THIS WEEK’S PASSAGE
Ruth 2:1-16
BACKGROUND PREPARATION Get a large piece of paper to put somewhere visible and write out the passage in Leviticus 19:9-10 in large letters. Go to the links section of the Youthwork website and use ‘Truth and lies’ to write the facts about poverty on separate pieces of card with ‘true’ or ‘false’ written on the back. You will need: a large piece of string, a single key on a key ring, and large pieces of paper (A3).
Boring Leviticus?
2 mins
Ask the young people to share a few words or thoughts that come to mind when they think of the book of Leviticus. Explain that some people see this book as difficult and boring. Ask somebody to read the verse on the wall and explain that this was a law God gave to the Israelites.
Say: today we are going to look at Ruth, a lady whose life was saved by this law.
The guardian
15 mins
Tell your young people to stand in a circle and pass a piece of the large string around the circle, telling everyone to hold onto it. Make sure the key ring (with a key on) is threaded onto the string, and then tie the two ends together. Appoint one person as the ‘key thief’ and ask them to stand in the middle. Tell the group that they are guardians of an extremely important mystery key. They have to pass the key to the person next to them in either direction without being spotted by ‘key thief’. The ‘key thief’ only gets three chances to guess where the key is, before they are out. If the ‘key thief’ successfully guesses where it is, they swap places with the person who has the key.
Add variations to the rules: only allowing one-handed passing, telling the person in the middle to keep slowly spinning around, with the circle spinning in the opposite direction etc. If you want you could add a prize for the most successful guardian(s).
Truth and lies
5 mins
Lay out the ‘truth and lies’ cards from the links section of the Youthwork website. As a group, ask them to decide which facts are true and which are false.
Say: there are a lot of myths surrounding poverty in the UK
Spotlight on Boaz
20 mins
Explain that Naomi’s husband and two sons (one of them Ruth’s husband) had died. In Israelite culture, women who didn’t have the protection of men, especially women who were foreigners like Ruth, were vulnerable to all kinds of attack. They would not have been able to work because of their gender and would have been extremely poor and unable to buy food. They were allowed to ‘glean the fields’, meaning that they could take the grain that fell to the ground in the fields, but it was common for women to be raped on the fields. Read Ruth 2:1-16.
Say: in the game you were all guardians and protectors of a key. This story is also about protection, but on a much bigger scale. This story is about protection of the vulnerable.
Split into groups and give each group a large piece of paper with ‘Boaz’ written on it. Tell them to look through the passage and write down anything they notice about Boaz’s character, and write down evidence from the text which points to this. Once the groups have finished, come back together and get them to feedback what they had found.
Ask:
• What might have happened to Ruth and Naomi if Boaz hadn’t acted the way he did?
• Do you think it would have been wrong or sinful for Boaz to have ignored Ruth?
Protecting the vulnerable
15 mins
Get the group to split into smaller groups again (preferably three groups). Tell them that they are each going to come up with an idea that could help protect a vulnerable person in one of the made-up scenarios below (one per group).
Say: You have 10 minutes to come up with one idea or a few ideas of how you can be a ‘protector’ in these imaginary scenarios:
• You walk past a homeless person in the street. It is freezing cold and they ask you for money. In what ways can you realistically help them?
• You are aware of a kid in your school who is being bullied. What can you do to help them? Would you have any fears about helping them?
• You are aware that one of your friends is having a difficult time at home, and is facing neglect and verbal abuse from their parents.
Come back together and get the group to feedback to each other. Talk about some tricky dilemmas they may not have spotted, such as whether it is always good to give homeless people money. Give suggestions of how they could be prepared for these scenarios. Remind them that once they have done all they can, the best things to do is pray for the vulnerable person.
Say: sometimes it is good to think about what we would do in these situations before we get to them. If we are asked for money on the street, for example, sometimes we are caught off guard and don’t know what to do.
Prayer
5 mins
Take some time to intercede for vulnerable people in the wider world and in your own lives.
For notes for adapting see the links sections of the Youthwork website.
KEY POINT #1
There are so many vulnerable people in the world (children, sex trafficked women, people who are poor, disabled people, minority people groups, the homeless), and sometimes it is easy to forget that ignoring the problem can be just as bad as contributing to the problem. If Boaz had ignored Ruth he might have gone on with his life with a seemingly clear conscience, but Ruth would have been in danger of attack, rape and starvation.
KEY POINT #2
It can be overwhelming to think of all the vulnerable people we could help, and obviously we can’t do everything. But it is also important not to ignore problems around us. God loves to redeem broken stories and situations. The story of Ruth begins with the death of her husband, and Ruth and her mother-in-law both become poor and vulnerable, but her story ends with her wedding to Boaz and a child who is in the genealogy of Jesus.
