What to Do Before the Tears Are Wiped Away
What to Do Before the Tears Are Wiped Away
A Sermon for Pleasant Street Church
November 1, 2009 (All Saints Day)
Rev. Reebee Girash
Texts: Revelation 21:1-6a; Ruth 1: 1-18
Revelation 21:1-6a
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home F75 of God is among mortals. He will dwell F76 with them; they will be his peoples, F77 and God himself will be with them; F78 4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” 5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
Ruth 1:1-18
1 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. 2 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. 3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
6 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 considered his people and given them food. 7 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. 8 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. 9 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. 10 They said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” 11 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? 12 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, 13 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.” 14 Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15 So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16 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. 17 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!” 18 When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.
Prayer
Sermon
If you have not read the book of Ruth, I would urge you to read its entirety – today. It will only take you ten minutes to read this story of tragedy and redemption; of grief and renewal; this story of some of the ancient saints of God. This story will give you hope for your life.
On the other hand, the portion that I just read finds the main characters in very difficult circumstances.
The story begins with a tragedy that would rival any tale of woe you have heard – even that of Job; even your own tale of woe, I would imagine. Naomi left her home in Bethlehem as a young bride, with a husband and two small children, for a new life in Moab. But there, her beloved died, and she was left to raise her sons alone. They grew up, and married, and then they died. Between the lines of the text you can imagine famine and disease and poverty. And you know what it was to be a widow without male relatives in ancient culture: you were at the mercy of those around you. Naomi and her daughters-in-law were widowed, impoverished, hungry, homeless, and without any power or resources. The new life that the land of Moab once promised had given way to despair and coming death.
While you may not know this sort of despair, in this room we have trials of our own. As a community, we are traveling on a road with an uncertain destination, and it’s challenging to hold things together. As individuals, some of us are seriously afflicted. Depression. Unemployment. Debt. Cancer. Debilitating Illness. Grief. These are just some of the challenges I know you are facing. The words of Revelation, that God will wipe away every tear, may seem pretty far off. What do we do while we wait for a new church, a new job, a new body, a new heaven and a new earth?
Naomi and Ruth managed to hold on until their new earth arrived – until their return to Bethlehem and redemption (in the ancient sense) by Ruth’s marriage to Boaz. They managed to hold on through grief and hunger, until hope returned. And this is the way that they did it: they held on to each other.
Sometimes we can make it on our own, writes the band U2. Instead, we get to carry each other.
Marilyn’s words last week could have been written for Naomi and Ruth. Marilyn said, “God doesn’t send me the abstract miracles that I prayed for as a child. God sends me people.” To Naomi, widowed, having buried two sons (there’s no word for a mother who buries her children), homeless, starving, God sent Ruth. Ruth could not magically reverse Naomi’s tragedy – indeed Ruth’s life was devastated, too. What Ruth could do was to pledge to be with Naomi, no matter what. Even though she could have found her own way out of this tragedy, she pledged to stay with Naomi.
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. 17 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!”
We get to carry each other.
That is what we do, before the tears are wiped away. We get to carry each other.
Preacher Sid Burgess says, “By word and deed, Ruth demonstrates what God means when God says, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ ” (http://day1.org/657-running_on_empty_arriving_on_full.print)
God sends us people. The people who pledge to us that they will walk beside us on the road, whether it be through forest or desert, whether it be through despair or redemption, these are the people who carry us, until the tears are wiped away. These are the saints who bring us the message of hope, that we will get through this life, together, and with God’s grace.
I want you to take a moment, and close your eyes, and give thanks to God for someone who has been Ruth to you, one of the saints who has carried you. (Pause)
We thank God for the Ruths we have known, for the people God has sent to walk beside us.
Sid Burgess also reminds us that we all have one common Ruth, one un-common Saint, one great companion: “someone to serve as your God through difficult times, a strong shoulder to cry on, a partner with whom to pray, and now a friend with whom to look for a new beginning. You went away full, but you have not come back empty. You, too, have a redeemer. Christ Jesus, our Lord. As Ruth stands beside Naomi, so does the risen Christ in the form of the church, stand beside you.” (http://day1.org/657-running_on_empty_arriving_on_full.print)
Now, if that is true: if the risen Christ in the form of Christ’s church stands beside people in need, then that means we are all called, as members of that church, to be Ruth to our neighbors; to imitate Christ’s compassion and companionship.
I want you to close your eyes again, and ask God who God wants you to carry right now. Who needs you at their side? (Pause)
If the story of Ruth and Naomi ended at the moment of Ruth’s pledge, it would seem pointless: this pledge, this carrying each other, this walking the rocky road. But Ruth and Naomi’s story does not end here. This is why I want you to read the full book: by the end of the story, Ruth and Naomi are together redeemed, in a way that neither of them could have been, without the other by her side. Ruth could not have found Boaz – her kind and honorable new husband – without Naomi’s guidance. Naomi could not have found a home, without Ruth’s new marriage. By walking the road together, Naomi and Ruth were together redeemed.
God sent Ruth to Naomi. God sends people to us. And God sends us to our brothers and sisters.
We get to carry each other,
until that blessed day,
when God himself will be with us;
when God herself will wipe every tear from our eyes.
When Death will be no more;
When mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
When the first things will have passed away.
Thanks be to God, who sends us people,
And who offers us hope of redemption and restoration and new beginnings.
Thanks be to our Alpha and Omega, our beginning and our end, and our eternal home.
Amen.