Sermon preached by the Rev. Dr David Wostenholm

I hadn’t thought of Ruth as a harvest story but your beloved rector became overly animated about it, especially when he mentioned the next chapter – so I read on.

Chapter 3 where Naomi suggests to Ruth that she gets dolled up and goes to seek out your man Boaz after the harvest festival, when he’s eaten and drunk his fill and is merry – and Ruth takes off the cover over his feet when he’s fallen asleep on the threshing floor – and lies down there – all night – let the reader understand.

And the consequence was – she gets a nice take away, they eventually get married and they beget like they tend to do in the Old Testament, and the child is called Obed, father of Jesse – father of King David – of whom comes Jesus and the rest is history.

It’s like a chapter from Thomas Hardy – The poor widow walks in the field, spots a man, makes sure he clocks her, there’s some female plotting, a harvest party and a result.

So you’ve come to Evensong in Clarkston on your quiet night out, and get a story of intrigue, liquor and sex. It’ll just set you up nicely for Downton Abbey on TV!

Ruth is a good harvest story. It’s a good story on a number of levels – it widens our horizons.

Just at a time when some people were insisting on pure Jewish blood for the continuation of Israel, Ruth is inserted into the story – a foreigner. A foreigner is there – by the will of God.

Also: how the ordinariness of it all can be momentously sacred – it’s a wee story of a late summer evening as the barley is gathered in and two people meet and - it is suddenly part of the history of salvation. Matthew chapter 1: Boaz begat Obed, father of Jessie, who is the father of David.

But there is a third harvest for us from this story. It’s about a particular faithfulness.

Naomi, Ruth and Boaz show a particular faithfulness to each other. It’s Ruth who gives us that lovely verse which I heard this August (another hot day in Brighton!)

There is famine and Naomi, her husband and two sons dead, has to return to Judah to live. Ruth, even though a foreigner, says she’ll stick by her.

Wherever you go I will go

Wherever you live I will live

Your people shall be my people and your God my God

Wherever you die I will die and there I will be buried.

They are described as models of what the faithfulness of God is like to His people.

And what happens? Naomi returns to Bethlehem empty, bereaved and hungry, but she will be filled, and Ruth will bear a son so that the dead husbands will live on.

In the place of emptiness and death – what Naomi calls her bitterness – God’s faithfulness will bring a harvest of life.

It starts in famine and ends in redemption – like Joseph in Egypt. It’s an echo of Exodus – it’s gospel.

John’s gospel today – characteristically – pushes us to ask some deeper questions, not least about this faithfulness and seeing ‘beyond the ordinary’ to the sacred and eternal.

If we’re in the crowd at the feeding of the 5,000, we think we’re here because we’ve seen the signs that Jesus is the messiah – No –he says you’re only here because you’ve been fed (or because something else or someone brought you!) Yet previously it said, “The people saw the signs He did and Jesus realised they were about to make Him King, and He escaped.”

Whatever signs we have seen or experienced or inherited that might make us think we believe in God – like a good harvest – like a result for Ruth, beware because we tend to mis-read them and we’re called to probe deeper.

Jesus says, “You’ve been fed – that’s a good result, you’ve experienced a harvest – but I want you to want the Bread of God, that which gives life to the world. I’m pointing you to something even more real than you can imagine.”

Like He says to the woman at the well, “You’ll be thirsty again after you’ve drunk from this water – I want to give you living water welling up to eternal life – believe in me and it will well up from inside of you.”

Sometimes we think this is just spiritualizing a good story – like saying there’s something invisible beyond the bread that really counts – That’s partly true but the signs in John are real- the water turns to wine; later in John 6 Jesus says, Eat my flesh, don’t just think about it. It’s real food and many can’t cope with that.

It’s as if you’re only going to taste this eternal life by real physical engagement with this life.

It’s the genius of the holy Eucharist – it’s essential.

And the faithfulness you’ll need for that deep level of engagement and hope is big.

It’s a faithfulness without clear signs.

The faithfulness of Naomi and Ruth before the Boaz harvest party.

Before the party - when everything seems empty.

The faithfulness you need today when your cattle have died and you have to travel to a United Nations refugee camp.

Nearer to home, it’s about the expectation that when strangers come across members of the Church who regularly eat of the Bread of Life, that they will see in us some clear signs that we have come across the food that will last, that we are signs of real life, signs of the generosity of God.

And that will be when we engage in some real sharing and gratitude for harvest in this life and show a faithfulness that we (even us) are involved in something of eternal, imperishable significance.