If the title of this article created some discomfort for you, you’re certainly not alone. As I wrote it, I found myself asking whether it was a wise choice. I even wondered whether I should write about a different subject. How strange that, in the month in which we celebrate women, I should be asking these questions of myself. How strange that I should hesitate to explore a clear and life-giving facet of the biblical revelation of God. And yet, when it comes to the language of our worship, few things create more controversy than gender. The Bible has no such qualms, and this month is a good time to allow the Scriptures to speak to us of how we can encounter God from a feminine perspective.
Biblical Images of God:
As we read the Old Testament we discover some deeply comforting and moving images as God is revealed to God’s people. According to George Arthur Buttrick, the general editor of the Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, the Hebrew term for a woman’s uterus is used in the Scriptures to describe God’s compassion, as in Isaiah 49:15. In Proverbs, God’s wisdom is depicted as a person who was by God’s side participating in the act of creation (See Proverbs 8:22-31), and is referred to in the feminine – an example Jesus follows in Matthew 11:19 and Luke 7:35. But, perhaps, one of the most beautiful feminine images of God comes from Isaiah 66:11-12, where God’s people are pictured as being comforted by God like an infant suckling at its mother’s breast. What a rich heritage of symbolism, metaphor and imagery we lose if we ignore the biblical invitation to learn of God through these feminine references.
Widening Our “Imagery-Palate”:
Flowing from this, though, come two significant considerations for our worship. The first is the invitation to allow these biblical images to speak to us. In our banners, our prayers and our liturgies, we can widen the “palate” from which we draw. Instead of always defaulting to the common masculine images, it can be deeply transforming to employ some of the Bible’s feminine pictures of God. This may require a little more creativity from us, but using our creative energies in worship should be routine rather than exceptional.
Widening Our Language:
The second consideration of these feminine ‘faces’ of God in the Scriptures, is in the language we use, particularly to describe the community of faith. In a country where women are under great threat from rape and domestic violence, including women intentionally in our language is both healing and prophetic. So, instead of speaking only about “brothers” or “brethren”, perhaps we can also speak of “sisters”. Instead of speaking only about “mankind” we can perhaps rather speak of “humanity”. Some of our hymns lend themselves to easily include women in their language, without violating the intent of the writers. One example is Hymn 809 in the old hymnbook. It is neither difficult, nor a change in meaning, to sing line two as “…shoud set his love upon the world’s children”.
However we may choose to honour the women in our lives this month, I pray that it will include allowing the Scriptures to take us deeper into the feminine ‘face’ of God as we worship.
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John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.
Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.