The Blind Date in a Field of Dreams RUTH 1:22-2:23; Psalm 91:1-2; Matthew 23:37 Rev. Nollie Malabuyo • February 28, 2016 eloved congregation of Christ: The 1964 Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof tells the B story of a Jewish family living in imperial Russia in the 1900s. He has two main issues: the edict of the Czar to edict all Jews living in their village; and her fve independent-minded daughters. The father wants to maintain Jewish religious and cultural traditions, including having her daughters' marriage arranged by the village “matchmaker.” He wanted her three daughters to marry suitable, wealthy man. But each of his three older daughters resist this tradition, and want to marry the man of her liking, the love of her life. The oldest falls in love instead with a poor tailor. The second marries a revolutionary who was later arrested and exiled in Siberia. The father reluctantly agrees to the marriage of the frst two. But when the third daughter elopes with a Christian, the Jewish father held his line, and declares that this daughter is dead. In our third lesson on the Book of Ruth today, we sense that Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law, is a matchmaker. Naomi seems to have set up a kind of a “blind date” between Ruth and Boaz, Naomi's distant relative. A blind date is “a social engagement between two people who have not previously met, usually arranged by a mutual acquaintance.” 1 In this defnition, the meeting between Ruth and Boaz is a “blind date,” and the “mutual acquaintance” or “matchmaker” is Naomi. At the end of Chapter 1, we read that Naomi returned to Naomi's hometown Bethlehem, after her husband and two sons died in Moab. Ruth, one of her two Moabite daughters-in-law, returned with her. In the last words of the chapter, we fnd a seemingly insignifcant statement, “And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.” So at the beginning of Chapter 2, after the two women had settled back in Naomi's house, the big problem was that they had nothing, no food to eat. Since it was the beginning of barley harvest, Ruth asked Naomi if she could glean in one of the felds. Hopefully, she says, she would land in a feld owned by a man “in whose sight I shall fnd favor.” But there is more to this “blind date” and “matchmaking.” Today, our theme is, “The Blind Date in a Field of Dreams,” under three headings: frst, Boaz: “A Worthy Man”; second, “She Happened to Come to Boaz’s Field”; and third, Ruth: “She Found Favor in His Eyes.” Boaz: “A Worthy Man” Naomi's answer to Ruth's request is brief, “Go, my daughter.” Could Naomi have ofered to go with Ruth to glean? It might be that she was too old for that kind of work. Or like many of us, she was too depressed with her life situation, retreating into her own shell. When she lost her whole 1 Defnition by thefreedictionary.com. 1 family, she said that her life was bitter and empty. She even thought that God was punishing her for her disobedience in leaving the Promised Land for the greener pastures of Moab. What is your reaction when your life turns bitter and empty? As a Christian, do you trust that God allows afictions and suferings to invade your comfortable life so that your faith may be strengthened? Do you say with Paul, “But we rejoice in our suferings, knowing that sufering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:3-5)? And when troubles come, do you look heavenward for your redemption, “For I consider that the suferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom 8:18)? In the midst of Naomi's brokenness, there is a hint of hope. Verse 1 of Chapter 2 says, “Now Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.” This is the frst mention in the book of a man named Boaz, a relative of Naomi's husband Elimelech. He is also described as “a worthy man.” In the next verses, we see how he is a worthy man. His frst words in the story is a greeting to his workers, “The LORD be with you!” To which the men answered, “The LORD bless you.” These words tell much about his character. The narrator includes this brief exchange to tell the readers that Boaz was a godly man, honoring God in his farming business. He is also well- respected by his workers. Therefore, as a “worthy” man, he is excellent in character, position, strength, and even in wealth as a landowner. Then Boaz scans his feld, and among the many men and women reapers, he sees someone whom he has never seen before: Ruth. So he asked his foreman, “Whose young woman is this?” He did not ask, “Who is this young woman?” He was asking, “To which clan does she belong? Where does she come from?” The foreman identifed her as “the young Moabite woman, who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.” She had asked permission to glean in the feld, and when she was allowed, she worked all morning under the hot sun, with only a brief rest. Bethlehem being a small town, news gets around very quickly. Boaz had heard about Naomi coming back with her Moabite daughter-in-law. That Ruth had left her own family, country, and even her own gods in Moab, to live with Naomi and worship the God of Israel. Now she is hard at work to provide for Naomi and herself. So Boaz went and spoke with Ruth. He asked Ruth to glean only in his feld, and not in any other. That she should keep close to the young women who were also working there. That he instructed his young men not to touch her. And that she can drink from the water jars there. All of these were shocking to Ruth, because she knew that she was an outsider. Why would a man of high standing in the community bother with a poor and widowed foreigner, and treat her with such kindness? It is difcult not to notice Boaz's own kindness to strangers. When you come to church, do you scan the congregation for any new visitors? Do you consciously look for them after the worship service to greet them, “The Lord be with you”? Do you talk to them with not just small talk, but instead sincerely ask them about their life and family? Do you ask them if they 2 have any needs? Or do you only pay attention to those whom you know, your own best friends? Do you pay attention only to those who are like you, completely overlooking those who don't seem to ft among you? Boaz was a worthy man. “She Happened to Come to Boaz's Field” When Ruth asked Naomi if she could glean in the felds, her idea was probably to go to any feld that was nearest to their house. But verse 3 says, “she happened to come to the part of the feld belonging to Boaz.” In our words today, “as luck would have it, she ended up in Boaz's feld.” This is one of those subplots in the Book of Ruth where things seem to happen in random fashion. At the end of Chapter 1, Naomi and Ruth arrived back in Bethlehem “just in time” for the beginning of the barley harvest. In the next two chapters, we will see again some of these “chances” or “coincidences.” When Ruth came home with an ephah or about 30-50 pounds of grain, Naomi asked where she had gleaned. And when Ruth said that she happened to glean in Boaz's feld, Naomi was satisfed. Maybe she was really hoping that Ruth would end up meeting Boaz, since she knew that Boaz was “a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.” Naomi was more than willing to be a matchmaker. But there was another matchmaker between Ruth and Boaz. It was not merely luck or chance that they met in the feld. In God's providence, Ruth “happened” to glean in Boaz's feld, and they met. Naomi's matchmaking plans are under the sovereignty of the LORD, the “divine matchmaker.” God matched Isaac with Rebekah, even though Abraham was the one who initiated the meeting. Even in the ungodly meeting of David and Bathsheba, God was at work according to his plan. No, God did not send an angel to Ruth, or gave Ruth a vision that she should glean in Boaz's feld. God ordained this sequence of events. Today, we have a “potluck” after this worship service. Many Christians do not like the word “luck” because it is an unbiblical word. If events happen only by luck or chance or fortune, then God is not in sovereign control of the universe. So some churches call their lunch fellowship “pot-providence.” Remember Paul's comforting words, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28).