At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.” – Ruth 4:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 22, 2012): Ruth 4

I am a bit of a Richard Dawkins fan. That may be surprising to some people, after all I am a Christian Pastor and Dawkins is a one of the world’s leading atheists and a militant personality in the war against not just Christianity, but all religion. But I like to people that make me think and at that task he definitely qualifies. I first began to be aware of Dawkins when I read his book “The Selfish Gene” back in University. I liked the way that he described the gene, and even liked his idea of a meme – which is basically just an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. It all made a lot of sense to me.

I was recently in a discussion group which discussed some of Dawkins ideas (actually the discussion focussed around Alistair Mcgrath’s book “The Dawkins Delusion.”) One of the comments that had been made during the discussion concerned Dawkin’s belief in morals. It seemed to the people that had gathered that concept of morals was something that should be the domain of just religion. But Dawkins has always argued that morality can be the product of memes. The idea is that because morals and altruism strengthen the community, natural selection can be at work – even if the morals weaken the individual person. So a man giving his own life for someone else actually can be selected for by natural selection because it can strengthen the community in which the man lives.

But, altruism is not always present, even in religious cultures. In the story of Ruth and Naomi, Boaz goes to the one that had a closer claim to Naomi and her land then he did and he offers it to him. The man is willing to redeem it until he realizes that there is a widow involved in the transaction. The problem was that if he took the land and the widow, and if he had a child with the widow, the land would no longer be in his name – the land would be held in the name of the widow’s deceased husband. It was one of the provisions of the Mosaic Law that would attempt to make sure that no family line would ever be erased from the tribes of Israel. And that was too much of a risk for the man. He did not want to spend his money to redeem land that may not have been able to stay with his family and in his name.

The part of the story that amuses me is that, in spite of the law, it is not Ruth’s deceased husband that we remember. It is the one who decided that Ruth was worth the risk that we honor, and it is him that we recognize in the lineages of both David and of Jesus. Boaz took the risk and he was the one that would received the honor.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 1