One of the reasons that I chose to attend ministerial preparations at Lexington Theological Seminary was the fact that they had a great field placement program. Field placement was where the seminary worked with congregations to place ministerial students in the church as student pastors. It was a way to assist congregations to have ministers in the pulpit and gave students an opportunity to learn the skills necessary for ministry. My first field placement was at Flemingsburg Christian Church as a student associate minister . . . I did youth ministry.
Because Flemingsburg was a good hour-and-a-half from Lexington, I would go up on Friday evenings and return on Monday afternoons. Also, not being a resident of Flemingsburg, I would often spend the weekend in one of the homes of the congregation’s members. One of the families that I stayed with were the Ferns . . . Bill and Ruth.
The Ferns were an older couple in congregation. They had moved to Flemingsburg early in their marriage when Bill’s job had him working out of a regional office located in the community. They had moved from another state to the community and had—at the time that I met them—lived in Flemingsburg for over 40 years. In that time, they had given birth to their children, raised them in the community, served the community in many different capacities, and Bill had even served as mayor . . . not once, but twice!
The Ferns were pillars in the community . . . yet, they never were fully received into the community. At least that is how they felt and what they shared with me. You see, they were not born and raised in the community. They had come from the “outside” and made Flemingsburg their home. Even after 40-some years in the community people still referred to them as outsiders. Now, get this, their children weren’t. They weren’t because they were born and raised there. But, nonetheless, the Ferns never really felt like they were fully members of the community despite dedicating their lives to the community through countless hours of service. They grew weary of always being reminded that “they aren’t one of us”.
It is no fun being the outsider or feeling like the outsider looking in. It does not matter the situation . . . family, groups, clubs, communities, or even churches. It is never a comfortable feeling being excluded from the others. So, imagine how Ruth must have felt throughout her life. She was a Moabite who ended up marrying a man who had immigrated from Judea to Moab. She converts to her husband’s religious faith. Her marriage to this Judean cast her out of her own community and family. And, then her husband dies, and she chooses to move back to Judea with her widowed mother-in-law . . . chose to move to a foreign land where she would not belong. And she remains faithful to YahWeh. Times are difficult for Ruth and her mother-in-law and she goes to gleaning in the fields in order to be able to feed the two of them. Even then she is treated as an outsider. It does not matter that she believes in YahWeh. Life is difficult enough without being considered an outsider.
We human beings have a need to be connected . . . to belong . . . to be accepted. Imagine what it would feel like to have dedicated one’s life to a community for over 40 years and still be considered and treated like an outsider. Ask the Ferns. Imagine what it would feel like to be ostracized from your community and family just because you married someone outside of those groups. Imagine what it would feel like to move to a new land of people who were not your people or family and to be treated as nothing because you were not one of them. Odds are you do not have imagine too hard . . . we all probably have our stories of not being welcomed and being left out.
But the story of Ruth is story of grace and eventually acceptance even though it is by taking the long way.
Where Ruth chooses to glean happens to be the field of Boaz, a wealthy person within the community. And, get this, he also happens to be related to her former husband . . . he is a kinsman. Ruth’s mother-in-law, Naomi, begins to plot a scheme to get Ruth married. Manipulating the situation and Boaz, Naomi’s plan succeeds, and Ruth ends up marrying Boaz. Eventually she bears a son, named Obed. As silly as it is, it is through abiding faith, marriage, and bearing a child that Ruth is welcomed into the community that should have received her from the start.
God works in mysterious ways. Unable to crack the barriers of human will God moves around and through humanity to institute God’s will. In the end it is as God desires it to be . . . but it is the long way around.
In the eyes of God, all are the children of God . . . after all, the scriptures tell us that all are created in the image of God . . . all are a part of the family of God. And that is what God desires not only for the heavenly family but also the earthly human family. Yet, humanity continues to create and live by barriers that do not welcome one another in but excludes others from belonging. Instead of humanity making it easy we make God take the long way around.
Think about it . . . what more could the Fern family have done to be a part of the Flemingsburg community? They bore and raised their children in the community. They belonged to clubs and civic organizations. They sat on the school board. He was the mayor of the town . . . twice! They had given their all, yet they were still treated as and referred to as “outsiders”. Despite it all they were still not “one of them”.
Think about Ruth. She married an immigrant, an outsider, someone not of her people. Her husband dies and she is further thrown out of the circle. Then she moves to her mother-in-law’s homeland where Ruth is an outsider. She is a stranger in a foreign land . . . an immigrant. She even dedicates her life to YahWeh . . . converts. And through it all she is not welcomed or accepted. She jumps through countless hoops until eventually she is welcomed and accepted. Seems silly doesn’t it?
Welcome to the human race where one has to prove him or herself before being welcomed into the family. Where entrance into the family is only accessible through the long way round. Quite the opposite of God. With God all it takes is love . . . a willingness to love God and others as God loves us. There are no hoops to jump through . . . no long way around, only a willingness.
It is sad when God accepts us, and others won’t.
Growing up as a military brat it was a constant frustration and loneliness that filled my life as we moved across the country. With each move came the need to start over, to prove myself all over one more time, and to long to crack whatever barriers there were to be included and accepted . . . to be welcomed and to feel as if I belonged. I never understood the constant hoop jumping and having to prove oneself when we were all on the same journey trying to get home. Wouldn’t it be easier if we all worked together . . . admitted that we were in the same boat . . . had the same goal?
It was not fair for the Ferns. It was not fair to me. It was not fair to Ruth. Thankfully God desires us for who we were created to be . . . no hoops. Only a willingness . . . a willingness to receive God and God’s love, and in return to love . . . to love God and to love others as God has loved us. We shouldn’t have to take the long way around. That is humanity’s way . . . not God’s. Nor should it be our way as the children of God and the followers of Jesus. God’s way is the better way. Amen.
Needs to be shared. I am doing it.
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