"Irony's Reversal", November 4, 2012 All Saints

Ruth 1: 1-18 Mark 12:28-34 This last week, rather than a Tornado in Kansas taking one house, Dorothy and her dog Toto to Oz, a Hurricane swept 19 States and the Emerald City of New York felt the force of Fire, Flood and Wind. In the wake of destruction, we know that God was not in the Fire, Flood or Wind, and in the still small silence we have been asking ourselves “What are we doing here?” “What meaning is there?” The last many weeks we have read the Book of Job, and in the midst of suffering had wondered WHY, Why do bad things happen, not only to Good people, not only Terrorism, but disasters that destroy so much? Our passages this morning address faith from a different perspective. Rather than the bold question WHY God? these passages are stated in IRONY, recognizing that there is devastation, there are horrible things that happen in life. The question of IRONY is WHETHER ANYTHING IS SACRED! When your home and neighborhood and everything you have ever known is destroyed what Meaning is there, what Purpose? If life is not a Prosperity Gospel where you pay by doing all the right things and receive God's Blessings, then what? If life is not as simple as Do Good and receive blessings, do evil and bear the curses, can we be faithful to God? Is it possible for us as a Human Creatures to practice the fidelity of Scripture, being faithful to God No Matter What? When a Hurricane destroys everything we have ever known? When flooding holds fire fighters from fighting fires, and whole neighborhoods: 110 houses in one place are reduced to ash? When our loved ones have catastrophic illnesses? When we lose our lobs? When we go through divorce? When there is no food to put on the Table? When we are diagnosed with chronic illness? When circumstance is hopeless, will we be faithful with the kind of loyalty God shows us, or will we give up on God? According to The Book of Leviticus (the LAWS of what it is to be a Holy People), when our ancestors were in the wilderness, when they had been rescued from Pharaoh and from the Red Sea, Moses stated the core of all belief: HEAR O ISRAEL, THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE, GOD ONLY SHALL WE SERVE, GIVING TO GOD OUR FULL HEART & SOUL & STRENGTH. According to Moses this was more than the First Commandment, this was the foundation for Living. The Holiness Code has many other restrictions, regarding what can and cannot be done on the Sabbath, Divorce, Race and intermarriage, regarding the eating of Shell fish, how long a period of mourning should be observed. All of which may have a place in a utopian society, in the wilderness apart from the rest of the world. But when there is crisis, when economic hardship and war and human struggle threaten life itself, do we adhere to all the moral restrictions, or to any, or what? To understand Ruth we need to read beneath the surface. We need to pay attention to the meaning of Names, the meaning of Actions, the meaning of Relationships. Are we animals grazing, breeding, sleeping and dying, or as Creatures in the image of God, Beings who have tasted of the Fruit of Knowledge, shall we use the minds we were given to look for meaning in life? There once was a Man of the House of Levi, whose name was Elimelech. The Nation of Israel understood itself not simply as ONE NATION UNDER GOD, but as a Holy Nation, a Chosen People. This man of the Nation of Israel, had a name meaning THE LORD IS MY GOD. He was of Bethlehem, which in addition to being the City of David and the Birthplace of Jesus, the meaning of the name BETHLEHEM was THE BREADBASKET. This was a place where food was in abundance, where crops were grown to feed the Nation. And in Bethlehem there was FAMINE. When there is famine in the Breadbasket of the Promised Land, what shall a man of Israel whose names means The Lord is My God, do? Elimelech took his family and fled, went away to a different nation, he abandoned everything, he banished himself. And when they had settled in Moab, he died. Living in the land of Moab, apart from Israel, the sons took foreign wives, wives of Moab, and after a decade, the sons whose names mean SICKLY and GONNA DIE, both become ill and died. Following all the jots and tiddles of the Morality Laws, this family broke the rules and suffered for it. HOWEVER, all of that is only the preamble to the book of Ruth, the question that must be answered is Now What? Naomi decides that even if it means death, she must return to Israel. Out of loyalty to family the widowed daughters pledge they will go with her. Naomi appeals to logic and reason, that she cannot provide for them. Over and over they demonstrate loyalty to her, but in the end Orpah weeps upon Naomi's shoulder and goes home.The distinction between Orpah and Ruth has nothing to do with one being good and another evil, one being of one family and one of another. The difference between Orpah and Ruth is that Orpah's loyalty is to Naomi and to family, where Ruth's loyalty is to the One True God. English does not do justice to the tone of Ruth's words, for as Naomi entreats her to go back, Ruth responds that what she asks is an attack on her faith/an attack on her loyalty to God/a shaming of Ruth whose very name means LOYALTY & COMPASSION. In the Book of Ruth, Morality Laws are identified as being secondary to the basic integrity of faith and loyalty to God. Simply because we are logical, or because we followed all the right things, does not guarantee a faithful relationship with God. However, even if we were not of the Chosen People, if we have absolute trust in God, everything else will naturally follow. Orpah is remembered as one who showed loyalty to Israel. Ruth is remembered thousands of years afterward as one who showed absolute loyalty to God, and was an ancestor to David and Solomon and eventually Jesus. Putting this conviction, of what is really at stake, what is important in faith, to the test, the Gospel of Mark described Jesus having entered the City of Jerusalem where he threw over the tables of money changers in the Temple. Priests, Pharisees and Saducees all challenged and tested Jesus about meaning. Having listened to this, a scribe (whose identity was encapsulated in making certain to copy down literally every dot and cross every T in all the Laws), asks Jesus a question: What is the First Commandment? Jesus repeats the Law of Moses, Hear O Israel, The Lord our God is One, there is no other. And you shall worship the Lord with all your Heart and Soul and Strength, but Jesus also includes with all your mind. It is not enough to have conviction and the heat of passion about being a believer, faith also requires having the light of reason and understanding. To this, Jesus also responds, that equal to and related to this, is to love neighbor as we love our own lives. It is not enough to believe in God, to follow a philosophy, we also need to practice what we believe caring for others. Because of circumstance, Death had always been a had issue for me. As such, I have had to struggle with the meaning of death and through that the meaning of life. What I have come to has been two inter-related thoughts. First, that as much as our lives are measured by degrees & accomplishments, by some in terms of wealth and possessions, or influence and power... when we die our lives are reduced to an Obituary, which overtime becomes fewer and fewer words, dropping all the degrees, all the accomplishments, and truly we cannot take possessions with us, until what we are known for, and remembered by is our relationships. A Neighbor who was like an Aunt to us. ALSO, that while it was once easy to glorify those who had died, and to provide a beautiful memorial, now those who have died are more than Names, more than Members of the Church, or Community, they are also Loyal Friends.