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Morning Devotion for the Season of Epiphany
February 26th, 2025
Invitatory
God be in my head, and in my understanding; God be in my eyes, and in my looking;
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Ruth 2:81-13
Then Boaz said to Ruth, ‘Now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Keep your eyes on the field that is being reaped, and follow behind them. I have ordered the young men not to bother you. If you get thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.’ Then she fell prostrate, with her face to the ground, and said to him, ‘Why have I found favour in your sight, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?’ But Boaz answered her, ‘All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. May the Lord reward you for your deeds, and may you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!’ Then she said, ‘May I continue to find favour in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, even though I am not one of your servants.’
Meditation-Rebecca Northington
I was so glad to see Ruth in the lectionary for today. I love the book of Ruth. It is a short tale, full of tenderness and devotion and the unexpected rewards that come from self-emptying love, or agape. Ruth leaves everything familiar to her and accompanies Naomi back to her homeland after Naomi’s husband and son (Ruth’s husband) die. Ruth commits herself entirely to her mother-in-law, Naomi, who comes from a different religion and culture. In this text Boaz approaches Ruth’s goodness with his own, and it is a beautiful reminder of the origin of Jesse, David and ultimately Jesus, as Ruth is the mother of Jesse.
I could go on and on about the Book of Ruth, and why I think everyone should read it. But with this past Sunday evenings’ youth group meeting still alive in my thoughts, I find my understanding of Ruth leaning towards the conversation we had in RYG regarding discourse. We talked about the current atmosphere of hostility and aggression that permeates discourse and the rarity of respectful debate. Today people just want to be right and superior, it seems. They are less interested in learning why others think or feel the way that they do. We took a deep dive into the Episcopal Church's stance on respectful discourse, spending time on these 5 themes: humility, love, prayer, forgiveness, and confidentiality. We also talked extensively about hospitality –what it meant in the ancient world and what it means today.
One leader asked if this atmosphere has changed in my lifetime, to which I answered in the affirmative. While I remember the Reagan/Mondale election vividly as it was my first real exposure to the political process, I don’t remember families and friendships disbanding over their political affinity. In fact, my father was a total outlier in his family of New England liberals, and yet we could gather around the Thanksgiving table two weeks after an election in unity, peace and love. Today feels different. We either don’t touch these topics with a ten foot pole, silently agreeing to disagree, or we fight. We do not respectfully, and with curiosity, discuss, and learn from one another. We sit firmly entrenched in our stance with algorithms designed to keep us there; closed off to any understanding of “the other side.” Strident and immovable. Some could even say righteous.
Part of this, I explained to the kids, has to do with the pluralism of our times. We used to live and raise our families in economic, social, and religious bubbles. It was easier to agree with our neighbors, because most of them came with the same ancestry or tradition. Today that is hardly the case. Naomi, Ruth and Boaz could be ancient examples of a radical approach to difference. For a people we assume to be very focused on their “chosen-ness”, they had no issue adopting a foreigner and potential mother into their fold, who would not only bring in non-Hebrew blood, but would ultimately be the Matriarch of a Hebrew dynasty. They kept open minds and judged Ruth on her heart, not her identity.
I also contend that we have lost that ancient sense of hospitality. If a stranger came to your door in Christ’s time you would likely offer them water and, at the very least, acknowledgement. Today if a stranger comes to the door, how do we receive them? With skepticism; with a defensive stance? Perhaps curious what they want from us? We do not throw the doors open and offer them lodging, even if we have five empty bedrooms. Often we simply don’t answer the door. This ancient hospitality extended to conversation, in correlation to our lack of hospitality today regarding conversation. We do not invite into our reckoning the opinions of those the media has deemed our enemy. We sit comfortably in our knowledge that they are wrong, perhaps bad, or maybe even elitist.
Sunday evening we attempted to disrupt this formula that society has embraced. We encouraged the kids to ask hard questions and sit in the discomfort of the answers rather than adjudicating the worth or accuracy of another's opinion. We asked the kids to practice active listening with humility, love, prayer, forgiveness and confidentiality. We broke into small groups and talked about what we love, what hurts us, what we have lost as a family or community, and what we dream, for others, for ourselves, and for the world. When you enter a conversation with an open heart and an open mind, it changes the trajectory. It changes everything. Ruth did this. She approached Naomi and Boaz with humility and love. She rejected the norms of her times, leaving her people, and chose love instead.
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. I pray that we can all be as courageous as Ruth, to cast out fear, and choose love.
Prayer
May we speak with love,
Hear with empathy
Question with kindness
And comment with curiosity
Amen.
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