The Jurisdiction of Our Lives

November 19, 2008

I Peter 3:5-6

“Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle gracious kind that God delights in. The holy women of old were beautiful before God that way and were good, loyal wives to their husbands. Sarah, for instance, taking care of Abraham, would address him as “my dear husband.” You’ll be true daughters of Sarah if you do the same, unanxious and unintimidated.”

She woke me up at 5am and it was summer time! There was no need to prepare for school--no extra studying that needed accomplishing. She—my mother—woke me because she knew of my fascination with the royal family and this day was the day that Lady Diana Spencer was to wed Prince Charles! My mother curled up with me in those wee morning hours and we watched the royal wedding. As I recollect that day, I seem to remember being struck by the wedding vows. Lady Diana, as I recall, refused to use the word obey in her vows. The word ‘obey’ has several renderings but among them is the idea that someone gives jurisdiction of something over to someone else.

In our Scripture, Peter is continuing his earlier conversation with the women of the community encouraging them to be like Sarah, the matriarch of Judaism. Sarah, says Peter, offered jurisdiction of her life over to Abraham and because of Abraham’s offering of his life’s jurisdiction to God, both have become obedient to God. That obedience in Sarah’s example enhances her inner beauty and demonstrates her loyalty. In the face of a non-believing husband, Peter believes that the women he’s addressing will be setting an example for the cause of Christ especially if they are able to do so without fear and without intimidation.

For Peter’s sake, I hope his argument was successful in convincing the women of his day because it simply falls flat for me. If you know much about Sarah or Sarai as her given name was spelled, then you know that she was not a submissive type. Miki Raver, in her book, Listen to Her Voice: Women of the Hebrew Bible, tells us that Sarai meant “princess” but God changed her name to Sarah meaning “chieftainness.” Her name, suggests Raver, was rooted in the Hebrew word that meant “to command.” This woman was no shrinking violet and likely she held her own religion apart from that of her husband’s but of her own volition she gave jurisdiction of her life over to God.

Peter is right to set Sarah apart as a role model but not because she obeyed Abraham. He is right to set her up as a role model because she was a woman of faith to chose to give the jurisdiction of her life over to God and in so doing she cultivate a beautiful inner being—such that she chose to obey Abraham as well and to accept the obedience that he also offered her (mutual submission, I believe they call it!) She had an understanding that when we live our lives in relationship to God we also treat each other with the same deference.

I don’t blame Lady Diana for not wanting to obey Charles but I wonder what might have happened if she had required him to also have obedience toward her? I am of the opinion that ultimately Peter is hitting on a powerful truth—that when we treat each other as we hopefully treat God, we live out healthier lives with God and with each other. So I hope for each of us this week that we will cultivate our inner beauty—the gentle gracious kind that God delights in . . . may it be so! Amen.