Kahu's Manao

Keawala‘i Congregational Church
United Church of Christ (USA)

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday, November 1, 2009

The Rev. Kealahou C. Alika

“Wherever We Go”
Ruth 1:1-18

My cousin Lorna called from Kona about ten days ago to say that her mother was taken to the Life Care Center in Keauhou. Lorna and I grew up together along with her mom and dad, two sisters, and two brothers. We lived in the same house with my maternal grandfather and uncle.

“Mama is being treated for pneumonia,” she said. “Her condition is not good.”

I knew her mother as “my Auntie Kapua.” She was the matriarch of our household. Of the numerous aunts and uncles that I had I did like her the best. She made a Portuguese bean stew that has never been duplicated or matched by anyone and I attribute my early childhood memories of our yearly decoration of the Christmas tree to her.

But she was more than a homemaker. It was her presence, her gentle presence that I remember. If she yelled at us for not doing our chores around the house, I do not remember. If she expressed any disappointment in us for not doing our fair share of the work in the coffee fields during the annual harvest, I do not remember. If she showed any anger over what it took to care for our household, I do not remember.

“I haven’t seen you for a long time,” Lorna added as we continued our conversation.

“Yes I know,” I responded aware that the last time we had seen each other was over forty years ago. “I’ll plan to come over,” I said, “but I won’t be able to do that until the week after next. I’ll be in Honolulu for a meeting,” I explained, “so I won’t be able to come right now.”

“Come,” she said. “It will be good to see you again.”

I called her on Friday to let her know that I had made travel arrangements to return to Kona tomorrow. It was then that she shared the sad news that her mother died and that a graveside service would be held at Lanakila Church in Kainaliu. That service was held yesterday.

I was not prepared to hear about Auntie Kapua’s death. I thought I would have a chance to see her before she died.

As I spoke with my cousin I could feel her sense of loss. I’ll arrive in Kona in time for us to have lunch at the Aloha Theater Café in Kainaliu. The café is located about a three minute walk from the church cemetery.

We will have memories to share and stories to tell of the changes in our lives. Each of our journeys took us away from one another. My cousin married an Italian American who was stationed at Barber’s Point on the island of Oʻahu. They moved to the Chicago area and it was there that they raised their family.

I was still in high school at the time and over the course of forty years that followed, I managed to complete my graduate and post-graduate studies. I have spent the last thirty years in ministry – twelve years in California and eighteen years here on Maui. Now with her mother’s death, my auntie’s death we find ourselves looking back on our lives and remembering our families.

Our reading from The Book of Ruth is about families and about death. It begins with the story of Naomi. Naomi and her husband Elimelech flee Bethlehem – which means “house of bread” or “house of food” – ironically because of a famine.

They take their sons Mahlon and Chilion and immigrate to a new border country called Moab. It is there that Mahlon marries Ruth, a Moabite, and Chilion marries Orpah, also a Moabite.

Judah was without a king or centralized government and this only exacerbated the problem of the famine. That they find themselves in Moab seems to suggest that the famine was so catastrophic in nature they were willing to immigrate to the land of a bitter enemy.

Death pursues them and in the years that followed Naomi’s husband and her two sons die. With her are her two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah. Naomi’s name means “pleasant” but given the death of her husband and sons and her inability to provide for Ruth and Orpah, she will later say to her friends, “Call me Mara, for the almighty has dealt with me bitterly.” (Ruth 1:20-21)

In time Naomi receives word that there is food again in Bethlehem and she sets out for home. She insists that Ruth and Orpah return to their families. Orpah accepts Naomi’s bidding but Ruth refuses.

Ruth’s refusal to leave Naomi’s side begins the turn toward renewal and transformation. (Seasons of the Spirit, Congregational Life/Pentecost 2, Wood Lake Publishing Inc., Kelowna, BC, Canada, 2009, page 86) This sense of turning permeates the story of Ruth.

The Hebrew word shub occurs twelve times in our reading this morning. Sometimes it simply refers to a physical turning. (Ruth 1:55) Naomi uses it to describe the way she sees God’s rejection of her. (Ruth 1:13)

In time the southern and northern kingdoms of Israel and Judah will find a future through Ruth as one nation. It is in God’s turning to Ruth that we are made aware that she will give birth to the ancestor of who will become Israel’s greatest king, David. She will not only become David’s great-grandmother, she will also become a distant relative to Jesus.

For me the story of Naomi and Ruth is significant in two ways. First, there is the human story of their relationship with one another as family – of Naomi and Elimelech’s flight to Moab; of the death of her husbands and sons; of the possibility that Naomi, Ruth and Orpah would no longer be together; and eventually of the love, loyalty and commitment that will bind Naomi and Ruth to one another as family.

Second, there is story of how people are often constricted by social, ethnic, racial or religious boundaries. (Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 4, Bartlett & Taylor, Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 2009, page 246) Everything about Ruth was wrong, wrong, wrong – wrong social class, wrong gender, wrong ethnicity, wrong religion.

Yet it is Ruth who will insure the future of Israel. What an amazing story, indeed, of how God can cross the most entrenched boundaries to bring new life and new hope. (Op. cit.)

I am looking forward to seeing my cousin Lorna again. I remember our days growing up in that old coffee plantation house and our first black and white television.

I remember watching the old television programs that depicted what was considered the ideal American family. In some ways our family never quite fit the picture of those early programs but we were still a family.

Although our lives may take us to different places and in different directions and our families may change, God is with us wherever we go. That is the story of Naomi and Ruth and in many, many, many ways that is also our story.

As we gather around the table that is set before us today, may this be our Bethlehem- a “house of bread” where we will be strengthened and sustained in knowing that God is indeed with us. As we move towards the season of Advent may we join our voices once more with others, “O come, O come Emmanuel – God with us” now and forevermore. Amen.

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