“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!

“After they had set a day to meet with him, they came to him at his lodgings in great numbers.  From morning until evening he explained the matter to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the law of Moses and from the prophets.  some were convinced by what he had said, while others refused to believe.  So they disagreed with each other; and as they were leaving, Paul made one further statement: ‘The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah, ‘Go to this people and say, you will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive.  For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn—and I would heal them.’  Let it be known to you then that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.’  He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.”—Acts 28:23-31

This passage encapsulates what we try to do every Advent with the chosen readings, messages, and songs.  We do a survey of the law of Moses and the prophets and use the words to proclaim the fulfillment of both in the coming of Jesus Christ.  Masterpieces of exegesis from theological treatises to Handel’s Messiah try to persuade us that the one who would bring salvation to God’s people indeed has already come in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  And he shall reign forever and ever!

Even for many Christians, though, forcing Jesus into all the words of the prophets and the law of Moses is an exercise of mental gymnastics and contortion art.  We pick and choose that which seems to fit our various images of Jesus and discard that which does not.  Most of us are guilty of supercesssionism, disregarding thousands of years of Jewish wisdom and tradition and declaring our own beliefs superior.  In the end we do a disservice to the person of Jesus, to our Jewish neighbors, and to the Scriptures themselves.

Should we read the law and the prophets with an eye towards illuminating the life an mission of the Messiah?  Of course!  We should not, however, decontextualize the texts and separate them from their authors and settings.  The coming Messiah is prophesied through many different visions and portrayed in many different images.  At times the Messiah is a mighty king and at times a suffering servant.  At times the Messiah is exclusive to the Israelites and at times for all of humanity.  At times the Messiah is a fierce warrior enacting violence and vengeance, and at times the Messiah is the Prince of Peace.  This is because people have had different needs throughout history, and the words of Scripture reflect the needs of the people at any given time.  It is no wonder that the Jews in Rome had contentious debates over Paul’s teachings.  How could this one person who was executed by the Roman Empire be the answer to everything that was ever written, especially since that Empire was still going strong and attacking Jerusalem?  It is also no wonder that the Gentiles would be more open to Paul’s teachings, as they did not have the history of tradition to define who the Messiah should be.

This reflection is in no way meant to belittle the role of the Hebrew Bible and tradition in preparing the way for Jesus of Nazareth.  Instead, it is meant to encourage those of us who believe he is the Messiah to accept him on his own terms in his own context.  The gospel of John ends by saying, “But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”  Jesus was a Jew born in a stable in Palestine to unwed parents.  Jesus was miraculously conceived and came to be known as the Son of God and the Human One.  Jesus performed miracles of power over bodies, spirits, weather, water, food, air, and even death.  Jesus was a rabbi to twelve named disciples and a teach and friend to countless others.  Jesus taught and embodied radical principles of justice and equality.  Jesus started communities that exhibited alternative social realities which were in open defiance of the Roman Empire.  Jesus flipped the tables of economic injustice.  Jesus gave sermons on mountains and plains that shocked the people with their messages.  Jesus was publicly executed by the State.  Jesus rose again from the dead, defeating death itself.  Jesus walked on the earth again.  Jesus ascended into heaven.  Jesus did so many more things that the world itself could not contain their record.  

This is the one we call Messiah.  This is the one who we believe initiated the Kin-dom.  Perhaps he did fulfill the Hebrew law and prophecies, and perhaps he fulfilled many other laws and prophecies that are not even in our awareness.  What matters for us, though, is who he actually was, the life he actually lived, and the context in which he existed.  And when it comes to judging people for not understanding the person of Jesus as we do, we should remember that the final words quoted from Isaiah by Paul are words of healing.