Peaceful Productivity

today's sermon at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN

Texts: Proverbs 31:10-31 and James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a

Once upon a time there was a little girl who hated to do her homework. She had a rather comprehensive math test coming up and was feeling quite stressed. As you can imagine, she put off her studying until the last minute and then worked just hard enough to, hopefully, pass the test. That night, her father was going past her room just as she was saying her bedtime prayers, and this is what he heard: “Now I lay me down to rest, and hope to pass tomorrow's test. If I should die before I wake, that's one less test I have to take. Amen.” [1]

That little girl was hardly the woman described in today’s reading from Proverbs. But she is probably more like us than the wise and perfect wife whose “works praise her in the city gates.”

It’s good to know that we aren’t the only ones who don’t live up to those qualities of perfection defined in Proverbs. As I see it, only God can live up to the standards and ideals we just heard attributed to the perfect wife.

Here’s what the passage is NOT about: commentaries warn against allowing this passage to be used to abuse, control or put down women. The “ideal wife” is a standard that is impossible to live up to, and yet people throughout the ages have tried to emulate this image, or have at least believed that women ought to be able to achieve it. In fact, when I went looking for a picture to put on the screen for this sermon I found a so-called “Christian” web site that was all about the biblical mandate for women to be submissive to men.

When you look carefully at today’s passage from Proverbs, you see that the woman is doing all the work so that the man can have the prestige of sitting idly at the city gates participating in discussions with the elders of the community. Who wouldn’t like to have such privilege—either male of female? If a spouse did everything so that we could sit back & relax & discuss politics and community gossip, that would be the life, wouldn’t it? (On the other hand, it might also get boring, eventually.)

But if you look even more closely, it would appear that this husband has probably relinquished his power! His wife not only runs the household and teaches the children (wisely, you notice!) but she also runs the business and manages the real estate! And she’s good at it! She sounds a little like Super Woman. Has he given her all the credit, or is it a case of “behind every good man is a great woman” and she is letting him take the credit while she works behind the scenes?

Or is this a case of praising the wisdom of women and demonstrating that Sophia (Wisdom) is woman personified?

Whatever the case may be….. we can learn from this passage if we DON’T take it literally. The qualities of a capable wife, as listed in Proverbs, are actually the qualities of a capable Christian!

If we read this passage literally, it may sound like this woman should be—or should try to be—like Super Woman up there on the screen, but the text doesn’t say that this woman is working herself to the bone or driving herself into oblivion by putting others first. What she is doing is giving of herself for her family. In much the same way, we are called to give of ourselves for God’s family. And that doesn’t mean we should burn ourselves out. We come to worship each week—and participate in other activities of the church—to refuel and rejuvenate ourselves. If we don’t refresh our souls and spirits with God’s love and empowering strength, we won’t be able to serve others—wisely or otherwise.

Yet, productivity is a good thing. And productivity in the quest for peace is even better!

What wisdom do we glean from all this? James tells us to “show by [our] good life that [our] works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.” When what we do is inspired by the wisdom that comes from loving, following and serving God, “a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.”

There is enough misery, greed and jealousy in the world that we all should be inspired to be highly productive in working toward peace with justice. Technology has made our world too small for isolationism, nationalism, economic imperialism and religion-ism.

Christians aren’t the only people in the world and we need to understand that there are other paths to God—other faiths that seek to teach wise and compassionate ways to live and love. Within all faiths there are radicals, but the ones who are important are the ones who strive for peaceful productivity—seeking justice and equality for all the people of the world.

Anyone who criticizes people of other religions, needs to remember that “It is Christians who call God ‘rational’ who, in that God's name, have done a history-full of irrational things to other religions and [even] to Christians themselves. In times past, Christians drove Jews and Muslims out of Europe… slaughtered Jews in pogroms and Muslims in the Crusades. In the New World, Christians converted Indians at the end of a sword and persecuted gays and kept slaves and suppressed women… [W[hite Christians burn[ed] crosses in the front yards of black Christians—and then burned those black Christians themselves. Radicals of all faiths have sinned in the name of religion. If we, as Christians, want to begin a dialogue on the role of violence in religion, we need to cite some of our own sins as well as theirs… [and] we had all better learn to talk so Christian a language that there is no doubt about its meaning.” [2]

Jesus, who was always a Jew, embraced all the people, not just his own clan. In a similar manner, James tells us that “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, willing 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.”

The qualities of a “capable wife” are those qualities showered upon all people by our generous and loving God. We cannot be God, but we can be God-like in our treatment of the other people with whom we share this planet. With grace and with “wisdom from above” we can be productive in working for peace with justice, remembering that God created all humankind in God’s image, and wisdom dictates that we serve God by loving our fellow human beings and by seeking to restore the unity that God intends for us all. AMEN.

Endnotes

[1] Note #9 from Judy Boli to “Sermonshop 2006 09 24” on Ecunet.

[2] Adapted from “From Where I Stand” by Joan Chittister, OSB, Sept. 22, 2006, Vol. 4, No. 21.