(Ruth 1:1-18; Mk 12:28-34) J G White

10:30 am, Sunday, Nov 3, 2024, FBC Amherst

It so happens that I keep seeing, in the Sunday scripture readings, elements of our new Inclusion Statement. October 20th, Job met Creator in a whirlwind and in all the elements of creation; I pondered indigenous Ethnicity and spirituality. Last Sunday, the Apostle Paul spoke of some disability that was his ‘thorn in the flesh.’ Ability (or disability). Next Sunday, Jesus points out a poor widow giving all she had at the Temple, two coins. Economic Status.

Today, a foreigner follows her Jewish mother-in-law to her home in Judah. So I wonder some more about Colour, Ethnicity, and Creed. The story of Ruth, in just a few pages, stands out in the midst of many other texts in the First Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures. Her name, Ruth, means ‘friend,’ and she certainly acts as a friend to her mother-in-law, Naomi. Ruth had lived all her life in her native Moab, on the east side of the Dead Sea, a nation of people similar to the Hebrews but usually an enemy of them. She and her sister, Orpah, had married brothers, the two sons of a Jewish family who had come to Moab in time of famine.

What does God think of those who are not of the Hebrew faith? Such as the Moabites? Or the Jebusites? The Ammorites? The Egyptians? We might know of many occasions in the Bible when they were to be eradicated, or at least kept at a distance. Somehow, Naomi and Elimelech and family live there, among the people of Moab. Tragically, after a decade, the men in the family have all died, leaving Naomi and her two daughters-in-law. Mother decides to go back to Judah, and her hometown, called Bethlehem.

We can read over and over in the Bible of the challenges of various peoples getting along, or not. Sometimes one ethnic and religious group is very protective of its culture and religion, and treats everyone else as enemies. Have you done any reading in the book of Joshua lately? Or Judges? Many of the stories and the teachings are harsh. And very exclusive. The story of Ruth is set in the days of the Judges when, well, things were pretty wild.

Have you done any reading in the book of Baptists lately? Or Anglicans? Or Catholics, Nazarenes, Brethren? We too can be very exclusive, at times. Insisting on being in the right, and anyone who differs with us is in the wrong. Or, anyone who does not look like us, and do things the way we do, is not quite right. ‘Needs to learn from us!’

The Ruth story is the opposite of the ruthlessness of so much religion, now, and then. In contrast with the behaviours, and the beliefs, seen in the stories in the book of Judges, is the gentle, endearing way that this woman from Moab, Ruth, clings to her Mother-in-law and chooses to join her back in Bethlehem.

Even Naomi can’t be certain how she will be received, back in her hometown, after a decade away, and with a foreign young woman accompanying her. You may know that the story does end well - more on this next Sunday.

Suffice it for today to remember the poetic decision of Ruth. Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge;

your people shall be my people and your God my God.

Have you ever been a minority? Ever spent time among those who were not of your ethnicity, or your religion? Did it feel like home? Did it become home? Did you feel loved at all, by your neighbours? Have you ever felt yourself among people whose understanding of God was different? Your way of praying, or explaining, or singing, or behaving did not fit with the majority?

Here, we now declare, in our Inclusion Statement, that we do welcome everyone regardless of colour, ethnicity and creed. And regardless of those other named categories, which are meant to catch just about everyone. I believe it has been a journey of First Baptist for many years to get to this point. For years and years we have been singing, “All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.” We have been including people in this fellowship of Jesus who are diverse, different, and delightful to God.

If Jewish Naomi and family could live in Moab for a decade and then go back; if Ruth can join her and enter Hebrew life in Bethlehem; if she can become (spoiler alert!) a great-grandmother of King David - then we can find our way to welcome all sorts of people into the family of God today.

We have come to believe that the descendent of Ruth, named Jesus of Nazareth, meant all sorts of people, when He spoke of loving our neighbours as ourselves. Our differently-abled neighbour, our gay neighbour, our homeless neighbour, our differently- opinioned neighbour, our non-English-speaking neighbour. Who is my neighbour? Didn’t Jesus get asked that? And didn’t He answer?

Even our different conceptions of God and the Holy come together under one roof, in one fellowship. You have had great freedom in this for a long time, First Baptist, and this has been a gift. How you relate to God has an impact on my relationship with Christ, and vice versa. No wonder we do not feel compelled to re-baptize believers coming from other Christian churches. Diversity in the fellowship is a gift, and can even be a goal.

This past week I was hearing from Rev. John Perkin about life at First Baptist Ottawa, where he serves. In that busy, capital city, First Baptist has seen many new people join the life of the congregation, mainly non-white people. Their new, part-time associate minister is herself from Haiti, and a trilingual person. John mentions that Christians from Nigeria or Haiti or elsewhere have different opinions and theology they bring to the table. One Nigerian newcomer was not so sure about First Ottawa’s sense of including and affirming people of the LGBTQ community; but another African man who had been with them longer explained how he had learned this inclusion, this part of loving these neighbours as himself. The fellowship is learning from one another. May it also and always be so for us here.

We are going to sing a hymn later, words written by a mentor of mine, and First Baptist’s assistant minister of fifty years ago here. Before he died, in 2022, he had composed this:

Christ calls us to a journey Of faith and hope and love;

So we must still be learning Our wisdom from above:

The Spirit leads us onward Through faith that’s in the Word;

We walk the way that’s forward, By trusting all we’ve learned.

(R. H. Prentice)