At some times of the year my mind moves in a certain way each year. One of those times is the period from about September 10 to October 2. That's typically a rough time emotionally. The annivesary of my mom's passing, my dad's birthday, the anniversary of Dad's passing, the anniversary of my mother-in-law passing - all fall within that three-week period.
This is another such time, for a different reason. During Lent I, and much of Christendom, reflect much on faith and life. Lent is a season of penitence. I just listened to Don Wooten, on Saturday Morning Live on WVIK, talking about a conversation he'd had years ago with a Jesuit scholar who said that, confronted with the mysteries of life - birth, death, love, even the scope of this great universe - we should hve two reactions: we should kneel before the mystery and we should question the mystery. We should do both. To say somthing very similar: you must experience the walk through the valley of doubt before your faith takes on a reality. A comprehended God is no God at all.
My thoughts also turned toward the nature of God. The God I worship is the holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There seems to be no room for any feminine dimension of God. There should be, but I'm not sure how to reimage God to allow for that. We should. Jesus did more than hint at this: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem. . .how often have I desired to gather your chldren together as a hen gathers her brood. . ." That's a very feminine image of God - unless you know of some male hens.
The Hebrew word Ruach, and the Greek word Pneuma, translate the same way into English: three meanings, one of which is spirit. Both nouns are feminine nouns. I do realize that the feminine/masculine division, in the linguistic sense, makes no reference to the object to which the word refers. A ship is "she" in any language, although a ship has no gender. Still, I find it interesting that these nouns are feminine. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to see the Holy Spirit as a refection of a feminine aspect of God.
There is a genre of literature in the Old Testament, the Wisdom literature. Hebrew for "wisdom" is kochma. Wisom is not identified as God. Rather, Wisdom is the principle by which God orders the creation. Wisdom is often personified in the Hebrew scriptures, and it is always as a woman. Even if God is male - and my conception of God does not require that God be male; God is beyond gender - but even if God is male, he uses a woman to mintain order.
In the New Testament and in early Church history Mary Magdalene is very highly thought of, as esteemed as St. Peter. I don't need to say how highly we regard Mary the Mother of Jesus. The Letter of St. Paul to the church at Philippi is to a church in which Lydia, a seller of purple, may well have been the person in charge. Someone looking at our church 2000 years from now would see all of this and would say, "What a wonderful, feminine orientation they have."
Then they would wonder, "Did they really not ordain women?" (Alert! Alert! This is an area in which I am at odds with my church.) The rationale from the hierarchy has been that, well, that's the way it's always been, and we don't feel that we have permission to change that. But - what if that's not the way it's always been? What gave you permission to change?
Thanks for letting me think out loud - or online or whatever. Love the journey, love that we're together on it.
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