The short book of Ruth is tender and precious. It is full of humanity and hope and, especially, grace.

Ruth was an outsider, a Moabite. In fact, the tribe of Moab was cursed (Deut 23.3-4). As late as Neh 13.23-27, some 600 years later, marriages to Moabites were strongly disapproved.

Yet, the story brings Ruth, a young Moabite widow, to the field of Boaz, a wealthy land-owner in Bethlehem. Boaz urged her to remain in his fields, gleaning amongst the crops; he provided that his young men would not ‘touch’ (abuse) her. She would enjoy safety among his servant girls.

As the story develops, Ruth, urged on by Naomi, her mother-in-law, seeks something more from Boaz. ‘Take your maidservant under your wing,’ she asks (Ruth 3.9, NKJV) Part of Boaz’s response was a generous portion of grain to take home!

Jewish inheritance laws meant that his estate (and reputation) would be endangered by marrying a Moabite (Deut 23.3). This was a huge decision. Yet this costly choice by Boaz pre-figures Christ’s death for Gentiles as well as Jews.

As a result, we find Ruth in the genealogical story of David and Christ. The widow becomes the ‘mother’ of royalty and deity.

John Wesley, writing in his Journal in November 1759, commented on ‘spiritual manifestations’ he observed during his meetings:

‘the danger was to regard extraordinary circumstances too much, such as outcries, convulsions, visions, trances; as if these were essential to inward work, so that it could not go on without them. Perhaps the danger is, to regard them too little; to condemn them altogether; to imagine they had nothing of God in them. And were a hindrance to His work.

Whereas the truth is

1. God suddenly and strongly convinced many that they were lost sinners; the natural consequence whereof were sudden outcries and strong bodily convulsions;
2. to strengthen and encourage them that believed, and to make his work more apparent, He favoured several of them with divine dreams, other with trances and visions;
3. in some of these instances, after a time, nature mixed with grace;
4. Satan likewise mimicked this work of God in order to discredit the whole work; and yet it is not wise to give up this part any more than to give up the whole.

At first, it was, doubtless, wholly from God. It is partly so at this day; and He will enable us to discern how far, in every case, the work is pure and where it mixes or degenerates.’

Sometimes I read something; and it makes sense of lots of stuff!

Many people I know struggle to offer hospitality to others – other do so frequently, enjoying the privilege of blessing others.

My wife Alison and I are able to do hospitality. Interesting that my parents almost never had friends in their home; whether for meals, of even just a tea or coffee. In contrast, Alison’s parents frequently did so – I had a lot of catching up to do!

I read the section ‘Commercialized Hospitality’ in Tom Chester’s book A Meal with Jesus. This made a lot of sense!

The Old and New Testaments indicate simple practical hospitality was commonplace.  It still true in many cultures, but less so in the UK and the US.

The ‘Commercialized Hospitality’ section starts with some statistics; that there has been a 1/3^rd reduction in the number of families eating together in the past 30 years; at the same time there has been a 45% decline in entertaining friends. Also, more than half of those families who do eat together do so in front of the television. And, new homes increasingly do not have dining rooms.

Historically ordinary households, then monasteries, were open to welcome travellers. In pre-industrial times, hospitality was classless.  But, from the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, restaurants were developed in France, such that people could dine publicly in isolation! In the subsequent decades, dining out and entertaining and hospitality have become increasingly expensive and ostentatious.

The section concludes that hospitality has become something of a performance art; and we have lost the intimacy of a shared meal.

Time perhaps to re-capture the beauty and simplicity of hospitality that is truly for everyone!