St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
September 19, 2021
Year B, Proper 20: The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proverbs 31:10-31
Psalm 1
James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
Mark 9:30-37
Women of Valor
Well, in today’s gospel lesson we have the latest episode in our long running series, “The Disciples Just Don’t Get it.”
Just like last week, Jesus predicts his suffering, death, and resurrection.
First, Mark tells us that the disciples didn’t understand what Jesus was saying so they chose to remain silent.
Now, that sounds like an appropriate and maybe even wise response, although wouldn’t it have been nice if Jesus got a little comfort and support from his friends?
But, then we find out that the truth is worse, or at least more complicated.
It turns out that while Jesus was trying to prepare his disciples for the hard days ahead, the disciples were arguing about who was “the greatest.”
Welcome to “The Disciples Just Don’t Get It,” Episode 612.
Jesus patiently explains to them that the one who wishes to be great must be the servant of all – servant of even little children – little children who represented all the many people then and now who have no status, the people who have no ability to pay us back for our gifts and service.
For Jesus, true greatness means serving the people who are dismissed by the world as not great at all.
Whenever we get an episode of “The Disciples Just Don’t Get It” I think how the often clueless and unfaithful disciples must have exasperated and disappointed Jesus, over and over again.
The fact that Jesus never gives up on them should be a great comfort of course.
But, for Jesus’ sake, I’m also comforted by the fact that some of his disciples were more understanding, and more faithful.
Some of the disciples really did get it.
I speak, of course, about the women.
In the gospels the usually clueless men get a lot of the attention, but we do get glimpses now and then of some of the women disciples – some of the probably many women who followed Jesus, who supported his work, and who will later share the Good News.
At the very start of the story, Mary, Jesus’ mother, said “yes” to carrying God into the world, even though she surely knew that her openness would cost her dearly.
Martha of Bethany kept busy – maybe too busy – offering hospitality to Jesus and the others, while her sister Mary sat at the Lord’s feet, not missing the precious opportunity to learn from Jesus.
And, Mary Magdalene was healed by Jesus and became one of his closest disciples, so close that the gospels agree that she is among the women who discover the empty tomb. And, in John’s version of the story, Mary Magdalene alone is the first to meet the Risen Christ – and, for a few minutes, as she raced to tell the others the Good News, she was the Church.
You know, the Bible – both the Old and New Testaments - is often dismissed as a kind of “boy’s club.” There’s some truth in that – the ancient world was very much a patriarchy – and, for that matter, so is much of today’s world, too.
But people also have that “boy’s club” perception because of what parts of the Bible we hear and teach – and also because of how we translate the ancient, foreign, words of Scripture.
Which brings me at last to today’s Old Testament lesson from the Book of Proverbs.
At first glance, a passage that begins with the question, “A capable wife who can find?” is one that seems very much a product of the “boy’s club,” a piece of Scripture that we might prefer to avoid.
But it turns out that there is a lot more going on here than meets the eye – much more than just an ode to the traditional roles of women.
Right up front, I need to give credit to Rachel Held Evans, a wonderful writer who died way too young a couple of years ago. She explored this passage in great depth, helping me and many others see it in a new light.
Today’s passage is the conclusion to the Book of Proverbs. In translation we miss the fact that in the original Hebrew it’s actually an acrostic poem - the first word of each verse starts with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in succession.
And speaking of translation, “a capable wife who can find?” is not the only possible translation of the Hebrew.
Another, better, translation is: “a woman of valor who can find?”
“A woman of valor who can find?”
And rather than a poem that limits women to certain roles, this passage is actually a call for men to celebrate the “women of valor” – not necessarily women who do heroic things, although there’s that, but a call to celebrate the women who do whatever they do – in the home or out in the world - with dedication, fidelity, and, most of all, wisdom.
Rachel Held Evans was so inspired by this passage that she began using the expression “woman of valor” to celebrate her friends and family when they accomplished something or survived an ordeal.
And when Rachel died so young, many thousands of people described her as just that, a woman of valor.
So, today, in episode 612 of “The Disciples Just Don’t Get It,” we heard the men around Jesus ignore what he had to say. We heard them focused on their own greatness, while Jesus teaches that true greatness comes from serving those the world sees as not great at all.
The men don’t usually get it, but, fortunately, for Jesus and for us, the women disciples are often more understanding, and more faithful.
So, I’ve been with you now for about two months.
I’ve begun to settle into some routines, but I still have a lot to learn, and I’m still getting used to my surroundings.
Most days, as I go in and out of my office, I still notice the portraits of some of my esteemed predecessors that line the hall.
I’ve joked that they are there to keep an eye on me.
They’re all men, of course, part of a very exclusive 22-member “boy’s club.”
But, although it was only relatively recently that women have been able to take up formal lay and clergy leadership positions in the church, you know that from the beginning women have done – and still do – so much of the often thankless work that keeps the church going.
It’s been the women, many of their names lost to history but never forgotten by God, who have understood that true greatness means serving the people who are dismissed by the world as not great at all.
And, I’ve been here more than long enough to know very well that we have lots of women here, right now, at St. Thomas’ who are continuing this long tradition of love and service, doing so much ministry with dedication, fidelity, and, most of all, wisdom.
Long ago, the author of Proverbs asked, “A woman of valor, who can find?”
It turns out that’s easy, because they – you – are all around us.
Amen.
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