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| 11 Pentecost 20 August, 2006 The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
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Interesting lessons we have, this morning - and short! The Gospel continues the
theme that has been building for some weeks, now – the theme of Jesus Christ as
the living bread of the world, his flesh the true bread, his blood the true drink. That
is, Christ as the true nourishment – that which truly sustains.
It is a theme that will continue and come to completion in our lessons, next week, and
I’ll have more to say about it, then.
But THIS week we see the introduction of an ancillary theme – an addition to the main
theme that is meant to fill it out; a rather startling theme, really, to those who are
listening, and an idea that comes as a shock, even to those who, like us, come along
some 23 or 24 hundred years after the idea was explored in words like these. And
this theme comes up, it seems to me, at an interesting time!
There are so many aspects of God – so many faces of God, so many ways he presents
himself to us – and so many terms and names used to describe him. He’s the King,
and he’s the King of Kings. He’s the Shepherd. He’s the Lord, and he’s Lord of Lords
and Lord of Hosts – bringing in a touch of the military! He’s the Most High, the
Creator, and the Redeemer. He’s Counselor, Savior, and Father! Then there are the
ancient names like Elohim, El Shaddai, Elyon, and on and on.
And, then, here is the Book of Proverbs – and a whole body of Scripture and of
tradition – pointing to ANOTHER face of God: Wisdom. Wisdom brings a whole
different aspect to our image of God; a deeper, broader aspect. Wisdom does not
weaken the imagery of omniscience or omnipotence, but it makes that imagery richer,
gentler, more profound.
Now I’m not going to tell you that the Scriptures refer to God as Wisdom – they don’t,
not quite. But some of the later Old Testament writings, and some of the New
Testament seem to point that way. And then, the writings that would become our New
Testament written, as the Church was becoming established and developing its
theological understandings, there was an increasing tendency to identify Wisdom,
somehow, with God!
Actually, the theologians have never really known what to do with the wisdom
imagery. Many have recognized, through the centuries, that it applies to an aspect of
the divine, certainly, but in just what way, they’ve not been able to agree. Some have
equated wisdom with the Holy Spirit. Some have equated it with the Word of God, the
Logos – who became the Incarnate One. But I don’t want to get too caught up in that
discussion, because that’s not where I’m headed, today. Rather, I want just to point
out one, too often ignored, yet important and novel thing from the words of this
morning’s lesson, themselves:
“Wisdom has bought her house! She has set up her seven pillars, She has
slaughtered her beasts, She has mixed her wine, she has also set her table”
She! Wisdom is thought of, in Scripture, as “she.”
God is, of course, NOT a female. But neither is God a male. Nor can it be properly said
that God is BOTH male and female, as you may have heard, because the categories of
human sexual nature simply do not apply to God! Rather, we should realize that both
the terms male and female represent and reflect God, and that without both our
image of God is incomplete and deficient!
“And God said, Let us create mankind in our image. So he created mankind in his own
image; male and female created he them.” Which means, at the very least, that our
understanding of God, to be at all valid, must include all that we mean by the word,
“male,” AND all that we mean by the word, “female.” And it’s all about expanding our
vision beyond the limits of our own experience, our own humanity.
And now for the reason I said the lesson from Proverbs is especially timely.
As you know, a couple of months ago, our General Convention elected a new
Presiding Bishop to lead us for the next nine years – the Bishop of Nevada, Katherine
Jefferts Shori. What you may not have heard is that, in her first public prayer, after
the election, she prayed to “Mother Jesus.”
And all “heck” (to be polite) has broken loose!
The Church press has been full of editorials, commentaries and letters to the editor,
decrying Katherine’s “radical feminism,” her “repudiation of the Bible and of catholic
doctrine,” and her “anything goes” theology!
You probably haven’t seen it – it hasn’t been reported in the secular press – but it’s
been a circus!
And it’s so very unfortunate, and so very wrong!
Wrong because, far from being radical, there exists good, historic, Christian
precedent for her imagery! Not only in words, like these, from Scripture, but from
other sources in our own, Christian history. Two examples: one of the greatest
teachers of mystical spirituality in the history of the Church – Dame Julian of Norwich,
who lived in the 15th Century – 600 years ago – spoke and wrote often of “Jesus our
Mother!”
And long before that, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury for many years at the turn of
the 12th Century – 900 years ago, - and who is accounted the greatest theologian of
the Church between St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, also prayed, he tells us,
to “Jesus our Mother!”
And moving back to Scripture, we should not overlook that Matthew and Luke both
report Jesus lamenting the state of Jerusalem, saying, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem…, how
often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks” –
Jesus using maternal imagery to refer to himself!
Our problem as always, of course, is that the enormity of our God is far too great for
our comprehension – our intellects not deep enough, our imaginations too small!
But without the fullness of God that such imagery represents, we ourselves become
too one-sided, too narrow; we become what we are not meant to be. And so becomes
the faith, as well – a faith in the KING, but not the queen; the Ruler, but not the lover;
commanding, not nurturing; strong and unyielding, but too seldom forgiving and
comforting.
So we need to remember, always, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit, of course – that is the Doctrine of the Church! But we need to remember God
as our Mother, too; God the Compassionate, God the lover. Remember God the wise!
And remember, always, the Fullness of the image in which we are created and to
which we are called by Wisdom, as she invites us to come and drink of her bread and
her wine, the nourishment prepared to sustain our souls, and with her, to leave
behind simpleness, that we might live deeply, walking in the way of insight, and
understanding.
In Her name. Amen.
theme that has been building for some weeks, now – the theme of Jesus Christ as
the living bread of the world, his flesh the true bread, his blood the true drink. That
is, Christ as the true nourishment – that which truly sustains.
It is a theme that will continue and come to completion in our lessons, next week, and
I’ll have more to say about it, then.
But THIS week we see the introduction of an ancillary theme – an addition to the main
theme that is meant to fill it out; a rather startling theme, really, to those who are
listening, and an idea that comes as a shock, even to those who, like us, come along
some 23 or 24 hundred years after the idea was explored in words like these. And
this theme comes up, it seems to me, at an interesting time!
There are so many aspects of God – so many faces of God, so many ways he presents
himself to us – and so many terms and names used to describe him. He’s the King,
and he’s the King of Kings. He’s the Shepherd. He’s the Lord, and he’s Lord of Lords
and Lord of Hosts – bringing in a touch of the military! He’s the Most High, the
Creator, and the Redeemer. He’s Counselor, Savior, and Father! Then there are the
ancient names like Elohim, El Shaddai, Elyon, and on and on.
And, then, here is the Book of Proverbs – and a whole body of Scripture and of
tradition – pointing to ANOTHER face of God: Wisdom. Wisdom brings a whole
different aspect to our image of God; a deeper, broader aspect. Wisdom does not
weaken the imagery of omniscience or omnipotence, but it makes that imagery richer,
gentler, more profound.
Now I’m not going to tell you that the Scriptures refer to God as Wisdom – they don’t,
not quite. But some of the later Old Testament writings, and some of the New
Testament seem to point that way. And then, the writings that would become our New
Testament written, as the Church was becoming established and developing its
theological understandings, there was an increasing tendency to identify Wisdom,
somehow, with God!
Actually, the theologians have never really known what to do with the wisdom
imagery. Many have recognized, through the centuries, that it applies to an aspect of
the divine, certainly, but in just what way, they’ve not been able to agree. Some have
equated wisdom with the Holy Spirit. Some have equated it with the Word of God, the
Logos – who became the Incarnate One. But I don’t want to get too caught up in that
discussion, because that’s not where I’m headed, today. Rather, I want just to point
out one, too often ignored, yet important and novel thing from the words of this
morning’s lesson, themselves:
“Wisdom has bought her house! She has set up her seven pillars, She has
slaughtered her beasts, She has mixed her wine, she has also set her table”
She! Wisdom is thought of, in Scripture, as “she.”
God is, of course, NOT a female. But neither is God a male. Nor can it be properly said
that God is BOTH male and female, as you may have heard, because the categories of
human sexual nature simply do not apply to God! Rather, we should realize that both
the terms male and female represent and reflect God, and that without both our
image of God is incomplete and deficient!
“And God said, Let us create mankind in our image. So he created mankind in his own
image; male and female created he them.” Which means, at the very least, that our
understanding of God, to be at all valid, must include all that we mean by the word,
“male,” AND all that we mean by the word, “female.” And it’s all about expanding our
vision beyond the limits of our own experience, our own humanity.
And now for the reason I said the lesson from Proverbs is especially timely.
As you know, a couple of months ago, our General Convention elected a new
Presiding Bishop to lead us for the next nine years – the Bishop of Nevada, Katherine
Jefferts Shori. What you may not have heard is that, in her first public prayer, after
the election, she prayed to “Mother Jesus.”
And all “heck” (to be polite) has broken loose!
The Church press has been full of editorials, commentaries and letters to the editor,
decrying Katherine’s “radical feminism,” her “repudiation of the Bible and of catholic
doctrine,” and her “anything goes” theology!
You probably haven’t seen it – it hasn’t been reported in the secular press – but it’s
been a circus!
And it’s so very unfortunate, and so very wrong!
Wrong because, far from being radical, there exists good, historic, Christian
precedent for her imagery! Not only in words, like these, from Scripture, but from
other sources in our own, Christian history. Two examples: one of the greatest
teachers of mystical spirituality in the history of the Church – Dame Julian of Norwich,
who lived in the 15th Century – 600 years ago – spoke and wrote often of “Jesus our
Mother!”
And long before that, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury for many years at the turn of
the 12th Century – 900 years ago, - and who is accounted the greatest theologian of
the Church between St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, also prayed, he tells us,
to “Jesus our Mother!”
And moving back to Scripture, we should not overlook that Matthew and Luke both
report Jesus lamenting the state of Jerusalem, saying, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem…, how
often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks” –
Jesus using maternal imagery to refer to himself!
Our problem as always, of course, is that the enormity of our God is far too great for
our comprehension – our intellects not deep enough, our imaginations too small!
But without the fullness of God that such imagery represents, we ourselves become
too one-sided, too narrow; we become what we are not meant to be. And so becomes
the faith, as well – a faith in the KING, but not the queen; the Ruler, but not the lover;
commanding, not nurturing; strong and unyielding, but too seldom forgiving and
comforting.
So we need to remember, always, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit, of course – that is the Doctrine of the Church! But we need to remember God
as our Mother, too; God the Compassionate, God the lover. Remember God the wise!
And remember, always, the Fullness of the image in which we are created and to
which we are called by Wisdom, as she invites us to come and drink of her bread and
her wine, the nourishment prepared to sustain our souls, and with her, to leave
behind simpleness, that we might live deeply, walking in the way of insight, and
understanding.
In Her name. Amen.
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| Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale |
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