Loyalty

Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.  Your people will be my people and your God my God. (Ruth 1:16)

These words were spoken some three thousand years ago by a young widow to her mother-in-law.  The two women were facing the difficult prospect of trying to make lives for themselves in a society in which women were almost entirely dependent on men.  Each had seen her husband die, neither had sons on whom to depend, and in their world there was no social network of care on which they could lean. 

The older woman, Naomi, pleaded with her daughter-in-law, Ruth, to return to her family of origin where there might be some support available, but Ruth refused.  Her loyalty was to Naomi, and they would make it together or they would not make it at all.  One commentator has suggested that there is no bolder step of personal commitment described in all of the Old Testament.

Such loyalty is in short supply among many of us.  We hold on to membership for as long as the organization meets our needs.  We remain loyal to a commitment for as long as it suits our convenience.  We keep our allegiance until something better comes along.  Ruth would have had a difficult time affirming our priorities. 

Some years ago I officiated at the funeral of a Detroit fireman who had died suddenly-not in the line of duty-in his early forties.  At the appointed hour, the door at the back of the room opened, and a stream of men and women in dress uniform filed in.  Silently, reverently they marched, led by the fire chief himself.  They filled row after row, having come to pay their respects to one of their own.  It was an impressive demonstration of loyalty that Ruth would have understood thoroughly. 

That image came to mind again recently as I stood among a crowd of friends who had gathered to offer encouragement to a man and his three very young children whose wife and mother had died of cancer.  Candles lit, we circled their house and sang together, a sign of our desire to stand with them through difficult days ahead.  Firefighters, soldiers, athletes, union members, participants in self-help groups-they all demonstrate faithfulness to one another.  How much more should family members-and church members-do the same! 

Loyalty is not a matter of convenience, but of commitment.  Your people will be my people . . . .

By Dr. Michael A. Halleen