God ... male, female and other

Perhaps we could consider using names for God in which male and female terms are used equivalently: thereby acknowledging that we all in some way resemble God. This exploration may lead to our communities discovering that they welcome a more varied vocabulary for naming and praising God. Rediscovering traditional names for God can be helpful, as can an exploration of inclusive language. However, I would like to suggest that you consider looking further.

I do not with to imply that we should eliminate male imagery. After all, calling God Father is still an important way of meeting God. I am pleading for the destruction of an idol.

An encounter with God-mother may be liberating; especially for those who have experienced a negative image of fatherhood. Although, some men might not be able to relate a 'motherly' God to their experience, this could help them to understand that an all-male God has a similar effect on women.

A first step could be for our communities to recognise that male and female images are not equivalent and that the definition of women as weak and submissive needs to be re-evaluated (so that we don't risk incorporating a devalued femaleness into our language for God).

Trinity

The Trinity is love-in-relationship. Although to most of us the Trinity is limited to the male metaphor of Father and Son, with the Holy Spirit as a nonequal afterthought. However, the Trinity allows us to see God a complex, coequal unity in relatedness rather than as a single, isolated being.

God as mother

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27

God is our father; even more, God is our mother.
Julian of Norwich

And God himself is love; and out of love to us became feminine ... in his compassion to us he became mother. The father by loving became feminine, and the great proof of this is he who he begot of himself; the first fruit brought forth by God is love.
Clement of Alexandria, 3rd century

To name God 'Father and Son' is well known and seems natural because we grew up with it. But these names have different associations for each of us depending on our lives and relationships. In addition to these metaphors, the scriptures are scattered with images of God as mother with the universe as her child. St Anselm of Canterbury wrote 'Jesus, as a mother you gather your people to you; you are gentle with us as a mother with her children'.

To call God both Mother and Father can remind us of the limitations of our language and help to prevent us from thinking that we have God neatly categorised.

God as lover

God is love ... God is the model of love. Whether we are young or old, and regardless of gender, we love God because God is God, lovely beyond all knowing. And God loves us.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Jesus-Wisdom

Hagia Sophia was dedicated to Divine Wisdom Source http://www.guideistanbul.net/ayasofya.htm

Mosaic icon of Christ from Hagia Sophia Source: http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~ocf/

Many early Christians considered the First Testament figure of Wisdom to be identical with Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity (although some identified her with the Holy Spirit). Wisdom existed before creation, she contributed with God in creation and in our salvation:

The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.
Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth—
when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil.
When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race. (Proverbs 8:22-31)

Wisdom was created before all other things, and prudent understanding from eternity. (Sirach 1:4)

Before the ages, in the beginning, he created me, and for all the ages I shall not cease to be. (Sirach 24:9)

There is in her a spirit that is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, clear, unpolluted, distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen, irresistible, beneficent, humane, steadfast, sure, free from anxiety, all-powerful, overseeing all, and penetrating through all spirits that are intelligent, pure, and altogether subtle. (Wisdom 7:22b-23)

for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me. (Wisdom 7:22a)

The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens (Proverbs 3:19)

For she is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her. For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. (Wisdom 7:25-26)

And thus the paths of those on earth were set right, and people were taught what pleases you, and were saved by wisdom. (Wisdom 9:18)

The Gospels also tell of Jesus in words that are reminiscent of Wisdom. 'Whoever espouses a wisdom Christology is asserting that Jesus is the human being Sophia became' (Johnson 99), that is, a startling female personification of the mystery of God in powerful and close engagement with the world.

If we come to learn more about the Wisdom elements of Christology, we can discover a healthy blend of male and female imagery that empowers everyone.

Jesus friend, sister

Say to wisdom, ‘You are my sister’, and call insight your intimate friend (Proverbs 7:4)

You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. (John 15:14-15)

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Speaking of God, male and female, makes it more clear that women enjoy the dignity of being made in God's image and are capable of representing God. It is vital that we do not let this issue become a cause for division. We must talk together. Avoid taking sides. Respect each other. Come to better understand each other and affirm each other as loved by God.

For the first time, I understood what it meant to be made in God's image. To think of God as a woman like myself, to see Her as both powerful and nurturing, to see Her imaged with a woman's body, with womb, with breasts—this was an experience of ultimate significance. Was this the relationship that men have had with God for all these millennia? How wonderful to gain access to those feelings and perceptions. (Reform Rabbi Rebecca Alpert)

By undertaking this journey we will gain deeper insights into who God is
while coming understand Saint Augustine when he said that
'If you can understand it, then it is not God'
and St Gregory of Nyassa
who said that all ideas about God run the risk of becoming idols