All our language about God remains merely and nothing more than language about God. It is the greatest hubris to think we can define, describe, limit and confine God to our linguistic concepts. Gender belongs to the created order of things on earth and does not reflect the reality of heaven or deity. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts," (Isaiah 55:8-9; nrsv)
This is a very nice sounding choir but "Mothering God" what kind of hymn is that? Is this a Christian Church...God is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is never referred to in the Bible as a "mothering God who gave birth". This is a very disrespectful hymn.
The fourteenth century Christian mystic and anchorite Julian of Norwich had a series of visions which revealed to her the Mother-love of Christ. In her "Shewings" or Revelations -- the first book that we know of ever written in English by a woman -- she wrote that "Christ is our true Mother."
This is based on St. Julian of Norwich’s appellation of God as our mother. One of the great medieval mystics, Julian used the term as a symbol for a nurturing God. The basic idea is that God is like a mother because of the tender love which God extends to us. Like most mystics, Julian created an alternative to Christian orthodoxy by drawing on her own visions. Her book is one of the best expositions of the mystical path.
I understand your concern for scriptural language. Besides the Mothering Hen images that have been pointed out (Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34), please consider Isaiah. Chapter 42:14: "For a long time I have held my peace...now I will cry out like a woman in labor." Chapter 49:15 compares God to a nursing mother. Chapter 66:13 "As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you." I recognize that you may feel offended by the way the language of this hymn diverges from the traditional names of the Trinity, but please consider the variety of metaphors God uses in Scripture to reveal the Holy to us in our everyday lives.
You could perhaps ask God to enlarge your understanding of the Infinite. Our concepts are finite and we are forced to assign a gender to one who is beyond human understanding. We know perhaps one 10th of one percent about the person of God. Our minds have to assign God 3 persons in order to even begin to comprehend his multi-dimensionality. Numerous scriptural examples have been given to you by others showing the feminine characteristics of the divine. I would add the character 'wisdom' the name given to God in the wisdom literature who is always portrayed as female. We believe in a God whose 'Ways are higher than our ways, and whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts'. How can we be pedantic regarding his characteristics? You might remember that when the fundamentalists tried to catch Jesus out with that question about whose wife the woman would be in the resurrection, Jesus's enigmatic reply indicated heaven was a non gender environment “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” (Matt. 22:23-30.)
All our language about God remains merely and nothing more than language about God. It is the greatest hubris to think we can define, describe, limit and confine God to our linguistic concepts. Gender belongs to the created order of things on earth and does not reflect the reality of heaven or deity. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts," (Isaiah 55:8-9; nrsv)
Great arrangement! :)
This is a very nice sounding choir but "Mothering God" what kind of hymn is that? Is this a Christian Church...God is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is never referred to in the Bible as a "mothering God who gave birth". This is a very disrespectful hymn.
+There are many different descriptors for God given in Scripture. This is very theological. Mothering hen is a prominent descriptor.
The fourteenth century Christian mystic and anchorite Julian of Norwich had a series of visions which revealed to her the Mother-love of Christ. In her "Shewings" or Revelations -- the first book that we know of ever written in English by a woman -- she wrote that "Christ is our true Mother."
This is based on St. Julian of Norwich’s appellation of God as our mother. One of the great medieval mystics, Julian used the term as a symbol for a nurturing God. The basic idea is that God is like a mother because of the tender love which God extends to us. Like most mystics, Julian created an alternative to Christian orthodoxy by drawing on her own visions. Her book is one of the best expositions of the mystical path.
I understand your concern for scriptural language. Besides the Mothering Hen images that have been pointed out (Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34), please consider Isaiah. Chapter 42:14: "For a long time I have held my peace...now I will cry out like a woman in labor." Chapter 49:15 compares God to a nursing mother. Chapter 66:13 "As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you." I recognize that you may feel offended by the way the language of this hymn diverges from the traditional names of the Trinity, but please consider the variety of metaphors God uses in Scripture to reveal the Holy to us in our everyday lives.
You could perhaps ask God to enlarge your understanding of the Infinite. Our concepts are finite and we are forced to assign a gender to one who is beyond human understanding. We know perhaps one 10th of one percent about the person of God. Our minds have to assign God 3 persons in order to even begin to comprehend his multi-dimensionality. Numerous scriptural examples have been given to you by others showing the feminine characteristics of the divine. I would add the character 'wisdom' the name given to God in the wisdom literature who is always portrayed as female. We believe in a God whose 'Ways are higher than our ways, and whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts'. How can we be pedantic regarding his characteristics? You might remember that when the fundamentalists tried to catch Jesus out with that question about whose wife the woman would be in the resurrection, Jesus's enigmatic reply indicated heaven was a non gender environment “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” (Matt. 22:23-30.)