In one of my seminary worship classes, we were going through liturgies from our home churches and seeing how they were structured. The professor then asked, “Count the number of times God is mentioned, and see what gender God is.”
I was surprised to see my home church never used a pronoun for God. God was always named “God”, or given a title like “Holy One” and “Ground of Our Being” all except the Lord’s Prayer which was “Our Father.”
Yet the class was mixed. The majority of churches used masculine pronouns and imagery for God. The worship professor, who was always overly direct, launched into how this is harmful to everyone. No masculine pronouns because it leaves out women. And young girls. And it leaves out people who don’t have fathers or had poor examples of men in their lives. The professor began to teach us about the importance of inclusive language.
“Inclusive language” is defined as language that avoids the use of certain expressions or words that might be considered to exclude particular groups of people, especially gender-specific words, such as “man”, “mankind”, and masculine pronouns.[1]
As I listened, I started to get mad. And then confused. This professor was often combative, so I didn’t raise my thoughts in class. I listened, and in a rare moment of restraint, I left it alone.
It was in our Old Testament, Hebrew Scriptures class that someone else asked after the names of God. Our professor said that the main name of God, what we know as Yahweh, is thought to be both feminine and masculine. This comes from the verse in Genesis 1:26, “Let us create humankind in our image.” Our image. Who is God talking to? Some say to the other parts of the Trinity, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Some say to the angels. Some rabbis, and I really like this one… some rabbis say that God is talking to the animals. There’s a great midrash where God says to the animals, “You provide the body, and I’ll provide the spirit and consciousness.”
The personal name of God, Yahweh, which is revealed to Moses in Exodus 3, is a remarkable combination of both female and male grammatical endings. The first part of God’s name in Hebrew, “Yah,” is feminine, and the last part, “weh,” is masculine.[2] This fits the story as well, because Adam and Eve are created at the same time in Genesis 1.
Also in Genesis 1:2, the word “ruach” which we have said before, often translated as “Spirit of God” or “Wind of God”–that word is feminine.[3] The word for the Wisdom of God which is referenced throughout Proverbs and the Prophets, is “Sophia.” So if you know anyone named Sophia or Sophie, they bear a name of God.
The professor went on to say that the Hebrew Scriptures have a whole bunch of feminine imagery for God. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot of biblical support to use feminine imagery and pronouns for God. I’ve provided more a bibliography at the end of this sermon.
And today’s scripture… It’s one of my favorite parts of the Gospel of Luke. Jesus does a very sneaky thing here. The tax collectors and sinners were hanging around and listening to Jesus. And this really annoyed the religious people. The Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them!” So Jesus tells three parables. The first is the parable of the lost sheep. Then it’s today’s parable of the woman losing a coin. And finally, Jesus’ greatest hit, the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
Jesus tells three stories with the same theme. Something is lost. God searches. God finds. Rejoicing.
A sheep is lost. God, the Good Shepherd searches and finds it. Rejoices.
A coin is lost. God, the woman sweeps the house and finds it. Rejoices.
Son is lost. Finds himself and returns home. God, the father rejoices.
Jesus gives us three stories of God’s love for us. And how God will always find us and rejoice over us, no matter what. That is good news! And the sneaky thing is, in the middle story about the lost coin, God is a woman. God is like a woman, who loses a coin, sweeps the house and finds it. Then calls her friends together and rejoices. I tell you there is joy in the presence of angels of God over one person who thinks differently about God.
So that’s what I’m asking you. To think differently about God. For we say that in Christ there is no Jew nor Greek, male nor female… All are one.
In my Children’s Bible Study on Facebook, we talked about God in the burning bush. Some rabbis asked, “Why a burning bush? Why a common thorn bush?” And other rabbis answered, “If God appeared in an oak or cedar tree, we would ask, why those trees? God appeared in a lowly thorn bush so we could see God is everywhere! Even a thorn bush.”[4]
God is waiting to be revealed everywhere. And in everything. And in everyone! The kingdom of God is within and among us! Of course we can use feminine imagery for God. For we see God in our mothers, sisters, daughters, friends, co-workers, and we want them to see themselves and their lives in the life of God! What a great vision! Of course we all want this!
Yet, as I thought about this… I still don’t think I want to agree with my worship professor. It’s taken 10 years to articulate why… But I don’t think I want to throw out all masculine pronouns either. That doesn’t satisfy.
One of the reasons people do not want to use masculine language is because it excludes those who don’t have good male role models or good fathers, or fathers at all. Well, I didn’t have a father growing up. I don’t feel excluded when we say the Lord’s Prayer. It reminds me that I do have a father who won’t give up on me. A father who loves me and will run to me and welcome me home. Give me a ring, a robe, and host a BBQ upon my return. I need that image. I don’t want to throw it out.
So what I propose is to covenant together to adopt “expansive language.” An expansive language that uses all pronouns and gender-specific words in balance. So we can sing the Gloria Patri and Lord’s Prayer as we always have. And maybe… like on Mother’s Day, we could say “Our Mother… who art in heaven…” Because mother is the name of God on the lips of every child. We can lift up God in the masculine, the feminine and beyond the binary like in nature, God’s first testament. We can use all art. All poetry. All metaphors and images to point to God. Anyway to get the word out that God can be found ablaze in the common thorn bush.
In the lives of our fathers, brothers, sons, and friends. In the lives of our mothers, sisters, daughters. Of each and everything and everyone, for the Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.
May we expand our language and our minds until we can change our minds, and see that the kin-dom of God has come near. This is good news for all people. Amen.
Bibliography
Dorhauer, John. Into the Mystic: Let’s Talk about God. June 11, 2019. https://www.ucc.org/into_the_mystic_lets_talk_about_god
Fitzpatrick, Carolyn. What the early church though about God’s gender. All Saints Episcopal Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. https://theconversation.com/what-the-early-church-thought-about-gods-gender-100077
Mirsky, Yehudah. Feminine Images of God. The Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/feminine-images-of-god
Schaupp, Joan P. The Feminine Imagery of God in the Hebrew Bible. The Priscilla Papers, the academic journal of CBE International. Publication date, 10/31/2000. Journal 14, Issue 4. Found at: https://www.cbeinternational.org/resources/article/priscilla-papers/feminine-imagery-god-hebrew-bible
UUC Resolution on Inclusive and Expansive Language, 11th General Synod: https://www.ucc.org/worship/inclusive-language
From the Rev. Pam Branscome’s notes .
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusive_language
[2] https://theconversation.com/what-the-early-church-thought-about-gods-gender-100077
[3] https://www.uccmedina.org/sermons/the-spirit/
[4] https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/a-burning-within/
From The Rev. Pam Branscome’s files:
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