Ruth 3:1-6, 4:13-17; Mark 12:38-44
Rev. Kenneth M. Locke, Interim Pastor
Orchard Park Presbyterian Church; Carmel, IN
Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time; November 10, 2024
In our New Testament lesson this morning, Jesus draws some pretty clear lines between what is good and what is bad. Religious hypocrisy is clearly bad. We don’t do it with long robes anymore, but it still happens.
Let me share an example. I was once at a cemetery for a funeral in a small town. After the funeral, the funeral director and I were walking around, admiring the headstones and monuments. Like I say, it was a small town, and the funeral director was an outgoing kind of guy. Knew everybody. He was telling me about some of the families buried there cemetery.
We came to one massive monument that was very, very ornate. Lots of intricate carving: Jesus on the cross, scripture verses, the name of the family. It oozed religiosity. Must have cost a fortune.
After admiring it, I asked the funeral director, “Where they like this in real life?” He replied, “Nah. They weren’t religious at all”. Beware of elaborate funeral monuments, cars with lots of Christian bumper-stickers, and elaborate Christian jewelry. Some of them are the real deal. Others are hypocrites.
Jesus sits down in front of the treasury box and watches people putting in their offering. Notice – Jesus sees how much they are putting in. No privacy here! All the world can see.
Jesus sees the very wealthy putting in large amounts. He also watches a poor widow putting in her last two cents, all she has to live on.
We don’t know anything about this widow, but given the setting, I think we’re supposed to understand she’s a good person who is impoverished. No reason to think she’s gambled away her savings or drunk it all. She’s what she appears to be: a poor widow with no one looking after her, honoring God with all she has.
Jesus is very clear. Better to be an honest, impoverished widow, than a wealthy hypocrite. Better to give God what we can’t afford, than what we can easily do without.
But shouldn’t we also denounce a culture allowing this to happen? Why is this powerless person subject to abject poverty? What is being done to improve her life? To make her life more certain and secure?
Who are the impoverished in our community? Who do we know who is living on the edge?
Food insecurity has been one of our chief missions. We should all be thrilled by what our mission committee and others are doing to address food insecurity. But are there others caught up in social forces beyond their control? Someone easy to overlook? Maybe someone like Ruth?
We met Ruth and Naomi last week. When there is a famine in Israel, Naomi, her husband and two sons immigrate to the land of Moab. Naomi’s two sons marry Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah.
After ten years, Naomi’s husband dies and then her sons die. Orpah stays in Moab, but Ruth goes with Naomi back to Israel.
When they arrive in Israel, in Naomi’s hometown of Bethlehem, it’s time for the harvest. Every day, Ruth goes to the field of one of the large landowners, Boaz, and gleans. She walks behind the men doing the harvesting, picking up the leftovers, the pieces they drop. It’s back-breaking labor. And then she still has to winnow the grain, grind it, and bake it. Hard, hard work.
Boaz is a good man. He orders his workers to help Ruth whenever they can and to make sure no one accosts her in the field.
When the harvest is over, Naomi knows she has to act now, or it will be too late. She tells Ruth to bathe, put on her best clothes and perfume. Then go to Boaz, uncover his feet, and lie down.
His feet? Really? No! At this time, ‘feet’ was a common euphemism for ‘genitals.’ Naomi is telling Ruth, ‘Go to Boaz, pull back his blanket, and snuggle in as close as you possibly can. And don’t worry, he’ll tell you what to do.’
To his credit, Boaz handles it well. He discovers Ruth, but instead of taking advantage of her, he protects her reputation, clears up some legal issues, and marries her. Ruth bears a son, and her and Naomi’s safety is secured.
To be clear, this is not a love story. There is love in it, but at its core it is about a desperate act of seduction. Ruth is offering her body to Boaz in exchange for food and safety.
Through Boaz, God cares for these two women. God can work through even the worst human circumstances. This is good news. We celebrate what God can do.
But like the story of the poor widow, we can’t stop there. We must denounce any social structure where the powerless are taking such desperate steps to protect themselves. We must denounce any social structure allowing exploitation to flourish.
Who are the Ruths of today? Who are the people being exploited in various ways? The maid changing sheets and scrubbing toilets at the hotel? The dishwasher at our favorite restaurant? The delivery driver working 60+ hours per week? All of them being paid cash, under the table. It’s not sexual, but it is exploitation.
When I told my last church I was moving to Carmel, one man said Carmel is the jewel of Indiana. What makes a community a jewel? What makes it admirable? The roundabouts, the Monan Center, the trail? Is it the arts culture, the quality of our schools? Is that what makes a community stand out?
What makes a church stand out? What would make Orchard Park the Jewel of Whitewater Valley Presbytery? The high caliber of our choir and music? Our building? Our preschool? Is it our programming for both youth and adults? Is it the many mission dollars we donate and the mission projects we undertake?
We have much to be proud of. We do good ministry. We are generous people. No doubt about it. And I am proud to be your interim pastor. No doubt about it.
But I suggest what makes a community special, what makes a church stand out, what really makes a community or a church a bright, shining jewel, is what it does for the powerless. Denouncing oppressive social structures and values and working to change them, so no one has to choose between God and all they have to live on. So no one has to compromise themselves just to get by.
Clearly, God cares for the powerless. May we continue doing the same, and so be a bright, shining jewel in God’s eternal crown.
Amen.