Being An Outsider

SUN., SEPT. 5, 1993, 6:25 AM
FARM, STUDY

The brief story of Ruth and her relationship with her mother-in-law, Naomi, is one of excellent adaptation. Love was the key factor. Ruth loved Naomi, wanted to be with her and serve her. Yet she was not a Jew, and this made her an inferior outsider as they reentered and lived in the Jewish community.

Prejudices against Jews in the world today are evident, but Jews themselves have felt and displayed prejudice against non-Jews from these early Biblical times. Ruth was a Moabite, a woman, and a widow, away from her family of origin. Her chances of remarrying and leading a good life were small. She was serving her mother-in-law humbly and well, and Naomi had enough connections and enough knowledge of her home people’s customs to make the “arranged” marriage happen. The roundabout kinship was necessary, or at least helpful, but it was Ruth’s attitude and behavior that overcame her outsider status.

And thus she was a wife and childbearer in the lineage of David, My favorite king. It was a short story, but one of success. It is about women, and not much of the Scripture concerns women. I commented recently to you about the lack of attention to the wife of Noah and the wives of his oft-named sons. According to this myth all of humanity came forth from these four women, but they were unnamed and “undescribed.” This story, of Ruth, is somewhat of a balance, for it gives a good picture of David’s great-grandmother. It’s not much, but it’s something.

Last evening you watched a portrayal of the Old West of your culture, a story of people fighting and killing each other because of a name, rather than race, color, or creed. If you were a Graham, the Tewksbury’s were outsiders, and vice versa… outsiders to be shot and killed. And then a powerful outsider came into the picture and “evened things up”… but by killing those who were the principal killers. It was a tale of the outsider helping the underdog, but also a tale of bloody battling… killing for the supposed honor of a name. You are right to feel rejection of this as glorious history, but it does have its analog in stories from Holy Scripture.

A gentler, non-violent recollection of yours is that of not being able to receive the fullness of Holy Communion in your son Michael’s Orthodox church. The bread was a friendly gesture to you as an outsider, but you were not welcomed as a fellow Christian. You shall have to deal with this again sometime in the near future, and it is hard to advise you. To go to that worship service you would have to go humbly as an outsider. You would have to accept that in their tradition not being Orthodox is not being Christian. So you must have the experience of being an outsider, a status of which I disapprove.

As one who hears Me directly and records My Teachings to you, you are an outsider to many of those in your congregation. Most don’t realize this or don’t want to know about it, but you are quite aware of this. Even though this is a very desirable condition of “outsiderness” you feel the discomfort of being “different.” If you took the risk of asking to be included as you truly are you could be excluded more purposefully.