... both Mahlon and Kilion also died,and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. – Ruth 1:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 19, 2012): Ruth 1

One thing that I admit that I do not understand is the prosperity gospel. I understand why there is an interest in that biblical teaching. There are not many of us who, deep down, would not like the troubles of this life to be lessened (or even to have them removed.) But I struggle with those that believe, not only that a problem free life is possible, but that God actually wills it. But that does not seem to match with our lives, or even with the great men and women of faith in history. I have walked with people who have been thrown away by churches because of the problems in their lives. For the faith community, their problems just proved that there was a lack of faith in their lives – and the persistence of the problems indicated that they were not willing to do anything about their lack of faith.

Yet, so much of the Biblical story seems to be about people that are living in the liminality of life (literally living on the border between life and death.) The question that plagues me is this – did they exist in those liminal moments because they lacked faith, or did they live in liminality because God knew that there he could work through them.

One of the great stories on liminality is found in the book of Ruth. Naomi is an example of a person living on that border between life and death. After her husband and her sons die, she exists in a dark place in the society. As a widow, she would have had no rights that she should claim as her own. All of her dreams for the future would have died with her husband and her sons.  And her situation was only complicated by the fact that she was living in a foreign land during a time of famine. So, when she decides to return to Bethlehem and Israel, her return makes sense. What does not make sense is that her son’s widow would make the move to Israel with her. As a Moabite woman, all she was doing was condemning herself to a life stuck in liminality. What both women needed was someone to walk with them through their dark border existence.   

But what we cannot say is that while in Moab Naomi did not have faith, but she did have faith in Israel. It might be that, in the story, Naomi does not find her faith until the very end of the tale. What Naomi does seem to have is someone walking with her throughout the liminal experience. She had Ruth and a God that had never left her, and loved her in spite of a lack of faith and the death of the men in her life.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ruth 2