In a really good story, there are almost always several things going on.  That is true with the book of Ruth.  The book of Ruth is, first of all, a great romance story.  You’ll have to come back next week for the love story.  But today’s chapter has lots of hints about the love story if you listen carefully.

          But there’s much more going on here.  The book of Ruth is also a story of loyal friendship and redemption.  It is also a story that demonstrates justice and mercy. 

          Today, with Thanksgiving just a few days away, it’s appropriate that we talk about caring for the needy.  In our text, chapter two of Ruth, Naomi and Ruth are apparently penniless, and have little or nothing to eat.  Now, remember how bitter and hopeless Naomi was at the end of chapter one.  Today, you will see hope beginning to sprout in Naomi.

          In that Jewish community, the poor were cared for by allowing them to glean—that is, to gather what remained in the fields after the workers had picked the fields.  Part of their law in Leviticus 19:9-10 says “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.  Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen.  Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.”

          It was this law of compassion towards the poor that gave hope to Naomi and Ruth.  The landowners were to leave some of the harvest for the needy.

          I am reading Ruth 2.

 ¹ Now Naomi had a relative on her husband's side, from the clan of Elimelech, a man of standing, whose name was Boaz.

          This is just a little bit of information for the reader, and something called foreshadowing—that is, a little hint of something that is going to happen in the story.

 ² And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor."
      Naomi said to her, "Go ahead, my daughter." ³ So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.

 ⁴ Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, "The LORD be with you!"
      "The LORD bless you!" they called back.

 ⁵ Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, "Whose young woman is that?"

 ⁶ The foreman replied, "She is the Moabitess who came back from Moab with Naomi. ⁷ She said, 'Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.' She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter."

 ⁸ So Boaz said to Ruth, "My daughter, listen to me. Don't go and glean in another field and don't go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. ⁹ Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled."

 ¹⁰ At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, "Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?"

 ¹¹ Boaz replied, "I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. ¹² May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

 ¹³ "May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord," she said. "You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servant girls."

 ¹⁴ At mealtime Boaz said to her, "Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar."
      When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. ¹⁵ As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, "Even if she gathers among the sheaves, don't embarrass her. ¹⁶ Rather, pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don't rebuke her."

 ¹⁷ So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.¹⁸ She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.

 ¹⁹ Her mother-in-law asked her, "Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!"
      Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. "The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz," she said.

 ²⁰ "The LORD bless him!" Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. "He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead." She added, "That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers."

 ²¹ Then Ruth the Moabitess said, "He even said to me, 'Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.' "

 ²² Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, "It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with his girls, because in someone else's field you might be harmed."

 ²³ So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

          Next week, the romance.  But today, we’re going to stop here and talk about the practice of gleaning as a way of caring for the poor. 

          I really like the concept of gleaning for a couple of reasons.  First, gleaning does not criticize the wealthy for being wealthy.  All over the world for as far back as history has been recorded, there have been the wealthy and the poor and those who are in between.  The concept of gleaning accepts this as a fact.  It does not berate the wealthy or try to make them feel guilty for what they have.  Instead, it gives them guidelines as to how their wealth should be shared.

          We, of course, do not live in an agrarian society—most of us don’t have fields and vineyards.  So in order to see how this applies to us, we need to take it symbolically.  When Leviticus directs the landowners not to reap to the edges of their fields, but to leave what is there for the poor, there is a correlation for us.

          I believe this is what it means.  We are welcome to use and enjoy most of what we have earned.  But not every single bit.  We must leave some of our wealth for those who are needy.

          That’s what Boaz did.  He allowed Ruth, this foreign woman who had no food, to pick up behind the paid reapers.  It was not a hand out.  Ruth, by Levitical law, had the right to glean what the reapers had left.  She had to work for what she got, and she willingly did work.  Naomi was apparently too old and weak to do this sort of work, so Ruth went into the fields to get food for both of them.

          Now, Boaz went the extra mile.  That may have been because he was a kind man, it may have been because he felt some responsibility for Naomi, who was a relative, or it may have been that Ruth was very beautiful and he was attracted to her.  Probably it was all three.

          So how does this apply to us today?  To begin with, Boaz was a rich man, and most of us are not rich.  Or are we? 

          We who live in America are constantly inundated with pictures of wealth.  We constantly see ads enticing us to buy things we don’t need and can’t afford.  We constantly see images of the rich and famous who live extravagant lifestyles.  The result is that we tend to think of ourselves as rather poor.

          But the fact is, we are, all of us, quite wealthy, in comparison to the rest of the world.  Let me give you some statistics that might surprise you.

          If your annual income is $100,000, you are richer than 99.3% of the people in the world. 

          If your annual income is $50,000, you are still richer than 99% of the people in the world.

          How about if your annual income is $25,000?  That puts you just into the top ten percent.  If your annual income is $25,000, you are still richer than 90% of the people in the world.

          If your annual income is $15,000, you are richer than almost 88% of the people in the world.

          If your annual income is $7,000, you are still richer than 86% of the people in the world.  Granted, you will have a difficult time living on that income in our society—that’s why we still need food banks.

          Supposing you live on the streets and have no income.  But by begging, you manage to pull in an average of $3 a day, giving you an annual income of $1,000.  Believe it or not, you are still richer than 66% of the people in the world.[i] Granted, you will have a difficult time living on that income in our society

          Isn’t that amazing?  When we gather around our heavy laden tables to partake of Thanksgiving dinners this week, it will do us well to understand just how fortunate we are.  Most of us are overfed on a daily basis, and Thanksgiving is often our excuse to overindulge even more than usual.  I have no desire to ruin your Thanksgiving dinner.  I intend to enjoy mine.  But we have to understand just how much we have in order to be truly thankful.

          Leviticus tells us not to reap to the edges of our fields.  To me, that means we are not to use all of our resources for ourselves.  We are to stop spending before we use up everything we have.

          Leviticus does not specify how much should be left at the edges of the fields.  Perhaps we are supposed to be able to look at the needs and look at our bounty and make wise decisions.

          The United States is, without question, a wealthy country.  We flaunt our wealth before the world and then wonder why they hate us.  We like to think we are generous, but the fact is we keep an awful lot of what we have for our own consumption.

          Today is Bread for the World Sunday, an appropriate thing for the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  There are many, many organizations working to alleviate hunger, both in our country and around the world.  Bread for the World is one of them. 

          Most organizations working to alleviate hunger are working to bring food to hungry people.  That is an act of compassion and mercy.  Bread for the World is an organization that works to alleviate hunger by working for justice. 

          To understand the difference, think of a polluted river.  The people who act out of compassion and mercy try to clean up the river.  The people who act out of justice go up to the mouth of the river to try to find the source of the problem and stop the pollution.

          Bread for the World works with government to urge them to do the things that will make a difference in the world.  The problems in the world, with respect to hunger, are enormous.  They can’t be solved overnight.  Most of us, even if we give generously, can’t make a dent in solving the problem of world hunger.

          That is why Bread for the World is an advocate for justice.  For more than 30 years, bread for the World has lobbied Congress and presidents to address root causes of hunger at home and abroad. Bread for the World testifies about hunger in places of power in order to pressure those who make decisions to remember the hungry.

          As I said, Bread for the World is one organization among many.  If you are drawn to their vision of working for justice in the area of hunger, I encourage you to find out more.  They will provide you with information that will help you be an advocate, by writing letters to your senators and representatives and becoming informed about issues of world hunger.

          Others of you might prefer a more hands-on type of involvement.  Our church always collects food that we bring to Northwest Harvest.  That food is distributed to area food banks, and goes to needy families in our community and surrounding areas. 

          Our church also supports Orion Center, which provides food for homeless teens.  There’s a box in the hallway for the specific foods they need.

          Some of you give money to organizations like World Vision and World Relief.  Here in Seattle, Union Gospel Mission does a wonderful work feeding the homeless.  The list could go on, and many of you have organizations you give to.  That is wonderful.

          I hope each of you has some way of celebrating Thanksgiving this week, whether at a bountiful table or with an extra special TV dinner.  But before you lift that fork and take a single bite, please stop and thank God for blessing you so bountifully.  And please stop and think about the more than one billion people in the world today living on less than $1 a day.  Think and pray about what God is asking you to do about it.  What does it mean for you to leave some edges around your field for those who are needy? 

          Before you take that first bite of thanksgiving dinner, do something for someone else.  No one here is so poor that they can’t bring a can of food for the hungry.  And most of us can do much more.  Let’s fill our boxes for Northwest Harvest and Orion Center up.  Let’s give generously—whether to our special offering for hunger or to your favorite charity that serves the hungry.  It is a fitting way to truly demonstrate our thankfulness.

Prayer:  Lord, we know that we are truly the self-centered rich of the world.  While we thank you for blessing us so generously, we also want to acknowledge that we have a responsibility to those less fortunate than us.  As you have been merciful and compassionate to us, help us to also be people of mercy and compassionate towards the needy.  Give us grateful hearts so that we might be truly thankful, and generous hearts so that we might share our bounty with others.

Amen