Sermon: Revolutionary Patience
Text: Ruth 1: 1-18
Preparing for this reflection, I had two purposes in mind. First, by choosing this beautiful, beloved passage of three women, especially of Ruth and Naomi, I wanted to include certain interpretations that may not be familiar to us. Second, the story of Ruth illustrates spirituality which I believe is able to guide us when we go through struggles and suffering in our lives and in today’s world.
In today’s story, the whole family of Naomi moves from Bethlehem to Moab because of a famine. The father, Naomi’s husband, dies. The sons marry Moabite wives. Years pass, the sons die, and three women are left widowed with no children. Our story begins with the predicament of the three women: Naomi and her two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah. In this society, there were only three ways a woman could be valued: as an unmarried virgin in her father’s household, as a child-producing wife in her husband’s household, or as the matriarch of a multi-generational clan of descendants. As widows and without children, Naomi, Ruth and Orpah are on the margins, without status, not to mention they are in deep grief. Naomi recognizes that they have limited options for relationships and for ‘security’ in such a society. Naomi acts rationally, telling her daughters-in-law not to follow her back to Bethlehem but instead to try and find husbands in their homeland of Moab. We are told that Orpah kisses her mother-in-law goodbye and that Ruth clings to her.
At this point in the story, (and this way of engaging the story originates from Queer Commentary) Ruth ‘comes out’ and declares her true feelings for Naomi. In words that have traditionally been repeated in countless wedding ceremonies, (and we really cherish Ruth’s words, because they are so beautiful and meaningful regardless of when we say or hear them.) Ruth speaks to Naomi: “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! 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!” In her words of devotion Ruth names her relationship to Naomi in a way that crosses the boundaries of age, nationality and religion. By expressing her heart like this, in such a genuine, intense and passionate declaration, Ruth refuses to accept the status quo of a society that limits and defines their existence as worthless, empty and marginal because they are unmarried and childless. Verse 16 in the first chapter of Ruth is truly a blessing, covenant, creed, hymn, poem and declaration of human dignity.
My own reflection, my own commentary on this story of Ruth and Naomi is this: Ruth doesn’t just try to stand grounded in her dignity, to not to be overcome by the brutality of her reality; she rises above her restrictions and her limited options. She rises above the floodwaters of her own bleak situation, with her inner power and strength, and makes her choice. But what exactly do I mean by “rising above”?
I have been thinking about the meaning of ‘rising above’, and my conclusion is that in any society there’s a certain social paradigm that the society expects us to live by, conform to, and whose norms, expectations and rules we are meant to accept. Then, if we don’t fit the paradigm or if we are not going to produce what society generally considers to be a ‘good life’, we could be shunned or forced away from the center of society – in other words, oppressed.
On the margins, the further we are off from the standard and norm, the more we are ‘being pressed’, and that is what oppression means. Here, to rise above may mean that we choose a direction that might liberate us, rather than press us down to be diminished, and the direction could be … not just the sides (the margins), not the line (the centre)…but ‘above’.
To rise above means that Ruth thinks and goes beyond her social paradigm (‘beyond what is’). Ruth chooses uncertainty, makes herself insecure, opens herself to anxiety, and a relationship which would, for her, be ultimately liberating. Ruth chooses dignity. She chooses integrity. Dignity is the name for the part of God that lives in us. God in everyone is the foundation of human dignity. I remember the quote I wrote in my journal a while ago, “That human dignity is not created by us, but exists before us.” It does not depend on someone else’s agreement, or society's, or the states’, or the ism's (such as heterosexism or capitalism). It is not diminished by poverty, by physical disability or by any kind of oppression. Because, (another quote) in our journey, “We do not set out as those who seek but as those who have been found.”
Here, I wish to introduce you to the spiritual practice known as “Revolutionary patience” hoping that it is useful when you depart on the journey of rising above, carrying it in your “spirituality backpack.” When I first encountered this expression and learned about it, I was going through an emotionally painful time. These two words and just a couple of introductory sentences helped me to feel that hope was about to rise like the dawning sun – and it did. It really became a revelatory concept for me. For a while I used it as my mantra to recite and to remember. Before I learned about revolutionary patience, when I went through conflict, agony or confusion, I tended to try to analyze what I was experiencing. I felt like I needed the analysis and comprehension about why something was successful or why something else didn’t work well. I needed an ‘explanation’ and analytical understanding on every matter to feel that I have not simply lost - I can work on things again to make them better - perfect. I tended to theorize my experience because my intellect was my comfort zone.
Even though critical thinking is an important part of reflection, later I learned that Christ invites us to be on the cross, or to be more correct, to be on the passivity of the cross, let yourself be, for a while, in one place, still, and contemplate on the brilliance and the beauty of the stars in the sky of the dark night of the soul.
Seeing Ruth rise above, we remember that Christ is the Risen One. Ruth was loyal and preserved her and Naomi’s dignity (the presence of God within them) through adopting revolutionary patience in order to continue celebrating the joy of life. What the spirituality of revolutionary patience teaches us is, “Do not depend on the hope of results” but start hoping more and more, not on the results but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work we are called to do. “Success is not a name of God” (Martin Buber), but love is. Peace is. Justice is. And dignity, which is the God in everyone. Therefore, sisters and brothers, rise above. Be revolutionary. And as you are, bravely, take revolutionary patience in the journey of the cross, both your own and our world’s.
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