“Before she was in labor she gave birth; before her pain came upon her she delivered a son.  Who has heard of such a thing?  Who has seen such things?  Shall a land be born in one day?  Shall a nation be delivered in one moment?  Yet as soon as Zion was in labor she delivered her children.  Shall I open the womb and not deliver? says the LORD; shall I, the one who delivers, shut the womb? says your God.  Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her—that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink with delight from her glorious bosom.  For thus says the LORD: I will extend prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse and be carried on her arms, and dandled on her knees.  As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”—Isaiah 66:7-13

“At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’  He said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.  Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’  Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!  How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!  See, your house is left to you.  And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”—Luke 13:31-35

In today’s readings Zion, Jerusalem, YHWH, and Jesus are all depicted as mothers.  Zion was in labor and she delivered her children without pain.  All those who love and mourn with Jerusalem should rejoice at nursing from her consoling breast and drinking with delight from her glorious bosom.  YHWH comforts us and Jerusalem as a mother comforts her child.  Jesus desires to gather the children of Jerusalem together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.  YHWH our Mother!  Jesus our Mother!  Zion our Mother!  Jerusalem our Mother!

According to the Scriptures, YHWH and Jesus use maternal imagery self-referentially.  It is quite clear that the fullness of God and the fullness of God incarnate contain the fullness of the gender spectrum.  Take a second or a minute or a whole lifetime and ponder how this world would be transformed if we all realized this truth—if we stopped creating God in the image of our hetero-patriarchy and instead began creating ourselves and our society in the actual image of God!

Ever since living in India, I have cringed whenever confronted with a deluge of masculinity in reference to God.  Kali-Durga, Saraswati, and Lakshmi opened my eyes to the divine feminine and thus to the problem of a narrowly-gendered God.  I thus found myself in a regular cringe here in Zambia, as every prayer is to a He-God—and trust me, there is a LOT of prayer.  Whenever I find myself becoming too critical, though, I have to take a step back.  I grew up on this same He-God in the Presbyterianism of rural Indiana and every other church setting I encountered up until the time I graduated from college.  Further, I know from conversations with Zambian friends in seminary here that they also are encouraged to expand their images of God, including gender.  The reality is that hetero-patriarchy is dominant everywhere, and God is regularly ‘created’ in the image of dominant society.

Let us not ignore Zion our Mother and Jerusalem our Mother.  Isaiah and YHWH through Isaiah describe the Holy Land as Mother.  Palestine, Israel, Canaan, Judah…the land flowing with mother’s milk and honey.  Given the essential significance of this place for Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze, it is no surprise to me that it is described as Mother, the source or origin.  I will never forget a discussion with the one and only Sarah Lyn Jones in which she argued the problematics of referring to Earth as Mother.  For, the reality is that we continually rape and destroy this planet and all of the natural world.  It is another instance of patriarchal violence.  So, while problematic, it is truthful to use “Mother Earth,” because what we do to the planet is a direct result of hetero-patriarchy.  I think this analysis applies hauntingly well to the Holy Land.  Patriarchal violence is an apt description for the Israeli occupation, the American arms dump, the carceral state, and the apartheid in the Holy Land.

So in these passages we see at once the power of the Mother in the fullness of the gendered divine and then the gendered reality of violence in dominant society.  God embodies all gender.  Dominant society perpetrates violence against those with oppressed gender and sexual identities, including Creation itself.

Let us listen to God our Mother as we wait for Jesus our Mother this season!

“But recall those earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.  For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting.  Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward.  For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.  For yet ‘in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay; but my righteous one will live by faith.  My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back.’  But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.”—Hebrews 10:32-39

I have never really delved into The Letter to the Hebrews.  I have read it, but the temple language and the high atonement theory have prodded me to focus my attention elsewhere.  For, no matter how rich the material is, the temple cult seems to be miles and miles from my context.  So, of the oft-touted trifold role of Christ—prophet, priest, and king—the role of priest has always held the least appeal for me.

As I have found myself saying so frequently lately, though, I am learning.  The temple is an apt metaphorical ecosystem for so much of what happens in this world.  We worship at the altar of Mammon.  All too many of us dedicate ourselves to the service of that altar.  The real kicker, though, is that those with power and privilege sacrifice others at that altar to Mammon—to more power and more money.  We oppress, dispossess, and slaughter unwilling victims in order to maintain and expand principalities of injustice.

Hebrews, however, gives us an alternative vision of the temple.  Jesus is at once the high priest, the sacrifice, and the god.  When we look at the theodicy, we often ask how a loving God could willfully send their child to suffer terribly and die, all for the sins of others.  I, also, am deeply troubled by this question.  Another way of looking at it, though, is to see that God chose to become incarnate as a human, to join in the fullness of suffering, and to willingly die alongside of those who are sacrificed at the altar of Mammon.  The entire paradigm was flipped.  The all-powerful God relinquished power and joined the oppressed.  The all-powerful God chose to use that power to challenge the earthly principalities.  The all-powerful God chose to be sacrificed alongside of those who did not choose such a fate so that the system would fall and the sacrifices would no longer happen.  The temple was torn down and rebuilt.

Clearly we have polluted this temple of incomprehensible grace.  We continue to choose the altar of Mammon.  Yet, we have an example and a clarion call from Hebrews.  “You endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.  For you had compassion for those in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting.  Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward.”  Those of us with power in this world must choose to partner with those who are publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, with those who are being imprisoned.  We must make use of our possessions to aid in the struggle while we still have them, and we must be willing to let go of our possessions without remorse.  We must challenge the principalities with confidence.  We must be active to the point of being targeted ourselves for public abuse and persecution.

Imagine if the Church became such a temple!  Let us seek to make it so as we await the coming of the High Priest.