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When it comes to the words that inspire us, we can all think of quotes by writers, rappers, and filmmakers. Words are important, powerful, and help us construct meaning in our lives. It’s one of the best feelings in the world to read a quote that makes you think “Yes, that is how I feel!” and “Yes, that’s what I think too!”
The Book of Proverbs is a collection of ancient quotations. It belongs to the category of biblical books we call the wisdom literature. It’s found right in the middle of the Bible, but we rarely think of the words in this collection as central to the wisdom in our everyday lives. Proverbs is often overlooked, can seem pretty dusty, and when read too quickly is a blur of cliches.
Let’s take another look at Proverbs. Let’s trust that there’s something here for us in our big life questions about how to be wise in relationship with our families, our bodies, our resources, and our power. Proverbs hands us a way to find wisdom in the ordinary. It’s about the art of living and seeing the beauty of God in the grit of everyday life.
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Speaker 2:So good to see you. How many of you love the rain? Curious. Feels nice, doesn't it? Feels refreshing.
Speaker 2:It's really good to be together on Eucharist Sunday. I always love these Sundays. My name is Bobby, and I serve the community as one of the pastors on the team here at Commons. If we have not met, I would love for you to introduce yourself to me at Amy Point, on Amy Sunday, really. Many of you know that I am a very proud auntie.
Speaker 2:I love the little humans that my siblings have brought into our family. And almost every week, there is a text message or a video about my niece that connects to something that I'm working on here at church. So this time, the connection is between a text message conversation with my sister and that feeling that you may get when you try to read a bunch of proverbs in the bible all at once. So here are some of the texts my sister sent about a bike ride with her two and a half year old daughter, and most of the message is what Emery says during this bike ride. So my sister says, this is a small sample of what our bike ride was like tonight today.
Speaker 2:And then it starts. Emery says, sniffs. I smell something. What's that smell, mama? I think it's dog poop.
Speaker 2:Sometimes dog poop dogs poop repeats five times. Says hi to someone, we pass. Mama, they didn't say hi to me. What's their names? Where's the beetle?
Speaker 2:Where's the spider? You think he lives over there? Probably repeats two times. Look. There's an airplane.
Speaker 2:Where's it going? Probably the airport. Where's the airport? Anybody on it? Repeats four times.
Speaker 2:I've got two tires. Look, mama. Look in my eyes. It's spinning fast like yours. To which I respond, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:And my sister says, this is my day all day. Life with a toddler. Hats off to any of you who are sitting here thinking, that is my life. But the beauty of these questions is that my niece is figuring out how the world works. She's open.
Speaker 2:She's curious. She's interested in it all. And Proverbs is interested in all of life too. You'll read wisdom about work and anger and animals and money. You'll see stuff about government and power and pride and humility and gossip.
Speaker 2:This book of wise sayings is like my little niece pointing out so much of what we can all too easily miss. Proverbs speaks up and says, take notice. Be open. Be interested in all of life. If you pay attention to your world, you will learn all about wisdom too.
Speaker 2:So in the first week of the wisdom series, we surveyed Proverbs one to nine. We talked about the ways that we keep company with wisdom, but that's not always our default, is it? As much as we want to make great decisions and live well, we mess up all the time in big and little ways When we take a path that leads to any kind of trouble. Foolishness doesn't happen overnight. Foolishness happens in increments.
Speaker 2:We foolishly give into a craving that says, ah, it won't be that bad if I just cross this little line once. And we foolishly choose just a little bit more of something we know we don't need. And we foolishly ignore good advice and justify our behavior when we say, I've worked so hard and I deserve this. And Proverbs says, check yourself. Are you on a path of health and connection and honesty?
Speaker 2:If you aren't, it's not too late. Proverbs says, get there. And even better, the sages gave us this personified picture of wisdom as a woman who never stops looking for you. Wisdom unlocks the isolation in your life. She connects you to God, leads you deeper into community, and blesses your life.
Speaker 2:In the middle section of Proverbs is a reference work. The collection is meant to be one that you return to. Thumbing through the chapters, you'll find all of these stacks of probabilities. Like, if you choose a kind hearted partner, you will probably gain honor. And if you focus on refreshing others, you will probably be refreshed.
Speaker 2:If you prioritize wisdom, you will probably love life itself. Proverbs instructs with these nuggets of how the world works and encourages the art of living. Even after thousands of years, many of these little lines of wisdom of in Hebrew still guide us in decision making. You can collect your favorite proverbs from this book in the Bible, and you can collect favorite proverbs from the world that you live in. Today, we're headed for the last two chapters in the book of Proverbs, and we're gonna talk about domination.
Speaker 2:So let's pray and get into it. Loving God, thank you that you welcome all of us at the table. Jesus, you came to us so that we can come to you even more fully, even more freely, even more imperfectly. For those of us who are feeling a deep sadness, lostness, a longing, will you show us how you are meeting us here? For those who are looking for help, direction, and clarity, will you show us the way forward on a path of transformation and joy?
Speaker 2:And for those of us who are just tired, maybe a bit discontented, maybe a bit hard on ourselves. God, will you come to us in this moment and meet us exactly where we are? Holy Spirit, breath of life. Will you renew our imagination for awe and for simplicity? We pray.
Speaker 2:Amen. So Proverbs chapters thirty and thirty one hold a handful of appendices. And you may think, how important can an appendix be, Bobby? And I say to you, very. Back in 2014, I was so close to finishing up my master of divinity degree at Regent College.
Speaker 2:Foolishly, I put off the biblical languages until the end. So I was so close to finishing, but I needed to conquer me some Hebrew. Now I am a pretty smart person, but studying language languages is hard for me. I love words. I love the meaning of words, but memorizing Hebrew paradigms is isolating tedious soul sucking work.
Speaker 2:A friend of mine once said, I don't like studying Hebrew all that much, but nobody hates it like Bobby hates it. So word kinda got around. There were days in that academic year when I thought that Hebrew would dominate my whole life. So I needed to find a way to keep it in check. One way I kept my anxiety in check was familiarizing myself with the appendix in my textbook.
Speaker 2:The appendix became my best hope. It gave me exactly what I needed to know without the extra detail. I was aiming for a b, people. I didn't have time for all that syntax. An appendix can be a great distillation of what we really need to know.
Speaker 2:It's a section at the end to help you with the ideas of the whole. So that's what we're gonna do today. We're going to hit up the Proverbs appendices. So let's begin with the first appendix called the sayings of Agur. Proverbs 30 starts with a couple of name drops.
Speaker 2:Agur, the son of Yaakay. And these names are not Hebrew names. In fact, the Hebrew in this section is actually super tricky. So aren't you glad you have b in Hebrew Bobby to guide you? It's okay though.
Speaker 2:I check my work for real. I promise. So our NIV reads, the sayings of Agur, son of Yaakhe, an inspired utterance. This man's utterance to Ethel, I am weary God, but I can prevail. Now what we read in the NIV, I am weary God, but I can prevail, is followed with a little footnote in your bible.
Speaker 2:And the footnote in your bible says that with a different word division of the Hebrew, Masoretic text reads, utterance to Ethiol Ethiol and Ukhal. And you might be thinking, Well, Hebrew scholar Robert Alter says that though it's possible weary can be the meaning, there is no warrant for it in the ancient text, and therefore, it remains conjectural. All this to say, the translation issue is a really good check on our interpretation. The ambiguity here reminds us to stay humble, which it turns out is what this first appendix is all about, humility before God. Sometimes there are gaps, and there are question marks, and lost translations, and that is okay.
Speaker 2:There's still so much to hear. So let's hear what this appendix has to say to us about our relationship with wisdom. We read in Proverbs 30. Surely, I am only a brute, not a man. I do not have human understanding.
Speaker 2:Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Whose hands have gathered up the wind? Who has wrapped up the waters in a cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name and what is the name of his son?
Speaker 2:Surely, you know. And the key to this section is in the Inclusio. And the Inclusio is a phrase at the top of the poem connected to a phrase at the bottom of the poem. So at the top, the sage says, I do not know. And at the bottom, the sage says, God, you know.
Speaker 2:And here's why that's cool. In Mesopotamian literature, phrases like this are meant to teach you that you can't be more than you are. You are human and not a deity, so be human. Notice how this poem, it sweeps vertically from heaven to earth and horizontally across the earth naming four elements. Fire as in heaven, air, water, earth.
Speaker 2:So the answer to all these questions is always God. Everywhere, God. God is the one who has gone up to heaven and come down. God is the one who knows God's own name. God is the one who knows the son's name, knows your name, the one who seeks wisdom.
Speaker 2:Our response to the cosmos is humility and all encompassing awe. Carl Sagan, the late astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, and author writes, cosmos is a Greek word for the order of the universe. It is, in a way, the opposite of chaos. It implies the deep interconnectedness of all things. It conveys awe for the intricate and subtle way in which the universe is put together.
Speaker 2:So science asks, but how does it all work? And poetry like Proverbs says, oh, but wow. It does all work. The second appendix holds this riddle epigrams to express this poetic wow. So here's a numerical proverb.
Speaker 2:There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand. So the writer here names three things that are similar and then just jacks it way up for the fourth. The way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a young woman. With the first three, the proverb points to the things that you see. Look up at the sky.
Speaker 2:Wow. Look down on the ground. Wow. Look out at the sea. Wow.
Speaker 2:It's so extraordinary. And then Agur employs wry wit with this last line. The preposition with here can also mean in, as in none of these wonders compare with the beauty of a man in a woman. So the truly great mystery is the sexual mystery of a woman known by her lover. Even in a patriarchal culture, Agur knows a woman can be marveled at.
Speaker 2:She should be marveled at by her lover and not controlled. So preach that wonder, Agur. We still need it. Preach it. The third appendix is called the sayings of king Lemuel and it begins, the sayings of king Lemuel, an utterance an, an inspired utterance his mother taught him.
Speaker 2:Listen, my son. Listen, son of my womb. Listen, my son, the answer to my prayers. Can you hear this mother's exasperation? The text is meant to be read.
Speaker 2:What is with you, my son? Seriously? What is with you, my son? What in the world is with you right now? So back in chapter one, Proverbs begins like this.
Speaker 2:Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching. And 30 chapters later, this mama is still getting after her boy. She's saying, just because you're grown now doesn't mean you're done learning. So listen up. And the advice of this queen mother is to watch out for the vices like she names, too much alcohol and too many women.
Speaker 2:And after these warnings, the queen mother focuses on what a king is really meant to do with all that power. Verses eight and nine read, speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly. Defend the rights of the poor and the needy. The verse says, take a king from his throne and place him close enough to the poor to hear their cries.
Speaker 2:Those who control laws are to make them just and to advocate for those who need help. This is a proverb for the politics of our day. It's about leaders who actually listen and work to serve. Now it's time for the final appendix, which goes from this advice of a royal woman to the portrait of a common woman. It's clever, really.
Speaker 2:Where the queen mother says, do not spend your strength on women. The epilogue to this book says, instead, find yourself a strong woman. The last appendix is a Hebrew alphabet poem of the ideal woman. It's my trumpet. You're welcome.
Speaker 2:The Proverbs 31 woman. So it begins. A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.
Speaker 2:She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. So the Hebrew word for this ideal woman is Eshet Haile. And Eshet means woman and Haile means strong. And Haile is this word used for a man's strength earlier in the chapter. When used for a man in the scriptures, it refers to his physical strength, his wealth, his courage, his bravery.
Speaker 2:So the question is, what does hayl mean for a woman here? Hayil describes only two women in the scriptures. This ideal Proverbs woman and Ruth in a speech by Boaz. The rareness of this ideal woman is underscored by the verbs hard to find and expensive to purchase. What's more, her value is determined by what she brings her husband, wealth, confidence.
Speaker 2:So do you want the good news or the bad news first about this Proverbs 31 woman? Let's go with the bad news. Ideals are crushing for women, for men, for all people. When we are caricatured as not human but perfect, the pressure can be too much. Just this week, we found out about the suicide of fashion designer Kate Spade, a woman whose brand represents a bright and perfect image while you work to have it all.
Speaker 2:And Spade did not get the help that she needed in fear of tarnishing her perfect brand. And now she's gone. The bad news with brands and this ideal in Proverbs 31 looks to the sky to spot some kind of superwoman while missing the real woman standing right beside you. Theologian Christine Yoder writes that what we when we try to make one woman many women, we make life utterly unrealistic and dehumanizing. And some of us have really struggled with the pressure of this proverb's ideal, an ideal that conveys a woman's value in terms of what she can do for a man, and we frankly resist that.
Speaker 2:But this proverb is not all bad news. It's really not. The good news is that while we sit with the critique of Proverbs 31, there's more to the portrait. With this chapter closing Proverbs, we get remarkable bookends. The personification of wisdom as a woman at the beginning harmonizes with this Proverbs 31 woman at the end.
Speaker 2:Wisdom speaks at the start and she speaks at the finish. She is not silenced. And what this means is that leadership, influence, courage, strength, they're not gendered qualities. They are wise human skills. And women's work, the realm of the domestic, here takes on a sacred quality.
Speaker 2:Just look at this blend of work honored in Proverbs 31. She gets up while it is still night. She provides food for her family and portions for her female servants. She considers a field and buys it. Out of her earnings, she plants a vineyard.
Speaker 2:She sets about her work vigorously. Her arms are strong for her tasks. Again, Christine Yoder helps us here. She writes that the labor of women is here elevated, theologically legitimated, and claimed as a preferable means for moral and theological instruction in the faith community. So a while ago, I had to come to terms with this reality.
Speaker 2:While I love to lead and I love to be in charge and I love to get a little bossy, I also love to putter around my house. I love to cook and take care of my space. I love the home. And this was hard for me to embrace because of what I told myself about domestic duties. But now I realize the importance of work, the work of my hands in my home to help me process my life.
Speaker 2:Years ago, I was doing some deep processing. Every couple of weeks, I'd see a counselor and we identified some areas of healing in my life. And while sitting across the her in her chair brought all kinds of revelation into my life, it was actually when I was hardly thinking about the issues at all in my life that the next big moment would arrive. I'd just be moving laundry from the washer to the dryer, and it would hit me. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:I'm really fighting against x. Or I'd just be chopping vegetables and spacing out, and I'd realize, oh, wow. I was so wrong about why. This is the quotidian realm. And quotidian is just a cool adjective meaning ordinary or everyday.
Speaker 2:And in her book, The Quotidian Mysteries, Kathleen Norris writes about women's work and worship like this. It is a paradox of human life that in worship as in human love, it is in the routine and the everyday that we find the possibilities for the greatest transformation. Nora says that housework can seem perfunctory, just something to get through. But she affirms this, what we think we are getting through has the power to deeply change us. What we dread as mindless activity can free us, mind and heart for the workings of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2:So let me encourage you this week to lend a hand around the house, to see in the everydayness of picking up after your kids or getting groceries from the store or hanging laundry out to dry, not today. Opportunities to be present to life as it really is. Because it's in real life where we develop what Proverbs calls the fear of the Lord. The book ends like this. Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman or person who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Speaker 2:So what on earth do we do with that phrase? Fear of the Lord. First of all, the fear of the Lord is a lot of things. It's the reverence and awe of the Israelites coming out of the Red Sea with their enemies drowned behind them. The fear of the Lord is the loyalty and love of an ancient tribe often beaten down but given holy commandments to stake their lives on.
Speaker 2:In Proverbs, the fear of the Lord is this hook. Fear of the Lord is found 14 times and the imperative to fear the Lord is found twice. And still in Proverbs, the fear of the Lord is many things. It's the motivation for a moral life. Fear of the Lord is dread of God's disapproval.
Speaker 2:It's trepidation in the presence of the holy. And for some of us, fear of the lord is no trouble at all. Of course, you fear the lord. That's just what you do. But for others, fear of the lord, it smacks with some kind of totalitarian, like heaven power that makes demands which seem like spiritual abuse.
Speaker 2:Proverbs has something to offer us here. Backing up a few verses, we read that this Proverbs 31 woman lives with fearlessness. In verse 21, there's a threat against her home, a storm, but she has no fear. So it's also true that the fear of the Lord means something more like wild trust in the great mystery. Fear of the Lord is incredible security in your own story.
Speaker 2:And the fear of the Lord is partnering with what is good and true and beautiful so you aren't rocked by the storm. Jewish thinking would tell you that fear of the Lord as the beginning of knowledge is not so much what you learn but how you live. The fear of the Lord carries you through any stage of life with all reverence and tenderness and awe. So remember my Hebrew textbook that I showed you a little bit earlier. It had this thick appendix that really got me through biblical Hebrew in seminary.
Speaker 2:Well, inside the front cover, I also kept a collection of sayings that got me through. I collected these things from everywhere and read them over and over again when I was feeling discouraged. There was a Tolkien quote from my friend Jacob reminding me that after a long struggle, the shadow is only a small and passing thing, but there will be light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. And my friend Lindy simply reminded me, fight on to not give up. And I recorded this moment in class when my Hebrew teacher, Drew, quoted a blue rodeo song.
Speaker 2:When Drew said, if we are lost, I shouted out from the back of the room, then we are lost together. And for some reason in that moment, I knew I was going to make it. Thank you, Jim Cuddy. I needed these sayings and quotes and memories to make sure that my work to learn this biblical language would not dominate my whole life. I was, after all, trying to juggle two ministry jobs, a vibrant friendship life, and even back then a little dating on the side.
Speaker 2:Proverbs is this great collection of ancient wisdom and much of it still stands up, especially if we do a little work to understand the words on the page. There are all kinds of forces that pull at our lives and threaten to push us off a path of wisdom. You know them. Stress, doubt, fear, threat, scarcity, lies, lust, sickness, sorrow, greed. And the sages, they collected wisdom to push back against every foolishness, to put everyday knowledge and love within our actual reach so that we can find the divine hiding out in the contours of our lives.
Speaker 2:So may you collect wisdom and lean into the art of living it. May you never stop learning and growing and changing as new wisdom meets you exactly where you are. And may you be tough and tender like these women and men of old who through any brutal season were determined to keep faith alive for themselves and for those they loved. You can live a good, wise life And the cosmic and the quotidian can form the fear of God in you, and you won't have to be afraid anymore. Let us pray.
Speaker 2:Loving God, we are welcome to ask things of you. And in the only prayer in Proverbs, a wise sage pleads with you. He prays, do not refuse me before I die. He prays, please keep me honest. Please keep my life simple.
Speaker 2:Please give to me only my daily bread. Otherwise, if I have more than I need, will forget you. I will disown you. I will ask who is the Lord. And so today, God, we ask as well.
Speaker 2:Will you meet us in the land of our everyday lives? May we stand before the cosmos and marvel at what we do not know. May we hold laundry and wash dishes and clean up after ourselves and see the potential to encounter the holy here on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus, the truly wise one, will you show us this week just one way where we can marvel and live with you? So keep simplicity near and clutter far.
Speaker 2:Keep wisdom near and foolishness far. With gratitude and joy in the spirit, pray. Amen.