WISDOM vs. "wisdom," welcoming children, and "the Proverbs 31 woman" (Free Version)
The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B- Proverbs 31:10-31; James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37
This week’s Lectionary texts can be found here.
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Notice that all of our passages this point us to wisdom that is found somewhere else other than ourselves. It is not that we are unable to be wise. Of course, by God’s grace, wisdom grows in our heart. But it never starts there.
In our Proverbs passage (Proverbs 31:10-31), we are taught to celebrate the “woman of valor,” an embodiment of wisdom (this is consistent with how wisdom is portrayed elsewhere in Proverbs as a woman who acts and speaks). The poet recognizes the wisdom in his wife. This is a gift from God and is because she fears the Lord.
Note: we need to be careful with this passage. This was never intended to be a measuring stick for Christian women to attain. Rather, it the the poet signing a song of celebration. Rachel Held Evans wrote, “in Jewish culture it is not the women who memorize Proverbs 31, but the men. Husbands commit each line of the poem to memory, so they can recite it to their wives at the Sabbath meal, usually in song….Eshet chayil is at its core a blessing—one that was never meant to be earned, but to given unconditionally.”1 (Much more on this in the subscriber-only version)
In our James passage (James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a), we are told about two kinds of wisdom. There is fake wisdom, which isn’t really wisdom, just “wisdom.” This kind of wisdom is self-focused, centered on envy and selfish ambition. It will only lead to destruction. The second kind is wisdom which finds its origin in heaven. It is “pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”
In fact, all of our infighting in the church, James says, comes from that self-focused stuff. We are worried that we won’t have enough and we covet things that other people have. We forget that God is our source.
We are called to submit ourselves. We resist the devil—the false messages of self-promotion, and we are told that he will flee from us. As we resist the devil, we are called to come near to God and told that he will come near to you.
In our gospel passage (Mark 9:30-37), we are once again reminded that the way of Jesus and the kingdom of God is radically different from all of our definitions of power and influence. While our attention is often focused on ladder climbing and self-promotion, Jesus has his attention turned to children.
Our challenge this week is to listen, to recognize the beauty of our dependence. Our strength, identity, and hope come from above. We can challenge our people to listen to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and to release guilt which comes from fear and insecurity. Listen to the voice of love.
*Our Deep Dive this week includes quotes from Rachel Held Evans and Ellen F. Davis as well as several early church fathers. We go into much more detail about the context of Proverbs 31 and the modern ways that we have misused this poem. We show the connection between baptism liturgy and the James passage. We also provide a detailed discussion on the difference between Self-Flagellating and Self-Emptying; Condemnation and Conviction. You can sign up for this in-depth (9+ page weekly brief) here.
Rachel Held Evans, A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband Master, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2012), Kindle Loc: 1572-1846.