Second Sunday of Lent
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Scripture |
Luke 13:31-35 31 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 32 He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. 33 Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ 34 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35 See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ” |
Devotional |
Recently I have been reading about the different images of God, so verse 34 stood our as I read this scripture. ”How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing.” A feminine image of God does not give me heartburn as it might some. Rebecca Chopp in The Power to Speak: Feminism Language writes: we have not understood the gospels unless they back us against the wall. Nothing backs me against the wall or challenges me to expand my image of God than feminism images of God. While studying The Theology of Christian Spirituality at Lebh Shomea House of prayer at Sarita, Texas, one of the study books was She Who Is by Elizabeth Johnson. One of the questions “Why not feminine traits or dimensions of God?” During the past seven or eight years this question has become part of my expanded speech about God. There are some who would not agree with my thinking but it works for me. According to Rosemary Radford Ruether sometime it goes beyond disagreement. “Some even assail those who use inclusive or explicitly female imagery for God as un-Christian, as not worshiping the biblical God. They insist that any other terms for the Trinity than the traditional ones are heresy.” 1But I am thankful my study of the “Theology of the Trinity” includes the works of Johnson and Chopp. This season of Lent is a time of study, prayer, and self-examination. For me this includes new images of God, not for a theological debate but for preparation to join the suffering of Jesus. I will include another quote from Rosemary Radford Ruether. When male-only language is used for God, and any feminine images rejected as inappropriate for God, it suggests that in some sense God is literally a male, and that only males image God and represent God. Women are considered a lesser form of humanity who cannot exercise authority or be independent persons, but exist only under male authority. Women are thought to represent the body, the emotions, the creaturely realm, but they cannot represent God. The relation of male and female then should be analogous to the relation of God to creatures. Second, we have tended to use particular power models for God that image divine power as like that of a monarchical ruler, or a military general who crushes all who oppose him. The model of power assumed here is one of competitive power: all-powerful over those who are powerless; all-good over those who are worthless; domination over subjugation. Such a concept of divine power sacralizes the same kind of totalitarian power in male human hands as "god-like." When we speak in Wisdom of God, we need to find the words that transform, not the words that deform, the words that heal, not the words that harm. 2 Often to expand our thinking we need to be pushed out of the comfort zone. Change does not come easy for most of us. Prayer: God help us to expand our image of you and at the same time we might help you expand your image of us. Give us little push out of this comfort zone. 1 “The Image of God’s Goodness” by Rosemary Radford Ruether Sojourners Magazine, January-February 1996. www.sojo.net/index,cfm?action=magzine.article&issue=sojo9601&article=960121. |