She

This morning in a study group at church, we watched a video about the feminine attributes of God. In the video the guy talked about how he had been on a bike ride and encountered a flock of geese on the trail which would not get out of the way and that he got chased by the hissing mother goose who was protecting her young. He used this image to compare to the nurturing mothering instinct of God. He talked about how many Christian traditions focus on the male characteristics of God, and are very uncomfortable with the idea of God as being like a mother, even deny the female characteristics. He talked about how God "transcends, and yet includes, what we know as male and female".

This started our own conversation about our thoughts on the male and female characteristics of God, the roles of men and women in the church, and how difficult it is to get past the very patriarchal history and tradition of the Christian church. Even trying not to use the pronouns, he or she, to describe God can be cumbersome, because we do want to relate to God as one of us sometimes. In the group, there wasn't much argument about the idea of God being not just male or just female, but both and more.

A lot of good questions were brought up. Did Jesus come as a man because it would have been too much for the culture at the time to have people even consider a woman as the Messiah? Has the fact that Jesus was a man made it more difficult for the church to get past the idea of God as a male figure? One girl said that she wondered if Jesus coming as a man actually emphasized the way he was turning things upside down and not being what people expected the Messiah to be. He came not as a king or a warrior to overturn the Roman Empire as expected, but as a carpenter. If he had come as a woman, people may not have paid attention to him at all, and would not have been phased by the submissive and servant-like actions because that was expected of women.

We talked about Jesus basically being the first feminist. There were many women who actively supported Jesus during his ministry. Jesus taught about equality of all people, even specifically mentioning men and women being equal. In the early church, there were many women in leadership.

I think that God didn't send Christ as a man because God is male or prefers males, but because of the time in history that it was. There were so many things that God turned upside down through Jesus. Even many of those things were too revolutionary and mind-boggling for people then, and even still to this day. I really don't think people would have believed a female Messiah, but Jesus introduced the ideas of equality, the seeds of change in the way people thought about men and women. Obviously it takes a lot to change what the norms are. Many of us who have grown up believing men and women are equal and are comfortable with the idea of God having female attributes, still find ourselves referring to God as "He", and many still even feel uncomfortable with praying to a female God. This morning some people talked about not wanting to throw out the masculine images of God, but that we need to look closer in scripture and add more to the images of God which includes the feminine ones, which is an idea that resonates with me. One of the men said that a lot of the roles and images of men and women in the Bible are problematic - the women's role as the submissive sexual symbol, the men's role of killing to be victorious. Someone of the next generation older than the majority of us in the group said that she is kind of depressed that this discussion is still going on, because it was going on when she was in college. It is certainly a discussion that will probably continue forever, as our experiences of God are so subjective, and because of the thousands of years of male-dominated cultures, especially because that's how it was when the Bible was written, and we each have to interpret the Bible for ourselves. God is a huge mystery that we are continually trying to relate to and understand more.

I find it beautiful and comforting to think about a God who will protect me and care for me like a mother. Female characteristics of emotions and affection can often be seen as weakness. However, the sacrifice of a woman going through labor pains to bring her child into the world, and the extent that a mother will go to protect and care for her children are very, very powerful. Even though I am not a mother yet, I feel the mothering, nurturing instinct in myself at times, when people I love are in danger or going through difficult times. That instinct can be so visceral and overwhelming! I have no doubt about the strength of those attributes, and knowing that God has those characteristics at levels far beyond what is humanly possible, and that God is caring for me and loving me in that way, is very humbling and comforting.