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For our children & families this week.

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Hespeler, 19 September, 2021 © Scott McAndless
Proverbs 31:10-31, Psalm 1, James 3:13-4:3, 7-8, Mark 9:30-37 (click to read)

Our reading this morning from Proverbs asks what sounds like a rather banal question at first glance: “Who can find a capable wife?” It could almost be the kind of question that exasperated young men might ask each other after several bad dates. “How on earth do I find a good wife, one who will take care of me and make me happy?”

But what if I told you that that is not really the question being asked in this passage? I mean, it is maybe a part of the question, but it is about so much more than that.

I am going to teach you two Hebrew words this morning, the two Hebrew words that begin that passage in Proverbs. The words are eshet chayil. Those are the two words that are translated as, “a capable wife” in the New Revised Standard Version, the thing that we are being asked who can find it. And here is the interesting thing about those two words. They can be translated as capable wife, but that is about the most boring translation that anyone could come up with.

Woman or Wife?

Let’s start with the first word, Eshet. That is the Hebrew word for a woman. It is, for example, the Hebrew word that Adam uses when he first sees Eve and says, “this one shall be called woman.” Now, Eshet can also mean wife because Hebrew doesn’t actually have a separate word for wife. You have to guess from the context whether it means the one or the other. So, for example, if you see a phrase like, “Samuel’s Eshet,” you would probably translate that as, “Samuel’s wife,” rather than, “Samuel’s woman.” But when you see the word all on its own, the general practice would be to translate it as “woman.”

So the question in this passage is, which case are we looking at? This is not entirely clear. For the most part, the passage speaks of this woman and what she does alone. And yet, there are a few parts of the passage that make it clear that she is actually married. So how should we translate it?

Misuse of this Passage

And here is where there’s this incredible advantage to preach about this passage over zoom because I can see some of your faces, and I know your eyes are glassing over. “Is he really going to talk about the ins and outs of Hebrew translation here?” you’re thinking. “I didn’t come here for a lesson in linguistics, I came here for a sermon that would help me to live my life better.” But we actually have to answer this particular question before we can figure out how this passage applies to your life. It matters, it really matters, whether this passage is talking about a wife or a woman.

It matters because of how some people have used this passage of scripture. They have sometimes used it to teach women that the only way in which they can live praiseworthy lives is by being wives and operating exclusively within a household. So it actually matters a great deal whether this passage is talking about a wife or a woman.

Capable?

Now let’s move on to the second word, Chayil. Once again, “capable” is a perfectly acceptable translation of that word. It does mean someone who is able to act and to do. But I am not sure that that translation really captures the flavour of the original Hebrew word. This is a word that is mostly used in the Old Testament to describe men. And, when it is applied to men, it is generally used to describe men who are strong and powerful warriors. It is usually translated as “men of valour,” or “mighty men.” And that makes me think that a translation like “a capable woman,” doesn’t quite capture how this verse would have been understood by the people who first read it. There is no question that there is a dynamism and power in this word that goes far beyond mere capacity or competence. This is an exciting woman, a woman who impresses and who kind of blows you away when you think about her. That is what this passage is talking about.

Woman of Valour

And so I do not think that a translation like, a capable wife, really cuts it for this passage. The traditional Jewish English translation of this verse is to call this person a “woman of valour.” And that, when you think about it, sounds pretty exciting. I mean, if you want a real challenge that you can take to heart, I don’t think you can do much better than that. And I am here today to speak specifically to you women of faith and say that, yes, this is something that you can aspire to. You can be and become a woman of valour.

So, the big question is what is that going to look like. What, in this passage, are we being told that women should aspire to? How can you become an eshet chayil? Now, as I said, people have often used this passage to try and convince women that they should just be content with being a competent housewife. That interpretation doesn’t just depend on whether you translate the first word as wife or woman, because the whole passage does paint a picture of what this woman of valour is like.

The Limitations of Patriarchal Society

And it is true that, for the most part, we see her acting and behaving like a typical ancient housewife. She spends a lot of her time providing food and clothing for her family. In addition, she apparently takes such good care of her husband that he spends all his time sitting in the city gates and hanging out with all the other guys. So, there are certainly some who have taken from this passage the message that the only way for a woman to shine is by being a wife and mother.

But I feel that that is a very shallow reading of the whole passage. Yes, the woman in this passage mostly spends her time at domestic chores, but I do not think that anyone should take from that that domestic duties are the only acceptable way for a woman to spend her time.

The Bible was produced in a society that did impose some severe restrictions on women. So, of course, the woman in this passage pretty much sticks to the limits that have been imposed upon her. But I do not believe that there is any sense in which that is what makes her a woman of valour. The limits that were placed on her, after all, would have simply been taken for granted both by her and by everyone else around her. These were not the things that made her extraordinary, and so no one would have seen them as making her a woman of valour.

Breaking the Limits

And so we need to look closer at the passage and, when we do, we should notice that this woman does not just stick to the strict limitations that have been placed upon her. We see that, for example, “She considers a field and buys it; With the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.” Now, let me tell you, real estate speculation was not, in that world, something that was seen as an ordinary female activity. Nor was the management of crops. Yet this woman steps outside of what is expected of her, she pushes the boundaries, and this is clearly one of the things that makes her a woman of valour. She also engages in trade, bringing in food from afar, it says, and also creating goods that she sells through merchants. This kind of enterprise is certainly admirable, but it was not normally within the scope of what was considered womanly activities.

I think there is definitely an argument to be made that what the Bible calls a woman of valour, is not merely a woman who sticks to the duties that her society tells her that she is supposed to do. The Bible truly celebrates a woman who boldly steps outside of the limitations that are placed upon her.

Women of Valour

I know many women of valour in this congregation and, indeed, I have known them in every congregation that I have been blessed to be associated with. You are the women who often inspire me. I know that each one of you deals with limitations in your life. Fortunately, of course, we are deeply blessed to be living in a time when women are much more freely able to pursue all kinds of endeavours that once would have been denied to them. And our society has been deeply blessed by the contributions that have come from that freedom. But still, all of us deal with certain limitations. We deal with the expectations that are placed upon us by others. We struggle, some of us, with our own lack of self-esteem or the anxiety that holds us back. Sometimes, we deal with physical limitations or illness. But the women of valour that I see are those who don’t let those things limit them, who step beyond the bounds and who often act in excellence.

And the best part is, I believe, is that this makes being a woman of valour something that any woman can achieve. It doesn’t mean you have to have a certain mode of life. It doesn’t mean that you have to be a housewife, nor does it mean you have to have a career. You just need to trust God to break through whatever barriers are holding you back. It also makes being a person of valour something available to anyone at all.

This is because everyone deals with some limitations in some place in their life. They may be related to gender, age, infirmity or mentality, but we’ve all got them. But God encourages us to overcome such barriers as an expression of faith in God and faithfulness to our calling. And, what’s more, a reward is promised, “Give her a share in the fruit of her hands, And let her works praise her in the city gates.” This, coming to us as it does from a society that usually severely limited women in their scope of action, is really quite an extraordinary statement.

Election Reflection

There is one other direction that this passage makes my thoughts go at this particular moment in time. I’m very aware, as I’m sure you are too, that tomorrow our country will go to the polls to elect the leaders who will guide our country over the next several no doubt very challenging years. And so I also cannot help but ask the question today, “Who can find a capable leader?” Or even better, who can find a leader of valour?

Now, I do not think that it is my place to tell you who you ought to vote for tomorrow. I will not even tell you who I intend to vote for in this forum. But I will tell you this, if you want a good description of the kind of leadership that we need, I think you could hardly do better than this description of a woman of valour in the Book of Proverbs. In some ways, it can be very helpful to think of our nation as one big household to which we all belong. And, in many ways, a good leader is going to have to look after our household much in the way that this woman looks after hers in Proverbs. So let me pull out just a few verses and let you consider for yourself how these might apply to the tasks that lie ahead for our federal leadership.

“She is like the ships of the merchant, she brings her food from far away.” Wouldn’t that be helpful in thinking about international trade?

“She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.” Talk about national infrastructure!

“She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.She opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy.” Any good leader needs to think of those who fall through the cracks!

“She is not afraid for her household when it snows, for all her household are clothed in crimson.Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.” Oh, it would be good to have such an eshet chayil as we face the crises that I am sure are yet to come!

Wouldn’t we be blessed to have such leaders who maintained such priorities? I know it’s not going to practically happen in this election that there will be a literal woman of valour at the head of the party that will form our next government. I do pray that day will come soon. But maybe we can pray for the next best thing, a man who is almost as good as an eshet chayil, a woman of valour.

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Hespeler, 5 September 2021 © Scott McAndless
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23, Psalm 125, James 2, Mark 7:24-37

There has been a lot of talk over the last few years about canceling. It is what happens when you have somebody who, for a long time, has been revered in the culture falls from their pedestal. Maybe they are an important historical figure or politician. Maybe they are a celebrated author or actor or businessperson. But then they do something. Maybe they tweet something intolerant or abusive or insensitive. Or maybe they treat somebody else in a way that just seems wrong.

And we all know what happens next. Word of this terrible offense spreads like wildfire through social media along with a rising tide of offense and condemnation. And once the tide has grown large enough, the repercussions begin and often we see the person who has committed the offense losing their platform or maybe their job or paying the price in some other significant way.

“Cancel Culture”

This phenomenon has been given the name of cancel culture in our modern times, which is a name that I will admit I have some trouble with. My problem with it is that people always seem to see cancel culture as something that other people do. But they never seem to see how their own activities of boycotting or demanding somebody’s resignation who they don’t agree with as effectively part of the same kind of culture. That tells me that, often the people who use this term are really only using it as a tool to put down people they disagree with and are not really trying to create a better culture.

But, for better or worse, the term does seem to have become a part our modern language. So maybe we ought to understand it and try to see what can be done with it. So let me suggest a bit of a case study.

A Case Study

Let me give you a real-life case of a very important and highly revered religious leader. I’m talking about the kind of guy that commands the love and devotion of millions. In fact, so much is he revered that many of those followers would think of him more as a God than as a man. And let’s say that I tell you that a very reliable report has come out that this man was in a twitter conversation with a woman of a different ethnic group. She had come to him and asked for his assistance with something really important to her and he turned her down.

But wait, that’s not the terrible part of the story. I mean, somebody might have all kinds of good reasons not to come to the aid of somebody in need. It might be a bad look, but it’s not necessarily evil. No, it wasn’t the fact that he turned her down, it was how he did it. What if he turned her down by tweeting back, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

Did he Just Call her a Dog?

Ouch, can you imagine what the cancellation brigade might do with a tweet like that? They would ask, and quite justly when you look at the context, “Didn’t he just imply that the people of his own ethnicity have priority simply because of that ethnicity? Even more important, didn’t he just call the people of her race dogs (which is a particularly insulting slur in that culture)? And finally, and the most damningly, isn’t there a word for a female dog, a word you wouldn’t even say in public? And didn’t he just personally call her that?” Oh, I can just imagine the culture warriors going to work, spreading the news and doing whatever they can to cancel the person who would have tweeted such a thing.

So, what do you think about that particular case study? It’s a big problematic, isn’t it? It is especially problematic because, of course, you have all already figured out which public figure I am talking about here. I am talking about something which, according to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus actually said. And there really is very little question that that is what he meant.

Defending Jesus

This story of Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman is one that is kind of inescapably problematic. It has been for a long time. One way you can know that is is because, for a long time, people have been trying to defend Jesus and his words in the story. One of the common defenses that you will hear is that maybe Jesus didn’t really mean it. You know, he just said it in order to test the woman, to see if she had enough faith to challenge him.

But I got to say, when it comes to defenses, that is a pretty thin one. After all, isn’t it the same defense that you have heard so many times when a powerful executive or public figure gets caught doing something horrible like sexual harassment? “Oh,” says the powerful man, “I was just testing her to see if she would do the right thing by turning me down.” That’s right, I think that most of us would be pretty skeptical about such an explanation if we heard it today, and I really think that it is no different in the case of Jesus.

A Racist Attitude?

So, what is going on in this story? Is Jesus reacting to this woman in a racist manner? I suspect the inescapable answer is probably yes. And I realized that that answer might mess with some of your understandings of who Jesus was and what he represented. We do confess, after all, that Jesus was the Son of God, the one through whom God was and is uniquely present in this world. And yet, at the same time, we also confess that Jesus was and is fully human. And, given that that is a logical inconsistency, we do sometimes have a bit of trouble putting those two confessions together.

After all, we consider, if Jesus was fully divine then he must have known everything. That means that he must have known that it was racially insensitive and offensive to suggest that that woman was a dog. He must have known how that would have felt to her. That is actually a misunderstanding of the divinity of Jesus as presented in the Gospels, where Jesus is not presented as being omniscient. But that is how we tend to think of it all the same.

And yet, at the same time, as someone who was fully human, Jesus grew up in the world, in Nazareth of Galilee, where he doubtlessly heard people putting down other people because of their ethnicity. And if, his whole life, Jesus had heard his parents and every person in his life that he respected casually refer to Syrophoenicians as dogs, would it not be the perfectly human thing to just casually pick up such attitudes and ways of speaking? Of course it is! I know that is what it is to be human because that is exactly what happens to each and every one of us as we grow up and uncritically adopt similar attitudes.

A Sinless Christ

So, I really don’t feel as if it is all that surprising that Jesus should have picked up certain racial prejudices or attitudes. After all, the Bible does teach that Jesus was tested and tempted just like any of us, and yet was without sin. And so, having been exposed to such attitudes, he could well have carried them with him at least until such time as he was exposed to a living and breathing Syrophoenician. It is only at that point, I would suggest, that acting on such a prejudice would be a sin.

So the question is, if Jesus was fed racist attitudes by the society that raised him, why wouldn’t his initial reaction just have been to act on those attitudes? And if that’s what Jesus was doing, should he be canceled for that?

No. I would say this not just for Jesus but for anyone who has been in that kind of situation. And I suspect we’ve all been in that kind of situation. We have all been fed certain attitudes that may be hurtful to others by the culture around us. That’s not on us; that is on the culture. No one should be canceled for just one tweet or statement. Now, when such a statement is part of an ongoing pattern or somebody absolutely refuses to learn from the hurt that they cause, that may be a different matter. But we all make mistakes, and we all get things wrong; that is a big part of what it means to be human.

What Matters is What Comes Next

So what matters in Jesus’ case is not his initial statement so much as what comes after. And what comes after is that the woman challenges him on what he has said. “Sir,” she says, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” She knows that what he has just said to her is hurtful. But she also knows that she’s not there merely for herself. There’s something much bigger at stake than the racism that people like her sometimes experience at the hands of Judeans. So, she actually embraces the derogatory term and turns it back to Jesus in a way that allows him to hear what his words sounded like to her.

In many ways, she is the hero of this story. You just have to admire her chutzpah. We could all probably learn something from her when we find ourselves in a position when people do or say something that they might not realize is hurtful to us.

We Often Double Down

But you know what the human reaction to that kind of situation often is. When we are challenged by somebody in the way that this woman challenges Jesus, our automatic reaction is often to get our backs up. Who wants to admit that they are wrong? We see this kind of thing all the time in our society.

For example, you can give some people all the evidence in the world about why they should get the vaccine or why they should wear a mask, and they will resist learning anything new about it. In many cases the more reasonable a case you make, the more irrational the response you get. People don’t like being wrong and they will actually go so far as deluding themselves to avoid admitting it.

But here is where Jesus truly stands out – where his response goes beyond what is simply human to give us a demonstration of what it might mean for him to be divine. Jesus does not get defensive. He doesn’t try and cling to the idea of Judean ethnic superiority that he has been fed all of his life. He learns and he grows in his understanding of this woman who, up until this moment, was merely an ethnic stereotype to him.

The Importance of Incarnation

I do believe in the mystery of the incarnation – the teaching that Jesus was and is, at one and the same time fully human and fully divine. But I also believe that one of the key reasons why the incarnation was needed was in order to show us where, in this world, the human can intersect with the divine – where it can happen for any of us.

We all make mistakes. We have all of us picked up from the culture around us and from our families and others who have formed us ways of looking at the world that are wrong or hurtful. There is nothing extraordinary about that. It is what it is to be human. That is why indeed I do not believe that we ought to “cancel” people for their simple mistakes or their failure to see the flaws in the worldviews that were passed onto them.

The real question is how do you react when you suddenly realize that you might be wrong or, even more importantly, when someone confronts you with the reality that the attitudes you have inherited uncritically are actually hurting people. What do you do then? Oh, that can be so hard. It can feel as if someone is attacking you and you want so much to fight back and defend yourself. I guess my question for you today is to ask yourself how willing are you to follow the example of Christ – the example of his divinity – and not do that? How willing are you to re-examine the worldview you were given as painful or as confusing as that might feel? There are times when I feel as if the very future of humanity itself may hang on the answers to those questions.

But Jesus has already shown us the way and, in doing that, has shown us where the heart of God lies. Isn’t it about time that we started to learn from that?

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