Proper 20 (B) + A community of power + 9.23.18

M. Campbell-Langdell

All Saints, Oxnard

(Proverbs 31:10–31; Ps. 1; James 3:13–4:3, 7–8ª; St. Mark 9:30–37)

Take a moment and think of the most powerful positive woman figure you know – in your life or in your favorite movie, show or book. Who is the woman who has most inspired you?

Keep that image of that woman in mind as we look at this passage from Proverbs Chapter 31. Now here we see the verse “A capable wife who can find?” And all the feminists amongst us will be relieved to hear that a better translation from the Hebrew would be: “a woman of power” instead of a “capable wife.”[1]

That changes things, doesn’t it? Then when we hear about this ideal ancient Hebrew woman’s exploits – her buying of lands, her trading prowess, her physical strength, even her domestic abilities such as weaving, and perhaps especially her kindness to the poor, we see strength and power in all of these. Of course, looking at this passage, this is not one woman but a concept of the most impressive aspects of many women, since I imagine very few women or men are able to do all of these things.
Strength and true power is in diversity. In diversity of skills but also in the diversity we include in our lives. In the company we keep.

Our friend, Diana Glyer, has written about The Company They Keep in a book she wrote about the Inklings (and also in a more recent and easy-reading format, Bandersnatch). One of her key points is that the Inklings, a collection of famous writers who covered genres from theology to critical studies to fantasy fiction, including C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Dorothy Sayers as a more loosely associated member and others, did not become great writers and creative thinkers in isolation. The intentional ways in which they worked together pushed each other into greater creative depths and even inspired each other’s writing which made them better writers.[2]

Jesus inspires us to consider the company we keep, and the diversity present in our lives in today’s gospel reading. As usual, the disciples (of course a foil for all Christians) have it all wrong. They have begun to duke it out as to who will be greater than the other. And Jesus takes the opportunity to show them what it’s all about. He takes a little child into his arms. Now, in our current culture, children are anything but invisible – they are often the center of our attention. But in ancient Palestine, children were often seen as without the same rights – not fully formed human beings, as it were. So Jesus welcomed the invisible, the powerless, into his arms and his company, to show us how to be, not only with the children in our midst, but also with anyone who is invisible to others in society.

A modern example of one who welcomed all children in his midst was Mr. Fred Rogers, reminded to our collective consciousness by a recent movie on his life. This Friday, the “google doodle” focused on Mr. Rogers, and it showed him repeatedly gathering children – of all colors and all abilities, in his neighborhood, on his TV set and in his audience, [3] telling them: "you help to make each day a special day by just your being yourself. There's nobody else in the whole world who's exactly like you and people can like you exactly as you are."[4] One could say that Fred Rogers, in his very humble way, did the most to remind children of all backgrounds of their individual dignity of the television personalities of his era. Many people can love children but very few can see and acknowledge their gifts and bring different children of very different backgrounds together as Mr Rogers did.

With whom do you keep company? One of the things that I treasure about this community of All Santos is that we keep very varied company. In very few other churches can you truly say you worship with such an array of people from such an array of backgrounds- from different cultures and speaking different languages, with different values and interests, with different abilities and gender and other self-expressions. We are blessed! Although we are small, we are mighty! And I do believe that in our diversity, at our best we also push each other into greater creativity, if in more humble ways than did the Inklings.
Why? Because like the woman of power, we strive – as a community and as individuals- to do many things in our community and to remember the poor. Because, like Fred Rogers and Jesus’ example, we wish to welcome all God’s children and honor their dignity as full human beings, no matter what their background or abilities.

A community of power who can find? Let us with the company we keep continue to find creative ways to be church and continue to grow in strength and ability to serve our neighborhood- local and global. May we keep welcoming and being kind, because what is more powerful than kindness and welcome?

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[1] Michael Coogan, The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures. (New York: Oxford UP, 2006), 474.

[2] Diana Glyer, The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community. (Kent [OH]: Kent State UP, 2008)

[3] https://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&q=Mister%20Rogers&oi=ddle&ct=celebrating-mister-rogers-5592633123536896-lawcta&hl=en&kgmid=%2Fm%2F010q36.

[4] Caitlin Gallagher, “The Mister Rogers Google Doodle Brings Back Days Of Childhood Innocence & Twitter Can’t Handle It,” TheBustle.Com, September 21, 2018, https://www.bustle.com/p/the-mister-rogers-google-doodle-brings-back-days-of-childhood-innocence-twitter-cant-handle-it-11999854.