Ruth 1:1-18
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
6 Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had considered his people and given them food. 7 So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. 8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back each of you to your mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9 The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband.” Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. 10 They said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” 11 But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? 12 Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, 13 would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.” 14 Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
15 So she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth said,
“Do not press me to leave you, to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people and your God my God.17 Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!”
18 When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.
Mark 12:28-34
28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; 33 and ‘to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.
All Saints’ and Souls’ Sunday is a time in our year where we pause to remember and hold in prayer those whose lives changed the Christian church and those who meant a great deal to us in our personal lives. In coming to this Sunday, I could not help but think of my aunt who I lost in early 2020. Perhaps she is on my mind of late because we’re currently planning a memorial service for her, we were unable to have one during the pandemic. But I also started thinking of her more since last Sunday when while at home a commercial came on television. It was a Christmas one that was trying to remind us that we better get on top of Christmas shopping. It reminded me of my aunt not only because she loved Christmas, but because she also loved to buy things for herself and for other people. Whether it was new clothes or household items she didn’t really need, or the latest tech gadgets that she could never learn how to work, my aunt had to have it. As generous as she was spending on herself, she was even more generous in spending on those around her. She used to spoil my sister and I rotten. She’d slip us $20s whenever we’d visit, get us the latest cds and eventually even an ipod. The first car I ever had my aunt got me, and the first apartment I ever lived in she furnished. She always saw having ‘things’ as important and she made sure we had them. Even when I began my Divinity degree, she not only openly welcomed my wife, two cats and Alaskan Malamute to live with her so that I could be closer to school, but she continued to generously give us stuff she thought we might need or want.
Perhaps she always placed such importance on having material things because she didn’t grow up with much. Poor farming families during the depression and WWII couldn’t claim much to their name. And as time has moved on from then, society began to feed people a narrative that the more stuff we have the more complete we’ll feel, the more successful we’ll be, the more love we’ll experience. Yet, four years after her death, when I think of my aunt, I can list some of the things she gave me over the years like I just did, but I never think about them, when I think of her I only remember the good times we shared together. I remember laughing over some chocolate zucchini cake and taking my childhood dog for a picnic and spoon-feeding him Jello and then decades later trying to pull my adulthood dog off her lap as she strained to get to a grilled cheese sandwich. Most of all, I remember the last three years of her life where she attended church with me every Sunday; I hold those car rides with her to and from the church close to my heart.
A lot of us gathered here have someone in our lives that we greatly miss, who affected us in profound and loving ways, whose spirit now rests in the arms of God. And I think you may agree with me that it is not the things of this world, material possessions or goods that you might have shared or inherited from them that stand out in your relationship, it’s the memories, it’s the time spent together, the moments of deep kindness and care given to one another that remain in your heart; and these things remain because counter to our societal consumer narrative, they are the real experiences love.
Throughout his ministry Jesus himself emphasized this very truth, even before he had this conversation with the Pharisee in our gospel reading, where he declares love of God and love of neighbour to be the greatest commandments, before this, on his way to Jerusalem, he encountered a rich man who wanted to follow him, and Jesus tells him to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor and then he will have treasure in heaven. Jesus taught throughout his life that the real treasure of this world is never our wealth or possessions, it is the relationships of love that connect us to God, it is the relationships of love that connect us to one another. These types of loving connections are so much greater than any earthly things because they can be felt eternally, they never end, reaching beyond the grave, and because they are strong, having the power to alter the course of history.
We see an example of this in our Hebrew Bible reading this morning. Naomi, headed back to her homeland, told her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, to not follow her but instead to head back to their homeland. See, both of Naomi’s sons had died, both women had lost their husbands, so to follow their mother-in-law into a foreign land would lead to no wealth, no chance of having another husband or children, maybe not even having a home. Naomi made it clear they wouldn’t have any things if they followed her. And Orpah hearing this was sad but headed back to her family in hopes of building back up her life. But Ruth heard the pleas of her mother-in-law and responded:
“Do not press me to leave you, to turn back from following you!Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge;your people shall be my people and your God my God.17 Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried.May the Lord do thus to me, and more as well,if even death parts me from you!”
With a deep vulnerability Ruth refused to leave Naomi, and although it may have seemed like an irrational choice to make, Ruth clearly felt that nothing in this world was worth breaking the loving connection she had with this other woman. It was never about what Naomi could give her, husbands, homes or anything, for Ruth what mattered most was having time with Naomi, it was being able to continue to experience that relationship which was grounded in a shared love. And this love connection with Naomi went on to change the course of history for the Israelites. It is through her lineage that we get to King David.
This is a Sunday where we commemorate all the saints and souls of the church throughout history whose lives impacted the world in benevolent and sacred ways. Throughout the years humans have used many things to remember them by, paintings, statues, churches, and for those more close to us various personal items like photos or tea sets, and although these things may help remind us of what came before, what really keeps us connected to the lives of our ancestors are not these material items, things cannot really do this, rather it is the act of gathering together in the love of God and in the love of community to remember the times we had with our loved ones that tie us and hold us all together. It is in that state of love that we remain connected to those who came before us and those who will come after us. What a message of hope we receive from Jesus that the only thing we need to be a part of this love is our presence, presence with God and presence with one another.
On this All Saints’ and Souls’ Sunday may we be reminded that the greatest wealth we can have is knowledge of love, and that the greatest thing we can possess is our ability to love God and each other in community. Nothing is more important than that, nothing is more powerful than that. May we give thanks to God who blessed us with loving relationships that keep us connected through time and space. Amen.
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