Many of us grew up with these centuries-old, andocentric doctrines that made our heads hurt. Many of us grew up with doctrines that did not make sense, that created walls instead of bridges, that separated peoples instead of bringing them together, that made our faiths, our beliefs, our skin color, our sexual orientation, our class--our way of life sinful, less human, and outright wrong!
There are still so many people who are convinced that the hardships they face every single day are tests and trials from God. There are more who believe that God has a grand plan just waiting to be disclosed in the future, if not on earth then in the hereafter. There are those, quoting scripture no less, who sincerely proclaim that every elected official, including tyrants, dictators, and children of tyrants and dictators, are God's chosen. Then there are those who insist that the Bible is their exclusive "land title" and have killed, dispossessed, disenfranchised, and displaced peoples in its name.
May 26th is Trinity Sunday and many homilies will focus on explaining a mystery. Maybe some homilies will focus on the female imagery for the divine in Sunday's lection from John 3. Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God as a woman. Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God giving birth. Sunday's lection invites us to imagine God nursing her children.
God has a womb. God has breasts. God is a mother.
Friends, Sunday's lection challenges us to imagine God beyond the boxes we have created to contain God. Maybe the Trinity is a circle of nursing mothers, a family of sisters, a discipleship of equals.
Imagine.
*art, "Trinity," Kelly Latimore, 2016, commissioned by Mark Bozzuti-Jones (available at the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).
*art, "Trinity," Kelly Latimore, 2016, commissioned by Mark Bozzuti-Jones (available at the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).
