Mtr Kelli Joyce

‘Do not press me to leave you
or to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
and your God my God.

Dear friends,

The Bible is a precious gift to us from God, and a source of great wisdom. It is also, at times, disturbing or upsetting or contradictory in its content. There are a number of topics where scripture contains multiple opinions, and sometimes incompatible ones. The book of Ezra, which describes the initial return from the Babylonian exile, is absolute in its condemnation of Israelite men who take wives from among the surrounding nations.

The book of Ruth, in addition to being a beautiful and moving story in its own right, is also in many ways a counter-narrative to Ezra, and its rejection of foreign women. Over and over, Ruth of Moab is shown to be unfailingly faithful to the family of her late husband, to her mother-in-law, Naomi, and above all, to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Who and what are you loyal to? What risks is God calling you to take for the sake of that loyalty? What social and cultural assumptions might you have to challenge in the process? (And who might God, unexpectedly, be working through in your life?)

In peace,
Mtr. Kelli