What About The Sacred Feminine? Sermon by Pastor David Layman, May 7, 2006

Judges 3:7
Matthew 22:23-33

Theres an old song entitled Give me that old time religion. If you
are prone to agree with these sentiments, be careful to specify what
kind of old time religion you want. Because in the ancient world, one
of the favorite forms of old time religion was fertility cults. The
Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible tells us The oldest common
feature of the religions of the ancient Near East was the worship of the
great mother-goddess, the personification of fertility. (Volume 2, p.
265) In ancient Egypt, these pagan gods were known as Isis and Osiris.
As Judges 3:7 tells us, when the children of Israel that followed Moses
came to the Promised Land, they found people who were worshiping the
mother-goddess Asherah, and a male consort god, Baal. There were shrines
throughout the land, whose goal was to bring fertility in the fields and
homes. There were sacred prostitutes of both genders in the pagan
temples, who were considered priests and priestesses. Child sacrifice
was also practiced. So if you say you long for some of that old time
religion, please be sure to specify what variety you want!

The DaVinci Code is a best seller by Dan Brown, and will come out as a
movie May 19. One of the premises of The DaVinci Code is that the
Catholic Church sought to suppress the sacred feminine in early church
history. The phrase the sacred feminine was puzzling to me, because I
have always understood the God of the Bible as being beyond gender,
neither male nor female. There is a false presumption that to speak of
God as Father is to say God is male. For Jesus to refer to God as
Father is not to say that God is male. God is not male, and God is not
female. All descriptive words for God will fall short, for God is
infinite. And the finite cannot adequately define the infinite.

Jesus lived in a world where men were commonly the authority of the
family, and in an economy where the father was the primary source of
provision. For Jesus to call God Father points to the authority and
provision of God. Jesus didnt talk about having a heavenly mother,
because such a reference would have led ancient people to think of
fertility gods and goddesses. Jesus used the term father to point to
attributes of God, who is beyond gender, and his own intimate
relationship with God. Jesus, grieving over the blindness of Jerusalem,
said Jerusalem, Jerusalem....how often have I desired to gather your
children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you
were not willing! (Matthew 23:37) Jesus was using feminine imagery to
describe his loving care for those who rejected him. While Jesus more
frequently used male imagery for God than feminine, God is beyond gender.

USA Today on April 10 revealed that DaVinci Code author Dan Brown, has a
wife, Blythe, who helps with much of the research for his books. Dan
Brown said his wife was deeply passionate about the sacred feminine,
and it was her idea to contend in the book that Jesus and Mary Magdalene
were married and had a child. The DaVinci Code speaks approvingly of the
Gnostic gospels. Gnosticism was an ancient heresy that believed the
material world was evil, and one was saved by receiving secret
knowledge. But I wonder if Dan Browns wife discovered that in the
Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, Simon Peter is quoted as saying Let Mary
leave us, for women are not worthy of life. (Gospel of Thomas, 114).
Does that sound to you as if ancient Gnosticism elevated the sacred
feminine?

Perhaps its a sign of our age that people want to bring sex and gender
issues into everything! Ancient pagan religion revolved around sex and
fertility. God wanted Israel to be different, holy, set apart,
distinct from its pagan surroundings. All the priests in the Israel of
Old Testament times were male. This was not because the God of Israel
was trying to teach that men were of more importance than women. But to
have had both male and female priests at that time would have been
confusing to an ancient world that presumed male and female priests
meant fertility worship. We know that there were prophetesses in Old
Testament times. Huldah was one, and she was highly respected, because
she was the one who authenticated the scrolls found in the temple during
King Josiahs renovation. (II Kings 22:14) Likewise, Paul refers to
women who were leaders in the early church at Rome: Phoebe, whom Paul
calls a deacon, Prisca, Tryphaena and Tryphosa, and so forth.

God desired Israel to be set apart and different from the fertility
cults of that day, with male and female deities. The story of Jesus
begins, interestingly, with an elderly male priest, Zechariah, struck
dumb because he doubted Gods power to enable his aging wife Elizabeth
to give birth to John the Baptist. In the gospel of Luke, Elizabeth
appears superior in faith to Zechariah. Then Jesus is born to Mary, a
virgin, without the participation of a man! In his ministry, Jesus
defied the conventions of his day by speaking publicly to women, even
women of questionable background. Women followed Jesus and supported his
ministry financially. When Jesus was crucified, most of the male
disciples were hiding in fear and confusion, but a number of women stood
at the foot of the cross. And Christs first resurrection appearances
were to women!

In our passage from Matthew 22:23-33, we see skeptical Sadducees, the
Gentlemens Club of Jerusalem, trying to trick Jesus. But Jesus
responds to them You know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.
The same could be said to male chauvinists, or female chauvinists,
today. Jesus went on to say In the resurrection, they neither marry nor
or given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. In the life to
come, we will no longer be known as male or female, husband and wife.
Well be like angels. Jesus once received word that his earthly mother,
Mary, and siblings were outside, wanting to call him home from his
ministry. But Jesus responded Who are my mother and my
brothers?...Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and
mother. (Mark 3:33-34) We belong to Jesus family not because of being
male or female, or related by blood. But by doing the will of God!

We must acknowledge that the church has often failed to faithfully
follow the Lordship of Christ. Jesus told his followers that they were
not to be like the world, where one person tries to lord it over
another. (Matthew 20:25) There are times in history when men have sought
to subjugate women, when those of one race or culture have sought to
dominate another. But let us remember the majority of Presbyterian
missionaries in the last 200 years have been women. And Presbyterian
missionaries were among those who sought to elevate the status of women
in China by objecting to the sex-selection infanticide, where girl
babies were left out to die. It was missionaries who raised a hue and
cry to attack the mandatory binding of womens feet in China. In India,
the practice of suttee was ended by the influence of Christianity. This
is where a good Hindu wife was expected to follow her husband in death
on a funeral pyre. They also objected to the practice of girl children
being raised to become prostitutes in Hindu temples.

To talk about a divine feminine is every bit as misguided as to think
that male adjectives for God mean that men are divine. God is beyond
gender! And let us remember Pauls words to the Galatians once more:
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free,
there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ
Jesus.

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