It is important as we continue to consider the life, the story of Naomi and Ruth that we recognize their vulnerability and the precariousness of their situation. A woman’s value was connected to her husband or her son’s. Her ability to live and survive was connected to their ability to thrive. So Naomi, with no husband. No sons. No grandsons had no future. I had no one to care for her.
I would like to hope that the women who recognized Naomi when she came back to Bethlehem offered her some kind of support so that she wasn’t living on the streets as that is the command to care for the widows and the orphans and the vulnerable and the Torah.
But even then we can see that however, she is being cared for. It is not easy as Ruth needs to go get them food.
Despite being able to be a grandmother, Naomi was probably of an age that she could have been working in. The fields gone to the fields with Ruth to collect food for them but she doesn’t. And it makes me wonder if she can’t. Not because of any physical capabilities but because of the grief and the hopelessness The emptiness that was her life. She was to not be called Naomi but bitter.
So when Ruth says she’s going to go and get food and see what will happen, who will care for her? Who will give her a blessing to reap among the fields? I see Naomi’s responses. Yeah okay. Whatever! Good luck! She was probably grateful but she doesn’t seem particularly hopeful.
You could say the book of Ruth is about a lot of things, but one of the things that doesn’t seem to get a lot of notice and yet is central to everything that happens is the Earth. The Earth is just a step ahead of the narrative. In chapter 1, we see that the famine has ended and there is abundance in Bethlehem and yet. Naomi says she returns empty. The story tells us that it is the season of the harvest but nothing has been collected yet.
A primary motivator of the story. It is what allows the action of all of the characters. It is what allows Ruth to bring food home to support her and Naomi in these really difficult days.
Ruth’s situation any better or worse. It had different complications. She was a foreigner, an immigrant from an outside community. One who really wasn’t a follower of the same faith and of a community that had that was hated. She had no one to advocate for her. No one to arrange marriage for her. No one to look out for her cuz it seems Naomi wasn’t able to do any of those things for herself let alone another person. It does say something about Ruth’s resiliency that she got up. Anyway to do the work that needed to be done to care for and Naomi.
What you may not know is that when God gave the law to Moses the ten commandments, The Story goes. God continued to tell and explain in case it wasn’t clear how those commandments could be lived out.
Leviticus 19: 33 When immigrants live in your land with you, you must not cheat them. 34 Any immigrant who lives with you must be treated as if they were one of your citizens. You must love them as yourself, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God. Ceb
Exodus 23 :9 Don’t oppress an immigrant. You know what it’s like to be an immigrant, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt. Ceb
Deuteronomy 10: 17 because the Lord your God is the God of all gods and Lord of all lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who doesn’t play favorites and doesn’t take bribes. 18 He enacts justice for orphans and widows, and he loves immigrants, giving them food and clothing. CeB
Now in our day of modern farming and machinery and privatized everything, it may not make a lot of sense that someone could come behind the harvesters and find food.
But there were laws about how you could live out the previous commandments or laws or ways of living in this world.
Leviticus 19 :9 When you harvest your land’s produce, you must not harvest all the way to the edge of your field; and don’t gather up every remaining bit of your harvest. 10 Also do not pick your vineyard clean or gather up all the grapes that have fallen there. Leave these items for the poor and the immigrant; I am the Lord your God. Ceb
Leviticus 23 :22 When you harvest your land’s produce, you must not harvest all the way to the edge of your field; and don’t gather every remaining bit of your harvest. Leave these items for the poor and the immigrant; I am the Lord your God. Ceb
So Ruth did what she was able to do. Given the law and the rules as a immigrant and Foreigner, she was not to be pushed aside or ignored given a hard time as a widow among the poor she was to collect what was left behind
What we find in our story is that Boaz did not just do the bare minimum but went above and beyond for Ruth. Know whether that was because he was interested in her or because he felt bad for Naomi or had had a friendship with her husband, we don’t really know. It just depends on what kind of man you want to think Boaz was. Men of the time when he tells his workers his mail workers not to assault because that was clearly a danger for a widow, an immigrant woman.
Over the past 10 years, weather-related disasters have caused some 250 million internal displacements – equivalent to around 70,000 displacements per day. Whether it is floods sweeping South Sudan and Brazil, record-breaking heat in Kenya and Pakistan, or water shortages in Chad and Ethiopia, extreme weather is pushing already fragile communities to the brink.
https://www.unrefugees.org/news/how-climate-change-impacts-refugees-and-displaced-communities/
Women make up upwards of 80 percent of climate refugees. 2009 studies report that women comprise 20 million of the 26 million people estimated to have been displaced by climate change. Women’s Environmental Network. Gender and the Climate Change Agenda: The Impacts of Climate Change on Women and Public Policy. 2010.
During and after disasters, levels of sexual and gendered violence often increase. After two tropical cyclones hit Tafe Province in Vanuatu in 2011, the Tanna Women’s Counselling Centre reported a 300% increase in new domestic violence cases. Human trafficking has been found to increase 20 to 30 percent during disasters. United Nations Women. Why Is Climate Change a Gender Issue?. 2014. + UNEP Women at the Frontline of Climate Change – Gender Risks and Hopes, 2011.
Women’s involvement in decision-making has important implications for climate change – a recent study of 130 countries found that countries with higher female parliamentary representation are more prone to ratify international environmental treaties. Norgaard and York. Gender Equality and State Environmentalism: Gender and Society. 2005.
Establishing the care economy, which predominantly employs women, has the potential to generate three times more jobs than the construction sector, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30%. Gender equality for greener and bluer futures. IUCN
Electing women politicians in national parliaments leads countries to adopt more stringent climate change policies, which results in lower carbon dioxide emissions. European Journal of Political Economy, Volume 56. Gender and climate change: Do female parliamentarians make difference? 2019.
https://www.wecaninternational.org/why-women
When Ruth came home with food in abundance, with what ended up being 5 days worth of food for the two of them and the guarantee of safety and more in the days to come. Something changed in Naomi. She went from someone so despondent. She couldn’t get up to someone who started making plans. Who started thinking strategically who believed there was something beyond this despair. Naomi had hope.
The care for The Foreigner in their midst gave hope to one who felt there was nothing left.
In these days when immigration is obviously a Hot topic, it is clear that as a nation we are not caring for the Foreigner or the immigrant in our midst.
And I understand, there are a lot of feelings about this and a lot of concerns about doing things the right way versus the wrong way. It is evident that there doesn’t seem to be a right way right now.
Even immigrant resettlement of legal immigrants who have applied and gained legal residency in the United States has stopped, something many UCC communities in Wisconsin across the country had supported and done over the years.
The current administration, stance and actions on immigration are rooted in racism and xenophobia and white nationalism, which is evident at the end of asylum opportunities of the profiling of people of color and that a majority of the resettled immigrants this year have been white africaners, who believe they are oppressed, because liberation for the oppressed often looks like oppression to the powerful.
Why we need immigration
Immigration fuels the economy. When immigrants enter the labor force, they increase the productive capacity of the economy and raise GDP. Their incomes rise, but so do those of natives. It’s a phenomenon dubbed the “immigration surplus,” and while a small share of additional GDP accrues to natives — typically 0.2 to 0.4 percent — it still amounts to $36 to $72 billion per year.
In addition to the immigration surplus, immigrants grease the wheels of the labor market by flowing into industries and areas where there is a relative need for workers — where bottlenecks or shortages might otherwise damp growth.
When immigrants enter the labor force, they increase the productive capacity of the economy and raise GDP. Their incomes rise, but so do those of natives. It’s a phenomenon dubbed the “immigration surplus.”
Immigration is thus a positive but also disruptive change. There are lots of historical examples of positive yet disruptive economic change. The Industrial Revolution displaced millions of farm workers and resulted in the great urban migrations and the birth of mega-cities to which we now ascribe all kinds of positive attributes, including creativity and innovation and higher wages.
Immigration has net benefits. The fact that it has some costs is not a reason to bar it, but rather to manage it.
Immigration is a net positive, even for those who don’t move, but the gains are not distributed equally. The next step for policymakers is to structure immigration reform to take advantage of immigration’s many benefits while mitigating the costs.
https://www.bushcenter.org/catalyst/north-american-century/benefits-of-immigration-outweigh-costs
SUMMARY This resolution calls on the United Church of Christ and its congregations to become Immigrant Welcoming as it recognizes the ongoing struggles of refugees and migrants who come to the United States seeking safety, security, freedom and opportunity but instead experience suffering as they fear raids, deportation, and witness their families being torn apart. It further encourages the development of policies to facilitate this.
Do not stand by while your neighbor’s blood is shed! You must not take revenge nor hold a grudge against any of your people; instead, you must love your neighbor as yourself.” (Lev. 19:16-18)
What can we do? Learn, connect, vote
https://www.ucc.org/love-knows-no-borders/
https://www.ucc.org/justice_immigration-2/
https://colectivoucc.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/3638119
https://www.votervoice.net/mobile/JAWM/Campaigns/130580/Respond
https://www.votervoice.net/mobile/JAWM/Campaigns/132920/Respond