Then Ruth told her mother-in-law... “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz”... “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said... “He has not stopped showing kindness to the living and the dead...” Ruth 2:19-20
Love is patient, love is kind... 1 Corinthians 13:4
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness... Galatians 5:22
Just recently I heard a sermon largely about kindness. It was based on the story of Ruth and Boaz, one of the world’s oldest, simplest and most beautiful stories.
The young woman Ruth has arrived as a visitor in Israel. She is with her mother-in-law Naomi, and they come, both, as widows. Way back, when Naomi and her husband Elimelech were young, they had moved to the land of Moab along with their two small sons. Ruth, a local girl, had eventually married one of those sons, but he, along with both his brother and Elimelech, had died.
So Naomi and Ruth are alone. There is nothing left for them in Moab, and they decide to head back to Israel, to Bethlehem. Will the land where Naomi and Elimelech had met and married be able to provide them with a home, work - and a new life?
We aren’t told how welcoming the people of Bethlehem were when they turned up one day out of the blue; only that “the whole town was stirred... and the women exclaimed, ‘Can this be Naomi?’” (Can you see them whispering behind their hands?) Their arrival was a talking-point, no doubt about that; but perhaps the gaunt and bitter Naomi was not the kind of person who invited rejoicing. Nothing more is said, anyway.
And this is where Boaz enters the story. Ruth decides to try and earn some money, or at least some food, by following the reapers round the harvest fields picking up scraps. The writer tells us that “it so happened” (as if it was just coincidence!) that she found herself in a field owned by Boaz. Boaz notices her and, cutting the story short, takes steps to ensure that she is safe and well provided for (this, incidentally, before any question has arisen about him eventually marrying her).
Very simply, he chooses to be kind because it’s a right and good thing to do.
All sorts of things follow: I’ll leave you to finish the story for yourselves. But don’t neglect some time when you are in the New Testament, to read the family tree of Jesus in Matthew 1. There, in that long list of very Hebrew names, who do we find? - “Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was... Ruth”. Yes, the lonely young gentile widow finds her place in the centuries-old unfolding of the purposes of God.
Suppose Boaz had chosen to take no interest in Ruth, to harden his heart against her? One of those things we will never know...
What do you need to make you a kind person? I suggest two basic things.
First, eyes that see the needs of others.
If kindness, in essence, means offering help to someone who needs it, well, obviously you can’t do that if you haven’t seen that need. Our problem, very likely, is just that we are so self-obsessed that we see only our own needs.
So let’s look up and look around us!
Second, hands willing to act for that other person.
True, sometimes real kindness can be shared simply by a word or a smile - greeting a stranger in the street, taking a moment to pass the time of day with the person at the super-market check-out, pausing to ask after the sick relative of a fellow-employee - but often there is a cost involved; action is required, great or small.
Again, if deep-down we are just plain selfish, that simply isn’t going to happen. And we need to remind ourselves of Jesus’ great word: “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving” (ask Boaz!).
Kindness is, of course, a universal thing, by no means confined to Christians. But if we are followers of Jesus, surely we above all should stand out as kind people. The poet Wordsworth wrote about “That best portion of a good man’s life-/ His little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.” “Little, nameless, unremembered acts” perhaps; but who can ever guess or calculate their value?
There’s a Japanese proverb that says, “One kind word can warm three winter months”. I like that! And this too: “Be kind; everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” Yes, people may look unfriendly, cold and aggressive; but deep down inside they are very likely timid and insecure, silently crying out for just a little touch of kindness.
Lady Macbeth scolded her husband for being “too full o’ the milk of human kindness”. She meant it as a rebuke; but personally I find it hard to think of a greater compliment. How about you?
Lord God, fill my heart with Christlike kindness for everyone I meet, and especially for those, like Ruth, who are sad, lonely and far from home. Amen.
Love is patient, love is kind... 1 Corinthians 13:4
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness... Galatians 5:22
Just recently I heard a sermon largely about kindness. It was based on the story of Ruth and Boaz, one of the world’s oldest, simplest and most beautiful stories.
The young woman Ruth has arrived as a visitor in Israel. She is with her mother-in-law Naomi, and they come, both, as widows. Way back, when Naomi and her husband Elimelech were young, they had moved to the land of Moab along with their two small sons. Ruth, a local girl, had eventually married one of those sons, but he, along with both his brother and Elimelech, had died.
So Naomi and Ruth are alone. There is nothing left for them in Moab, and they decide to head back to Israel, to Bethlehem. Will the land where Naomi and Elimelech had met and married be able to provide them with a home, work - and a new life?
We aren’t told how welcoming the people of Bethlehem were when they turned up one day out of the blue; only that “the whole town was stirred... and the women exclaimed, ‘Can this be Naomi?’” (Can you see them whispering behind their hands?) Their arrival was a talking-point, no doubt about that; but perhaps the gaunt and bitter Naomi was not the kind of person who invited rejoicing. Nothing more is said, anyway.
And this is where Boaz enters the story. Ruth decides to try and earn some money, or at least some food, by following the reapers round the harvest fields picking up scraps. The writer tells us that “it so happened” (as if it was just coincidence!) that she found herself in a field owned by Boaz. Boaz notices her and, cutting the story short, takes steps to ensure that she is safe and well provided for (this, incidentally, before any question has arisen about him eventually marrying her).
Very simply, he chooses to be kind because it’s a right and good thing to do.
All sorts of things follow: I’ll leave you to finish the story for yourselves. But don’t neglect some time when you are in the New Testament, to read the family tree of Jesus in Matthew 1. There, in that long list of very Hebrew names, who do we find? - “Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was... Ruth”. Yes, the lonely young gentile widow finds her place in the centuries-old unfolding of the purposes of God.
Suppose Boaz had chosen to take no interest in Ruth, to harden his heart against her? One of those things we will never know...
What do you need to make you a kind person? I suggest two basic things.
First, eyes that see the needs of others.
If kindness, in essence, means offering help to someone who needs it, well, obviously you can’t do that if you haven’t seen that need. Our problem, very likely, is just that we are so self-obsessed that we see only our own needs.
So let’s look up and look around us!
Second, hands willing to act for that other person.
True, sometimes real kindness can be shared simply by a word or a smile - greeting a stranger in the street, taking a moment to pass the time of day with the person at the super-market check-out, pausing to ask after the sick relative of a fellow-employee - but often there is a cost involved; action is required, great or small.
Again, if deep-down we are just plain selfish, that simply isn’t going to happen. And we need to remind ourselves of Jesus’ great word: “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving” (ask Boaz!).
Kindness is, of course, a universal thing, by no means confined to Christians. But if we are followers of Jesus, surely we above all should stand out as kind people. The poet Wordsworth wrote about “That best portion of a good man’s life-/ His little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.” “Little, nameless, unremembered acts” perhaps; but who can ever guess or calculate their value?
There’s a Japanese proverb that says, “One kind word can warm three winter months”. I like that! And this too: “Be kind; everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” Yes, people may look unfriendly, cold and aggressive; but deep down inside they are very likely timid and insecure, silently crying out for just a little touch of kindness.
Lady Macbeth scolded her husband for being “too full o’ the milk of human kindness”. She meant it as a rebuke; but personally I find it hard to think of a greater compliment. How about you?
Lord God, fill my heart with Christlike kindness for everyone I meet, and especially for those, like Ruth, who are sad, lonely and far from home. Amen.
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