Lighting the Advent candle
The first candle of Advent is the candle of Hope. We light this candle to remind us that our hope in is Jesus the Christ and to watch for his presence in the ordinary places of life.
The first candle is lit.
Let’s pray: Loving God, our hope is in you for you are our light and our salvation. As we worship together today, draw us out of our dullness and fill us with the light of hope. Help us to prepare our hearts to receive you.
We ask in the name of the One born in Bethlehem. Amen.
Call to worship
A new year begins today, a new season of Advent. A season of anticipation, of expectation and uncertainty.
The future beckons us toward an unseen end and invites us on a journey more wonderful,
more startling, more disconcerting
than we can conceive of.
This is a season of waiting as new life stirs, as new movements are discerned and as new understanding stretches our safe faith beyond itself –
into the mystery of God born again here,
among us, within our own hearts and lives.
So let us enter into the season of Advent
yielding with the humility of Mary,
faithful as Joseph,
hopeful as Elizabeth,
surprised as Zechariah
and listening always for the song of peace and joy that the universe is dancing to.
A poetic pause
Advent
He needed them all.
He had tried everything:
The garden of promise,
The rainbow arching over the second chance,
The tablets of stone, the smoke and the cloudy fire,
The sling shot, the armies,
Even the staying in one place as walls were built and hymns set down,
The exile, and the rebuilding of ruins,
The guttering flame on the eighth day.
But the people did not listen,
And so he called them out:
The virgin, her labourer husband,
The animals with their scented breath,
The servants who would bring the casks of water,
The fishermen, and the eager cynic who would climb the tree,
The woman whose hair swept down below her knees,
The soldiers who would seize and pierce,
And when they were all assembled,
He curled himself into a seed,
Send the messenger,
And waited in the darkness
for the virgin’s ‘yes.’
Pamela Cooper-White
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Scripture reading
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there.
But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there for about ten years, both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons or her husband.
Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had had consideration for his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah.
But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back each of you to your mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband.’ Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. They said to her, ‘No, we will return with you to your people.’ But Naomi said, ‘Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.’ Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
So she said, ‘See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’ But Ruth said,
‘Do not press me to leave you
or to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die—
there will I be buried.
May the Lord do thus and so to me,
and more as well,
if even death parts me from you!’
When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her. So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them; and the women said, ‘Is this Naomi?’ She said to them,
‘Call me no longer Naomi,
call me Mara,
for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me.
I went away full,
but the Lord has brought me back empty;
why call me Naomi
when the Lord has dealt harshly with me,
and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?’
So Naomi returned together with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came back with her from the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Reflection
As we dwell with the book of Ruth this advent, one of my hopes is that it will help us to explore and understand better what it is to be a community of faith today, and especially as we learn to live in a covid world.
Ruth is an ordinary, quiet story of hunger, loss, isolation, work, migration and simple human kindness that is transformative both for the lives of the individuals and for the community. In the Jewish calendar of festivals, Ruth is read at the feast of Shavout (what we call Pentecost) along with the story of the giving of the Law at Mt Sinai. They are in stark contrast to each other, with the Exodus passage full of lightning, thunder, mountains shaking and people quaking. But these two stories are put side by side for a reason. Ruth shows us that the purpose of the law is kindness and compassion, reminds us that God isn’t going to be satisfied with any fulfilment of the law without kindness.
There are some big themes embedded in this simple story, so as we explore some of these themes, it’s useful to have a little background information. You can read the origin story of the Moabites in Genesis, which tells of a shameful beginning and, in my opinion, seems a rather unlikely explanation of the events in the cave. This is the beginning of the Moabite women’s bad reputation. It is later compounded in the Deuteronomy story of the Moabite king refusing hospitality to the wandering hoard of the people of Israel when they are newly arrived across the Jordan river. The king also hired someone to curse the people as they passed by, so the hostility is cemented and runs deep. Your people did harm to my people. You know how it goes.
So, for the original hearers of this story, there are a raft of preconceptions here, and a stock stereotype with a fixed and generalised set of beliefs. All Moabites are tight fisted and lack generosity. All Moabite women are sex mad, scheming and manipulative.
Also, enshrined in law, and because of their history, no Moabite can ever, EVER be admitted into the people of God, not even if over ten generations they prove themselves faithful. It’s worth pondering this for a moment because…without Ruth, there is no Obed, no Jesse, no David, no Solomon…..
Holding all of that stereotyping preconception in mind, then, the first five verses of the story set us up with a sense of already knowing how this will turn out. Nothing good can happen here, and it seems like that is borne out by the famine (no food in Bethlehem, the House of Bread), the flight, the death, the weddings to Moabite women followed by more deaths. Nothing good. Saw that coming.
But here’s what would have been perplexing…when Elimelech fled to Moab in the hope of hospitality, his family find a home there for ten years, and his sons find wives. These women continue to care for Naomi after the death of their husbands, her sons, when the tradition of the time would say that their marriage contract is ended. They would have been within their rights to demand a return of their dowry and to go back to their own family. But they do not. Naomi has to plead with them to leave her and three times attempts to send them away.
Ruth continually refuses. Why? We can’t know. Not only does she refuse, she speaks words of deep and complete commitment to her mother in law, expressing beautifully the loyalty of a faithful companion. This is unexpected. This goes against all the common knowledge assumptions and presses us to consider for our own time- what assumptions am I making that could be utterly misplaced? What prejudice might I be holding that is unfounded and hurtful? What story might I need to hear to consider that change may be possible and necessary?
Often the root of conflict and disagreement lies in our inability, or our refusal, to genuinely see and take note of the full humanity of another person. It is time consuming or bothersome and we aren’t sure they are worth the effort – after all, our prejudices can be very comforting, especially if they are shared by our family and friends. Sometimes the easiest way to feel that you belong is to find someone to exclude or turn into an enemy.
But the book of Ruth seems to be showing us that new stories are always possible, and change comes not through nation states or whole people groups, but through personal encounter, through human connection and through courageous creativity.
This first chapter ends with Ruth following Naomi into the unknown, into a land where she will not be welcome and is not even noticed to begin with. She follows Naomi into a situation of unique vulnerability – a woman, childless, a widow and a foreigner. She clings to Naomi who has become bitter and hopeless.
Ruth finds the courage to stay with Naomi and she shows her both grace and kindness. Hope arises in the midst of uncertainty and loss – a hope that becomes the light of the world.
Conversation Questions
What stereotypes are you aware of in your life – perhaps you grew up with some? Perhaps you have busted some? Perhaps there are some you still hold?
Where do you see signs of hope in this first chapter of Ruth? What signs of hope do you see in this season of your life or in the community?
Prayers of the people
Confession of faith
We are not alone,
we live in God’s world.
We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others
by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.
We are not alone.
Thanks be to God.
A New Creed, United Church of Canada
Blessing
Go in peace, go in patience, go in expectation.
Live in love, live in hope, live in anticipation.
May joy be present and warm your heart.
Be blessed in the name of God,
source of all life and inspiration.
Be blessed in the name of the Christ,
whose birth liberates our expectations.
Be blessed in the name of the Spirit,
who breathes new life upon us all. Amen
Saint Peters Presbyterian Church 