Sermon Text- Twisted and Crooked- August 3, 2025

At least as early as 7,000 BCE, the culture of the human species included expressions of the feminine divine.  The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines tells us that, “The horned goddess – whom the Pyramid Texts called The Great She, and who later was called Hathor or Isis – is the oldest divine being in ancient Egypt.  Her image appears on the rock face of a now nearly inaccessible plateau in the Sahara Desert.”  (The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, Patricia Monaghan, p. 3).   A glance at the religious landscape of America today, and a view of the feminine divine is also hard to discern.  But in Egypt, some 9,000 years ago, there were feminine gods.  Later, there were male deities as well in Egypt. There are countless examples of female deity figures that were important to our ancestors around the globe in all cultures and settings.  These deities were perceived as influencing daily life as well as the life of the natural world.  There is absolutely nothing new to the idea of the feminine divine.  This is hardly some new liberal conspiracy.  

When we take a glance back at the history, the legacy, of the our own religious tradition, Judaism followed by Christianity, we also see strands of the feminine divine woven throughout our storied past.  We can begin with the story of Creation and the Spirit brooding over the waters.  That Spirit was a feminine concept in Hebrew.  Ruah.  Already.  The feminine divine at the beginning of the Bible in the story of the birthing of Creation.   

There is also the imagery of the dove, the bird, the hen, symbols of female deities in ancient Near East religions.  And in Greek mythology, the dove is the emblem of the goddess of Love, Aphrodite.  So it is no surprise that we see the inclusion of the divine feminine in Hebrew as well as Christian scriptures from the dove in the story of Noah’s ark, and the soaring on eagle’s wings, to the dove descending in the story of Jesus’ baptism and the hen protecting its chicks in Jesus’ teachings.  Many times, the bird is used as a metaphor for God, a symbol of a female deity.   

And there is the Hebrew appellation for God, El Shaddai.  It’s meaning implies many breasted one.   Feeding, succoring, all.  The idea is a God providing for all of creation, and all of humanity.   Clearly a reference to the feminine divine.  I wonder if all the people who sing the Amy Grant song know they are praising a feminine version of God? 

The figure of Wisdom in the Hebrew scriptures is also noted as a feminine portrayal of the divine.  Hokmah in Hebrew.  The figure whom we heard about today from Proverbs, later known by her Greek name, Sophia.  This is the aspect of the divine present at Creation, instituting a complex, diverse world where everything functions together and is interrelated.  In the chapter we read from Proverbs, we heard the voice of Wisdom laying out a solid foundation for human life.  She shares a template for the human world to live in mutuality and justice and creativity.  Her words are about right living.  All that is needed for a full life is shared in her words.   As she says, “there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.”  (v.8)   And she is at the city gates where all can encounter her.   There are no hidden secrets.

As we transition to the time of Jesus and following, we continue to see the feminine divine in evidence.  The teaching of Jesus uses many feminine images to convey the nature of God.  A woman searching for a lost coin.  A woman baking bread.  And there is the mother of Jesus certainly cast in divine terms, as the mother of God.  

In the cultural and geographical contexts of the Bible, the surrounding peoples had female divinities and Judaism and Christianity were impacted by those cultural influences.  Including feminine expressions as part of the concept of the monotheistic God was a way to make the Judeo-Christian tradition more accessible and maybe more appealing to the people of the day.  Everyone else has female gods, why can’t we?  Judaism was the first major monotheistic religion.  Did the one God have to have just one gender?  No.  This multifaceted God of mystery could be known and imagined and experienced in many ways, including many genders, and beyond gender.  

As Christianity emerged, the feminine was submerged.  There were many contributing factors.  Once Christianity embraced the Trinity, with the son, Jesus, a male human being, as part of the godhead, there was more emphasis on a male God overall.  One God.  One male God.  This also served the interests of perpetuating patriarchy which became a goal of Christianity despite that this is at odds with the teachings of Jesus.  It served the expansionist, colonialist goals of the Roman Empire, and later the European conquest.  The legacy of the feminine divine dimmed.    

The importance of Mary was maintained, even extended in the church, but she was seen as obedient, passive, compassionate.  All characteristics befitting a woman under patriarchy.  Her legacy in the Magnificat, casting down the mighty and lifting up the lowly, was not emphasized.  And remember, for most of Christian history, people could not read the Bible for themselves.  So they had no idea what was being left out or overlooked.  

So Christianity veered away from the divine feminine and away from the core teachings of Jesus  – including self-giving love, compassion, peacemaking, mutuality, humility, liberation for all, community, generosity, and joy.  Instead, the word G-O-D, the most powerful symbol of the Christian faith, was used to undergird a system of subjugation, colonization, degradation, oppression, abuse of power, and ultimately decimation of the ecology of the planet.  

In the 1970’s there was a movement toward using inclusive language for God and for humanity in the church.  This was a nod toward inclusion of the feminine divine.  Or at least expanding beyond a solely male portrayal of God.  The United Church of Christ was a leader in this movement.  Many said, What difference do words make?  It’s actions, right?  Don’t bother with changing the words.  But words create the culture that leads to the actions.  Using inclusive language for God, and using expansive language for God, incorporating feminine as well as nonbinary language in imaging God, was/is so controversial not because people are used to the old words, but because they are used to the old power arrangements and don’t want them changed.  The arrangements that favor some over others  which is decidedly in direct conflict with the teachings of Jesus and the God of universal, unconditional love that we see in Jesus.  

I have to admit that I was among those who didn’t think words made that much of a difference, though I was all for equal rights in society and the liberation of all.  I grew up in a liberated family.  My parents were passionate advocates for social justice and radical equality for everyone.  Period.  Yes, I grew up with lots of male language for God.  And I grew up knowing that ‘man’ really meant humanity.  Remember Neil Armstrong from the moon:  “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”  I knew that meant humanity.  And I knew that ‘he’ means women, too.  It was too cumbersome to say ‘he or she’ all the time.  Or ‘his and her.’  Or ‘men and women.’  You know. 

When I went to college, all the pronouns were ‘she.’  And ‘her.’  And everything was ‘women’ not men or man or he or his.  Because it was a women’s college.  There were no male students so there was no need on any notices, letters, articles, posters, syllabi, tests, or anything else to use anything but female references and pronouns.  At first it seemed odd.  But it made sense.  Then I realized that I felt different somehow.  Like I was being taken into consideration.  Like this included me.  I wasn’t just assumed or an add on.  This is what it was like to be fully acknowledged.  And then I knew that public language and church language had made me feel second class, even though my family never had.  There was no going back.  

Using language that intentionally includes feminine aspects of God and women restores the fullness of our faith heritage and fortifies the gospel of Jesus.  Drawing on the tradition of the feminine divine in Christianity and Judaism restores the radical teachings of our faith.  It liberates the symbol of the word G-O-D which is intended to liberate humanity as well as Creation.   

When I dream of the church of the future, I dream of a time when most of the imagery for God is non anthropomorphic.  In other words, we don’t make God in our image.  We don’t talk about God like a super human.  We use ideas like light, and force, and gravity, and beauty to express our limited understanding of the eternal mystery of Divine Love.  But between here and there, I believe we need to repair the damage that has been caused by ignoring and burying our rich heritage of the divine feminine.  We need to honor and celebrate the feminine aspects of the legacy of the concept of God to liberate our imaginings of God and to liberate human beings, men and women, created in the image of Divine Love.  As we restore a more holistic understanding of the Divine, we will move toward reclaiming the fuller reality of God especially as it has come to us through the life and teachings of Jesus.  We must address ourselves to redeeming Jesus from the clutches of the human love of power and wealth and control and domination.  Our world is crying out like a woman in labor from the pain of poverty, war, violence, greed, injustice, and abuse.  And so much more.  We must reclaim the tradition of the feminine divine to heal ourselves, our communities, and our world.

Phyllis Trible is probably the foremost scholar of the Hebrew Bible of our time.  She has written powerful books that have rocked the world of theology and the church.  We heard her give a lecture once at Union Seminary in New York when we were students there circa 1984.  And I am going to tell you about it.  The lecture was about Miriam, Moses and Aaron’s sister.  Trible delved into every reference to Miriam in the Hebrew scriptures and there is more than just the dancing with the tambourine after crossing the Red Sea.  Trible analyzed every little glancing mention of Miriam.  She shared all that we have been able to learn about the culture of that time to fill in the background and the implications of those few fleeting mentions of Miriam.  And she presented a solid case for the out and out equality of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam as leaders in the eyes of the community in that historical context.  It was one of the most stunning presentations I have heard in my life.  

Now, let’s turn to what Dr. Phyllis Trible has to say about the Hebrew word ‘womb.’  This word is used many times in the Hebrew Scriptures. 

Trible tells us that the Hebrew word for ‘womb’ and the word for ‘compassion’ are cognates, they are related, and they are related to the verb ‘to show mercy’ and the adjective ‘merciful.’  Trible explains:

In its singular form the noun rehem means ‘womb’ or ‘uterus.’  In the plural, rahamim, this concrete meaning expands to the abstractions of compassion, mercy, and love. . . Accordingly, our metaphor lies in the semantic movement from a physical organ of the female body to a psychic mode of being.  [She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse, Elizabeth A. Johnson, p. 101.]

So when we hear of God’s mercy and love and compassion, we are hearing of a God concerned about a child of the God’s womb.  This feminine image for God gives us needed inspiration for our caring for one another, each one a child of God’s womb, a beloved child.  And it implies caring for each other as though each were a child of our own womb.  

And one glance at the news today makes it clear that we need to return to the roots of not only our religion but of our species and reclaim the healing power of the feminine divine.   We need to draw upon what will lead us to mercy, compassion and love.  Concern for the common good.  Ways of resolving our differences without weapons.  This is all offered to us by Ruah, El Shaddai, Hokmah, Sophia, Wisdom.  The dove.  The hen.  The eagle.  The baker woman.  All these images of the divine feminine and more can inspire us to imagine God in new ways that move us to truly care for one another as God does.  The fullness of God can redeem what is ‘twisted and crooked’ in our lives and in our world.   Amen.

Resources used in this sermon: