This morning, we begin a new sermon series, Biblical Reality Shows. The families of the Bible are our families. Their stories are our stories. We live with our proud moments and our flaws side by side. As we walk through some stories in the time of the Judges, let us learn from biblical reality shows how best to care for one another. When I initially shared with the worship team that I wanted to use soap operas to share these messages, they kindly redirected me. They said, and I think they are right, more people watch reality shows than soap operas and that reality shows have become the new soap operas.
For the last thirteen years, The Amazing Race has broadcasted across the television waves with one challenge – two people must make it through challenges, detours, and setbacks around the world (as mapped out by the producers) FIRST! Twenty-five seasons have included over 275 pairs of persons seeking to make this journey around the world. Some know each other as colleagues or roommates, couples, parents and children, and all kinds of look affiliations. One thing becomes certain, while physical endurance is an asset, getting along with one’s partner is essential. The most common reason to lose a challenge and be kicked off that round is relationship fatigue, i.e. having trouble dealing with your partner for a long time in close quarters.
Like any reality show, there are moments that are shaped and packaged. There is dialogue that is edited and emphasized. However, I wonder if we might not resonate with the theme of the Amazing Race, in our lives and in our scripture. Our Old Testament lesson for today comes from the book of Ruth. A small four-chapter book sandwiched between Judges and 1st Samuel. It is a story of a family in the midst of a larger story about a people. The first chapter sets up the story with: “In the days when the judges ruled” (1:1) referring back to the time of the judges, a time of chaos and disobedience in Israel. In fact, the verse just before this (the last verse of the book of Judges) reads, “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 21:25). The remainder of this reality show series will focus on Judges and we will see that doing what is right in your own eyes is never a good thing in the Bible.
Our story has just a few characters: Naomi – the mother of two sons, wife of one husband. All of whom were upstanding in God’s eyes and hailed from Bethlehem of Judah, where there was a famine. After the father died, the sons married foreign, Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah. As tragedy beset tragedy, the two sons also died. When Naomi heard the famine was ending in her homeland, she sought to return. Not wishing to hold back these two daughters-in-law of hers and no longer being able to provide husbands for them, she encouraged them to return to their own families. She sends them with blessings and goodness. Orpah’s exit is not weakness; but rather, she is faithful to the request of her mother-in-law and returns to her own family. Ruth’s actions are unique. Ruth’s speech surprises us in the story. She seeks to cling to God, she never knew as a young girl or young woman. She has seen the God in the family she married into – father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, and husband. It is the God who she has come to understand and wishes to cling to, in the way she clings to Naomi.
This moment is cornerstone and landmark. In a television show or movie, the music would swell and the camera would zoom in, so that we would know this was an important moment. Somehow, I think we know. We hear her words and watch her example: “Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die— there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!’” She declares her commitment to God and her mother-in-law. Inn an unlikely pairing, we are reminded that models of love do not always come from the places we have always expected. It is not just models of parents and children; it is not just models of spouses. We find love lived out in chosen family and friends; we find love lived out in relationships that seem on the surface only marginally connected. No in-law jokes here, only a wholesome story of God’s love shining through God’s people.
For many of us, we are remembering persons today who have run some part of this amazing race with us. Someone who has inspired and encouraged us, and perhaps, even at times frustrated or challenged us. On this All Saints’ Sunday, we remember those who have gone before us in the faith. As United Methodists, we have a different understanding of the word, saint, than some of other brothers and sisters in other Christian traditions. We are not looking for perfection or even miracles in the lives of our loved ones. Instead, we look to the lives of those who have gone before and see how they have pointed us towards God. Sometimes this is through long obedience in the same direction, this morning, there are those we remember who lived faithful lives that we can admire and emulate. Sometimes this is through specific acts of outreach and compassion, there are who we remember for the vignettes we could share about their lives. Sometimes this is through honest lives that strove towards God’s good and found much of life in the process, there are those we remember for their humanity and God’s grace.
From the earliest days of the church, the church has turned to the cloud of witnesses, saints of the church, for inspiration and encouragement in how to live. As you remember loved ones this morning, please remember that there are those who are turning to you, looking at you as their cloud of witnesses. It is the way you respond to adversity; it is the way that you shine through roadblocks; it is the way you live out your faith that will shape others. It is not always just the next generation who looks up to those who have gone before; it is also your peers who glance sideways at how you care for your grandchildren and respond when cut off in traffic. It is your peers who seek inspiration from your engagement with your children when their patience has been tested ten times before 8:30 am. It is the church and our community who seek to emulate the way you love your spouse through illness and disease.
As you journey from this place, you and I, we continue on this amazing race. There are times when we may tired of those we are traveling with, desire new travelling partners or wish for traveling partners who have preceded us in death. Nevertheless, as we gather at the communion table, we do not travel alone. We are a people who walk together in joy and challenge. We are a people who need one another and who need God. Let us meet both in the Eucharist this morning. This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God.