Mark 12:28-34 (MsgB)
One of the religion scholars came up. Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: "Which is most important of all the commandments?"
[29] Jesus said, "The first in importance is, 'Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; [30] so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.' [31] And here is the second: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these."
[32] The religion scholar said, "A wonderful answer, Teacher! So lucid and accurate—that God is one and there is no other. [33] And loving him with all passion and intelligence and energy, and loving others as well as you love yourself. Why, that's better than all offerings and sacrifices put together!"
[34] When Jesus realised how insightful he was, he said, "You're almost there, right on the border of God's kingdom."
After that, no one else dared ask a question.
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"Love others as well as you love yourself"; Well I have really challenged myself with my choice of subject for this syncro blog- firstly because I am an emerging feminist- I'll explain that a little later, and secondly because I believe that loving ourselves is one of life's greatest challenges- it is a challenge that should take us beyond ego to the very core of our being where we truly recognise that we are made in the image of God. Recognising that we are made in Gods image releases us into the realisation that we are loved, truly and fully loved by the God who created us, and from that realisation we are able to look at ourselves in truth and to love ourselves faults and flaws accepted and covered by love.....
Well that goes for all of us, male and female, so why did I choose the subject of "embracing the Goddess" ... I'll leave you to think on that whilst you take in these two images...
By Michelangelo I'm guessing this doesn't need too much introduction- here is a little bit of background:
God is depicted as an elderly bearded man wrapped in a swirling cloak that he shares with some cherubim His left arm is wrapped around a female figure, normally interpreted as Eve- though this is often missed as we concentrate on the creation of Adam, it is often suggested that Eve who is not yet created, figuratively waits in heaven to be given an earthly form. God's right arm is outstretched to impart the spark of life from his own finger into that of Adam, whose left arm is extended in a pose mirroring God's. Famously, Adam's finger and God's finger are separated by a slight distance. I find the presence of Eve in the picture compelling- never an afterthought, she was held by God- but still the imagery is predominantly male....
Here is another image- it is by the Artist Willow Heath and entitled Mother God;
Here God and her creation are not separated, God- is intimately involved I see this picture in two ways either God is in drawing life from the water or my favoured interpretation is that God is encouraging her creation to enter into the depths of spirituality, to swim in its waters, to discover and become ......., this picture is sensual and intimate, and very feminine...
I am drawn to both of these images because I believe that they both convey something to us of the nature of God who we can see through them, yet transcends them both....
So why the feminist awakening? To explain this and how it is that I am coming to be able to love myself and therefore to love others I need to tell you a little of my story ( apologies for any repetition from previous posts).
I was born the second child , my older brother very much loved and wanted had died, he had spina-bifida, and lived just a week, my parents were devastated. They longed for another child- a boy- who would not replace Simon but would help to heal the heartbreak.... instead they were given a premature daughter (me), ....I grew up under Simon's shadow, and even the birth of my younger sister did nothing to dispel that. On top of that I was a tall and big boned- this meant that I was asked to fill in for boys in things like Country Dancing and School plays....I was profoundly affected by these experiences always feeling second best.
Now these experiences are unique to me, but I suspect that they are mirrored in the lives of many women to a greater or lesser degree... and dare I say it but I suspect that women have a hard time loving themselves, this is highlighted often by the role we play within the church;
Elizabeth Johnson sums up the problem women face in regard to the church like this:
"For most of the (church's) history women have been subordinated in theological theory and ecclesial practise at every turn. Until very recently they have been consistently defined as mentally, morally and physically inferior to men, created only partially in the image of God, even a degrading symbol of evil. Womens sexuality has been derided as unclean and its use governed by norms laid down by men. Conversely, they have been depersonalised as a romantic, unsexed ideal whose fulfilment lies mainly in motherhood.....They are called to honour a male saviour sent by a male God whose legitimate representatives can only be male, all of which places their persons precisely as female in a peripheral role. Their femaleness is judged to be not suitable as a metaphor for speech about God. In a word , women occupy a marginal place in the official life of the church.
As a Roman Catholic theologian her experience may be more acute than others- for many though to no extent all denominations now acknowledge;edge the place of women's ministry and will ordain women as priests and pastors- yet even within these denominations there are still rumblings of discontent...
I have personally encountered many of these rumblings of discontent, especially in regard to following a call to ordained ministry, they have come from both men and women, who feel that I am tampering with the proper order of things, the God ordained order where men are dominant....
Elaine Pagels writes:
Despite the previous activity of Christian women by the year 200, the majority of Christian communities had endorsed the canonical pseudo-Pauline letter of Timothy which stresses (and exaggerates) the anti-feminist element in Paul's views, "Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent.....By the end of the second century womens participation in worship was explicitly condemned.
Strong words- but attitudes despite our best attempts and efforts trickle down to us and hem us in through centuries of oppression...
Now I freely acknowledge that Jesus calls God Father, and am happy to do so myself, but there are times when I need to call God mother, to experience myself as created in Gods image, to find myself loved for who I am .... the Old Testament offers us imagery of God as both male and female- we are nursed at God's breasts- carried in Her arms;
John Drane says:
The importance of recognising God as a person comes out clearly in much of the imagery used in the Hebrew Bible. The messages of the prophet Hosea apply the terminology of personal relationships to God and people in a particularly sensitive way. God is a loving mother to the people of Israel, who protected them and directed their footsteps from the very beginning of their national history not only by guiding them but also caring for them: "I drew them to me with affection and love. I picked them up and held them to my cheek; I bent down to them and fed them" (Hosea 11:4).
He goes on to explain that we need to embrace both male and female imagery of God , showing how God is shown to encompass both the roles of mother and father:
"You deserted the Rock who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth (Deut 32:18).....
More examples of female imagery can be found where God:
"cries out like a woman in labour" (Isa:42:14)
"showers people with the affection of a mother"(Isa: 49: 15 & 66:13)
There are many more illustrations and I would encourage you to search them out....
Drane says:
"When you remember all this was written in an ancient male-dominated culture, and that the major challenge to Israels faith came from a traditional Canaanite religion which gave high profile to the sexual worship of the female form, then the acceptance of female imagery with which to describe God is all the more striking."
Striking indeed, and challenging for a 21st century church that still struggles with the possibility of naming God "She".....
As I have said I am on a journey of discovery, not away from my Christian faith as some assume when I speak of the divine feminine, but deeper into it, to a place where I am able to love myself and my daughters as made fully in Gods image, just as I am able to acknowledge that my husband and sons are....this is releasing and empowering, and enables me to love from the centre of my being as one who is loved. It frees me to follow a call to preach and teach as a woman- not as one who tries to squeeze herself into the mould of a man....
This is echoed in this prayer of reclamation from Nicola Slee:
They called us Hag, Crone, Witch and Shrew, because they feared our knowledge and would not receive our wisdom. They called us Spinster, Man-hater, Old Maid, because they feared our separateness and envied our self choseness.
We are reclaiming the names with Honour and fierceness, without shame.
They called us Magdalene, Temptress, Whore, because they lusted after our fleshiness and could not resist their own concupiscence. They called us Vixen, Cow, Bird and Bitch, because they feared our sexuality and wished to deny the sacredness of physicality.
We are reclaiming the names with Honour and fierceness, without shame.
They called us Gorgon, Medusa, Hysteric, because they feared our ferociousness and envied our imaginative extravagance. They called us Virago, Battle-axe, Fury, because they found our strength formidable and our spirits indomitable.
We are reclaiming the names with Honour and fierceness, without shame.
They called us Gossip, Tittle-Tattler, Prattler, because they feared our power of telling and envied the ease of our conversation. They called us scribbler, Poetess, Lady-writer, because they feared our creativity, and felt threatened by our fecundity.
We are reclaiming the names with Honour and fierceness, without shame.
They called us Second Sex,Stranger, Woman, because they could not embrace our difference could not yield to our otherness, and feared to receive our giftedness.
We reclaim the names, use their abuse for good, recast the dye, reweave the words. Whatever they have called us we receive, renege and renew. We rework their ancient power to hurt, to chide, to hide and to revile us. Their names cannot alienate us though they have sought to crucify us. We shall remember them and revive them in the fire and passion of our lives.
The name callers are both men and women, there are also men and women who acknowledge the divine feminine and celebrate and encourage women to live out their person-hood to the full. I gave my blog the title- embracing the Goddess, I do embrace her, within the God who holds both male and female and transcends us all. But it was and is important for me as a woman to know myself made in God's image, to fan into flame the gift that is in me, and to to receive as fully mine, to do this I had to come to know God as Mother as well as Father...
In the knowledge that this is an incomplete work I leave you with a final image of God the Mother:
I am charting my journey through imagery and meditations on a new blog called Seeking the Sacred Feminine, if this has challenged you or provoked thought feel free to drop by and read more!
Finally a thank you to those who have been a significant help and support on my journey recently, particularly Helen, Mike, Dave and Peter. Interesting to note how many are men!!!
For the full list of syncro bloggers see here.
