The Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 27), November 10, 2024

This week’s readings show the potential of people’s choices. Ruth chose to stay with Naomi which led to her marriage to Boaz. The scribes chose to exploit their lofty position in the temple and the poor widow chose to give what little she had to the treasury. Our choices have consequences, both direct and indirect. Within Process Theology, and its sister discipline Open and Relational Theology, God is not considered to be directing people’s behaviour. God’s nature is not to control and so creatures, not only have the capacity to make choices for themselves but God is also affected by their decisions.

This week’s gospel reading demonstrates the impact of some people’s choices, and how Jesus reacted to them. In Mark 12 v 38 – 44, Jesus is clearly angry and speaks of condemnation for those who choose to be haughty, who seek status and ‘say long prayers’. This behaviour is compared with the humility and generosity of the poor widow, who has little but gives all from her poverty. Alfred North Whitehead has described God as “the fellow sufferer who understands.” If God understands our suffering, surely God must also understand our choices and our motivations.

In this week’s section of the book of Ruth it is very striking how submissive Ruth is in comparison to the passage in last week’s lectionary readings. When Ruth chose to stay with Naomi, she was passionate, full of decision and conviction. Now in chapter 3 Ruth appears to be more passive, following Naomi’s instructions to find a husband. Kwok Pui-Lan again uses a post-colonial hermeneutics of suspicion, stating that women and in this context women of another culture, are often silent, replaced or ignored altogether. Looking at the book of Ruth, Naomi is the most vocal of the women and provides the voice of tradition, of God’s chosen people, the dominant race and the status quo. Ruth is more passive and as the book of Ruth concludes everyone rejoices that Naomi has a son, not Ruth. It is David’s male line of genealogy that is quoted listing Boaz not Ruth. Pui-Lan highlights this inequality between male and female, and between white western culture and those form other ethnic groups.

A Christians we seek to follow the path of love, acknowledging that our choices have consequences for ourselves and for the world. How do we make choices that challenge injustice and contribute to the flourishing of all?

Optional Resources

This months lectionary integrates scripture with aspects of popular culture. When we engage with scripture or with a church service we take with us those things that influence us from broader life and culture. Below are some suggestions that came to me from as a I reflected on these passages, this list is by no means exhaustive. If you find them useful please do use them as you prepare to lead worship this coming week. May they bless you.

Films: Hidden Figures, Schindler’s List and Aladin.
Music: Life of Surprises by Prefab Sprout.

Reference: Pui-Lan, K. (2005) Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology. London; SCM Canterbury Press.

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Doral Hayes is the Principal Officer for Ecumenical Development and Relations at Churches Together in England and is a Licensed Lay Minister in the Oxford Diocese of the Church of England. Doral holds a MA in Contemporary Christian Theology from Newman University, Birmingham and is currently undertaking doctoral research in ecumenical theology at the University of Roehampton, London. Doral is a contributor to Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God, edited by Jeff Wells, Thomas Jay Oord, et. al. She lives in Buckinghamshire, England with her husband, two teenage children and a crazy whippet.