Life Pack magazine

INSIDE Life Pack Changes Lives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 How It Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Joining God’s Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Lesson 1: Life in Community . . . . . . . . . . 5 Lesson 2: Expanding Boundaries . . . . . . 8 Lesson 3: Curiosity and Dignity . . . . . . 11 Lesson 4: Friendship and Solidarity . . 14

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LIFE PACK CHANGES LIVES Thank you for your interest in partnering with CBF in God’s work through Life Pack, a program of CBF disaster response. CBF disaster response mobilizes members and networks seeking to help communities after a devastating event. Many of our resources are directed to the long-term recovery, rehabilitation, and resiliency of a community after first-responders have finished their work. Through donations, volunteering, and with Life Pack, you can partner with individuals who have experienced a devastating event and are now in crisis.

Life Pack provides an opportunity for you to accompany those in crisis by gathering key resources that will be helpful during disaster preparedness and recovery. The contents of your Life Pack will be combined with resources on the ground to help provide power for emergency communications, water filtration, light, and temporary shelter while also attending to minor medical needs and promoting spiritual solidarity.

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Life Pack teaches all participants the importance of human dignity and solidarity in Christ and loving one’s neighbor while offering an invitation to life in community.

Life Pack

Your Life Pack kit will arrive within two weeks.

Each kit contains one purple drawstring backpack, a Sawyer Point One water filter, a food-grade plastic zip bag, a pop-up display, Consider: and devotional and worship guides.

Ninety percent of all natural disasters are Your group will purchase and gather the water-related. In North America alone, 35 following life gear for each Life Pack: hurricanes occur every year. A person can be • Small First Aid Kit swept away in as few as six inches of moving • Pocket-Sized Bible water, and a car requires only 12. The financial • Portable Solar Charger & Battery Pack losses from 2017’s earthquakes, hurricanes, • Hand Cranking Flashlight and wildfires amount to $306 billion. Helping • Hand-Written Prayers partners prepare and resourcing trained • Ziploc Bag (two-gallon size) personnel are vital to saving human lives.

A detailed list is available online at www.cbf.net/lifepack.

Life Pack provides an opportunity for you to accompany those in crisis by gathering key resources that will be helpful during disaster preparedness and recovery.

HOW IT WORKS Life Pack Process

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GET ONLINE

Get started at the CBF Life Pack website: www.cbf.net/lifepack

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ORDER YOUR PACKS

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YOUR PACKS ARRIVE

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USE YOUR POP-UP DISPLAY

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WORSHIP AND DEVOTIONALS

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GATHER THE GEAR

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PRAYER CARDS

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PASS ON THE KIT

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STAY CONNECTED

Order as many Life Pack kits as you would like. These kits are $35 each.

Disaster response donations are also welcome.

Your Life Pack kits will arrive within two weeks. Each kit contains one purple drawstring backpack, a Sawyer Point One water filter, a pop-up display, and Bible studies.

You will keep the pop-up display and use it to educate your community on disaster response and to recruit Life Pack teams.

Life Pack team members are invited to work through Bible studies and plan a worship service.

Children and adult team members gather the life gear into the Life Pack backpack.

Children and adult team members write prayers on small cards to be included in the kits. You can tell them a bit about you and your church, and you may even start an ongoing prayer partnership!

Life Pack is a peer-to-peer initiative. You’ll be instructed when and where to handoff your Life Packs to a missionary or relief work team.

Stay connected to the ongoing disaster response through social media as you learn more about how to help others in your community.

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JOINING GOD ’S MISSION

Life Pack is a Ministry of CBF Disaster Response Empowered by the Holy Spirit, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship cultivates beloved community, bears witness to Jesus Christ, and seeks transformational development among people and places otherwise forgotten and forsaken. Our volunteers and field personnel serve alongside congregations within three primary contexts: global poverty, global migration, and the global church.

physical and spiritual meaning. Light is required to see the world around us. From God’s act of creation (Genesis 1) to our life in Christ (Ephesians Responding appropriately during a time of crisis is vital. Disasters 5:8), light represents follow a life cycle that begins with Mitigation, which is directly working wisdom and truth to prevent future emergencies. Preparedness includes plans we throughout scripture. make in advance to help prepare a community to be ready. Disaster Life Pack models Jesus’ Response is all the actions taken during the midst of and immediately ministry on earth. following an emergency. Recovery is what happens after damage has been assessed and involves the actions to return the community to Scripture itself is of Disaster Response and Recovery Cycle their pre-disaster state or even better. Life Pack assists our neighbors great importance in during the preparedness and recovery phases of a disaster. the lives of Christians, as it reveals truth and Life Pack is a ministry that helps those in crisis regardless of race, provides guidance. Reading, meditating on, and following Scripture nationality, or religion. Even so, we celebrate the important Christian fill us spiritually. Finally, friendship and partnership are significant meaning in the items you will provide. Water has significant value for both physically and spiritually in the lives of individuals. Friends and our physical bodies as well as our spiritual selves. Just as one cannot partners are able to assist and lift each other up throughout the trials live without physical water, Jesus taught that we also need spiritual of life. water (John 4:14 – See Bible Study Lesson 3). Throughout scripture, water is represented as cleansing (Genesis 7), everlasting life (John When we join God on mission, we embark on an important 4:14), and the means for baptism. Likewise, light carries important journey that is all-transforming. This includes donors, volunteers, first responders, short-term mission volunteers, field personnel, local leaders, and anyone we seek to help. It is easy to become overwhelmed with the number of needs around the world. Scripture, however, is our guide for how to respond globally as well as how the Holy Spirit changes our own hearts.

We hope you and your Life Pack group will complete the following four Bible study lessons as you approach your packing day. These lessons begin with God’s vision for Christian community in Acts 2 and Jesus’ teaching on neighboring. We look at how our sense of curiosity helps us treat others with Christ-like dignity and how finding solidarity in true friendship can help us discover God’s purpose for our lives.

CBF field personnel Jenny Jenkins shares a special moment with Delivrénce, a resident of the Mount Sinai community in Grand Goâve, Haiti. Alongside partners, Jenkins has provided Delivrénce and the Mount Sinai community with life-transforming medical care in the years since the devastating Haiti earthquake in 2010.

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When we join God on mission, we embark on an important journey that is all-transforming.

INEXPLICABLE LIFE IN COMMUNIT Y SCRIPTURE: Acts 2:42-47

“…tell the truth, have you ever found God in church? I never did.

I just found a bunch of folks hoping for Him to show. Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did too. They come to church to share God, not find God.” – Shug Avery, from Alice Walker’s The Color Purple

READ ACTS 2:42-47

opportunity for women to learn the teachings available to men. Later Paul’s writings reveal Today’s passage follows the story of that this social shift caused quite a bit of Pentecost where the Holy Spirit had been tension in the culture. Also, others in the poured out not only on the small band of local area would have been shocked to see Jesus’ followers, but on many others. It different classes of people with the same comes on the heels of Peter’s sermon and access to learning. This access to the apostles the incredible response of 3,000 people and their teachings about the life and repenting, being baptized, and deciding to join the Way. Luke, the author of Acts, gives a ministry of Jesus were granted to everyone: description of the communal life that followed male, female, rich, poor, slave, free. this massive awe-inspiring, initial in-breaking REFLECTION QUESTIONS: of the kingdom of God through the Holy • What does being devoted to the Word Spirit. mean? To what are you devoted in your life?

Luke’s idyllic description of the early church • This infant community devoted themselves might discourage modern readers when to learning the way of Jesus. They were looking at their own communal experience. committed to educating themselves and We must consider that the first Christian anyone else willing to come along. How has community (Acts 2:45) contrasts greatly with the church today followed this example of our American cultural values today. It is easy a radical commitment to equal opportunity for us to miss the significance of the historical for all to grow in their understanding of and quite radical economic, social, and Christ’s teachings? What examples of lack spiritual transformation revealed. of access to physical resources that keep people from learning the way of Jesus do The outpouring of the Holy Spirit represented you see in the world today? How do you a distinct shift not just spiritually, but also see this in your own community? as it set the early church apart socially and • Our current society still remains largely economically. This shift is exemplified in segregated based on race and economics. two main commitments of the people. First, How should the Christian community’s this large body devoted themselves to the commitment to equal access to learning apostles’ teachings. No social levels in the influence the culture beyond the church congregation seem to have existed. Before walls where our local schools continue to this time, the culture provided little to no LIFE PACK

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Hurricane Harvey Relief, Houston, Texas, First Cambodian Church and Second Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark.

struggle with segregation paralleled with a lack of resources in many parts of the country?

this fellowship was again that it included a shocking diversity of people. As the followers broke bread together, spent time in the temple together, met in one another’s homes, and shared tables, for the first time they sat across from people of different gender, classes, and even races. This table fellowship broke the socio-economic barriers of the period like nothing ever witnessed before.

The communal fellowship allowed them to know and be known by others.

Nationwide, almost 75% of black students attend so-called majority-minority schools and 38% attend schools with a white population of 10% or less. Similar statistics apply to Latino students: 80% and 40%, respectively. Both black and Latino students are much more likely than white students to attend a school where 60% or more of their classmates are living in poverty, as measured REFLECTION QUESTIONS: by the percentage of students eligible for free • We long for Christian community and its or reduced-price lunch programs. Separate benefits to our life while simultaneously remains unequal as schools with concentrated resisting the demands it requires of us. poverty and racial segregation are more likely Understanding that koinonia is a mutual to have less-experienced teachers, high levels commitment, one in which we both give of teacher turnover, inadequate facilities, and and receive, are you experiencing koinonia fewer classroom resources. in your own life? If so, in what ways? If not, what is hindering you?

The new society Luke describes in Acts • The needs of others cannot be met unless also devoted themselves to what is often they are known. Essential to the way of translated as the “fellowship.” The original life for this community in Acts 2 was that word, koinonia, was used in Greco-Roman people spent time together, knew one literature as a sharing in common or mutuality another, and were known. Which do you as that exemplified in the commitment of find more challenging – showing up to be marriage. The context indicates that this known or taking time to know others? fellowship not only shared ideas and activity, but possessions as well. The people practiced When one understands the context in which this fellowship in “the breaking of bread the followers sold “their possessions and and the prayers.” The profound element of goods” and distributed “the proceeds to all, as

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any had need,” their actions might not seem so extreme. Maybe they didn’t sell everything and give to those in need as the result of radical ideas. More likely, their actions came from a natural response of simply knowing the names and faces of people with needs and, for the first time, understanding those needs while realizing their own excess compared to their new brothers and sisters.

What follower of Christ would eat a full meal while sitting across from a person who has had nothing to eat all day without sharing what they have?

Today, while the church has fallen short of Luke’s description in many ways, evidence of this fellowship occasionally still exists. When food pantries run low, people reach onto their shelves and grab the green beans that sit amid a cluttered pantry in order to share with those in need. When a church member finds himself starting over after a divorce, others pull their resources together to help furnish a new place and provide a bed for his children to sleep on when they are with him.

If we know the name of the child in need of new shoes we naturally respond to meeting that need. But we first have to be intentional about showing up where they live, go to school, etc., in order to know them. According to the 2013 American Values Survey, 75 percent of white adults have entirely white

social networks, with no minority presence, and the core social network of two-thirds of African Americans is made up solely of other African Americans. Sadly, our churches today often reflect the same homogeneous makeup not only in race but in socio-economic status as well.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: • In Acts, Luke shows us the best of how God’s people are capable of living. A new, fresh community whose life of sharing God together is so delightfully inexplicable that others outside the church hold feelings of goodwill towards it and long to join this new way. Have you ever learned of a person in need, whether in your church, your community, or in another part of the world and realized you possessed an abundance of what they needed?

• Are there unmet needs in your church or in your local community that you can fill?

How does segregation impact our ability to share our abundance with others?

• When we break bread together, we might ask ourselves who is NOT at the table? Who has not been invited or made welcome?

• What are some steps your church can take to “obtain the goodwill of ALL people” and add to the number of people receiving new life in Christ? How might your participation in Life Pack be a way to obtain the goodwill of all people?

• Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, said, “I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor...I

truly believe that when the rich meet the poor, riches will have no meaning. And when the rich meet the poor, we will see poverty come to an end.” What pockets of our local community do we need to be intentional about knowing and being known by us?

CLOSING: Ask the group to begin to comprise a list of real ways your church can move towards a life together as a church that reflects the intent of Acts 2:42. Encourage group members to consider groups of people or areas of the local community who need to know and be known by your church. Over the next few weeks, prayerfully consider taking action on at least one of the options.

The new society Luke describes in Acts also devoted themselves to what is often translated as the “fellowship.” The original word, koinonia, was used in Greco-Roman literature as a sharing in common or mutuality as that exemplified in the commitment of marriage.

For more ways to engage this le sson see

www.cbf.net/lifepack.

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EXPANDING THE BOUNDARIES OF OUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCRIPTURE: Luke 10:27-37

“O Lord, open my eyes that I may see the need of others, open my ears that I may hear their cries, open my heart so that they need not be without succor.

Let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong, nor afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich.

Show me where love and hope and faith are needed, and use me to bring them to these places.

Open my eyes and ears that I may, this coming day, be able to do some work of peace for you.”

– Alan Paton

READ LUKE 10:27-29 In one of His most familiar parables, Jesus responds to a lawyer who challenges Him with a question. Luke indicates the lawyer aims to “test” Jesus with his inquiry, to challenge this untrained, uncredentialed Galilean. When the lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus, of course, responds with questions of His own, appealing to the expert’s ego. He asks, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” The lawyer quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 from the Torah, agreeing with Jesus’ own judgment of the Torah’s essential message: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

He asks Jesus to set specific parameters on who rightly qualifies to be called his neighbor.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: • Why do you think the lawyer felt a need to justify himself?

• What follow-up question might you have asked Jesus?

READ LUKE 10:30-35 Jesus responds to the man’s second question with a parable. Parables were stories that Jesus “cast alongside” His message in order to illustrate a truth. The parables may have had a familiar plot or pattern similar to other stories of the day, but Jesus added an unusual, unexpected, often shocking twist to the parable to emphasize his teaching.

He tells a story of a man traveling on a When Jesus affirms that this is the right difficult wilderness road when he is attacked answer and the way to find life, the lawyer seeks clarification and justification for himself. by robbers, brutally beaten, stripped of

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Hurricane Harvey Relief, Houston, Texas, Rosharon Cambodian farming community and Butch Green, CBF field personnel.

everything, and left to die. The Jewish audience probably assumed the injured man was also Jewish because Jesus indicates he traveled from Jerusalem to Jericho. Both a priest and a Levite traveling the barren road see the injured man, but choose to keep going, unaffected, crossing to the other side of the road. There were many excuses not to help. The men risked great danger traveling this road; perhaps they thought it was a trap enticing them to stop and making them an easy target for thieves. Maybe they believed the man was dead. To touch a dead person would have made both the priest and the Levite ceremonially unclean.

Jesus tells of a priest, a Levite, and the audience might have expected the third person to be a Jewish layman, as would have been the common pattern in other stories of the day, but Jesus’ listeners were not prepared for who came next. A third person comes, sees the man, and Jesus says he is moved with compassion. The third traveler bandages and attends to the wounded man, taking him to an inn and caring for him overnight. We know the real shock to the story is that the third man was actually a Samaritan, an enemy of the wounded man.

Being a neighbor requires of us much of what the Samaritan demonstrated. In our journey, we will need to pay attention to our surroundings in order to see those who are forgotten or forsaken.

Because this story is often referred to as the parable of the “Good Samaritan” we can lose the significance of what Jesus shares. Our modern ears associate the word “Samaritan” with the word “good” preceding it. But this was not the case for the lawyer or the rest of Jesus’ audience that day. Those listening to this parable for the first time hear Jesus tell them that the only one who cared for the man was the enemy, the other. We have to remember the context of their relationship with Samaritans. Jews and Samaritans had held each other in contempt for centuries.

The Jewish people believed the Samaritans to be racially inferior and social outcasts, and the Samaritans reciprocated feelings of disdain towards the Jews as well. There’s no better way to ruin a good story than to make the person people dislike the most into the hero. And that’s just what Jesus did with this audience.

REFLECTION QUESTION: • How would you have responded to the parable if Jesus had replaced the word “Samaritan” with those considered as “others” or enemies such as a member of Al-Qaeda, a member of a Neo-Nazi group, or just a person of another religion, race, or political persuasion? Would you have felt offended? Angry? Disappointed?

READ LUKE 10:36-37 Jesus expands our understanding of “neighbor,” calling us to see the people around us and open ourselves to being true neighbors. How does being a good neighbor to those in need in your life look? In your church’s life?

Here again, Jesus responds to the lawyer’s question with another question. Instead of giving the lawyer a set of parameters

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detailing who is in and who is out of the neighborhood, Jesus expands the boundaries of the neighborhood through the parable.

When Jesus asks, “Which one of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man?” the question is no longer about who is a neighbor but how one becomes a neighbor to others in need, even when they are one’s enemies.

Being a neighbor requires of us much of what the Samaritan demonstrated. In our journey, we will need to pay attention to our surroundings in order to see those who are forgotten or forsaken. To be a neighbor requires that we slow down and make space for others. Just like the Samaritan, we will need to face overcoming fear and give what we have to share with our neighbors in need.

Acting like a neighbor might look like giving a meal to people without the means to feed themselves. We act neighborly when we see a person in need and make an effort to do what Jesus would have us do. But Shannon J. Kershner says, “The act of acting neighborly does not necessarily result in our seeing the hungry person as an actual neighbor and not just the object of our charitable, neighborly action.”

CLOSING: Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christians can truly see those around them and become neighbors. Life Pack supports people in need, regardless of any affiliations they may have. Imagine that the Life Pack you provide helps someone you “despise.”

How might this help you better understand the parable?

Hurricane Maria Relief, Orocovis, Puerto Rico, Iglesia Bautista de Orocovis and Trinity Baptist Church, Madison, Ala.

For more ways to engage in the ideas or ways to intro duce “b eing” a loving neighb or see

www.cbf.net/lifepack.

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A WELL FLOWING WITH CURIOSIT Y AND DIGNIT Y SCRIPTURE: John 4:5-42 I will never tire of repeating this: what the poor need the most is not pity but love. They need to feel respect for their human dignity, which is neither less nor different from the dignity of any other human being.

– Mother Theresa

READ JOHN 4:5-18 In this passage, Jesus models for the disciples, and for us, His new commandment, given later in John 13:34-35, of loving one another through right treatment of other people including those of different cultures, races, religions, or political affiliations.

Jesus’ taboo encounter with the unnamed Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 documents the longest conversation He shares with another person recorded in the Bible. Their discussion doesn’t just involve domestic matters of gathering water. To this unlikely woman, Jesus reveals deep theological truths about Himself for the first time recorded in the Gospels. Jesus’ actions here encourage His followers to suspend judgments and remain curious about others in order to foster genuine friendships.

This conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman violated social customs for several reasons. First, as pointed out in Lesson 2, the Jewish people considered the Samaritans as a group of unclean, halfbreeds who had constructed their own hybrid religion. They disagreed about the proper place to worship. To even touch the water jar of a Samaritan would have been considered unclean for a Jewish rabbi like Jesus.

A Jewish man chatting with a woman in a public place in the middle of the day would have shocked bystanders. Traditionally, Jewish rabbis would not ever speak to a woman in public, often not even a relative like a mother or sister, much less carry on an extensive conversation.

Sitting there in the harsh noonday light, crossing racial and gender barriers, Jesus not only converses with a Samaritan woman, but with a woman who seems to live with rejection by her own people. Normally, women would travel to gather water in the cooler parts of the day, like morning or evening, and, for safety, they would complete this chore in community. This woman comes to the well alone as the unforgiving noon sun beats down. With water weighing six pounds per gallon, this physically demanding task would be much more difficult at this time of day.

As the conversation unfolds, we discover the likely reason she arrives alone. Jesus reveals that she has had five husbands and is living with a sixth man now. John remains silent on whether her story is that of a scandalous home wrecker or that of a woman tragically abandoned, discarded, or widowed.

Regardless, she came to this place when she knew that no one else would be there.

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Hurricane Maria Recovery, Pivot Puerto Rico service learning experience, Gurabo, Puerto Rico.

Remarkably, the woman finds a new sense of acceptance for herself.

She boldly runs to the people of the town whom she had previously avoided. Many of them accept her and find the Savior as well.

Perhaps her own shame or the cruelty of the words of others pushed had her into isolation.

Despite all of these things, Jesus asks her for a drink. Although she does not refuse Him, she wonders, as others would, why He makes this request going against the cultural norms.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: • Why do you believe Jesus chose to speak to this woman contrary to so many social norms?

• Who are some people others might be surprised to find us sitting with at a table, carrying on a conversation in a popular coffee shop? (A woman wearing a hijab, a person wearing a shirt supporting a political candidate we oppose, the school bully, etc?)

READ JOHN 4:19-27 Many interpret the woman’s response in verse 19-20 as an attempt to change the subject after what is seen as Jesus’ exposing her sin. The woman immediately responds

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with “I see you are a prophet” and turns the conversation towards matters of worship.

The gospel writer, John, uses the action of seeing as an expression of believing in other passages. Perhaps, rather than feeling shame and wanting to change the subject, the woman felt known and accepted for the first time. Jesus looks at her; He talks with her.

Jesus respects her dignity and gives value to her as a person of worth.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: • Do you think the woman was trying to change the subject or making a confession of faith in Jesus as a holy leader when she said, “I see you are a prophet”?

• In what ways did Jesus treat this woman with dignity?

READ JOHN 4:28-30, 39-42

The Samaritan woman came to the well burdened with more than a water jar that day. When Jesus reveals Himself to her in the truth of who she is, she drops the jar and the other burdens she carried and leaves them behind. The past no longer binds her, and she no longer waits for the hope of the future.

Realizing her time is now, she runs to tell others of the man who knows and loves her The woman broaches a subject that has divided the Jews and Samaritans for centuries as she is. regarding the place where one should Remarkably, the woman finds a new sense of worship. Jesus responds with the revelation acceptance for herself. She boldly runs to the that the worship of God is not restricted by geography, but is fully accessible in spirit and people of the town whom she had previously avoided. Many of them accept her and find truth, transcending location, gender, race, or the Savior as well. tradition.

When she shares her hope of the coming of the Messiah, Jesus reveals that He is the one she awaits. Imagine the wonder she feels as she realizes she stands face-to-face with the One she has longed to know and to fully know her.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: • Why did the woman immediately run back to tell the people of the town about her encounter with Jesus?

• Why do you think the people of the town listened to her and followed to meet Jesus?

When you are faced with another culture or another viewpoint, do you react with suspicion or curiosity? What are our reasons for responding with suspicion?

When we genuinely become more curious we acknowledge the dignity and value of others. We often tend to assume to know things about other people because of certain cultural experiences or prejudices. In today’s lesson, Jesus encourages us to go beyond our judgments and seek to understand others in order to grow genuine friendships with those different from ourselves.

Christians believe that all people are created in the image of God and are worthy of our genuine care and affection. Jesus reminds us over and over that, no matter how worried, suspicious, or judging we may be tempted to be, each of us is in need of understanding and compassion.

CLOSING CURIOSITY CHALLENGE: While checking out at the grocery store, practice looking the clerk in the eyes as they assist you. Next time you are at a restaurant, make a personal note of the eye color of your server to practice really looking at others.

Also, ask for your server’s name. This week, if you find yourself talking with a child or a person unable to stand, kneel down until you are at eye level demonstrating a posture of equality. If you have the opportunity, take time this week to ask questions and get to know someone from a different culture, religion, political persuasion, etc.

For more ways to engage this le sson see

www.cbf.net/lifepack.

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A JOURNEY IN FRIENDSHIP AND SOLIDARIT Y SCRIPTURE: Ruth 1 A blessing meets us in the place of our deepest loss.

In that place it offers us a glimpse of wholeness and claims that wholeness here and now.

– Jan L. Richardson Ruth’s commitment to Naomi in solidarity and kindness demonstrates our call in Christ to come alongside others in crisis. When we are motivated by a love for God and love for people, we understand our mission as a friendship that goes beyond what is expected for the welfare of others.

READ RUTH 1:1-6

The family’s crisis continues to unfold in Moab where Elimelech soon dies. Although the two sons take wives in Moab by the end of verse 5, all of the men of the family are dead leaving three vulnerable women with no means to provide for themselves and no protection. Upon hearing that there is food once again in Bethlehem, Naomi decides to travel home in hopes of finding family that may have mercy on her.

The book of Ruth contains an incredible story of immigrants and refugees in search of relief.

The story takes place when there is no central REFLECTION QUESTIONS: ruler in Israel, creating chaos characterized • The family traveled for seven to ten days by the phrase “everyone did what was right by foot (about 50 miles) to Moab across in his own eyes.” Threatened by famine, rugged, mountainous terrain. Why do you Elimelech, Naomi, and their two sons sojourn think they stayed in Moab? from Bethlehem to the land of Moab, which • What are some of the challenges refugees had a long history of hostility and segregation and migrants face today as they leave or with Israel. flee their homeland? What are some of the challenges they face when arriving in a new Today we see entire populations of people place? fleeing violence and other atrocities in their countries of origin. But people also leave for READ RUTH 1:7-18 the same reasons Naomi’s family left their As the grief-stricken women begin their homeland. Poverty and a lack of resources journey, Naomi realizes both Ruth and at home drive many individuals and families Orpah’s prospects for marriage are better in from their homelands to distant places Moab. After refusing once, Orpah reluctantly seeking hospitable reception and reasonable follows Naomi’s request to return and stay in security.

Moab; but Ruth refuses to leave Naomi.

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In verse 8, the word hesed appears for the first time in the book, describing Ruth’s actions. (Later it appears in chapter 3 as Boaz describes Ruth.) English translations fail to fully encompass the meaning of the Hebrew word. Translators sometimes render the word as kindness or loving kindness. Other translations of the word are love, loyalty, or faithfulness. The Old Testament often uses the word in the context of a person saving another person’s life. When one practices hesed, one’s altruistic actions and goodwill exceed what is expected in seeking the wellbeing of others. Our love of God and love of neighbor give birth to hesed. The book of Ruth truly displays the meaning of hesed in the actions of its heroine.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: • What do you think motivated Ruth to stay with Naomi?

• What are ways we can come alongside others who are in crisis and show Christian solidarity?

READ RUTH 1:19-22

When Naomi and Ruth reach Bethlehem, they are the talk of the town. As the women of the village identify her as “Naomi,” she tells them not to call her “Naomi” (meaning “pleasant”) anymore, but to call her “Mara” (meaning “bitter”). In her grief and anger, she expresses that she went away (from Bethlehem) full, but the Lord has brought her back empty. While she is correct in acknowledging her decision to walk away, the Lord brings her back having Ruth comes alongside Naomi in solidarity experienced great loss but not completely and friendship and expresses her steadfast empty. There is Ruth. Naomi laments her intentions in a truly poetic way in verses circumstances and even blames God, but her 16-18. As Naomi’s grief and anguish consume faith is not lost completely. And God’s hesed her, Ruth commits to go with her, live with for Naomi continues to unfold as they arrive her, and take her people and her God as her at the beginning of the barley season which own. Ruth’s hesed emerges as she takes will play a significant role in the rest of their responsibility towards her fellow human being story. in a covenantal relationship. Surely, she knew the challenges ahead for her as a widowed Like Naomi and Ruth, refugees and others Moabite in Bethlehem. Ruth represented “the seeking the security of a new land come not other,” those kept out of the assembly of the only with needs for food and shelter, but Lord, those excluded. Once she arrives in bringing with them great emotional burdens.

Bethlehem, she receives the label “Ruth, the Showing compassionate hospitality might not Moabitess.”

only mean providing a blanket or a meal, but also likely means listening to their journey through loss and their hopes for the future.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: • What are some of the emotional needs of refugees and migrants?

• Have you ever offered something to someone in need and yet found that you were the one who received something from the relationship?

The story of Ruth reminds modern-day readers that solidarity in Christ is a reciprocal relationship between people. Although it seems Ruth is the only giver while Naomi is the taker, later in the book Naomi offers advice and help to Ruth as well. In the end, Ruth benefits greatly from their solidarity and friendship as she marries Boaz and bears a son, becoming a part of the genealogy of Jesus. Each woman needed the other, and each woman contributed to the other’s wellbeing.

CLOSING: Say the Lord’s Prayer together. As you are praying, envision your brothers and sisters all around the world saying the prayer with you, especially those seeking refuge in foreign lands.

BIBLE STUDY AUTHOR Colbey Penton Sparkman serves as a professional consultant and writer, helping people discover their strengths and work more effectively with others. With over twenty years of pastoral ministry experience, Colbey strives to come alongside individuals and organizations to encourage them to develop healthier relationships and better serve their communities. She is the co-author of Team-Building Activities for the Digital Age: Using Technology to Develop Effective Groups.

Find out more ab out community and ac tivitie s for this study at

www.cbf.net/lifepack.

LIFE PACK

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Life Pack is an opportunity for you to accompany those in crisis by providing key resources that will be helpful during disaster preparedness and recovery.

Get involved:

 Connect with Others via Social Media  Donate to Disaster Response  Find a Short-Term Mission Experience  Volunteer with Life Pack and Disaster Response • Locally • Regionally • Internationally

Engage with Life Pack at www.cbf.net/lifepack • Resource Kit • Bible Study Helps and Activities • Life Pack Worship Resources • Gear, Descriptions and Instructions

Email us at lifepack@cbf.net or call 1.800.352.8741 The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is a Christian network comprised of individuals and churches that work together to spread the hope of Christ. Our diverse community includes partners all over the globe, and our fellowship supports a wide range of missions and ministries that give people meaningful opportunities to put their faith to action. With a deep respect for freedom, diversity, and equality, we encourage autonomy while inviting collaboration.

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