The Necessary Value of Community Support

 

Synopsis     Ruth 4:5-13     8/7/2018

Boaz established his status as the nearest relative with the ability to serve as redeemer. And so, he informed the community in front of the city elders of his intent to purchase Naomi and Elimelech’s estate and to redeem Ruth.

Despite that Ruth was from Moab, the community encouraged and supported Boaz’s intentions. Then they blessed him. And so, Boaz married Ruth and Ruth bore him a son.

The Community Blessed Boaz and Ruth

The people of the community showered Boaz and Ruth with blessings. As they did, they invoked the memories of other great women from the history of Israel. They remembered how both Rachel and Leah built up the house of Israel. And how Tamar had built up the line of Judah, even against his own will.

In blessing Ruth, the women of Bethlehem invoked the stories of other strong and determined women. They celebrated women who met great adversity in their lives but who heroically overcame. Ruth had become one more in the line of extraordinary women who loved and served God faithfully.

The Necessary Value of Community Support

Every healthy community needs heroes. Every strong community needs to emphasize and celebrate the lives of the people who best represent the values that keep the community together. Heroes set the standard for right living in the commonwealth.

The Authentic Community is not different. We celebrate the lives of people who have wholly devoted themselves to the core values of the faith community. Those who love God before everything else. And, those who love their neighbors as they love themselves. These are the ones we lift up as examples. They are our heroes.

We call them saints.

“Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” 1 Cor 10:17