Morning Prayer: Shannon Cook Choral Amen Hymn of Communion *Be Known to Us in Breaking Bread* Witness of Scripture: Ruth 1: 15-22 & Mark 14: 22-25 Anthem *O Sacred Feast* Healey Willan. FCC Chancel Choir Sermon *Essentials: Companionship* David Spain
Recorded October 6, 2024
A companion, according to The American Heritage Dictionary, is “a person who accompanies or associates with another, a comrade.” If we trace the origin of the word back to Middle English, to French, to Latin, we learn its roots are the combination of com which means together, and panis which means bread, thus a companion is “one who eats bread with another.” If we drive on Main Street, we will pass Panera Bread. ‘Panera’ means breadbasket, so the name of that restaurant is literally “breadbasket bread.” We’re dealing with a lot of bread, or as Fred Kaan wrote for the last two words of the 1975 hymn Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ, “loaves abound.”
Today, we do more than think about panis—bread; we also consider com—together, because World Communion Sunday reminds us that companionship, relationship is the core of creation. It is God’s design that we are connected. We live in a web of relationships with each other, and with this good earth God has generously given for our living and stewarding. We learn in Genesis that we are created to feed one another with daily bread and with daily care—that which is of the body and of more than the body. Companionship is an essential in God’s good design.
Of all the stories told in the Hebrew Scriptures, perhaps Ruth embodies companionship best of all. If there is a part of the story we remember from the 4 short chapters of Ruth, it is likely the beautiful pledge Ruth makes to her mother-in-law Naomi—“where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God,” a vow often read during wedding ceremonies or remembered in song or framed in pictures. It stands alone in its beauty; yet recalling the back story helps us understand both the depth and the risk of Ruth’s promise. And along the way, Ruth helps us learn more of God.
The story begins in the midst of famine. Naomi and her husband Elimelech along with their two sons Mahlon and Chilion leave Bethlehem to go to Moab where there is food enough to survive.However, no sooner than they arrived in Moab, Elimelech died leaving Naomi with her two sons. Though grieving his death, the sons marry Moabite women – Orpah and Ruth and for ten years life is good. But then, both sons die, leaving Naomi a ten-year widow now in the care of her recently widowed daughters-in-law. We are not dealing with a lot of bread here; we are dealing with a lot of grief.
Naomi decides she will return to Bethlehem, and who can blame her? Moab was where her husband and sons died. No doubt Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth had strengthened one another through their many losses, but Naomi tells her daughters-in-law to stay in their own country of Moab, because they have a much better chance of finding new life there. A couple of practices are in play here that we no longer follow. First, these three widows are facing an uncertain and perilous future without the protection of their husbands. And second, in the tradition of that time, it was the practice that if a husband dies, then the brother of the deceased would marry the widow.Naomi had two sons who have died—there is no one left in Naomi’s family for Orpah or Ruth to marry. Their social security no longer exists, and even if Naomi could provide two more sons—and remember she has no husband—it would not be right for Orpah and Ruth to wait until those boys were old enough to marry. Naomi has addressed the harsh realities, and believes it is best for her to return to her home country and for Orpah and Ruth to stay in Moab. She is able to convince Orpah to stay, but Ruth will not be convinced, and she pledges her lifetime companionship to Naomi, that part of Ruth we just heard.
So, Naomi returns to Bethlehem with Ruth the Moabite—the foreigner—as her companion.Naomi’s friends plan a big welcome home party, but she is in no mood for festivities. In fact, Naomi (which means pleasant) has changed her name to Mara (which means God has dealt bitterly with me). Who can blame Naomi for how she feels—bereft, grieving, convinced that God has something against her. And yet, quietly, resolutely in the background there is Ruth, who has pledged her life to Naomi and to her faith and tradition. We would not miss the leap of faith that Ruth makes; we would not miss that in her pledge, Ruth embodies God’s companionship.
All great stories sow a hint into what is coming, and the last sentence of the tragic first chapter concludes with, “They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.” It seems that Elimelech has a rich relative named Boaz who owns a large estate, and not one to sit in his office and bark orders, Boaz companions the laborers in the fields by helping with the harvest. Meanwhile, Ruth has decided she needs to gather some grain so that she and Naomi can eat. As was the practice at harvest time, not all the grain is harvested—some is left so that those who cannot afford to buy in the market can still be fed from the field.It is an affirmation that top dollar is not the only priority, but that companioning those in need is also affirmed.Boaz looks up from the harvest and notices Ruth—something in the way she gleans catches his eye. They meet and Boaz promises that she and Naomi will have enough, because he has heard how kindly Ruth has companioned Naomi. When Ruth heads home that evening to tell Naomi about her conversation with Boaz, a little bit of life stirs in Naomi, and a gleam comes into her eye. She encourages Ruth to grow the relationship, which she does slowly and deliberately.One night after a long day’s work, Ruth prepares a scrumptious feast for Boaz and after a nightcap she companions him —honorably, nothing untoward here. Old Boaz is bowled over that young Ruth would enjoy his company since there are more than a few years separating them. After a bit more intrigue, Ruth and Boaz get married and delight in the birth of a son named Obed. As the story closes, the camera pulls back not on Ruth and Boaz, but on Naomi who is holding her grandson. The friends who wanted to throw her a party when she came back to Bethlehem are companions in the scene again. This time it is their words that are festive —“your daughter-in-law (Ruth the Moabite foreigner) who loves you, is more to you than seven sons.” That is quite a statement in a patriarchal culture…that is quite a statement about the centrality of companionship.
What can we glean from this ancient story? It might be lost on us how stunning this story would have been to those who heard it first. Moabites were foreigners, and Deuteronomic law prohibited Israel from associating with Moabites because when fleeing from Egypt to the Promised Land, Moab had not provided food and drink for them. It was old hurt passed from one generation to the next, until it was codified in law and solidified into persistent prejudice and animosity. So, Israel tells a story, a counter-testimony in which the assumed hated enemy—a Moabite woman—becomes the vessel through which God companions God’s people. Stephen Shoemaker has written, “It is the story of religious, tribal, racial, and social differences and how God is working with the colorful quilt of humankind to make us all one…it is the story as well of how God’s redemption operates on the smallest and most important of scales: in households trying to survive and do what is right…and it is the story of God’s faithful, loving-kindness, the patient, persistent, never-giving-up-no-matter-what love of God, love that will not let us go.” (God-Stories, p 104) A despised, foreign, woman, the other, with considerable risk to herself, becomes the vessel of God’s grace. We marvel the distance God will go and the ways God will move to companion this world.We glean one other thing from this story. Ruth concludes with a genealogy. Boaz and Ruth have Obed, who becomes the father of Jesse, who had 7 sons, one of whom is named David who would become King and ancestor of Christ. Wow! Jesus’ family tree has foreign blood in it, Ruth’s blood who embodied God’s companionship.
As Ruth goes the distance to companion Naomi, so remember God goes the distance to companion the world. On a starry night, God sidles up to the world in a manger in Bethlehem, bread for the world come to the town whose name means ‘house of bread.’ From that rough hewn manger to the rough-hewn Cross, Jesus traveled many a dusty mile companioning all kinds of people in all kinds of places, even to the night when he was betrayed. As Mark’s gospel tells us, Jesus gave the bread and the cup to all of them.Two thousand years later, we continue to serve the same kind of meal to all kinds of people.
From time to time, people call and want to know about the church—beliefs, doctrines, practices. Sometimes people want to know if they would be welcomed, and sometimes people want to know who is not welcomed and who cannot be at this Table. We all have our questions about this journey of faith.On this World Communion Sunday when so many across the globe lift the bread and the cup, all I know to say is that—with the life of Ruth in our blood and the ways of Christ as our Bread—the church is more than the eating establishment down the street, even if its name is “Breadbasket Bread.” This Church, this Table, this Host is about one thing: Companionship—it is essential.