Ruth

This week's instalment of the Eccles Bible project is short and sweet. The book of Ruth, just 4 chapters long. No smiting, but telling the story of one of the ancestors of King David. Spiritual nourishment in a user-friendly form!

No, Richard. This is not the Ruth we had in mind.

We start off in the time of the judges, with Naomi, who has managed to lose her husband and two sons (to lose two looks like carelessness...). She still has two daughters-in-law: one of these is our heroine, Ruth. She decides to stay with Naomi, who, all things considered is not the merry widow you might expect. "Call me Mara," she says, "because the Almighty has made my life very bitter."

In fact we continue to call her Naomi, and Ruth stays with her. Rather than hang around the house with a moaning mother-in-law she goes into the fields and starts picking up bits of corn. There she encounters Boaz, who takes a fancy to her.

Boaz falls in love with his gleaning-lady.

Her technique for catching her man is unusual, as she goes over to where he is sleeping, uncovers his feet, and lies down near them. Things move quickly, he gives her a token of his affection (six measures of barley) and soon they are married.

Have you considered barley as a gift for St Valentine's Day?

Well, that's about it, except that they have a son called O'bed (it seems that one of them had Irish ancestry), who in turn begets Jesse, father of David. Who is going to be a big cheese...

Naomi seems to be very pleased, and drops the alias "Mara", as she has a grandson, and is thereby comforted. Well, it's a touching love story, with a rather simple plot and a happy ending. Actually, there isn't much mention of God in it, although it does show virtue being rewarded.

Ruth, it can't be good for that child to feed him on nothing but barley.

Bad hynms 3

 Today's entry for the Eccles Bad Hymn Award is the Pentecost hymn Enemy of Apathy by John L. Bell and Graham Maule. As usual, we invited the authors to come along and explain themselves.

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E: Welcome, the two of you. Since your hymn isn't as well-known as some of the others we have been discussing, perhaps you could sing the first verse to us?

JLB and GM: She sits like a bird, brooding on the waters, 

Hovering on the chaos of the world's first day; 

She sighs and she sings, mothering creation, 

Waiting to give birth to all the Word will say.

E: Thank you. So who is "she" in this context? In the office we were betting that it was either Mary Magdalene or possibly an Old Testament figure such as Eve, Sarah or Ruth. Not the Blessed Virgin Mary, given that you are being so rude about her?

JLB: Rude?

E: "She sits like a bird." Now, birds sit in lots of different ways. Do you mean she sits like a chicken? A penguin? A duck?

GM: Well, "she" is the Holy Spirit, so I suppose we should have said "She sits like a dove."

E: The Holy Spirit? Well, if you want to say the Holy Spirit is female, then I suppose we can't stop you, even if there's no real Biblical authority for this idea.You're not Wiccans, are you? Mother Earth Goddess stuff? No?

JLB: No. Well, yes. But not really.

E: Now, we were wondering  about the next line. "Hovering on the chaos of the world's first day." Very fine, but how does a bird sit and hover at the same time?

GM: You're going to ask us next how a dove sighs and sings at the same time, too, aren't you?

E: Well, I was wondering. Actually, the song reminds me a little of Gilbert and Sullivan. Some of your clunkier phrases later on, such as "Nourishing potential hidden to our eyes" or "Enemy of apathy and heavenly dove" could be taken straight out of The Mikado, couldn't they?

JLB: No.

GM: Did you like "She dances in fire, startling her spectators"? I wrote that bit. That's real poetry, that is.

E: Of course, spectators would be startled to see anyone dancing in fire. Do birds dance though? I think you've got a bit of a metaphor overload problem there.

GM: He's not taking this seriously, is he, John?

JLB: No. (Exeunt.)

E: John L. Bell and Graham Maule, thank you for coming along to explain your song.