Advent - The Way of Peace
Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.
Ruth 1:16
On a donkey, behind a wheel or by any means necessary, Chris Rea’s Driving Home for Christmas is a jolly and suitably Christmassy reminder that the chosen mode of transport is always secondary to whatever and wherever ‘home’ happens to be (especially when you’re being irritatingly and repeatedly asked, ‘where do you really come from?!).
In the book of Ruth, Naomi's story is both about leaving and homecoming. Hers is not a narrative usually associated with our annual festivities, but neither is the quiet desperation that all too often accompanies the less glitzy side of Christmas.
For many, Christmas will be a time of get togethers, general merry making and returns (and I don’t just mean for the 'gifts' you really didn’t want in the first place)! Some will also resonate with the chaos, turmoil and trouble that provides the backdrop to the book of Ruth. For them Christmas will consist of a simple longing for peace and the feeling of being at home with themselves.
Although the book is named for Ruth, the main character of the narrative is her mother-in-law, Naomi. Naomi’s story begins full of hope as she and her husband, Elimelech, caught up in famine and a very different cost-of-living crisis, decide to emigrate in attempts to leave it all behind. Unfortunately, their story spirals into a tragedy she’d never anticipated, imagined or expected, and all too soon, we meet Naomi devoid of peace and in great pain. In fact, her whole family is in pain, or at least what is left of it.
Naomi is so distraught by the turn of events, which includes the death of Elimelech, their two sons and the prospect of imminent impoverishment, that she no longer feels quite like herself. Her pain is such that she becomes estranged from the power of her own name Naomi, which means ‘pleasant’. Chapter 1: 20 “Don’t call me Naomi (pleasant),” she told them. “Call me Mara (bitter), because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi (pleasant)? The Lord has afflicted me (testified against me); the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” (TNIV)
In Naomi’s story, she no longer feels at home with herself or even with God. Her (likely) pleasant personality and character has become overwhelmed with bitterness. So, she doesn’t hold back and tells it as she sees it… and she tells it to anyone who’s willing (or even unwilling) to listen!
Feeling bereft, hopeless, and broken, Naomi attempts to withdraw and isolate herself from her daughters-in-law, an action only likely to worsen the depth of grief, hopelessness and brokenness she's already experiencing (sound familiar?). Thankfully comfort (or refreshment, the literal meaning of Ruth’s name), refuses to leave her side.
When life is overwhelming or full of pain, loss and anxiety… and when you no longer feel quite like yourself, the Bible’s answer is, acknowledge how you feel (even if it’s wide of the mark!) and begin a journey home to yourself, to God and to ‘your’ people.
Ultimately, God never leaves us without His Comforter, the Holy Spirit but neither does he leave us without human comfort (often a way of peace). The book of Ruth is a story of extraordinary friendship across different generations, young and old and different ethnicities, Hebrew and Moabite. It is a reminder that our comforters sometimes appear ‘packaged’ in someone of a different generation or ethnic group. It is also a reminder that peace is not always found in an address and that ‘home is (always, always) where the heart is’.
This is the way of (The Prince of) Peace
Isaiah 9:6
The challenge is to make it our way too…
Kate Coleman
