Ruth—Virtuous: Ruth 3; Matt. 5: 13-16
This week, we once again got front row seats to the ongoing culture war raging in our country asking what is most virtuous? Tonight, at the Super Bowl, you will have your choice of half-time shows. On the official station will be a performer known as Bad Bunny, a reggaeton musician from Puerto Rico. On TBN, there will be an alternate half-time performance headlined by Kid Rock, a southern-rock musician. Frankly, if you had told me in high school that Kid Rock would be playing on the station founded by Paul and Jan Crouch, I would have laughed you out of the room. Now, I do not care which one you watch, or if you watch none at all. Your music and sports preference are your business. What is concerning is the level to which the church wants to engage in a culture war. I am reminded of the old saying, “Never wrestle in the mud with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.”
In the book of Ruth, we look at Ruth’s devotion to Naomi and Boaz. In a country and place where she was treated like an outsider and was harassed by the workers, how could Ruth remain someone who was virtuous? And by that same token, how do we, as followers of Jesus, remain virtuous in our own complicated modern society?
Ruth prepared herself to meet Boaz late at night in chapter 3. There are some scholars who discuss this in terms of it being a very illicit moment in the whole story and context of the ancient society. At its heart, though, this act by Ruth was less of an explicit moment and more of a formal request for marriage of Boaz. It was a proposal. She asks him, “Spread the corner of your covering over me, for you are my family redeemer.” Boaz promises that he will put things in motion for their marriage and his work as family redeemer. Ruth did have to sneak away, however, because she did not need to earn both gossip and scorn in the town of Bethlehem, and in all honesty, threshing floors after hours were not exactly the most noble and wholesome of places in ancient times.
There is a bit of terminology we need to understand for this to make sense. When Boaz praises Ruth, he uses the term hesed. It is often used to mean divine covenant loyalty, steadfast love, and is translated (poorly) as lovingkindness. Hesed is the same word used to refer to God’s covenant with God’s people. It is a holy promise rooted in mercy, love, and unwavering commitment.
In many ways Ruth had a choice of how to conduct herself. She could have gone tit-for-tat on every single obnoxious thing the people did. She could have fought them all the way. She could have thrown water in their faces, kicked the men in the fields, and acted like the whole problem in response to their unkindness. But Ruth was a virtuous person. She had made a commitment to God and was not going to break that commitment. She believed in God’s commitment to her, and she devoted herself to living for God. It was understood in this Hebrew concept of hesed.
We also have a choice. Every time society does something we dislike or disagree with, we can get down in the mud to fight about it. If we don’t like the Super Bowl artist, we can arrange another one. If we don’t like one parade or event, we’ll organize one that looks just like it, but the opposite. It’s like Christianity wants to play this grand game with secular society of “anything you can do, I can do better.” Had Ruth fought with everyone in Bethlehem, they would have both lost. Likewise, when the church fight worldly, secular battles to win in this world, we all lose. Faith is not meant to compete with every single aspect of an unfaithful society. Instead, we must speak truth, then we must turn things over to God to do work in hearts, minds, and souls.
The Gospel calls on us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. When we engage in a back and forth with every single thing in a secular world, we lose our flavor. We end up the light under the basket or bushel. We read in John 18:36, “Jesus answered, ‘My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.’” Being virtuous means we live as people of God’s kingdom, not as fighters trying to counter every single thing we perceive as a sin in this world. That’s exhausting. That comes from a defeated mindset. Don’t wrestle in the mud.
If you want to watch Bad Bunny, go watch him. If you want to watch Kid Rock, go watch him, but what we cannot do is lose sight of the souls and lives that need our help, our own hesed, to go argue about the holiness of a 20-minute televised show at a football game. One would think the faithful would have learned their lesson from the time Elvis first started swinging his hips in the 1960s. You cannot fight by the rules of secularism and win at faith.
We cannot lose sight of what it means to live like salt and light in the world. If all we want to do is run around fighting a culture war, then what did Jesus sacrifice for? What did he rise on Easter for? As people who live in the hope of life and grace in Jesus, why do we always act like we are in danger of being defeated? Jesus lives and hope wins. Period. End of story.
If we are to be virtuous in this world, then we must be about the business of God’s kingdom. Ruth approached Boaz with clear loyalty to him, to Naomi, to their clan or family, to the Israelite people, and to God. These were not her people. She owed them nothing. But she came with her faith believing that the God she now claimed would work out her situation for good. She came seeking the promise of a family redeemer who would rescue and reclaim what rightfully belonged to what was now HER family.
Fighting never ending culture wars makes us look foolish. In a world that needs food, clean water, hope, healing, and followers of Christ to make a difference in every community, millions of dollars will be spent hosting an alternative halftime show on TBN just to prove a point. And the questions we have to ask ourselves are does this matter, and does it make us more virtuous? To fight this fight, they have summoned up Kid Rock declaring him a faithful and godly alternative. Here’s a lyric from one of his songs, “Young ladies, young ladies, I like ’em underage, see. Some say that’s statutory / But I say it’s mandatory.” You see, I’m just old enough to remember when my own youth pastor railed against Kid Rock for being evil and a bad influence on the faithful as well.
Jesus wraps up this short teaching in Matthew with these words, “In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” Has our light been hidden, covered by a basket? Has our salt, intended to bring out the best flavors, lost all of its savor and ability? Have we diluted faith to the point that it’s become a political statement instead of a way of life living in the kingdom of God?
If given the choice of how to show Jesus, slamming one secular musician to praise another is not going to make a difference. However, we can make a difference volunteering at Daybreak, helping serve food at Macon Outreach, volunteering to talk about how faith in Jesus had made a difference in our lives to people who struggle in life or to younger folks who need to hear such wisdom. To do otherwise, will lead us to failure. A friend of mine is a teacher. She had two students: one was quiet and well-behaved, the other was talkative and bounced off walls. She moved them together to allow the good student to influence the poorly behaved one to do better. Within a week they both had detention. We must move ourselves closer to Jesus to better live and love in this world.
You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. May we never forget our calling to is to love God, love others, and live for God’s kingdom. So, may we commit ourselves to this calling, for we have both a friend in Jesus, and the one who shows us how to live virtuously in an often-tough world.
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