Having lived a good part of my life in
the grain farming states of Iowa and Nebraska, one of the annual rituals I
enjoyed was the fall harvest. It was
always amazing to watch as combines moved through the fields in a choreographed
dance harvesting the grain. In awe, I
watched as whole field were stripped bare of bountiful crops leaving behind a
barrenness of nothing. At least that is
what I thought . . . but, I was wrong.
As efficient as those huge combines seemed to be, they always left
something behind.
Once the harvest was done, most of the
farmers I knew would release their cattle into the seemingly barren
fields. This always seemed strange to me
because to the naked eye it looked as if there was nothing there for the cattle
to eat. But, I was wrong. The cows always found the grain that was left
behind as they feasted on something other than grass for a while. I was told that this was “gleaning”.
Gleaning is the act of following behind
the harvesters and picking up the leftover grain. Biblically this is spoken about in the books
of Deuteronomy and Leviticus. According
to those books farmers were to leave the corners of their fields unharvested .
. . that they were not to pick up the grain that was dropped . . . and, that
they should not harvest any over-looked produce that they might have missed
when they harvested the majority of the field.
These leftovers were to be left for the widows, strangers, and orphans .
. . those in need. Those in need could
come and “glean” the fields to provide for themselves. For many it was their only means of survival
in their poverty.
Gleaning was hard work . . . but, it
could also be profitable.
One of the youth groups in Nebraska
annually went gleaning as their outreach project. Each year they would ask farmers in the area
if they could come and glean their fields of the leftover grain. Most farmers figured that if a bunch of
teenagers wanted to spend time picking grain up off the ground . . . well, go
for it. So, each year this youth group
would hit the fields carrying baskets and plucking grain off the ground. At the end of the day there would be a huge
pile of grain which was loaded into trucks and hauled off to be sold. It was a profitable ministry for the kids as
they made hundreds of dollars off their gleaning . . . money that they then
used to support many outreach projects.
Gleaning is hard work, but it is also
good stewardship. Nothing is left behind
. . . nothing is wasted. Whether it is
to feed the livestock, to raise money, or provide for the poor . . . what seems
to be of no value finds value . . . it is redeemed. Everything has value, relevance, and a place
in the story.
Once Naomi and Ruth arrive in Bethlehem,
gleaning plays an important part in their story . . . and, surprisingly, in our
story as the followers of Jesus. The two
women arrive in Bethlehem as the harvest is commencing. Ruth sees this as an opportunity. She tells Naomi that she will go to the
fields and glean to provide for them.
Luckily, she finds a field where she is not asked to leave and begins to
follow behind the harvesters to glean the leftover grain. It turns out that the field in which she is
gleaning happens to belong to a relative of Naomi by the name of Boaz.
Boaz was a man of standing within the
community. He was probably financially
well off. Though he was older, he was
well respected by his workers and others in the community. Upon seeing Ruth, he questions who she
is. He is a told that she is a foreigner
from Moab . . . the daughter-in-law of Naomi who has returned home with
her. Boaz gives her permission to glean
behind his harvesters . . . plus, he provides her all the benefits of his
workers—food to eat, water to drink.
Ruth is astonished. She cannot believe her good fortune as she
proclaims to Boaz: “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a
foreigner?” Boaz explains that
he has heard of Ruth’s devotion to Naomi and how she has watched after her
mother-in-law to the point of giving up everything . . . leaving her family,
her homeland, and even her religion.
And, he is impressed, and he continues to treat her with kindness. Ruth is amazed that he would treat her in
such a way when she didn’t even have the standing of his servant girls. That she was below them.
Of course, with such unseen help, Ruth
was able to make quite a hauling with her gleaning. When she told Naomi whose field it was that
she had been gleaning, Naomi explained that Boaz was a relative. She encouraged her to continue to glean in
his fields. For several days she did
this, until one evening Naomi explained to her how she was going to help her
find a new husband . . . how she was going help her rope Boaz.
The plot thickens . . .
Naomi tells Ruth that she is to get
dolled up at the end of the day and return to the threshing floor where Boaz
would be winnowing the grain. She is to
wait until Boaz pauses for the night and lies down to sleep. Then she is to go to where he is laying,
uncover his feet, and lie down beside him.
Naomi explains that Boaz will take it from there.
Well, the writer of the Book of Ruth leaves it up to the reader
as to happened next . . . some commentators have said it was an act of
seduction, but the outcome was the same.
Ruth basically walks away with a marriage proposal. Of course, this would not be an easy marriage
to arrange, but there was a way that Boaz was able to obtain the right to be
Ruth’s husband . . . all through a real estate deal. If you are curious, I suggest that you read
the whole Book of Ruth . . . it is a
short book, only four chapters.
In the end, the story of two destitute
women, hoping to survive, find redemption . . . find value and worth. The outsider becomes a member of the
family. Boaz and Ruth have a son. His name is Obed. Obed was the father of Jesse . . . Jesse was
the father of David . . . yeah, that David—King David.
Without Boaz’ act of kindness . . . act
of redemption . . . there is no lineage to be traced to Jesus . . . no family
tree. What an amazing story is Ruth’s
story . . . what a powerful story of grace and redemption . . . what a
wonderful story of the importance of even what seem to be the most
insignificant and worthless. Ruth was a
poor widow, and to top it all off she was a foreigner . . . who also happened
to have her elderly mother-in-law to take care of. Ruth was not seen as the “catch of the
day”. She was an outsider forced to
glean to survive. Yet, Boaz saw her
worth . . . her value. Through his
actions Ruth was redeemed and given a place within the circle. Without this act of grace, we would not be
here this morning worshipping.
As the followers of Jesus, we have been
called to glean. No, we are not to go
out into fields and pick up grain after the harvest. Instead we are to go out into the world to
glean that which is outside of what our culture and society deems as valuable .
. . to discover those who are on the outside looking in. We are to do this to discover the value of
those who are left out as they too are the children of God . . . children who
have been created in the image of God.
We are to go out, find them, and invite them back into their rightful
place in the family of God. With God,
all have a place . . . all are welcome.
This may be difficult as we live in a
time of great divisiveness . . . a time where we pick sides . . . a time of “us
and them”. But, with God there is no “us
and them” . . . there is only family . . . one great big happy family. One of the things that we notice about Jesus
is that he sure did spend a lot of time with those who were outside . . . outside
of the community, outside of the temple, outside of religion, outside of
everything . . . worthless and useless.
Yet this was where Jesus gleaned his followers. We, as the followers of Jesus, are called
upon to do likewise. We are called upon
to be good stewards of God’s love and grace to go out and find those who are
missing from the table. To go and bring
them home. Nothing or no one is to be
left behind. Keep your eyes open, you
never know what you will find! Amen.
