I’ve chosen to begin my time at Westside by preaching through the book of Ruth, perhaps preaching through Galatians alongside Ruth. I’m hoping to preach about Ruth being both our ancestor, as Gentiles, and the ancestor to King David. The book addresses all sorts of relevant topics including the anxiety of racial loss (anxiety of/in Israel of a Moabite, an enemy at the time to the people of God) and Ruth’s becoming (identity and assimilation). Where I’m hoping to land in the preaching is to sketch Ruth’s journey to join Naomi as a mirror to our journey to join Jesus and echo Ruth’s words (below) back to Jesus.
“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 even death separates you and me”