Lection: Ruth 1

October 31, 2021

Ruth 1:1-18

“Where You Go, I Will Go”

For the last few Sundays, I’ve been focusing my preaching on the Gospel readings from Mark. But today and next week, I would like to pay more attention to the texts from the Book of Ruth. Ruth is a short book of only four chapters that tells the story of an Israelite woman named Naomi and her Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth.

It’s significant that the book is named in honour of Ruth, the foreigner. And it’s also significant that she is named again in the Book of Matthew when the author of the Gospel lists the genealogy of Jesus. Biblical genealogies usually include the names of the fathers and their sons, with the one in Matthew starting with Abraham, going down to King David, and continuing along as far as Joseph and Jesus.

Only a few times is there a mother listed. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is of course included. And so is Ruth. It says: “…Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David…” and on from there. So, Ruth was a significant figure in the history of God’s People Israel, in spite of … Read more »

November 4, 2018

Ruth 1:1-18
Psalm 146
Hebrews 9:11-14
Mark 12:28-34

“Love Your Neighbour”

Plenty good room in the kingdom of heaven. Plenty good room for you and me. Plenty good room in the kingdom of heaven, so choose your seat and sit down.

The choir’s anthem for this morning has been running through my mind all week. It’s got one of those tunes that easily gets stuck in your head after a choir practice. But also, it’s been there because we’ve had more than our share of church members moving from this world into the kingdom of heaven over the last week or so.

Don Frew died a week ago Friday, and then Olga Wolfe died on Tuesday morning, and finally Jack Boan died in his sleep early on Wednesday. Each one of these Christian disciples died after a good, long, and meaningful life, but each one will be dearly missed by family, friends, and this community of faith.

“Plenty good room” has been a good song for this week, as we’ve been thinking about their welcome into the Kingdom of heaven. But when we selected it a couple of months ago, we had no idea that so many of our members would be making the journey to God at … Read more »