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Great, Ordinary People |
The Book of Ruth |
This little short story is a storyteller's delight. There are no bad people here. Among today's church people, it is largely unknown, though. We need models of good, courageous behavior, particularly of common folk. I had begun a series of sermons to span both the Old and New Testaments of important "minor" characters, the bit part players. I called the series, "Heroes, Villains, and Ne'er-do-wells." I mapped out a list of characters I could come up with, balanced, I hoped, among the three kinds. Of minor characters, the villains and ne'er-do-wells seemed easy to spot; but the "heroes" did not. Finally, I decided that I was looking for "ordinary" people who, by how they lived, were great. That's when I found all three of these at once, Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz, and even others from this story if you add the first husbands of Naomi's two daughters. I love to preach these kinds of stories, the kind that both "teach" and challenge us at the same time, the kind that give even us common folk some feel-good, flesh and blood, heroes. |