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Devotion Twenty Eight
March 3.29.22

WITH FAITH ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE – BUT NOT EASY

I recently saw that message on a church sign. I like it. It reminds me that we do usually want faith to be easy. Maybe we want God or Jesus to do the heavy lifting. We just have to trust that it will get taken care of. If things don’t come to fruition the way we hope, then it must be because God or Jesus didn’t want that for us. It’s easy to think that way but I don’t think that is how faith actually works.

I think we have to do our part. And it is often difficult and challenging. And the more we trust our faith, the deeper we are called to go. And this can lead us quite a distance from where we thought we were or wanted to be.

One of the most important things we are called to do when we live out our faith is to give up control. And that’s a challenge in and of itself. Faith involves letting go of the outcome of a situation. Doing the right thing regardless of how it may turn out. Faith involves giving up what we thought we wanted and following the way of Jesus which may result in a better outcome though we may not see it that way for a long time. Faith involves letting go of our time line. Remember Abraham and Sarah! It may involve adjusting our financial plans. I remember some years ago someone from the church postponing going on a cruise so they could make an additional financial gift to the church. Faith may
involve putting ourselves at odds with people close to us. Faith may involve planting seeds that we may never see bear fruit. The seeds may bear fruit, we just may never know about it. Faith involves giving up control over ‘concrete, measurable’ results. Something our society craves. It is the measurement for the validity and value of everything! But not faith!

Just the letting go of our standards and expectations can be a challenge before you even get to what we may be called to actually do when we live by faith! But oh how amazing and glorious things may be when we follow the way of Jesus. There are surprises and gifts and blessings we could not have imagined. Things happening, unfolding, changing, healing that we could never have anticipated. Abundance and assurance that was never expected. People and projects that provide purpose and meaning. We never could have known. The wildness of that mercy.

Yup. With faith all things are possible but not easy.

Prayer
Take a few moments to reflect thinking about how your faith has impacted your life. What do you see?

May we let go of our desire to have things easy. May we embrace the unknown. Give in to trust. And see where the way of Jesus leads. The way may be hard but the views will be glorious! Amen.

Devotion Twenty Seven
Monday 3.28.22

We say ‘they’? I recently heard that there is a movement within Christianity to use the pronoun ‘they’ not only for groups of more than one and for transgender people, but, I learned, for God.

I have been thinking about this. We know that there are problems with using male pronouns for God. It undergirds and reinforces a patriarchal social model that treats women and others as less than. There are problems with using female pronouns for God. That excludes others, as well, though it may lean into the idea of more balance.

Some people have been adamant that the concept of God has no actual biological gender. God is neither gender. God is genderless. Then there are those who see God as both genders, incorporating the diversity of humanity. It has been accepted in many expressions of the church that using male pronouns for God is just linguistically convenient.

There are others, myself included, that want to see moving away from the anthropomorphizing of God. We want to move away from talking about God as a super human. So we may prefer no pronoun for God.

In the midst of all of these different perspectives on the pronoun and gender issue, apparently, the use of ‘they’ for God is emerging.

Well, what about ‘they’? It eliminates the use of exclusively masculine pronouns for God. It eliminates the use of feminine pronouns for God. It really eliminates a gender orientation for God because ‘they’ can be male and female and neither. We might use ‘they’ for a group of cars or trees. No gender implied. So ‘they’ incorporates all genders AND no gender.

It is also the pronoun preferred by people who are transgender, for some of the very reasons cited. I like the idea that a pronoun used for God is also associated with the transgender community. It connects people who are transgender more closely with the image of God.

‘They’ also moves away from the anthropomorphizing of God. ‘They’ can include animals and plants and mountains and seas. It can more closely associate God with all of creation not just humanity.

And there is another reason I like ‘they.” It’s Biblical. God is referred to in the plural in Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness. . .’” And that is what ‘they’ did according to the story!

Can we say ‘they’? As a pronoun for God? It is something to think about. It is something to try out. Something to experiment with. Is it something we can get used to? I think it is worth finding out! So don’t be surprised in church if we say ‘they’!

Lent is a time to expand our vision, to see more of the landscape around us and within us. I think that ‘they’ is a way for us to expand our concept of God and the community of life. Let us embrace the wildness of mercy and try saying ‘they.’

Prayer
We know that we can never fully understand God, the concept, the word, the force. There is always mystery. Ancient teachings guide and inform us so that we can enter new territory in the geography of the spirit. Let us be willing to explore and experiment so that we may more fully experience the embrace of Love and our oneness with all of Creation. Amen.