Woman Wisdom, Lady Sophia.

A sneak oeek at my semon for Sunday! I strongly suggest you read the proverbs and Gospel reading before hand though, it makes much more sense in context!

http://www.textweek.com/yearb/properb20.htm

Today in our readings we are celebrating. And we are celebrating some of those who were, and still are, the lesser and least in our society. Today we are celebrating women and children. We are celebrating servants and slaves. We are celebrating Woman Wisdom, Sophia, and all that she brings. We are celebrating a good and obedient wife... hang on. Let's back up a bit and have a closer look at this well known reading. What is the Spirit saying to the Church today?

We recognise in ancient texts the power dynamics that allow men to idealise female virtue in terms that benefit men and often harm women. Notice that this text cannot even imagine a virtuous woman who is unmarried, that is, who is not in relation to a male as wife. It is easy to dismiss this, “oh well, that was then and this is now, we're over that sort of thing” (ha, I wish) or “another disgraceful example of the patriarchy at work! That poor ideal woman is working all the time, from dawn till dusk, in every place for every person! Outrageous!”. But neither of these approaches do justice to what is in a lot of ways a critical understanding about the way we think about God and each other.

Proverbs is a book of instruction, helping us learn how to live in a way that brings us closer to God. They are much concerned with the gaining and keeping of wisdom – what can seem like foolishness to the wider world. These texts put much of this teaching about wisdom in the mouth of "Woman Wisdom," the personification of wisdom in Hebrew Scripture as well as in much of the ancient world. She calls upon humans to walk in her ways and follow her path. Proverbs 31, then, is set in the larger context of wisdom literature, and the more immediate context of Woman Wisdom.

There are some unusual aspects to this text that can go unnoticed. Firstly, a lot of the work this ideal woman is doing is not contained to the sphere traditionally allowed for women. While she clearly takes care of her husband and household and excels at domestic activities she is quite active outside the home as well. She is a successful businesswoman, considering a field and buying it , and is a viticulturist to boot. She is an entrepreneur who works late into the evening , who plans ahead , and who is not idle . She knows how to dress for success and how to sell goods for a profit. Her work compares favourably to merchant marines , and one suspects that the reason her husband is well known is because of her, not vice versa!

But this amazing paragon of virtue is not merely successful in worldly matters. She is no uncaring tycoon, instead she “opens her hand to the poor and reaches our her hands to the needy”. She does not remain silent – her voice is filled with wisdom and the “teaching of kindness”.

Truly this woman is a paragon of virtue. One wonders how far a young man in ancient Israel would have had to look to find such perfection. And also, what exactly he was planning on offering in return.

So we've had a look at what this text does say, now let's have a look at what it doesn't.

No where does it say anything about this paragon being subject to her husband. She is not obedient. She does not submit. She leads her own life rather than following someone else's. She pursues her own ends rather than obeying orders. There is no hint that her industry is not her own, that she is demure or deferential, or that her pursuits are directed by others. This is an independent individual who is reliant on no other human for her success or worth.

Secondly, there is nothing mentioned about pregnancy or childbirth, traditionally key credentials for womanhood in the ancient world. No where is she identified or given status by her children. She is notably not dedicating her life to them, not deriving her sense of being from them. Being a mother is but a small part of her identity. Times change hey?

Finally, nothing is said about he appearance. Nothing. She could be tall, short, big, small, botoxed within an inch of her life (although I suspect we are in the wrong era for that) or gray haired and loving it. Her appearance is completely irrelevant. This may be because we are talking about a mythical figure – what could Woman Wisdom look like? Interestingly, the scriptures contain many descriptions of what God is like, but never any describing God's appearance... whenever my RE students ask what God looks like, I explain that without a physical body it is hard to look like anything!

So when we look at this ideal, this aspiration, what we find is a woman who answers to no one but God, who is praised and loved by her family but not defined by them, who works hard in many spheres not normally considered suitable for her sex and who throughout it all has an aura of kindness and generosity. We find someone who we can all look up to, someone who can not be contained within the boundaries of her sex and situation but who breaks through them in the power of love. A revolutionary, a seer, a woman. Someone with no power in the world, but all the power from God.

So how do we get there? How do we become such a person, or mythological figure, ourselves?

Let's look to the gospel for help with this one. We all know that Jesus rebuked his disciples and told them they should be as a child. I'm sure we've all heard sermons about how pure and innocent these lovely children are. I'm sorry, have you MET my children? Adorable, yes. Lovable, certainly. But pure? Perfect? Without flaw? Not so much. What is it about children, what is this quality that allows them to be so close to God?

I would like to go back to verse 32 to answer this question. “But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him,” They were afraid to ask. Think about it. They were afraid of looking stupid, of getting it wrong. In our own time, no one wants to look uninformed, confused, or clueless. We withhold our toughest questions, often within our own churches and within Christian fellowship. We pretend we don't have hard questions. Yet the deepest mysteries of life do indeed elude us. Why do good people suffer? Why are humans so brutal to one another? Why does evil succeed? If God's own Son is betrayed and killed, then no one is safe. Why did God set up a world like this?

Why ask our hard questions? Because we withhold these questions at our own peril.

Verse 34 reveals what happens to the disciples when they sidestep the real questions they are afraid to ask -- they turn to arguing with each other, squabbling among themselves over petty issues of rank and status (verse 34). There is a direct line drawn from verse 32 to verse 34. When the disciples avoid asking hard questions, they focus on posturing about who is right.

We know this too well in the church. How would this story be different if the disciples had asked Jesus their questions? What kind of conversation might have ensued between Jesus and the disciples? What kind of relationship would it have engendered with each other?

How would our stories be different if we ask Jesus our questions? What kind of conversations might we pursue with Jesus? How would our life as disciples together be different as a result?

There may have been a time or two when I've gotten heartily sick of my daughter's questions. There may have been times when I've said the words I always promised myself would never cross my lips; “because I said so!”. But to ask is to learn, and to learn is to grow. If we don't ask the questions because we may not like the answers, we are doing ourselves a disservice. If we are too afraid of how we will look to take a risk, to venture outside the boundaries we have set for ourselves or had set for us by those around us, we lose the opportunity to come closer to the God who is our truth and our light.

The good news is that Jesus welcomes us even when we do get it wrong. We have the example of Woman Wisdom in front of us, an example that none of us can ever live up to, but it is in the trying, the questioning, even the falling, that we are most authentically ourselves and most authentically children of God. So let's ask those hard questions. Let's take that risk. And let's do it in the knowledge that no matter what, God has our back.

Amen.