Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Proverbs 31: 10-31

Psalm 1

James 3: 13-4.3, 7-8a

Mark 9: 30-37

September 19, 2021

Steven H. Strain

“A capable wife who can find?”

Telford Work, a professor of theology wrote of this passage saying:

“Because this passage draws from the patriarchal assumptions of its home cultures, preaching it in the midst of the pitched gender politics of our age is like stomping through a minefield. Many in today’s ideologically diverse audiences will claim it for their side of our culture war, or designate it enemy territory”.

Indeed, in preparing for today I read several commentators who warned about preaching from this text. It brought to mind the robot in the old Lost in Space series, waving its arms and saying; “Danger, Will Robinson, danger, Will Robinson.” One of the warnings was about upsetting the women in the congregation, who are already carrying heavy loads with work and family that the capable wife is the standard. One described her as a spiritual Martha Stewart, up early making breakfast, running the business, raising the children; to use the overworked expression, “doing it all.”

She is capable but the Hebrew word is stronger. In Hebrew she is a “strong woman, or a woman of worth, or a warriorlike woman.”

It is tempting to write off this passage as either sexist, or as setting some impossible standard for a woman in a marriage. Indeed, she is doing all the work of running the household, the business, raising the children, and her husband, yes, her husband is;

“known at the city gates, taking his seat among the elders of the land.”

In other words, she’s doing all the work and he’s hanging out with his buddies. I remember a commercial when I was a boy which ended with, “my wife, I think I’ll keep her.” We can dive into all the culture wars of today or we can look at this passage in the context of the entire book of Proverbs.

Our reading for today comes at the conclusion of Proverbs. The last two verses are:

“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,

But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Give her a share in the fruit of her hands,

And let her works praise her in the city gates.”

In our modern times the word “fear” is to be afraid. We fear the future. We fret about money, or children, the virus and all manner of things. At the beginning of Proverbs, we read in chapter one, verse seven:

“The fear of the Lord, is the beginning of knowledge;

fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

There are those who preach a vengeful, wrathful god. A god who is punishing a people for their collective sins. A god who doles out retribution to those who sin; but rewards the faithful. Thus, this god is something to be feared.

But the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear spoken of in the Bible is awe and reverence. It allows us to open our hearts to the holy. Our reverence and humility draw us to God, not as one trembling in terror, but as one of God’s beloved children.

In her book, Amazing Grace, Kathleen Norris writes:

I sense much of fear itself in the contemporary landscape. Having lost the ancient sense of fear as a healthy dose of reverence and wonder, we are left with only the negative connotations of the word. The “fear of the Lord” spoken of in the Bible as the “beginning of wisdom” becomes incomprehensible; instead of opening us up, allowing us to explore our capacity for devotion in the presence of something larger and wiser than ourselves, fear is seen as something that shrinks us, harms us, and renders us incapable of acting on our behalf.

This reverence, this fear of the Lord, begins our journey of faith. “It is the beginning of knowledge.” It is what Wisdom calls us to:

Wisdom cries out in the street;

In the squares she raises her voice.

At the busiest corner she cries out;

“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?”

Later in the passage from last week’s reading she says:

Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;

They will seek me diligently, but will not find me.

Because they hated knowledge

And did not choose the fear of the Lord.

The “beginning of knowledge” is the beginning of our journey of faith. The phrase from our reading, “who can find,” is not about the search for the perfect wife. The search is for Wisdom, who the wife represents. She fears the Lord and is to be praised. The wisdom we seek, is living as God would have us live. The husband has done this:

The heart of her husband trusts in her,

And he will have no lack of gain.

She does him good, and not harm

All the days of her life.

James draws the contrast between earthly wisdom and heavenly wisdom:

Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, wiling to yield, full of mercy and good fruits without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

This is not easy. It is easy to come here today and, consider putting aside the petty jealousies and grievances that we carry. It is another thing to go into the world and live as James writes. It is a struggle to not be one who rejects Wisdom, to be a scoffer. Psalm One tells us that “happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked.” But who are the wicked? Is it the person who, in a discussion about redoing the church kitchen, which has been called the “the Holy of Holies,” disagrees with you? Is it the rude man at a shop? Is it the person who takes the seat at a table that you wanted?

We don’t want to be among the wicked. We want to be among those in Psalm 1 whose,

… delight is in the law of the Lord,

And on his law they meditate day and night.

The law we are called to follow, to meditate on, is not simply a set of rules. Carol Dempsey, a theologian writes of this psalm:

Here the law of the Lord is “instruction” and refers to the whole body of tradition that reveals the ways of God. The laws core and central focus is love. Those who are righteous are also reflective: they ponder unceasingly God’s law – the ways of love – in order to embrace, embody and live out the Torah.

Living out the Torah, living by the words of our psalm do not lead to a life without heartache or tribulation. We are not rewarded with a nicer house or better car because we have behaved well in God’s eyes. Our relationship with our Lord allows us to choose hope over despair and to see blessings and offer thanks even when faced with hardship.

Our readings for today start with the question:

“A capable wife who can find?”

Indeed, what is it we seek?

We seek the Holy. To live into God’s law.

For our hearts to trust in the Lord.

Amen