It’s All About Grace - Part 2

Introduction

Ruth 2:14–23 ESV

And at mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain. And she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over. When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. And also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.” So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. And she took it up and went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied. And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.” And Ruth the Moabite said, “Besides, he said to me, ‘You shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’ ” And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, lest in another field you be assaulted.” So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

In February 2025, Paola Barrera, a woman I had opportunity to work with a few years ago, published an article in Christianity Today. “Once I Was an Immigrant. Then I Forgot,” is the title of the piece.

I am an immigrant from Venezuela, a recent Canadian citizen, and a member of the kingdom of God. These three identities collided with each other one recent afternoon when my husband and I went to our local pharmacy to get our seasonal flu shots.

Before I tell you what she says about that collision of identities, let me share with you how she describes her background.

I grew up privileged, educated in both Switzerland and the United States. My husband and I hold university degrees from the UK and the US, respectively. But these credentials didn’t afford us job security when Venezuela’s economy began declining in 2010. They also didn’t give us automatic residency nor work authorization in any Western country. 

After doing research for a few months, they learned that they could qualify for Canada’s immigration program for permanent residency. This began a two year application process and journey, costing thousands of dollars, and included her husband learning French. In 2012 they left Caracas, Venezuela for Montreal in Quebec, Canada.

15 years after they began their immigration journey, there they were checking in at the pharmacy for their vaccination appointment.

After checking in for our appointments, made weeks prior, my husband Gustavo and I squeezed past numerous coats, jackets, purses, and backpacks as we navigated the cramped waiting area of our local pharmacy. With fewer than ten chairs and twice as many people waiting their turn, we eventually found standing room space that curved out into the store’s aisle of antihistamines.

Wondering how a routine appointment had packed the waiting room, she realized that the staff was squeezing in people without appointments in between the people who had appointments. She said, “Judging by the languages that these patients were speaking, it seemed that many were immigrants.”

As she kept getting passed over for her shot, she began to become irritated.

I rolled my eyes, looked at my watch, and tapped my foot. I looked over where my husband was still standing. He threw a “Don’t worry about it” look, mouthing in Spanish that our turn would come eventually.

That turn did come eventually. Here’s how she describes her attitude after receiving her vaccination shot.

I felt indignant. So much of my time had been taken away from me for no reason other than by the selfishness of families who were asking the system to accommodate them, rather than following the procedures of a free health care system. In my own anger, I saw myself only as a Canadian citizen, not someone who had been a newcomer to the country at her own point in life. I forgot anything about my own faith and how that might provoke me to consider my fellow vaccine patients. 

She goes on to recount the challenges she and her husband faced as new immigrants. She writes,

Yet there I was last fall, 15 years on the other side, a grateful Canadian citizen—and an irritated neighbor….The world’s exiled people present a huge inconvenience for the world’s established…The intense emotions present in the pharmacy’s standing room-only waiting area offer a jarring microcosm of a global reality.

Then Paola reminds us of the apostle Peter’s words in 1 Peter 2:10

1 Peter 2:10 ESV

Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

As Peter notes, God’s transformative work in our lives hinges on mercy. We cannot change without receiving this grace. We also cannot be recipients of mercy if we have not wronged or inconvenienced someone else…While politicians debate our immigration systems, our faith calls us to extend grace to the people who challenge us.

This is the connection to our passage this morning. Faith in Jesus Christ calls us to extend grace to the people who challenge us. Paola is describing the empathy that is required in extending grace to others. Because empathy involves going in where it’s not comfortable, where you have to squirm a bit.

We have to go there because Jesus’s empathy wasn’t about God becoming a man to identify with and help people who liked him. It was about him coming to identify with and help his enemies, us. That’s the scandalous nature of grace that we talked about a couple of weeks ago when we looked at vv.1-13 of this chapter. And for us to live into that grace requires grace. It requires that we receive grace from God so that we become willing to give grace to others.

That’s what’s going on in this chapter of Ruth. By the time we get to the end of the chapter, Naomi has changed. She is no longer bitter. Her faith has been renewed. Well, what’s behind the change? Or rather, who’s behind the change? It is Ruth. This foreign woman, this immigrant to Israel, who empathized with Naomi by committing herself to Naomi, by clinging to Naomi in spite of Naomi’s bitterness, in spite of Naomi’s bad attitude, in spite of the fact that Naomi’s bitterness caused her to turn inward and focus only on herself. Ruth receives amazing grace from Boaz in this chapter, then she turns around and gives that grace to Naomi. It is grace that changes Naomi.

Let me say this before I move on. One of the things I love about the book of Ruth is how ordinary it is. We’re able to call this series, “God Behind the Seen,” because there’s no supernatural miracles in this story. We find ordinary, natural occurences that happen in this world - famine, loss, poverty, marriage, death, grief, abundance, joy. It’s all in there. So, this story welcomes us into the experience.

Two things we’re going to talk about from these verses, Giving Grace and Changing Grace.

Giving Grace

Ruth had gone out in vv.2-3 looking for grace. And when grace found her she was blown away. It has far exceeded her expectations. She was just looking for enough food for the day, and got invited to a banquet. She says to Boaz in v. 13,

Ruth 2:13 ESV

Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”

So, when it comes to giving grace, we have two grace givers in this chapter. (Three if you include the Lord.) The first is Boaz. Ruth says to him, “you have comforted me.” I said this last time. When she says, “you have spoken kindly to your servant,” the wooden translation is, “you have spoken to the heart of your servant.” Your words of grace have gone directly to my heart. Do we realize that these are the first kind words that Ruth has heard since she’s left Moab? Boaz prayed in v. 12 that the Lord would repay her for what she had done, and a full reward be given to her by the Lord, the God is Israel, under whose wings she had come to take refuge!” And the Lord is making Boaz the answer to his own prayer.

For her part, Ruth had already been extending grace. Naomi had told Orpah and Ruth back in ch. 1 to return to their mother’s house. Don’t come with me. Orpah went back, but Ruth stuck with Naomi. And Naomi said to her,

“Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods, go back like she did” (Ruth 1:15).

But Ruth rejected the gods of her people and put her trust in the Lord. She sought refuge under the Lord’s wings, and this commitment to him had her extending grace to Naomi. But this was an extension of grace that wasn’t acknowledged. There’s no record of a kind word being spoken to Ruth by Naomi or anyone else from the time she professed faith in the Lord until now.

When people turn to Jesus in faith and repentance, it’s cause for celebration. Can you picture what it would be like for a church to be indifferent about someone believing in Jesus? That’s what it was like for Ruth the foreigner. It didn’t matter that she had committed herself to the Lord. She was still a Moabite. That’s how it was until Boaz comes along and give her the grace that she so desperately needed.

Boaz’s giving of grace isn’t just in words, it’s action. In the book of James, the apostle James says to the church in James 2:15-16

James 2:15–16 ESV

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

Boaz doesn’t say to Ruth, “The Lord bless you,” and tell her, “go in peace.” He doesn’t say “go,” he says the opposite in v. 14,

Ruth 2:14 ESV

And at mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain. And she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over.

She ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over. Listen, every month in this country we get a report on how the economy is doing. One of the measures of our economic well being is the unemployment rate. And no matter how low the unemployment rate is, if you find yourself among the unemployed, the economy isn’t doing well. You and I need to grasp the depth of poverty and the scarcity of opportunity there was for Ruth and Naomi. We need to grasp how precarious and vulnerable they were to more harm. Boaz tells her in v. 8 to keep close to his young women. Then he assures her in v. 9, “I have charged the young men not to touch you.” Naomi says to Ruth in v. 22, “It’s good that you go out with his young women, lest you be assaulted in another field.” Do you see how vulnerable to more harm she was? This isn’t a happy story until this point. It’s been a tragedy.

So, what we read here is like someone who is unemployed, and doesn’t know how they’re going to pay their bills or put food on their table. Then they get a temp job for the day. Then the CEO of the company they’re temping for that day comes along and says, “I’m taking everybody to lunch today, I want you to come. Not only that, I want you to sit at my table. Not only that, when we get back I’m going to set you up with your own office, a promotion, a raise, heath care, and a 401(k).” That doesn’t happen! What we find here in this chapter wasn’t normal for people then, and it’s not normal for people now. I love the way commentator Ian Duguid puts it in his commentary,

“Boaz provided her a share of his own food: special treats of bread dipped in sour vinegar and roasted grain so that, heaven of heavens, for once she had enough to eat. The joy of having enough to eat is a hard concept for us to grasp in our affluence, for we are used to satisfying our appetites three times a day, with snacks in between. But for a foreign widow to be able to eat to the point where she was full and still have some left over to take home…what a feast!”

After they eat, there’s more grace. She gets a promotion and special privileges. Boaz tells his employees in v.15, “Let her glean even among the sheaves.” He tells them to even take some of the barley they have bundled up and leave it for her to add to what she’s gleaned. As one writer puts it, “Boaz’s generosity now becomes almost comical.”

Teaching Ruth and Esther: From Text to Message B. Ruth Finds the Grace She Sought (vv. 3–17)

We picture these men tugging out the good stalks and saying to her, ‘Look, Ruth, I’ve left you a pile over here … and there’s more over here … and over there. Help yourself to as much as you like!’

“Boaz exhibits a kindness that is boundless.”

And we are told in v. 17 that when she beat out what she had gleaned at the end of the work day, it was about an ephah of barley. That is, it was somewhere between 30-50 pounds of barley. In one day she was blessed with enough food for two weeks for she and Naomi. Not only that, look at v. 23

Ruth 2:23 ESV

So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

She gleaned throughout the barley and wheat harvests. She and Naomi may have been able to get enough grain to go into business selling grain. 

Because of Ruth’s faithfulness, it’s easy for us to empathize with her, and be glad that she is receiving some of the kindness and grace that she has shown. But Boaz isn’t the only grace giver in this chapter. Ruth is still a grace giver. She ate until she was satisfied and she had some left over. Why did she have some left over? Was it because she couldn’t eat another bite? Was she was too full to eat any more? No. She left some of the food over particularly because Naomi was always on her mind.

When she went back into the city of Bethlehem, the narrator says in v. 18 that her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Ruth also brought out and gave Naomi what food she had left over after her meal. This is prepared food. This is roasted grain. Naomi has probably gone all day without food herself. Ruth doesn’t want Naomi to have to wait for a meal to be prepared from the grain she’s harvested. She wants her to be able to eat now. 

Here is my point. I’ve made it before, and I’m making it again. Ruth had gone all the way in. Empathizing with Naomi by committing even to share her poverty. And she was always looking to extend grace to Naomi, not because Naomi deserved it, but because that’s how grace works. Naomi had been at best indifferent towards Ruth, and at worst bitter towards her. But Naomi’s unkindness wasn’t enough to push Ruth away. She was serious when she said, nothing but death is going to separate me from you.

Do you know the Lord? Do you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? The Bible says,

2 Corinthians 8:9 ESV

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

He empathized completely with us, leaving the riches of his glory to take on our poverty, so that through his poverty we might become rich. Here’s the question. Who do you need to extend that kind of grace towards? Paola was correct. Faith in Jesus Christ calls us to extend grace to the people who challenge us. Who is it that needs to receive grace from you?

Last week I attended the annual Praxis Redemptive Imagination Summit in Northern California. I was on a panel in one of the breakout sessions titled, Peacemaking in Polarized Times: Engaging in Public Life With Gospel Credibility, Peacemaking Instinct, and Spiritual Formation at the Center. One of the points I wanted to get across is that it is exponentially harder for us to engage in public life as a peacemaker if we’re not being formed for it, if it’s not being cultivated in our parish. And by parish I mean our homes, our church, and our neighborhood. You and I won’t prioritize a posture of peacemaking, extending grace, to those who challenge us in our broader public life if it’s not a priority in our parish. This is because of the immense cost of extending grace to those who challenge us. It is nothing short of dying to self. If we’re not willing to go there, our public life peacemaking will only be performative.

So, I ask again, who do you need to extend grace to in your parish?

Changing Grace

You see, because that’s how change happens. That’s the changing grace of God. What I mean is that God uses grace to change hearts. It is by grace that he changed your heart, and it is by grace that he changes the hearts of others. This is what happened to Naomi. The woman who was bold in her bitterness. This woman, whose name means “pleasantness,” but boldly declared to everyone in Bethlehem, “don’t call me Naomi, call me Mara (bitterness) because the Almighty has made me bitter.”

Now Ruth shows up with two weeks worth of grain and some food for her to eat now, and Naomi can’t believe it. Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed is the man who took notice of you! (v. 19) Of course, Ruth is eager to tell her, and says, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” And here it is. Naomi says in v. 20, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!”

Do you remember when we looked at the second part of ch. 1 and talked about the kindness of the Lord? The word translated in ch. 1:8 and here in v. 20 as kindness is the Hebrew word, “hesed.” It’s normally translated as “steadfast love,” or, “lovingkindness.” In the tragedy of ch. 1, Naomi couldn’t see the Lord’s covenantal love. His love for her in providing Ruth to stay with her through thick and through thin. But now she can see! The Almighty isn’t out to get her after all. He hasn’t forgotten his lovingkindness. Naomi’s great great grandson, David, will say in the 9th Psalm and vv. 11-12 to sing praises to the Lord because he does not forget the cry of the afflicted! Naomi is changing. She sees God’s goodness to her in the food that Ruth brings home. What did the Lord use to bring this change about? Grace. Grace extended to Naomi through Ruth. 

We don’t have a story of Ruth getting on Naomi for her bad attitude. Ruth wasn’t going around trying to make Naomi feel guilty for not being nice. Do you think that she wanted Naomi to change? Of course she did. No one wants to see someone they love living a bitter and depressed life, angry with God. But it wasn’t guilt that brought the change of heart. It was grace. The Lord’s lovingkindness in action through Ruth. 

What do you do when you’re being kind to people and their being unkind or indifferent towards you? I’m not talking about the random person on the street. I’m talking about the people you’ve committed yourself to. What do you do with the temptation to treat them the way that they’re treating you? What do you do with the temptation to make them feel guilty and bad for their unkindness and indifference? It’s not guilt that changes hearts, it’s grace.

This kindness that Naomi is talking about again in v. 20 is on her mind because of Ruth’s display of lovingkindness to her. Guilt cannot serve for very long as a motive for love. It will become a burden and a chore. Grace must be the motive for love. Receiving grace from God in Jesus Christ, and giving grace to others.

We are given a hint here that, by grace, God is going to supply all of their needs. Boaz is identified as a redeemer. Naomi says in v. 21, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.” The function of a redeemer in Israel was to provide financially for his poor relatives and, if needed, offspring as well. God was providing a rescuer. He is on the move. And he is on the move giving grace and making people grace givers. That’s what he was doing then, and that’s what he’s still doing now. The picture of grace that we are given here is the picture of empathetic love. It’s the kind of love we see in Jesus when we’re told in Hebrews 2:17-18 that Jesus 

Hebrews 2:17–18 ESV

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

He helps those who are being tempted. He helps by extending grace. Extending grace so that we can see our sin and turn to him in faith. Naomi found out that she had misunderstood and misjudged God. It was grace that brought her to that conclusion. You and I can guilt people into changing people for a time, but it will never move the heart. Grace moves the heart.

Last thing. This experience of grace and the change that it brought moved Naomi from the sense of ruin that her tragedy brought upon her back to a sense of hopefulness again. One of the speakers at the Praxis Summit reminded us that tragedy doesn’t ruin anybody, hopelessness does. Naomi said to Ruth and Orpah in 1:12,

Ruth 1:12 ESV

Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons,

There’s no hope for me she was saying to them. To align with me is to doom yourselves to the same hopeless fate. Now there’s a sparkle in her eye. Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you (Ruth 2:19)! The sparkle in her eye is hope. The story isn’t over, but this is the turning point where the tension of tragedy and ruin breaks, and hope begins to dawn for Naomi. And it’s grace that breaks the tension and changes the trajectory.

May the grace of God ever be at work changing us and growing us as grace givers.