Eleven years ago, with only one semester of seminary under my belt, I had my first meeting before the Church and Ministry Committee of the Metropolitan Boston Association of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ.  This committee with the imposing name was vested with the responsibility of determining if I should be accepted into the process leading to ordination within the UCC.  I’ll never forget sitting there at this inquisition – I mean interview – with 30 pairs of eyes boring into me, ready to pick up on any little indication that I was not “minister material.” 

The first question did nothing to ease my panic.  One of the committee members sat there, leafing through the paper I had prepared, and, peering over his reading glasses, said to me, “Ah, Jean, I have counted in your 10-page paper no less than 15 references to God using the male pronoun.  Would you please explain your theology that God is male?”

Well, I stammered out some completely inadequate response, which was then picked apart for what seemed like an eternity.  Mercifully, I was accepted into the ordination process that night despite this totally inauspicious beginning, but that first awful question stuck with me.  For the truth of the matter is, we do limit ourselves – and we limit God, too – when we think of God only in male terms. 

And so this morning, I’d like for us to look at the biblical passages which depict God like a mother.  I know some of you may feel a bit uncomfortable with the idea of imaging God as female, but remember, images are all they are, all they ever can be, because God is not flesh and blood, and thus cannot be contained in flesh-and-blood human terms. 

God is Spirit, existing beyond space and time, transcending gender distinctions.  Our language, on the other hand, is – like us – finite, human, and earthbound.  Thus, anytime we attempt to describe the transcendent reality of God, our words are going to come up short.  God is far beyond anyone or anything we can know or imagine, and so all words used to describe God are analogous and metaphorical. 

Male imagery is prevalent throughout the Bible, with such metaphors as God the king [Ps 47:7] and God the warrior [Is 42:13].  In Jeremiah [2:2], God is described as a bridegroom.  And perhaps the most common Biblical description of all is God the Father.  And certainly, these images – especially of God as a loving Father -- work for many of us. 

But for others of us, we may need or want to understand God in ways that are uniquely feminine and maternal.  Now, there may be someone out there who fears that emphasizing the feminine aspect of God will lead Christendom right down the road to pagan goddess worship.  So let me be clear -- I am not trying to replace the one true “big G” God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus Christ with a female goddess!  My hope this morning is that expanding our images of God will lead us to having a fuller, more multi-dimensional experience of the Holy. 

In addition to God as Father, God as Mother is another way for us to catch a glimpse of the mystical union we seek with the Divine.  And when better than on Mother’s Day to explore the scriptures that describe God like a mother?

In the book of Isaiah, the prophet depicts the people of Israel as a child and God as a mother, and he compares the pain God feels at Israel’s unfaithfulness to a woman’s labor pains.  Through Isaiah, God says, "For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back.  But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant” [42:14].

Wow, if that’s not an image of God as a mother, I don’t know what is!

Later in Isaiah [49:15, 66:13], God’s tender love is described with these maternal images:  "Can a mother forget her nursing child?  Can she feel no love for a child she has borne?  But even if that were possible, I would not forget you!... As a mother comforts her child, I will comfort you.”  Reformer Martin Luther was moved by these maternal images in Isaiah, writing that God could not “speak more sweetly than in transferring a mother’s experiences to himself… God cares for us with an everlasting maternal heart and feeling.”[1]

In addition to Isaiah’s loving and nurturing depictions of God, we find forceful and scolding maternal images of God in Deuteronomy.  Moses chastises the people of Israel for forgetting their dependence on God, and he tells them, “You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth” [v. 18].

 

And Moses uses the tender image of a mother eagle and her young to remind the people of Israel of God’s love:  “As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them and bears them on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead [Israel]” [v. 11-12a]. 

The prophet Hosea depicts God’s protective strength and potential fury like a mother whose children are threatened.  Through Hosea, God say, “Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open” [13:8].  I know I have felt exactly like that mother bear when anyone has tried to hurt my kids!

And maternal references to God are not just limited to the Old Testament.  In the Gospels [Matthew 23:37, Luke 13:34], Jesus cries: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem… how often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.” 

Inspired by this verse, St. Anselm of Canterbury prayed, “Jesus, as a mother you gather your people to you; you are gentle with us as a mother with her children.”[2]  And the mystic Julian of Norwich wrote, “Jesus is our true mother, the protector of the love which knows no end… All the love of offering and sacrifice of beloved motherhood are in Christ our Beloved.”[3] 

Now, God as Mother is by no means a complete image, any more than is God the Father, and all metaphors tend to break down if taken too far.  Mother God, like Father God, is merely one way we might think of and understand God, but it is –in the end -- limited, as are all attempts to describe the Divine.

So, is there a way to ultimately grasp the magnificence and majesty and mystery of God using finite human language? 

 

In this morning’s epistle lesson, the words of John the Evangelist perhaps come closest; he simply and eloquently states: “God is love.” 

 

God is love.  God and love are synonymous. 

 

And our first experience of God's love for us in this world comes from our mothers.

 

John goes on to say, “We love because He first loved us “ [1 John 4:19].  Isn’t that like a mother?  In the best of circumstances, a mother’s love is nearly instinctual; she loves her child long before that child is able to love back; her heart both leaps and aches for the hope and promise of new life; she pours her heart out to her child long before the child can say “thank you.”  And so does God.

 

And so on this Mother’s Day, let us remember that we have dual parentage – an earthly mother and a heavenly One. 

 

Let us celebrate our mothers -- whether in mortal or immortal life, whether they birthed us or helped in other ways to give us life, or give us a better life. 

 

And let us thank our mothers for through them, we are able to get a glimpse of the very nature of our God, who loves us unconditionally, infinitely, eternally.  Amen.