On the Way to Wonder

“Tradition!” sings Tevye in the “Fiddler on the Roof” opener, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDtabTufxao).  Tradition is the explanation for how the people of Anatefka keep their balance – in life as they scratch out a living like a fiddler on a roof.  “Because of our traditions, everyone of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do.”  Between Thanksgiving and Christmas is one of the most tradition-laden times of the year for many and especially for Christians.  We call this time Advent, or The Coming. For four weeks we remember that Jesus came in the manger, comes to us today as the Holy Spirit, and promises to come again.  The reality of history, of present experience and of future promise keeps us balanced in our daily walk.

         The Advent Wreath marks off this first four weeks of the Christian year when we prepare our hearts for Christmas.  Originally it was a time for new converts to prepare for baptism and church membership.  In the 1800s the Advent Wreath was invented to help children visualize the answer to their question, “How much longer?”  That feels similar to a question that plagues us today- how much longer this isolation, how much longer till elections are settled, how much longer must we wait for… the proposal, the pay raise, the contract…? 

         The wreath is round representing that God is eternal and so his promises are true.  The wreath was made out of green branches; green representing life, eternal life that comes with Jesus.  Four candles represent the four weeks before Christmas.  Colors of the candles have varied but often they are three purple with one pink.  Some put a central white candle called the Christ candle to be lit on Christmas Eve or day.  Usually each week has a theme: love, peace, joy and love for virtues we want in our lives, or they may follow character themes like prophecy, shepherds, Mary and Joseph, and the angels.  Each Sunday families gather and parents teach their children.  Songs are sung.  Questions answered and stories read.  We will follow the themes of the Advent wreath in our pondering this month.

         So as we start this journey, ponder what traditions form the foundation for your life and help you “know who you are and what God expects of you”.  Perhaps there are prayers that ground your faith or favorite scriptures like the 23^rd Psalm.  Perhaps there are favorite parables or truths that you find yourself returning to in Scripture.  Traditions are important.  They help define us.  What traditions are you trying to pass on in your family?

          Candle 1 of the Advent Wreath is the Hope Candle.  Prophesy gives hope.  We will look at how each gospel writer started his gospel and see how the role of prophecy brings hope for each.  Our world needs hope right now as we struggle with life.  Thank you for joining me on this journey through Advent!  Blessings.

“Care-plans” as lived out in the book of Ruth has been our source for pondering and reflecting this last month.  We come to the end of Ruth, the end of November and we enter the Advent season.  Advent is a time when we prepare our hearts and lives for the birth of the Christ child, or Christmas.  Elimelech cared for his family in the midst of a famine by moving to Moab. Naomi, his wife, is widowed, losses her two sons and is left destitute again with two daughter-in-laws.  She cares for them by giving them freedom to return to their birth families.  Ruth chooses to follow her and return to Bethlehem.  Returning, Naomi is transparent about her bitterness and the hardness of life and Ruth has to now carry the story forward, scrounging for food, she cares for Naomi.  But…the owner of the field is Boaz, a relative, and the two women create a plan to let Boaz know Ruth is willing to marry.  Boaz accepts responsibility for our two women.  The elders, who witness this decision, bless the couple.

         This story is a bit like life.  A mother cares for a child, who becomes independent and finds a new caregiver but then the story circles back as someone becomes ill or life gets complicated.  Our care-plans are not written in cement and our lives have a way of taking turns we do not expect and we must flex.  Care plans by definition are about people we are involved with who need help but I find it interesting that as the book of Ruth closes, the author returns his perspective to the bigger picture.  Care plans are about how we try our best to create a better life for someone we love, given all the complications of life and relationship.

         Boaz and Ruth have a son, Obed, who becomes the grandfather of King David and is part of the genealogy of Jesus.  A story that started in famine, in need, ends in a genealogy of hope.  Naomi who follows her husband to Moab is a hero in the end of the book of Ruth.  The women of the city gather and “witness.”  “Naomi has a son!” they claim.  ”The daughter-in-law has been better to you (Naomi) than seven sons!”  Who would have thought it at the beginning?

         Caring for people is often hard work and involves sacrifice and unseen complications.  Many days we wonder how it will all turn out as we evaluate our resources, financial, emotional and social.  We often loose sight of the big picture.  Ruth reminds us that others are watching. The elders that bless the couple are watching. The women who bless at the end are watching.  Our children and friends are watching. And ultimately our life’s story is part of a bigger picture.  It may not be the genealogy of Jesus but it is part of the story of faith.  I pray as you care for those you are involved with that you will perceive, perhaps dimly,

• the hand of a God who walks with you for the good of all,
• the presence of the community surrounding you if only at a distance,
• and be part of a team working for good.

Yet again I fall back on 1 Peter 5:7, “Cast all your anxiety on him (the Lord), because he cares for you.”  AMEN!

“The day after” the holiday, makes me think of many things.  I am still pondering the memories of connecting with family and friends.  I groan getting on the scale but the blood sugar isn’t too high.  I’m resisting the mad rush to join shoppers.  I’m cleaning house and recovering.  Unfortunately, for some, the day after brings up memories of “the pill” to terminate an unwanted outcome of the day before.  The living out of the events of the day before is the reality for all of us. 

         The elders bless Boaz and Ruth with unity first, may they work together.  Secondly, they bless with vision, new dreams for the new phase of life they are entering.  But the third blessing, I would call perseverance, the ability to overcome everything that would hold them back.  Through the offspring of this woman, they say, “may your family be like that of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah.”  Oh my, another woman from the genealogy of Jesus and another awkward real life story about Biblical heroes.  Judah, the fourth son of Jacob by Leah, marries a Canaanite woman and has three sons.  The first marries Tamar, a Canaanite, but dies without children.  Tamar is given to the second son who dies.  She is promised to the younger brother but realizes this plan will never happen.  She dresses like a prostitute and entices Jacob, her father-in-law.  Twins are the result.  At birthing, the first twin sticks out his arm and a red chord is tied around the wrist but then he draws back in.  Perez, the second twin is born first and named Perez, the overcomer.

         We may have the best care-plan possible under the circumstances and the brightest dreams for the future but life has a way of undermining our progress.  As we ponder yesterday’s meal, we remember how we mixed the corn bread wrong, the wrong words that slipped out of our mouth, the embarrassing experience that was retold to our chagrin.  Those are normal but other things come up that undermine our heart and our efforts.  The elders bless Boaz and Ruth with not only unity and vision as they live into their future, but also with perseverance.

         Perhaps there are places where we are tempted to give up today.  It could be as simple as the diet we blew yesterday but it could be a relationship that we feel will never heal.  Don Quixote sang, “To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, to bear with unbearable sorrow, to run where the brave dare not go…” stirs our hearts as it echoes the blessings we long to have the strength for – to run the race to the end hang in there with our care-plans.  As we think of the people we long to bless, the “care plans” we long to see work, may we ponder : who needs unity, who needs new vision, and who needs a prayer for perseverance.  Perhaps take time to draw three columns on a paper and see if you can name three people in each column and then pray for them.  God’s listening.

“We are witnesses,” share the elders as they stand at the gate and Boaz finalizes the agreement to care for Ruth, Naomi and their property.  Thanksgiving Day we gather around food, perhaps the zoom gathering, and reaffirm our appreciation for companions, family, friends on our journey.  We know the rough spots we traveled, the tensions of relationships but we try to look back through a positive lens with thanksgiving.  Some will stand with sick loved ones.  Others will stand in the middle of the recovery process from demonstrations that wracked our cities.  We have been through much and there are still large challenges on our horizon.

         The elders “witness” the reality of the present, good and bad, but they turn their hearts to blessing the young couple for the unfolding future.  The first blessing was “unity,” and we can say AMEN to that blessing.  The second blessing is more oblique.  “May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. (Ruth 4:12)” Many know about Bethlehem as the birth place of Jesus but these elders didn’t.  They may have known it was the prophesied birthplace of the Messiah but I doubt it.  Ephrathah was the place where Jacob, grandson of Abraham, had to bury his beloved second wife Rachel when she died in childbirth of her second son, Benjamin.  Rachel who was the love of Jacob’s youth, the beautiful woman of his dreams, but also the source of much heartache in his contentious marriage to her and her sister as they fought for his affection. 

         I suspect that at Thanksgiving, as we praise for our blessings, often we evaluate in our hearts and realize we might need a “course correction.”  The original care-plan has evolved and become something different.  We must bury those original dreams of “happy ever after” and develop an up-to-date plan.  We need a new version for going forward.  The second blessing is the blessing of vision for the future that will unfold for Boaz and Ruth in their new life together.

         Today, 2020, there is a shrine at the spot where Rachel was buried.  Jews, Christians, and Muslims consider it a holy spot.  It is the third holiest spot in Judaism.  Tradition has it that Rachel wept for her children and for the children of Israel who went into captivity.  Tradition has it that the key to the shrine, place under a pillow, eases the pain of childbirth.  Tradition has it that Rachel hears the prayers of those struggling with infertility.  Travelers on difficult journeys and women struggling with pregnancy frequent this shrine.  We too need the blessing of new visions and hope for facing the challenges of the future.

         Many bemoan 2020 now and rejoice that the elections are over and the vaccine is coming closer.  Others grieve losses of family and jobs.  Some rejoice at a safe birth of a new child, a new marriage, or a new friendship.  As we look at our Thanksgiving meal today and whatever is on our plate, may we briefly ponder what is on our life’s plate.  Perhaps we have dreams that need to be modified.  Perhaps we need to envision new starts.  May we bless each other with unity and with vision as we face the coming year.  We do not walk alone.  God is still with us.  Blessings.

“They lived happily ever after,” is the ending line in our childhood stories.  Somehow we think that if we can create the right “long-term care-plan” happiness, perhaps peace, will follow and the future will be tolerable and good.  Many people know that the “I do” seals the deal but is only the beginning of a new journey.  I often say that I forgot to read the fine print in the “I do” contract.  Boaz has stood at the city gate and publicly declared his commitment to take and care for Ruth, the foreigner, with her mother-in-law, Naomi, and their property and to do all he can so that her deceased husband will not be forgotten.  The story that started in famine, death and bitterness, traveled through an eventful night at the threshing floor, and culminated with the elders and commitment at the city gate, still has more to it.  The elders at the gate now have voice.  They speak, “We are witnesses.  May the Lord make the woman is coming into your home like…”  The wedding is perhaps between two people but the audience, the witnesses, play a strategic role.  They are not just observers making sure all the rules of tradition are followed correctly, the elders “witnessed” and then they ”blessed.”

         The elders give a three-fold blessing that I find one of the most fascinating speeches in the Bible. We say “bye” when we leave someone.  It is thought to be a corruption of the 16-1700s “God be with you” farewell.  In Kenya, the Swahili farewell was “Mungu akubarikia.”  God bless you.  What do we mean by these farewells?  These elders spell it out and we shall ponder the blessings invoked.

         The first blessing is that Ruth be “like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel.”  Jacob, grandson of Abraham, renamed Israel, fled his twin brother’s wrath when he, Jacob, deceived their father Isaac and stole the birth right blessing of the eldest.  He was twin two.  He runs across the desert to his Uncle Laban who deceives him, sneaking Leah, the older sister with weak eyes, into the wedding chamber so that Jacob has to work another seven years for the bride of his choice, Rachel.  Is this not polygamy, with sisters?  How is this a blessing?  It is a story of jealousy and competition for the love of the husband.  The twelve sons born become the twelve tribes of Israel.  What looked so conflict filled at the time is remembered through the eyes of history as unity.

         “Together they built the house of Israel.”  We make care plans that are often foiled by life and face all sorts of challenges and complications.  Getting elected President is only the beginning, if we can even agree about that.  Getting a vaccines created is only the beginning but getting it distributed is another process.  Getting the job is then followed by work.  Buying a house then needs to be decorated.  Interestingly, these elders look back on Israel’s wives and see them as working together through all the complications.  Boaz and Ruth, a cross-cultural marriage, are going to have to learn to work together as they face the people of Bethlehem and their unfolding future.  The elders pray for unity.

         Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and many of us how we have been blessed this year.  It is good to make lists of what we are thankful for.  Like the original Native and Anglo survivors of that first winter where many died of disease, a meal to celebrate might have happened.  We look at the last year and all that has happened and we thank.  The elders not only were thankful for this marriage of Boaz and Ruth but they looked forward and prayed for unity for these two people.  They prayed they would be able to work together in the face of reality to create a better future.  Certainly we need today the blessing of unity.  God, may we find unity in all our struggles!

         Take time tomorrow to make a list of perhaps five people you would like to bless this Thanksgiving and list what you would pray for them.  Is it possible to list one not-so-liked acquaintance that you could pray a blessing for, a misunderstanding you would like to see worked out for a more a united future?  Your blessing is important.  Don’t just “witness,” “bless!”

Care plans change lives and change history.  They change the narrative of who we are and how we will be remembered.  Boaz in the book of Ruth, goes to the city gate and performs a legal action transferring the ownership of Ruth, her mother-in-law and all their property into his hands to care for.  Boaz declares in-front of the elders, “You are witnesses…I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from the town records.”  Boaz changes history.  We remember his name, not the other man’s.

         My husband and I stood before a judge of the high court of Kenya who pounded her gavel and said, “From this day forward this child will be known as ….”  Reality changed.  The two little tots were no long “orphans” but were ours, part of our clan, gaining four brothers and a sister.  For better or worse, their lives would never be the same.  But what was our motive?  Did we need more children to work a farm? No.  Were we childless and needed someone to inherit our meager wealth?  No.  Were we doing a good deed to get into heaven? No.  Our hearts and our lives had grown together with these two little tykes and we wanted to share our future with them.  Boaz, we believe, did not need children.  He states his purpose as preserving the name and history of Naomi and Ruth’s family.  Their name will not disappear.  We are witnesses.

         This first half of Chapter 4 challenges me to look at my motives in the care plans I am involved with, the people I care about.  I reluctantly admit that some care is out of duty, some care gives me a good name, and some care hopefully is grounded in concern for the future of the other and our world.  Thanksgiving comes this week and news is so clear that not gathering in large family groups is the care plan that will slow down the virus.  I feel the tension.  These are hard decisions.  Creative alternatives like zooming are being employed.  I know my cell phone will be busy.  As we seek ways to live out our love for each other, history is changed and hearts are impacted. May we join Boaz in saying, “you are my witness today.  I care …friend, family, child, spouse.”  God help me!

“Meanwhile” starts Chapter 4 of the book of Ruth in the Old Testament and we are still watching this “long-term care-plan” unfold for our widowed women, Ruth and Naomi.  Ruth, as directed by Naomi, has ventured onto the threshing floor in the dark of night and offered to be married to Boaz, a kinsmen-redeemer of her late father-in-law.  But…. There is a closer relative with rights to claim her.  Sigh.  Ruth reports to Naomi at the end of Chapter 3 and the women wait.  Today I sense the helplessness they must have felt in a society as women, trying to create a future but unseen forces are at work.  It reminds me of waiting during this virus season or electoral transition season.  Plans never unfold quickly!  “Meanwhile” needs to be followed by “meanwhile back at the ranch.”  As I seek to work out my relationships, other factors are unfolding over which I am not in control.

         As was the custom at that time, Boaz goes to the city gate where elders meet and finds the other man and pulls ten elders together as a kind of legal decision-making group.  Boaz honestly shares that Naomi is selling her property that the other man has first bids on and Boaz is second in line.  So close and yet so far from the goal.  I think I hear another “meanwhile” as the lives of these two men discuss the future of Ruth.  The man wants the property but “meanwhile” his family line has developed in such a way that if he buys the property and inherits Ruth with whom he would be required to have children, his family line would be endangered.  

         I do not understand all the cultural intricacies of this but I do understand that as we seek to create care-plans, the outcome is often contingent on events going on in other lives.  As the family seeks to decide which care center to place a person in for the family to care, the events unfolding in all the participant’s lives, impacts the decision.  As my husband and I decided where to retire, we weighed the events unfolding in the lives of our children.  As we seek to plan and care, we realize we can only see so far into the future as lives of others are also unfolding. 

         Faith reaches out to a God who sees the present and possible future of all concerned in our decision.  He knows the “meanwhiles” that impact our lives and that surprise us but do not surprise him.  Proverbs 16:33 shares, ”The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is the Lord’s alone.”   Likewise, I am comforted by 1 Peter 5:7, “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he care for you.”

         This week as we make our plans for Thanksgiving gatherings, Black Friday shopping, and weigh how we can best shown our love to others safely, we can bring all that angst to God in prayer because while we are worrying, “meanwhile back at the ranch” God is present walking with us.  Blessings.

“Now Thank We All Our God” was a Thanksgiving hymn yet to be written at the time of Ruth.  But Ruth, like the author Martin Rinkart, lived in times of great difficulty, famine.  Rinkart, a Lutheran minister, lived in Eilenburg, Germany during political and military conflicts sending refugees to his town.  During a great plague he held as many as 50 funerals a day in 1637.  He was the only surviving pastor from the plague and did 4000 funerals that year!  I suspect that when he met Ruth in heaven, they had stories to swap of hard times endured and the exhaustion plus blessing of caring for people. 

         We have come almost to the end of Chapter 3 of Ruth.  She married the son of Naomi who fled famine in Bethlehem only to meet death, leaving her a young childless wife widowed.  She chose to risk returning to Bethlehem with Naomi but struggled to survive there.  Gleaning, “per chance” in the field of a distant relative, Boaz, the two women hatch a plan to offer Ruth to marry him.  The “match maker” role does not seem to have come into practice yet.  Boaz is flattered by Ruth’s offer to be married to him but realizes there is a relative who has stronger rights, so heads off to the city gate to settle the words.  Our “she-roe” waits.  I wonder if she would have found comfort in this tune, written centuries later, during those anxious hours as she, as he, and as we wait for the outcome of our prayers.

1 Now thank we all our God
with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done,
in whom his world rejoices;
who from our mothers’ arms
has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.

2 O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us,
to keep us in his grace,
and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all ills
of this world in the next.

3 All praise and thanks to God
the Father now be given,
the Son and Spirit blest,
who reign in highest heaven
the one eternal God,
whom heaven and earth adore;
for thus it was, is now,
and shall be evermore.

Perhaps take time this morning to listen to this modern rendition and may it strengthen you as you wait for your answers to this weeks prayers.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a6VmcfAJ3o  Blessings.

“The Glitch.”  Have you ever got into a project only to discover there is one more form to fill out, one more office to visit, or one more unanticipated thing to do?  It is so frustrating.  Prayers that are answered “no,” while disappointing give us a clear path.  We can grieve, eat a donut and move on.  It is the care-plans that require waiting for some unforeseen step that are challenging.  Ruth has done all that her mother-in-law has advised.  She has worked hard, gleaning in the fields, exposing herself to rejection at the threshing floor at night, and then she hears, “Wait.”  Boaz is appreciative, understands her proposal of marriage, says that all the townsmen know of what noble character Ruth is BUT there is a kinsman redeemer who has first opportunity to redeem Naomi’s property including Ruth.

         The questions must have swirled in Ruth’s mind.  Did Naomi not know there was another man who had first choice?  Will she be part of an agreement to someone she has not worked to know and whom she respects?  I can imagine that confidence in herself and in her relationships must have collapsed.  My daughter has been waiting for six months to cross into Canada for a job she accepted.  President Elect is waiting for the turnover to start.  Others wait by the bedside of a beloved with Covid.  We wait for the vaccine.  Waiting is hard work and challenging to our souls.  We live in a “now” generation.

         Ruth hears Boaz’s word that he will deal with the issue that day.  She returns home to Naomi and reports in and Naomi encourages her that Boaz will settle the words.  So frustrating!  Care plans take time to unfold.  It takes work to get everyone onboard for the action.  Getting the whole family to agree that a relative has Alzheimer’s and which facility to use is complicated. Waiting for the acceptance letter to the college of your choice is nerve racking.  In fact, we often spend time waiting for life to unfold.

         We do not read that Ruth kept her anxiety inside herself or resorted to eating donuts or drinking alcohol.  She just waited.  We can imagine how she filled the hours.  How do we wait when answers to prayers delay?  Do we accuse God of having a glass ceiling?  Do we get irritated with everyone around us?  Do we despair and resort to comfort escapes?  Sharing our situation with a friend often brings comfort and support. King David had to wait for God’s promise of kingship to materialize.  He wrote a lot of poetry, psalms, during that time.  Psalm 27:10-14 says

Teach me your way, O Lord,
    and lead me on a level path
    because of my enemies.
¹² Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries,
    for false witnesses have risen against me,
    and they are breathing out violence.

¹³ I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.
¹⁴ Wait for the Lord;
    be strong, and let your heart take courage;
    wait for the Lord!

As we wait today for our care plans to be worked out, may we wait on the Lord.  Blessings.