5, 4:10), with an additional three times adding redundantly that she s from the country of Moab (1:6, 1:22, 2:6): so she s Ruth the Moabite from the Country of Moab! As if to say, she s definitely not one of us! She s not like us! Even though we know from Ruth 1:15 that she s actually taken a vow to follow the God of Israel, she s still suspect, because her people (doesn t everyone know?) worship an alien God, and they sacrifice their children, and they ve been our enemies forever! (Repetition is a significant literary device in Hebrew but we can catch the flavor even in English. Think of introducing me to others: for the first time, once, you might say, this is David from Scotland, or David, a Scot. But to say it repeatedly, and to say both together repeatedly: This is David the Scot from Scotland would immediately lead someone to say this is weird or forced: what s the point you re trying to convey?). However, what the story tells us is this, not only that Boaz welcomes this foreigner, knowing full well who she is, but God clearly welcomes her as well! And provides for her, and protects her and honors both the integrity and faithfulness of Ruth, as well as the integrity and open embrace of Boaz AND THAT S THE STORY OF RUTH! Which, of course, still leaves us with an unanswered question: When are we as a church or a nation to hunker down and close ranks? And when are we to open up and embrace? No easy answer to that from Scripture! There are always 2 sides of the argument to weigh (Think of the famous passage in Ecclesiastes 3 stating that for everything there is a season, and then listing options that are appropriate at different times). So, every situation is a matter for prayer and seeking wisdom. This is an unresolved debate within the Bible itself! BUT, one thing is clear from the Bible as a whole: that when strangers and aliens and widows and orphans land on our doorstep and become our neighbors, as Ruth did with Boaz, then doing nothing, not putting out the welcome mat, is not an option. Ruth and Moses and David in the Psalms, and Jesus himself, all lean clearly on the side of openness and welcome and embrace. Bill Hybels pastor of Willow Creek Church, one of the largest evangelical churches in the nation, writes these words in the introduction to a great book on the refugee crisis, called Seeking Refuge (Moody Press 2016): 5

I recently visited churches and NGOs caring heroically for Syrian refugees in Jordan. I was in awe of the way local Middle Eastern Christians embraced Muslim refugees with a spirit of respect, service, and love. And I was moved by the heartfelt gratitude of the refugee moms and dads who clearly love their kids as much as Lynne and I love ours. This is the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world -- and churches are being the hands and feet of Jesus in the midst of this crisis. Middle Eastern heroes like the ones I met need some heroically generous Americans to get behind them. BUT Christian love requires not just financial generosity, but a generosity of spirit and hospitality. I pray that that spirit will characterize every American church -and churches everywhere-as we warmly welcome refugees into our communities! Then he adds Some people-including some Christians- have allowed fear to dominate the refugee conversation. I and my wife Lynn believe the only power strong enough to stand against that evil and remake the world is the power of God's love lived out by God's people. May we - God's church - answer that call. This is what Boaz did in practice with Ruth the Moabite from Moab This is what Jesus commanded! This is who God is, and what God does for us: we, as gentiles, are strangers and he welcomes into his kingdom! (Read Ephesians 2:12 Remember that you were... without Christ, aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise ) This is who we must be too. David A. Renwick Copyright 2017 All Rights Reserved. To listen on line go to: http://nationalpres.org/sermons To watch full services go to: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nationalpres THE NATIONAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 4101 Nebraska Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20016 www.nationalpres.org 202.537.0800 6