That was more or less what Boaz said when he walked into his
barley field to check on the harvest.
Over the years, I have interpreted this favourite chapter 2 of the Book
of Ruth variously. This reflects to some
extent contextual changes as well as changes in my life and work.
1. Refugee work
I first noticed this chapter, which is almost a one-act
play, when I was living in Zimbabwe during the 1980s. There were so many Mozambican widows crossing
the border for refuge at the time, as their men engaged in that proxy war. Like Ruth leaving her land of Moab and coming
to Israel, leaving a series of disasters behind her.
I even preached from this chapter at times, as a way of
unpacking what was happening, and the need for those with resources to provide
mechanisms to show mercy. Gleaning was
the Hebrew mechanism, a form of charity.
Relief agencies are a modern equivalent, and I was working for World
Vision at the time. The problem was that
in refugee camps, the widows could not do much to receive the benefits of charity,
which I found degrading. So we explored
other options like food-for-work projects that still helped the needy without
robbing them of their dignity.
2. Volunteering and Voluntarism
In the next decade, after the Cold War ended and apartheid
with it, the focus was on building Democracy, participation, inclusion… My
practice as an NGO consultant (“helping development organizations with
organization development”) in the 1990s was one of the roots of C4L as a
resource centre for nonprofits, beginning in 1999.
In morning meditations at C4L training events, I would often
read this beloved chapter and apply it differently. All those in the work place are contributors,
whether paid managers or unpaid volunteers.
Gleaning may be a mechanism of charity, but it also serves an
agricultural purpose in the scheme of crop rotation. If Boaz was going to plant another crop in
that field during the next season, this would avoid having barley popping up
where ever the grain has fallen to the ground during the harvest. So what every person contributes is important,
no matter how insignificant they may feel.
In fact, for a Human Resources
meditation - in any sector not just for nonprofits - the drama of the Book of
Ruth chapter 2 is useful and instructive.
3. The Rainbow Nation
During my two decades living in South Africa, into the new
millennium, themes like non-racialism and xenophobia have been recurrent. One could always turn to this chapter for
inspiration. Unlike the much stricter
Nehemiah, who tore people’s hair out for inter-marrying with other races and
culture, the message of the Book of Ruth is unambiguous. Ruth was not Jewish, but that didn’t matter
to Boaz. By the same token, Ruth bought
into the local culture, being a cultural relativist, not an enclave of Moabites
in Bethlehem. In this she was
incarnational.
4. Age-disparate Romance
Now some of you will laugh!
I don’t know whether Boaz was a bachelor, a widower or a divorcee, it
doesn’t say? But it is clear that he was
older and wealthier than Ruth. One thing
is for sure, though… it certainly didn’t take Boaz long once he arrived
(fashionably late) to notice her. Did he
have that much of an eye for detail? Or
was she just drop-dead gorgeous? I’ll
ask him when I meet him one day, this intrigues me.
In 2004, Save the Children published a study of research in
Malawi called Cross-generational relationships: using a ‘Continuum of
Volition’ in HIV prevention work among young people. It concluded: “rather than defining cross-generational
relationships as inherently problematic, it is important to understand the
choices (or lack of choices) that young women have in their own communities.” Ruth could have told them that, three
thousand years earlier.
By lunch break, Boaz invites Ruth to eat with him and his
workers. She stuffs herself full of bread and wine (she's poor and hungry,
remember?). Then when Ruth leaves to go
glean some more (she been at this all day; the young lady is a hard worker),
Boaz tells his workers that she is allowed to take some non-charity grain as
well. Was he just being altruistic? Or
did he already have a crush on her?
Graca Machel married a man almost 30 years older than
herself when he was almost 80. She and
Nelson Mandela still got on like a house on fire, as did Boaz and Ruth… who
eventually became the grandparents to King David. What better endorsement could you get than
that?!
5. Inequality
Unemployment is a kind of inequality, because the others
have jobs. Poverty is a manifestation of
inequality because the others are wealthy.
So I am not sure there is a “triple conundrum” – the lowest common
denominator is inequality.
In its Medium-Term Strategic Framework 2014-2019 (MTSF), the
government has lambasted as “offensive” those who show off their wealth. Josephilda Nhlapo-Hlophe, outcomes
facilitator for the presidency’s department of planning, wrote the social
cohesion section of the MTSF document. Get this!
“Many times we see
people who we know do not work or have any access to income and suddenly, the
person is driving a flashy car. The question people will ask is: ‘Where does
that person get this money from?’
“This person might not
be a good role model for young kids who think getting flashy things is more
important than hard work and the contributions they are making to society. We
are trying to build a citizen who knows you get rewarded for working hard.”
Makes you wonder if Boaz arrived at the barley field that
day driving his Mazerati, or what?
It is that kind of insensitivity that led Karl Marx to
famously comment: “The last capitalist we hang shall be the one who sold us the
rope.” Well, then what? In my view, scientific Socialism failed
miserably to improve the quality of life.
I lived and worked in Angola and Mozambique before the end of the Cold
War. I walked into so many stores with
empty shelves, they didn’t have food to sell, let alone rope! The answers lie rather in the example of
Boaz, and three comments from our time:
“Warren Buffett wrote: “There’s class warfare, all right,
but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
Pope Francis wrote: “These days there is a lot of poverty in
the world, and that’s a scandal when we have so many riches and resources to
give to everyone. We all have to think about how we can become a little
poorer.”
Mamphela Ramphele wrote: “South Africa does not have a
poverty problem. Poverty is a result of denialism of the way corruption taxes
poor people, the inefficiencies that undermine poor people’s opportunities and
our refusal to admit that we are part of the problem.”