Appalachian MCC

Inclusive Language-- Part 3

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Why Use Inclusive Language?

Inclusive Language Guidelines of Metropolitan Community Churches

TALKING ABOUT GOD

There is a story about Thomas Edison, who invented the electric light bulb. The first light bulb was naturally quite primitive and not very efficient, but when Edison knew he was onto something, he immediately started to work with his team on improving the light bulb. After much effort he came up with a new, improved light bulb. He handed the finished bulb to a young helper, who nervously carried it upstairs step by step. At the top of the steps, the boy dropped the bulb. The whole team working with Edison had to work another 24 hours to make another bulb. When it was done, Edison picked it up and looked around at his team and helpers, and handed the bulb to that same boy. That gesture probably changed the boy's life. Edison knew that more than the light bulb was at stake.

This story about Edison is a contemporary parable of what God is like.

God's love and God's belief in us is like that. Love so amazing is hard for us to understand. God's love is unconditional. How do we talk about such a God? How do we address such a God?

As long as we are talking about people, about fellow human beings, it is a fairly clear-cut case that we should be inclusive in language. It is a matter of simple justice and sensitivity.

It is more difficult, however, to maintain inclusive language when referring to God. Here we get into theology.

Many of us, when we first come to MCC, are so accustomed to using male pronouns for God that even when we come to understand God as beyond gender and other human categories, even when we come to view God as Spirit who is neither male nor female, it is still difficult not to say "he," "him," and "his" for God. This male terminology, however, limits God to our cultural view of the Divine, which is a male-dominant point of view.

A Bible passage that has helped and challenged many in their understanding of God is the following one from 1 Kings 18, one of Israel's history books found in the Hebrew Scriptures.

1 KINGS 18:17-21--"When King Ahab saw the prophet Elijah, Ahab said to him, "Is that you, you troubler of Israel? Elijah replied, "I have not troubled Israel, but you have, you and your father's family. You have forsaken the commandments of the living God YAH-WEH and followed Baal. Now summon all the people of Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal with them, and the 400 prophets of the goddess A-she-rah, who eat at Queen Jezebel's table. So Ahab called all Israel together and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before all the people and said, "How long will you waver between two different opinions? If YAH-WEH is God, follow YAH-WEH. But if Baal is God, then follow Baal." And the people did not answer him a word.?

The prophet Elijah confronts his hearers: "If YAHWEH is God, then follow YAHWEH. If Baal is God, then follow Baal." Elijah asks his hearers: "How long will you waver between two different opinions?" How long will you go limping between two different conceptions of God? How long will you straddle the fence? Is it YAHWEH or Baal?"

YAHWEH of course is one of the primary Hebrew names for God. It is a strange name in that it is a verb form rather than a noun. It is a form of the verb "to be," and it means something like, "I am who I am." YAHWEH, the God of Israel, could not be limited by any name or category or image. As much as the Israelite people tried to contain their God into being their God and their God only, into being a warrior-general for them, and into being male only, as much as the Israelites tried to limit YAHWEH their God, it didn't work.

YAHWEH kept bursting out of the boxes into which they put their God. YAHWEH just would not stay in the neat shelf compartment in which they placed their God. Through the prophets, YAHWEH kept surprising people and challenging them to grow and expand in their conception of God and God's will. YAHWEH is boundless, eternal, and universal. YAHWEH is beyond gender, beyond nationality, beyond race, beyond any time and place.

Baal, on the other hand, was the god of Israel's neighbors, the Canaanites, the people who were native to that area. Now Baal was definitely a male god. He was worshiped as a fertility deity who had sexual relations with female deities to bring about the fertility of the land, the livestock, and the people.

The shrines used in the worship of Baal were large phallic symbols. And Baal was localized to a particular place and a particular people. In fact, there was not just one Baal, but many.

Ask yourself what your conception of God is. Is it YAHWEH or Baal? Is your God a male figure? Is your God restricted to certain functions and certain times in your life? Then your God is too small, and you need to meet YAHWEH, the boundless God, the God beyond categories.

The Hebrew Scriptures provide a huge variety of names, images, and terms for God. That is why it is wrong to use one and only one imagery for God, like always saying "Father," or always saying "Creator" or "Maker," or only thinking of God as solely indwelling Spirit. God is more than any one particular conception of God.

The Scriptures give us a richer and fuller picture of God than we could ever imagine. Besides the name of YAHWEH ("I am who I am"), there are also the names Elohim (God the mighty one) and El Shaddai (God the Breasted One, that is, the One who nurtures us and provides for our needs).

The Song of Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy (Chapter 32) depicts God as like a mother eagle, who stirs up her young ones to leave the nest and learn to fly. The song we sing in MCC called "Our God Is Like An Eagle" is based on this passage. This same Song of Moses refers to "the God who gave you birth."

Psalm 131 is a short psalm which says that being calmed and quieted by God is like being a child at the mother's breast. The Hebrew prophets were very daring in their imagery for God, including feminine imagery, especially the prophets Hosea and Second Isaiah.

These and other feminine references to God have been overlooked and dismissed by those who can imagine God only as male, but they stand in the Scriptures to remind us that God is beyond our imaginings and projections. They clearly point out that God is beyond gender.

There are all kinds of images and terms that are applied to God throughout the Bible. These include shepherd, fortress, rock, liberator, judge, spouse, suitor, friend, potter, ruler, father, mother, midwife, light, love, breath, wind, and so on. These are all human analogies and images that we human beings use to describe God or to say what God is like. God may be like these things, but God cannot be contained in any of these images, not even in all of them put together. God is much vaster than we can ever imagine, and God cannot and will not be restricted by any words that we attach to the Deity. It is idolatrous, theologically wrong, and Biblically unsound to use just one word or phrase to definitively portray God, because God transcends our human words.

God is not limited by our understanding of God. God is not bound by any of our cultural or personal biases. God has revealed God to have both masculine and feminine attributes. This means of course that God is beyond gender, and it is wrong to present God in exclusively male terms.

God is beyond gender, beyond race, beyond nationality, beyond any church or religion, beyond any culture or time. If God is beyond our human categories, including gender, then we need to speak of God in that way.

Our God is boundless and inclusive.