What’s in a name? Your name isn’t just the way that people call you; it can also say something about you. Perhaps you know what your name means, and you can decide if it’s accurate or not. Gary means strength, and I can see you all thinking that it’s spot on (or maybe not...). Names communicate something of who we are. But sometimes, people decide to change their name. In fact, in 2016, there were 85,000 who changed their name by deed poll in the UK.
Those name changes happen for a variety of reasons. For some, a name change will be a new start, a new identity, a clean break from an abusive partner. For others, though, it seems to be less serious, like the lady who changed her name to include Penelope Pitstop (from Wacky Races), or the person who is now known as Mr Bacon Double Cheeseburger.
In our reading tonight from Ruth chapter 1, we discover a requested name change, in verse 20. Now, for us, as we read that verse, we might not grasp what’s being said. ‘Don’t call me Naomi, she told them, call me Mara...’ So let me read it in translation, the way the people of Bethlehem would have heard it. Don’t call me pleasant. Call me bitter.
Naomi’s name seemed like a burden to her. It didn’t seem to fit her any more. She doesn’t want to be called pleasant, because she feels far from pleasant. Instead, she wants to be called Mara - bitter. That’s how she feels, and that’s what she wants everyone else to call her.
So how did this come about? How did the change from pleasant to bitter happen? What has gone on to bring about her bitterness? That’s what this opening chapter of Ruth tells us.
Verse 1 gives us an idea of where this story fits into the bigger Old Testament story. ‘In the days when the judges ruled.’ Ruth can be hard to find, snuggled in between the big books of Judges and 1 Samuel, but this is where the story fits. The days of the judges - when God’s people would turn away from God, then they would face opposition, then they would cry out to God, and God would send a ‘judge’ - not someone in a robe and curly wig, but a rescuer, a saviour. And round and round that pattern goes in the book of Judges - you can probably think of the famous ones, Gideon, Deborah, and Samson, but there were 12 in total. Going round and round in this cycle of things getting worse, and each time God sending help.
Well, during this time, we’re told there was a famine in the land. The land is the promised land, the place God had given to the people of Israel, the land flowing with milk and honey. So for there to be famine was a bad sign. A sign that things weren’t well. Famine was one of the marks of the curse under the old covenant (Deut 28:38-42). And even worse, the famine is felt in Bethlehem, which means the house of bread. It’s a bit like the old advert - Fred, there’s no bread. Only this is serious.
This one family decide to move away from home, away from the promised land, to go to Moab. They leave their God-given inheritance to live in enemy territory. And again, names are important. We’ve already met Naomi, and her husband is called Elimelech - God is my king. Except, it doesn’t really look like it at this point.
So the family move to Moab, and it’s here that tragedy begins to strike. First of all, Elimelech dies. Naomi is left with her two sons. After her boys get married to Moabite women, they both die as well. Naomi has lost her husband and her sons within a few years. She’s in a strange place, without a breadwinner - in those days it was the men who went to work, so without a man, there was no pension or social security benefits.
But then Naomi hears (6) that the Lord had come to the aid of his people. He has provided food for them back in Bethlehem. So she decides to return home - to go back. As she sets out, she tells her daughters-in-law to go back. (There’s a lot of going back in these verses!). Naomi is going back to Bethlehem, but the two younger women should go back to their own families.
Naomi prays that the Lord will show kindness to them, as they showed kindness to their dead and to Naomi. She also prays that the Lord will grant them rest in the house of another husband. Immediately, they say that they’ll come back with her. But that leads to Naomi urging stronger for them to return home.
She’s honest that the prospects aren’t great. That, even if she had a husband today, and got married and had sons, were the women going to wait to marry them? And here in verse 13 we get the first hint of Naomi’s bitterness - ‘It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has gone out against me!’
At that, Orpah (not Oprah!) kisses her goodbye and walks away. But Ruth clings to her. Naomi tries to get her to go. Do you see what Orpah is returning to? ‘Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.’
It’s not just her family that Orpah is going back to. She’s also returning to her gods. Back to the Moabite religion. Back to the false gods.
At this point we get the famous words of Ruth - words of commitment, loyalty and devotion. Words that are sometimes read at weddings, but are actually words of love from a daughter-in-law to a mother-in-law:
‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.’
Ruth pledges her loyalty and devotion to Naomi. Stuck like glue. But did you notice how Ruth and Orpah differ? Orpah goes back to her people and her gods. Ruth is going to Naomi’s people and Naomi’s God. While we might think that Naomi may not have been a great witness for God, Ruth has captured something of the greatness of Naomi’s God, and commits herself to this God. That’s seen when she prays ‘May the Lord deal with me...’ Even in this life of tragedy and bitterness, Naomi has brought Ruth to know the true and living God.
Now when the two women arrive in Bethlehem, ‘the whole town was stirred because of them.’ (19). Naomi has been away for at least 10 years. She has been beat down by the circumstances of her life, and the women exclaimed, ‘Can this be Naomi?’ She looks like her, but is this her? Is this the same woman who left here back then?
Well, it is her, but she doesn’t like that name any more. Can this be pleasant? Don’t call me pleasant, call me bitter. Now why does she want her name changed? Do you see the reason there in verse 20? ‘Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.’
Naomi knows exactly who’s to blame. It’s all God’s fault. He has made my life very bitter. He has emptied me. He has afflicted me. He has brought misfortune on me.
I wonder have you ever considered changing your name? Have you ever felt the same as Naomi - bitter, and empty. Perhaps you’ve been through a period of time when it seems that everyone is against you - even God. Maybe that’s your experience right now. Don’t call me by my own name, call me bitter.
Names matter - we’ve seen that with Elimelech, and we’ve more than seen that with Naomi / Mara. But look at the names Naomi uses for God. Twice she calls him the Almighty (Shaddai) - the God who is all powerful, who can do anything. That speaks of God’s power and strength, but to her it feels as if that power has been used against her. And yet she still recognises that God is the Almighty. That’s who he is.
But more than that, he is also the LORD. The capital letter LORD is the covenant name of God - the I am who I am - the pledge and seal of the promise making, promise keeping God. So what if this God hasn’t been afflicting her, but is at work in her circumstances to fulfil his purposes? What if this Almighty God is working to keep his promise and bring about his covenant through her?
Well, we’ll have to see. but already there’s more than a hint that actually, Naomi’s perspective is skewed - that she isn’t seeing things clearly. How does she describe herself? Bitter, afflicted, but also empty. She claims to have nothing, to be empty.
Has she forgotten? Or does she not care? What does she have? She has Ruth, who has pledged her loyalty and devotion. Naomi, despite what she might think, is not entirely empty. She has her daughter-in-law, stuck like glue. Sometimes it can be helpful to take time and think - what do I have? What do I have to be thankful for? And we realise that we have more than we first realised. As the song puts it, count your blessings... And the story is only really starting. But there’s another hint of what’s to come in the last words of the chapter.
When do they arrive in Bethlehem? ‘As the barley harvest was beginning.’ As we finish, it’s like those dum-dum-dum-dum-dums in Eastenders. We’re at a cliffhanger. Naomi may feel bitter and empty, but the harvest time is coming, and God has not abandoned her. There’s more to come. And more discover of how the Almighty LORD is at work in her life.
This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday 21st January 2018.
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