A year or two ago I was talking to a fabulous woman about how much we both love gospel choirs. She explained her feeling about them by saying they made her feel as though she was "being embraced by the big black bosom of Mama God."
I come back to that image a lot, when I feel like I need guidance or comfort. I was meditating (we'll use that word loosely, or else add the caveat of "to the best of my abilities") on that image this morning, when it occurred to me that I don't see space for that view of God in standard Sunday worship. Making language (slightly) gender-inclusive isn't enough to encourage people to explore alternative faces of God. Which is a shame, because I suspect it's harder for us to seek and serve Christ in all persons if our worship experiences only show God in a certain kind of human form.
But the Mama God image is working for me: strong, funny, warm, encouraging, a giver of wise counsel. Not corporate, not competative, not demanding perfection.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving
6 hours ago
That's a great image -- thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYes, thank you so much. And you are so right about the need for regular transformative worship with diverse language and imagery for our Beloved in whose radiant image *all* people are made.
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