Spending the majority of the day in bed poses an obvious
problem: What does one do to fill their time? Before bed rest, my days were
filled with the normal activities of life but, all that was “normal” life has
come to a halt over the past several weeks. A couple of weeks ago, I was trying
to connect with the outside world by looking at twitter. While perusing
twitter, I stumbled across Rachel H. Evan’s twitter feed. (Rachel is a writer
and a blogger. She often tries to facilitate dialogue inside Evangelical
Christian circles to help Christians understand one another.) As far as I could
tell, it was exploding with accusations and statements of ‘faith’ from all
sorts of people. I admit I was intrigued. I could not help but wonder what in
the world she could have said to provoke so much ire. As I filtered through the
many, many, many comments, it seemed as if some people had stumbled across a
poem she had written several years ago. In this poem, Rachel used feminine
imagery as a metaphorical description of God. I sat, scratching my head,
thinking, “Is this it? Surely, she has said something else…something more
objectionable…something more controversial.”
On the one hand, I thought, “What is the big deal…we (the
people of God) have been using metaphorical language for God…well, since the
beginning.” In fact if we step back into the pages of scripture it was not
until Moses, that God identified God’s self with a name. “I am who I am” or,
more literally, “I be who I be.” (We make alterations from Hebrew to English
for the sake of grammar.) It is not the simplest name around. God did not
identify is Jake or Bob or Sue or Ellen. God did not offer a middle initial or
a last name. To be honest, I am not sure how we would monogram the name of God
onto a tote sack or a handkerchief - if monogramming is your thing. If you are
thinking God’s name does not offer a gender clue, you are correct. God stands
beyond gender. Gendered language is based on our own limitations of language
and understanding. It was never meant as an all-encompassing reflection or
definition of God’s character. While our pronouns that reference God are
dominantly masculine, our Sacred Text also employs feminine imagery and
maternal imagery to describe God. In Hosea, God is described as a mother[1]
and a mother bear[2]. Deuteronomy
describes God as a mother eagle[3]
and as a mother giving birth.[4]
Similar imagery is used in Isaiah when God is described a woman in labor[5]
and a nursing mother.[6] Jeremiah
describes God as the Queen of Heaven[7].
In Matthew and Luke, Jesus describes God as a mother hen.[8]
Luke also has Jesus describing God as a woman looking for her lost coin.[9]
(The metaphorical imagery abounds but I think the point is clear.)
Just as all of these examples to do not make the case for
God as a woman, conversely the masculine imagery used to describe God does not
make God a man. God is quite simply God. God is not gendered. As people: man
and woman we are both created in God’s image. We, in our gendered selves, are
God bearers. This does not make us God and does not make God us. It simply
means we, in our most faithful selves, are living metaphors for God in the
world.
For many of us, this is not new news. We readily acknowledge
the limits of our own language and the limitlessness of God. So, perhaps you
might also think, “What is the big deal?” “Why is Rachel Evan’s character being
attacked?” “Why on earth is she being named some sort of ‘goddess worshipper’?”
On the other side, the people who have offered stringent
objections to Rachel’s metaphorical choice believe they are upholding an
understanding that is necessary to their understanding of faith. A desire to
defend one’s beliefs/understandings inside the Christians community is really
not an Us/Them type of thing. If we are honest, we should probably admit that
many of us become over-enthuiastic as we uphold/defend pieces of our faith
inside the wider Christian community. In her memoir, Leaving Church, Barbara Brown Taylor offers the compelling and
convicting reminder, “…human beings never behave more badly toward one another
than when they believe they are protecting God.”
In today’s lectionary text (John 17:1-11), Jesus is praying
for his disciples – Peter, James, and John but also those of us who would
follow. He prays for those who will believe his teachings, those who are the
beloved of God. And, Jesus’ prayer is not that we will all believe the same
things, or that we will take it upon ourselves to strongly correct those
amongst us with whom we find fault. The culmination of Jesus’ prayer is the
unity of those who follow Jesus. It seems to me, that this unity find’s its
root in the sure sense that first and last, we belong to God.[10]
It strikes me that Jesus includes a vast multitude of people
in his prayer…people who will not, for the life of them, see eye to eye – even
though their deepest belief rests in the love of God and the fact that they are
God’s beloved. This fact does not stop Jesus from laying claim to each of us:
“All yours are mine, and mine are yours.”[11]
In the midst of this text about unity, this morning the
church celebrates the Ascension of the Lord. We turn the pages of scripture to
Acts and hear the words of Jesus which command us to go out into invite others
into the community of people who believe the teachings of Jesus, into the community
of the beloved of God. But, how can we do this if we spend so much of our time
discussing and correcting the differences we find amongst the beloved of God?
How can we tell others they are the beloved of God if we are focusing on our
differences instead of God’s self-giving, life-giving, liberating love for
others?
The truth is, that this side of God’s realm, Christians will
not live in complete agreement. Perhaps, instead of looking for perceived flaws
and seeking total agreement, we should spend our time looking at how we are the
same, remembering that just as we are beloved by God – so is the one with whom
we disagree. In fact, unity is not simply being the same, it is not even losing
our differences; unity is a conscious joining together. Perhaps we should
follow the lead of Jesus and pray for unity, and maybe…just maybe…we will find
it easier to join hands with other Christians and walk forward in true unity.
As we consider those around us, what changes for ourselves
and in our relationships when we look for our similarities instead of focusing
on our difference?
[1] Hosea 11:3-4
[2] Hosea 13:8
[3] Deuteronomy 32:11-12
[4] Deuteronomy 32:18
[5] Isaiah 42:14
[6] Isaiah 49:15
[7] Jeremiah 44:25
[8] Luke 13:34 & Matthew
23:37
[9] Luke 15:8-10
[10] Rev. Dr. Janet H. Hunt, All are yours and yours are mine. May 25, 2014. http://words.dancingwiththeword.com/
[11] John 17:10
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