Living in the Spirit

October 25, 2021

Scripture Reading: Ruth 1:1-18

So [Naomi] said, ‘See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’ But Ruth said,
‘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!’
When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her. –Ruth 1:15-18

This scripture was once used in wedding ceremonies; however, they were being taken out of context. I have not heard it read at a wedding for many years. I recall a pastor suggesting that when a couple asked these words be included at their wedding, it would be more appropriate for the bride to say these words to her newly acquired mother-in-law. They were omitted.

There are all types of intrigue included in this story. Ruth was a foreigner choosing to leave her homeland and adopt that of her mother-in-law. She gathered leftover grain in the fields so she and

Naomi could eat. She did not practice the faith of the Israelites but was a convert. We measure people’s worth based on cultural values. God looks at their hearts*. Ethnocentricity seems to be inborn in people. I do not think God put it there at our creation. Ethnocentricity is the belief that a dominant ethnic group is superior to other ethnic groups, and that its perspectives should be adopted at the individual and societal levels**.

At some point in our lives, we absorb from our society the idea that our worth is established based on being better than another or some other person or people. If we believe that all people are created in the image of God, there are no people left with whom to compare ourselves to calculate our worth. Most of our societal problems could be addressed more quickly if we could get past our unnecessary need to be better than another person or group. Be who God created you to be. It does not get any better than that.

Prayer: Lord, help us remove the social elements we have taken on from our culture that are distracting us from serving you by loving as you love us. Amen.

*See 1 Samuel 16:7

**https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198796688.001.0001/acref-9780198796688-e-657

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.