The Book of Ruth

This Book appears in the Daily Office Lectionary in Year One during the week of Epiphany VII in which we currently stand. Epiphany VII (and VIII) occur only when Easter is quite late; this is the first time since 2006 that we have gone so deep into the Sundays after Epiphany. But that was Year Two of the Lectionary, wherein we would be reading from the Book of Proverbs this week. For Year One, the most recent time when Easter was this late was 2003 (BCP p. 879 and following, “Tables for Finding Holy Days,” mostly p. 882-3).

When Easter is early, the Lectionary uses more of the low-numbered Propers (BCP p. 966). The Book of Ruth is here also in Year One at Proper 2 (the Sunday closest to May 18). To get to this, Easter can be no later than April 2. In Year One, that last happened in 2005, and we will get it again in the next cycle, when Easter Day of 2013 falls on March 31. After that, it is another six years – until 2019 - before we get the Book of Ruth either after Epiphany or after Pentecost.

(Getting to the weekdays of Epiphany VIII, as we will this year, is even more unlikely; in Year One, that last happened in 1905. But I digress.)

All this is to say that we are not often granted the privilege of reading the Book of Ruth in the Daily Office. It indicates that the framers of the Lectionary considered this book to be filler, something to be relegated to a little-used corner of the calendar. It is a beautiful story, in its way important to the larger Story, and deserves better.

In the old days, I occasionally accompanied wedding soloists in various settings of Ruth 1:16. I always found it strange to have this text, addressed to one's mother-in-law, sung at a wedding. But it is, nonetheless, as beautiful as any verse in the Old Testament:

“Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”

It is because of the stubborn devotion of “Ruth the Moabitess” (2:2) to her mother-in-law Naomi, expressed in this text, that she becomes part of the Story, ultimately an ancestor of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of David her grandson.

Ruth's response, once she realizes that this is so, is a reminder to all of us Gentile Christians – like Ruth, “strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). We have no claim upon God, and it is only by grace that we are saved:

“Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto [Boaz], Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?” (2:10)

And it was a reminder to the Children of Israel that the promises of God extended beyond them to the uttermost ends of the earth, including even their enemies (as the Book of Jonah makes abundantly clear).

May it be a reminder to us as well. There are more sheep in the care of our Shepherd than we might think (St. John 10:16). When we are finally brought home into the fold, all of us from every corner of God's creation, I am certain that we will be surprised at the extent of God's grace and mercy. Not least, I am and will always be surprised that it has extended even to me.