Feminine Images of God: A Sermon for Mother's Day.

One day, when Caden was very little he yelled in a very excited voice, “Dad, Dad come quickly. “   

As I ran into the kitchen I found Caden standing on a stool,  looking out the window at St. Mark’s the church I served. 

He then said, “Look, Dad,  God is going into the church.”

Well getting out of his car was our Deacon Lee Rose.  Lee was in his black clerical clothes but also an older man with white hair and a white beard.

When we think of God, the father… we often think about God looking like Zeus or as Michelangelo painted God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel white male with a flowing white beard.   Often when we refer to God, we refer to God using male pronouns him or he.  Our very book of common prayer uses him and he throughout it to describe God. 

But when we really think about it  God is not male or female but genderless now while the Bible might more often describe God as male, there are many pieces of scripture that use feminine images to describe the nature of God.  Given that today is Mother’s day I thought it might be fun to highlight some of those places and to think about how these images might expand and deepen our understanding of God. 

One of the most prominent images of maternal acting, God comes from Jesus own lips highlighted in Matthew and Luke. 

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.

God as an image of a mother hen gathering her brood to protect them---- to shelter them ---to bring them safely from place to place.  Images God who shelters us under the shadow of a wing.   

I wonder how our faith, our relationship with God help to shelter us from the tumult of life.

The bible also speaks of God as a mother bear in Hosea.

Several years ago, I was watching a documentary about grizzly bears in Alaska. During one scene there  Many grizzlies were fishing for salmon in the river when a large grizzly male saw two cubs playing innocently in the river.  You could almost see the mind of the bear thinking those two cubs would make a great meal and would be much easier to catch than the salmon flying by.   The large male grizzly ambles over to have his meal  I was sure this wasn’t going to end well.  Before long thought mama bear shows up tearing out of the brush enters the scene with the ferocity like no other even though much smaller she backed that large grizzly back up he wasn’t going to take those cubs.  You could see him thinking like I could take here but it wasn’t going to be worth it.   

“Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open,” 

God the ferocious mother bear with the instinct to protect her cubs at all costs.  What does it look like for God to protect us at all costs?  Perhaps, a reminder that there is nothing in all of the universe that is going to separate us from God’s love.     Perhaps there is nothing that God will allow to snatch us from God’s grace and love

The last one I want to mention is from Isaiah which speaks of God as human mother who cannot forget her children... Children who are always close in her mind and heart. 

This is what Isaiah said,  “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I [God] will not forget you!” (Isa. 49:15)

A reminder that we children of God are always close in God’s mind no matter where our lives take us…we may move away from God, but we are always close to the mind of God. 

God as a mother, or God as female might be tough for us.

God as male is so ingrained but I truly think that exploring these and other feminine images can only expand our understanding about the true nature of God as well as to help us understand the care and affection that God has for us.    

And I also, wonder how thinking of God as female or  God as mother  or in feminine terms might help us to think differently about the women around us and the issues that women face today.

 Might we take even more seriously support movements like #metoo that speak to the reality of that many women have experienced?

I wonder how an expansive view might change the conversation we struggle with things like gender inequality. Women doing the same job for less pay or discrimination in hiring practices

Even here in our Episcopal Church, it happens.  Again and again, I hear about women being shut out of jobs.  I remember way back in my senior year of seminary when you were looking for employment….many of the last people to be hired were middle-aged women and often hired for less than desirable, lower paying work positions. 

 

Our house of Bishops is primarily white men,  there are only a of women or people of color..  37 percent of our clergy our women but 37% of our bishops are not.  Thank God that is beginning to shift.   In the last year there have been a handful of women elected,  the diocese of Vermont which will be electing shortly, has an all women slate.     

We can and must think expansively about the nature and images of God, because when we do things begin to change they can begin to us to be the people God desires but also change the world around us.   and hopefully in the world around us.    

As I wrote this, I realize that is it only on Mother’s day that I am raising these many important topics and I realize that that is not enough.  We must go from this place and continue to beat the drum…continue to work for change for those who are cast down… women, people of color the poor. 

Some of that work, I believe starts with seeing God a little bit differently perhaps more like beautiful women in our lives who exemplify love and service and care and compassion and leadership and intelligence.

AMEN