Now Naomi had a kinsman on her husband’s side, a prominent rich man, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain, behind someone in whose sight I may find favor.” She said to her, “Go, my daughter.” So she went. She came and gleaned in the field behind the reapers. As it happened, she came to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. Just then Boaz came from Bethlehem. He said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you.” They answered, “The Lord bless you.” Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “To whom does this young woman belong?” The servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the Moabite who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. She said, ‘Please, let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the reapers.’ So she came, and she has been on her feet from early this morning until now, without resting even for a moment.”
Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. 9 Keep your eyes on the field that is being reaped, and follow behind them. I have ordered the young men not to bother you. If you get thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.” Then she fell prostrate, with her face to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?” But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. May the Lord reward you for your deeds, and may you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!” Then she said, “May I continue to find favor in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, even though I am not one of your servants.”
One of Jean-Francois Millet’s most famous paintings is called “The Gleaners.” It shows three women in various stages of bending over to pick up wheat from the ground, from the harvest that was left behind. In this painting you see this back breaking work in their bending over and in the small handfuls they have gathered. The large painting is 33” x 44” in size, seeing in these women a subject of serious contemplation. It showed these women with dignity and at the time it was surprising to see the very poor as the subject of fine art: it felt, truth be told, a bit political. One article I read said that when this painting was first shown in the 1850s in Paris, one person was quoted saying, “There was an alarming intimation of the Staffels of 1793.” That is, the French Revolution seemed to be at play in these poor women and their work. However, Millet’s attention to the subject didn’t fit neatly within the political worlds of his time. It went on to quote that Camille Pissarro, one of the socialists, wrote in 1887 that Millet was just a bit too Biblical.
There is a Millet portrait, as well, on the cover of our bulletin this week as he infused the clothing of his own time to imagine the scene of Ruth meeting Boaz, picturing her fear and shame, the workers’ disdain and her armful of gatherings as compared to the grand harvest behind. And what I love about Millet is that this act of focusing the gaze on these women and their work, their hunger and their dignity, it changes the story we are called to tell. It unsettles the stories we have known to change where the perspective lies, and where y
