This performance of Ruth 2.1-18 was offered during the final Communion chapel service of the 2019-20 school year at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, MI, on March 13, 2020, right before COVID-19 measures were put in place state-wide. It is a timtely word. The Book of Ruth is the Gospel in microcosm, it tells the story of two women whose lives are transformed from emptiness to fullness, from hungry to satisfied, from resignation to hope, from bitterness to joy, from isolation to community, from wilderness to promised land, from the seed of David to the seed of Christ, from death to life.
And this chapter of Ruth depicted here is a microcosm of the Book of Ruth. What begins in lack ends in abundance. What begins in fear ends in hope. What is sown in tears is reaped with shouts of joy.
It is our hope that this performance will encourage you and inspire you to follow the story's arc in your own life amidst social distancing and the anxieties of this moment, and that God's Spirit would similarly move you from fear to trust, from scarcity to abundance, from isolation to community, from death to life.
16 сен 2024
