Pentecost 18 – Keep Up Your Courage – September 22, 2024

Keep Up Your Courage

Friday night, we had the first of what we hope is a series of “pop up” community dinners here in the Library, and it was a really great celebration of connection, great food, and all we’ve grown to be together.  Emily Wigutow, whose cooking for coveted invitations all over Newport is the reason it always smells like heaven around here, created an amazing menu using tomatoes and fresh basil, thyme, and oregano from the Community Garden, so we even had the garden to table thing going here.  While some of you already had plans, many people paid it forward, buying tickets anyway so we could invite people from the wider community.  And we had a great crowd.  In God’s house, we can never have too big a party.  We just build a bigger table!  When everyone gathers around the table, each of us with different backgrounds, experiences, and insights, and all made in God’s image, we add different voices to the conversation.  When we draw our circle wide, as we sang here in church a couple of weeks ago, our perspective and understanding widens as we listen with curiosity, always ready to learn something new or change our minds.

Wife of Noble Character

And boy, I needed that expanded perspective this week when I looked at our readings for today.  You know already where I got stuck, right?  Proverb 31, about the wife of noble character.  It’s so difficult for me to resist celebrating the important roles women play in scripture, like Sarah, Miriam, Esther, Hannah, Rebecca, Rachel, Deborah, Jael, Ruth, Naomi, Rahab, Mary, Martha, Lydia and Prisca — not to mention Mary, Mother of God and Mary Magdalene, the first witness to the resurrection, called the Apostle to the Apostles.  But what was I to do with Proverb 31 — the repeated praise of the “noble or capable wife” which seemed to condition a woman’s excellence on her marital status, limiting female achievement to a very narrow band of human experience?

The use of the word wife rather than woman was repeated throughout the translation that the whole Episcopal Church in the United States uses — along with every other English translation I could find.  Randy’s kind and inclusive heart even moved him to ask if we could use a different reading, because measuring a woman’s worth by her service to a man was marginalizing and limiting, as well as exclusive of those who aren’t now or have never been married.  I was so discouraged when I couldn’t find the good news for God’s people in an exclusive message like that.  But we’ve built a bigger table here at Emmanuel.  I reached out to parishioner Steve Huttler, an observant Jewish man who reads Hebrew.  I asked Steve whether “good wife” was the correct and only translation of eishet ḥayil.  Steve consulted Rabbi Stephen Belsky of Touro Synagogue for perspective.  Even though both Steve and Rabbi Belsky are Orthodox Jews, they didn’t freeze our understandings in time and function to past millennia, or contexts that don’t apply to us now.  They found meaning for us in our time.

Here’s what Rabbi Belsky said:

the woman in the poem is described as married, and I think it’s fair to say that King Solomon or whichever other ancient Sage composed it saw family life in his time as an essential part of achieving human completion.  But the phrase “eishet ḥayil” itself doesn’t necessarily imply a wife.  Like many languages, Classical Hebrew uses the same word — “eishet” — for “woman” and for “wife”, but in the compound “eishet ḥayil,” it certainly just means woman of success/valor/power/achievement/courage who is worthy of leadership, whether single or married, and it’s only the later content of the poem that specifies her status as a wife and mother.

Role Model for All of Us

Well there you have it!  I had braced myself on behalf of our whole congregation — single and married, women and men — to think that Proverb 31 didn’t apply to us today, and even to be offended at the implication that it reinforced patriarchal cultural paradigms.  But Steve and Rabbi Belsky helped me to see things in a new way, understanding that the eishat hayiel of Proverb 31 is a role model for all of us.

We all need to be people of valor and courage in these days.  Courage is a form of faith, the will and constancy to make and live a holy life, even when it’s hard, even when it’s tempting to try something easier, and even when others wish we wouldn’t.  Courage is more than just bravery, although we have to be brave too.  Courage comes from the Old French word corage, which means heart and innermost feelings.  By the late 14th century, the word courage had come also to mean valor, the quality of mind which enables one to meet danger and trouble without fear.  Courage means walking in love, even when it’s difficult and scary and sometimes feels more vulnerable than you think your heart can stand.  Walking in love is only possible if you’re faithful and brave.

What does Proverb 31 sound like for us today?  A woman of strength is far more precious than jewels.  Her family loves and trusts her completely, knowing their entire future and wellbeing is invested at a compounding rate in her heart.  A woman of valor does good and not harm all the days of her life.  She is skilled with her hands, innovative, and creative, with good business sense, great leadership and managerial skills, and wise planning.  Hannah Klewin writes a prayer of valor for all of us today.  It was originally framed as a prayer for women, but just as the virtues described in Proverb 31 extend beyond the context of marriage, our need for valor and courage in these times is universal.

Dear God, please make us dangerous humansMay we be dangerous people, courageous and strong.  May we be people who acknowledge our power to change, and grow, and be radically alive for God. May we be healers of wounds and righters of wrongs.  May we weep with those who weep and speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. May we cherish children, embrace the elderly, and empower the poor.  May we pray deeply and teach wisely.  May we be strong and gentle leaders.  May we sing songs of joy and talk down fear.

May we never hesitate to let passion push us, conviction compel us, and righteous anger energize us. May we strike fear into all that is unjust and evil in the world.  May we dismantle abusive systems and silence lies with truth.  May we shine like stars in a darkened generation.  May we overflow with goodness in the name of God and by the power of Jesus.  And in that name and by that power, may we change the world.

Amen