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October 11, 1998
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I want to talk about Ruth. She lived in an exotic land; she married an equally exotic and foreign man and they lived very happily in her husband's homeland. They had four children and Ruth raised even more if you count the neighborhood kids. Her faith in God was pure and strong. Her husband died unexpectedly, leaving her in her adopted land with four children and her faith.
Now, I want to talk about Ruth Harris, the wife of Fr. Cecil Harris, an Episcopal priest, who lived in the exotic land known as the Monterrey Peninsula. After Cecil died, she continued to raise her children and spent most of her spare time around St. Mary's by the Sea Episcopal Church in Pacific Grove. She loved people.
Some time in her 50's she made her first trip to Africa. She was heavily involved in UTO and I don't know what happened over there, but she made quite an impression on the people and they kept inviting her to come back. Subsequently, she kept bringing people from over there - over here. Every year she would have an African student come and live with her. They would stay for a semester or two and then they would tell their cousins about her and they would come, too.
Ruth would return to Africa many times. She took her younger sister with her once. Ruth was in her 70's and her younger sister was in her late 60's. Ruth was a woman who truly did not see color; she did not see shapes; she loved people as if they were her very own. And if you asked her why, she would look you in the eye and say, "because Jesus told me to."
The law of kindness transcended any law you could put in front of Ruth. She was not simply a kind woman who made friends around the world, she had a true friendship with Christ. That friendship carried her from the Monterrey Peninsula to the San Joaquin Valley where she started a mission for migrant workers, and to the back roads of Kenya, not to mention Pacific Grove.
In the days the judges ruled there was a woman named Ruth. You know the story. Ruth was a Moabite and therefore a distrusted foreigner. She followed her husband to his homeland. When he died, Ruth's mother-in-law, Naomi, tried to send her home. Ruth refused, but why? Loyalty to Naomi? Yes, sure. This is a story of true friendship between two women, but ultimately why Ruth stayed was loyalty to God.
It is a great story, but it is more important because of the fact that it found its way into the canons of scripture. God is impressed by faithfulness. God is even more impressed when we are faithful to him. Ruth is a heroine of the Jewish faith because she trusted God above all. She was a foreigner, she was distrusted, but she chose God. She chose God and chose to stay near her mother-in-law. She married her husband's brother as was the custom and had children. One of the men became the grandfather of David the King of Israel.
Now as you recall, Jesus is also a descendant of David. Matthew's Gospel goes to a lot of trouble to tell us that. What is important to remember is that Jesus' ancestors knew a lot about spiritual friendship. A lot about kinship with God and with one another. They chose kinship; they chose faithfulness to God over tribal warfare, or haggling with words. They chose God over self gratification and, as a result, they learned compassion.
"Wherever you go, I will go. Where you lodge I will lodge. Your people will be my people, your God will be my God." Jesus does not spend a lot of time learning about people's qualifications in order to dispense compassion. Like Ruth, his compassion is instant and it is redemptive. He resolves the lepers' pains immediately. He literally saves them so that they may have life. Notice it is again the foreigner who returns to thank Jesus. The Samaritan gets it. Once again the outcast, the person considered to be the least likely, is the one who recognizes God working in his life.
Faithfulness made Ruth the mother of nations. Faithfulness made Jesus the savior of the world and faith makes us well. It is what makes us a whole person. If you asked Ruth about it, she would have told you the same thing. On her last trip to Africa, which I believe was made when she was about 79, she bought for her great nephew (that would be me) a drum made of cow hide with a strip that would be carried through the village announcing when it was time to worship. I still have it in my living room (except for the handle that was chewed off by my very rambunctious dog. But the message she gave to me was loud and clear - the drum calls us to worship; it calls us to faithfulness. And it is that faithfulness that makes us well. AMEN
The Rev. Sean A. Cox
seancox@stmargarets.org
11 October 1998
[The Sermons of the Rev. Lois Hart]