A Reflection for the Sunday after All Saints St Anne's/ St.Luke's, Roper and Grace, Plymouth
November 3, 2024 Thomas E Wilson, Guest Preacher and Celebrant
Ruth 1:1-18 Psalm 146 Hebrews 9:11-14 Mark 12:28-34
“Wherever you will be, I will be.”
In the Hebrew Testament lesson for today is the story of Ruth. Ruth is a woman of Moab who married the son of Naomi, a Hebrew woman, who moved with her husband and sons into the country of Moab during a time of famine in Israel. The two sons marry local woman in Moab, but then the father and the sons die and Naomi is left alone in the land in which she is not a native. She is vulnerable, there is no one to protect her. Naomi hears that the famine in Israel is over and she plans to return in hope that she can join with distant relatives. Knowing the Jewish prejudice against people of Moab, she tries to send her daughters in law away to find some Moabite husbands. However, Ruth out of love and concern for her mother-in-law, affirms that wherever Naomi goes, Ruth will go. She says “Wherever you will be, I will be.”
This week after All Saints Day, I saw an ad on line for a 8” by 11” Collage of 36 Icons of Saints, for All Saints Day 2024, and in the center of the bottom row was an Icon of Ruth and Naomi together, united in love. Ruth who offers to be with Naomi, and Naomi who brings Ruth into her heart. One who loves and the other who allows herself to be loved and returns it. That is one of the themes of the lessons for today when people love and allow themselves to be loved. It is like all relationships of freely sharing love. One for the Other, risking love for each other, “Wherever you will be, I will be.”
When my wife and I got married 35 years ago, we bought a couple of wedding rings which had the Hebrew letters written on the bands proclaiming the promise of Ruth to each other; “Wherever you will be, I will be.” She had been married before, and in her first marriage, her husband a medical doctor, had been drafted and they spent the first couple years on an army base in Texas. She wanted to get the inside of the ring to be inscribed with “Anywhere but Texas”. But she came with me to Lynchburg, Virginia, and Macon, Georgia, and helping me working on my doctorate in Sewanee, Tennessee, and to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But the promise was more than geography; it was a promise to be together in good times as well as bad times. Since the 23rd of June, 2023, when her physical body died, she still lives in my heart. Bodies die, but love can live forever. As Ruth said, “Wherever you will be, I will be.”
My father died when I was 19, but there has not been a day when Bill Wilson has not lived inside me, in how I see, and treat my neighbors. We disagreed on many things, like music, religion and politics; but how you treat your neighbor was not one of those disagreements. In the winter of my 4th grade, we were living in Upstate New York and then one day the first snow came down. There was no question that my older brother and I were expected to shovel the drive way and walk. But my father sent us out to first shovel the driveway and walk of our next door neighbors, Mr. and Mrs Lyon, Walter and Millie. He had been the managing editor of the Binghamton Sun-Bulletin morning newspaper, since 1920, and was retired. They were an elderly couple, they were in their 70's. younger than I am now. who had been so kind to us when we moved in that summer. She was so gracious and they both told marvelous stories. If I live another year, I will be as old as he was when he died. We were instructed to do it quietly, without being asked, and to not expect, or accept. any money. These were our neighbors; and that is what neighbors do- help one another, out of love. “Wherever you will be, I will be.”
My father was a lapsed Roman Catholic who married a Presbyterian girl, so they split the difference and the children were raised as Episcopalians, He had a hard time believing in religious doctrines about God, after battling in the South Pacific as a Marine in World War II; but he believed in the ethic of faith, which he saw was in kindness to your neighbor. The church taught me religion, my parents taught me faith. The church told me that as a faithful Christian, I had to be ready to face to Lions in Roman Coliseums. My father taught me that I had an obligation to help Mr. and Mrs. Lyon next door. “Wherever you will be, I will be.”
The passage from the Book of the Letter to the Hebrews , which is not a letter but a polemic, and is not to the Hebrews but to Christians; but otherwise well named, is that this Jesus did not come to earth to do religious ceremonies but to give himself away for others and allowed himself to be vulnerable to be loved. I am pretty sure that Bill Wilson did not study the Book of Hebrews, but he lived it. “Wherever you will be, I will be.”
In the Gospel lesson for today, Jesus meets a scribe and tells him that he was holding the scribe in his heart. Now the scribe belongs to a separate political party than Jesus. Yet Jesus says; “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” The Gospel does not tell us what happened to that scribe, but I am persuaded that wherever that scribe went, he was in Jesus's prayers and love wherever the scribe physically went in his life. However many miles away he was, he was never far from the Kingdom of God. Jesus knew how to love and be loved. Jesus loved Judas, and Judas betrayed him. Judas said: “The one I kiss, is the man you need to arrest.” The reality is that you can only be betrayed by someone who you love and who loves you. “Wherever you will be, I will be.”
One of the things I have seen in your churches is that when you hold people in the congregations in your heart. But more than that, your hearts expanded beyond the building. Your hearts expanded to be present with the people of Western North Carolina going through such devastation: you were with them in the Kingdom of God. You went out of your way when you understood that you were not the center of the universe. You understood that saying a prayer of thanksgiving for being spared from the Hurricane was not enough. You understood that you were spared not from, but for. You understood, that while you might throw a party, but you understood that the purpose of the party that was you were to help these neighbors hundreds of miles away. You understood the words of Ruth, “Wherever you will be, I will be.”
This coming week, on Tuesday, election day, we have a chance for moments when we will not all agree and there will be a least two different camps of partisans. One camp will win and the other will lose, but we do have a greater duty if we are to have a democracy we must have respect and love our political adversaries. We do not have to agree, we don't need to even like, but we do have to love, even the people with whom we disagree. My prayer is that before the last vote is counted, it will be a chance to treat them and think, or say, to our opponents; “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” “Wherever you will be, I will be.”
It is like going to church, where Christ is the guest of honor, but the purpose of the party is to try to get ready to help a neighbor. We pray for growth in faith, but the faith is lived out when we walk outside the church doors, when the echos of the organ song fades and then hear the cries of our neighbors come into our hearts and will. Our hands are not there to pat ourselves on the back but to reach out to meet the needs of our neighbors. As Ruth said, “Wherever you will be, I will be.”
“Wherever you will be, I will be.
There are people who continue living in memory,
They were there helping me grow up, and deeper,
Walking me with me as paths were getting steeper,
Sharing stories to be told from pulpits or refectory.
These are you people who showed me how to live,
Live as if each moment was meant to be savored,
With guests of loved friends meant to be favored.
Extra special twists we'd really would want to give.
Recalled as saints who didn't from their labors rest,
Tasted again as if it was wine from a vintage rare,
Treasured as if was always really meant to share,
Calls us to love fully with every second as the best.
Some went ahead, but soon I will join you,
And we will dance together as lovers true.
