Someone asked me again recently about my growing tendency to not always refer to God in masculine terms. Various responses depending upon my mood...
1)I don't know. Why not? What's your point?
2)My mom was a woman.
3)God's not a gender (though, yes, of course, Yeshua was male.)
4)Speaking of Yeshua. He was the opposite of what we, in our society, want our males to be like: gentle, long-suffering, patient, willing to lose, un-obsessed with violence, willing to be in relationship, etc... Maybe that should tell us something?
5)It could unintentionally assign status to males over and above females. This is damaging to females. But, here’s the thing few of us are talking about… it's damaging to males too!
6)God's close to the powerless. Between the two genders, there's no comparison as to who's been more powerless. Can we go too far? Probably. But, maybe we should try it before we decide.
7)I'm less and less interested in defining God. Ha, as if I ever could! Maybe no name gets at what God is. Or perhaps every name gets at it. The more we define it, the more we can control it, and use it to gain certainty. And certitude. And pretend the only point is to use our definition as a "rock" for our faith. And yes it is a rock, the kind upon which all our ideas of God break upon, leaving us, like the waves detonating upon the massive promontories of the Pacific Northwest, broken and breathless, shattered in holy wonder and beauty.