Words for God, with Rev. Sharon Edwards.

Words for God, with Rev. Sharon Edwards. Series: Holy Troublemakers A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon.

Curious about language, faith, and breaking boundaries? Join us this Sunday as we explore how words shape our understanding of the divine. Discover a fresh, inclusive perspective that might just change how you see God.

Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend.  Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.

At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.

We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don’t ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.

Thank you for your support of the mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. Visit https://bendfp.org/giving/ for more information.

Keywords:

Iona, language differences, holy troublemakers, Reverend Dr Will Gaffney, womanist scholar, biblical interpretation, feminine language, divine feminine, inclusive language, scripture translation, Black women, Imago Dei, patriarchal language, divine justice, compassion., presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregon

Featuring:

Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Sharon Edwards, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, Guests

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Episode Transcript

Whitney Higdon (00:40):
Welcome to worship At First Presbyterian
we, at First Presbyterian,practice a spacious
Christianity, which means nomatter where you are in your
faith journey, you belong andthere is space for you at the
table, there is space for yourdoubts and questions. We believe
doubts and questions are a giftthat invite us into deeper
conversations and a moreauthentic faith. We believe

(01:01):
diversity is a strength. Everystory is sacred and everybody
matters. We do our best to livethe spacious and radical love of
Jesus so that all might have achance to flourish in this
world. We are so glad to connectwith you in this way. We would
also love to worship with you inperson if you're ever in the
neighborhood on Sunday morningsat 830, or 10am and never

(01:23):
hesitate to reach out to us tolearn more about us or how we
might support You. I hope youenjoy this worship service.
Welcome you.

Musicians (04:54):
Have mercy on me, O gracious one, according to your
steadfast love, i. According toyour abundant kindness, forgive
me where my thoughts and deedshave hurt others, lead me in the
paths of justice, guide my stepson paths of peace, teach me that

(05:20):
I may know my weakness, theshortcomings that bind me, the
unloving ways that separate me,that keep me from recognizing
your life in me, for I keepcompany with fear and dwell in

(05:40):
the house of ignorance, yet Iwas brought forth in love. Love
is my birthright. You haveplaced your truth in the inner
being. Therefore teach me thewisdom of the heart, forgive all

(06:01):
that binds me in fear that Imight radiate love, cleanse me,
that your light might shine inme, fill me with gladness, help
me To transform weakness intostrength. Look not on my past

(06:23):
mistakes, but on the aspirationsof my heart. Create in me a
clean heart O God, and put a newand right spirit within me,
enfold me in the arms of love,fill me with your Holy Spirit,

(06:45):
restore in me the joy of yoursaving grace, and encourage me
with a new spirit

Unknown (07:02):
over the last two years, I have had the joy and
challenge of living on Iona, aremote island off of the west
coast of Scotland. I was theonly American on staff, and I
had a lot of learning to do. Forone thing, football is actually

(07:23):
soccer. Wait, I mean, soccer isactually football, and herbal
tea is not tea at all. Also, afew more essentials, chips are
actually crisps, and frenchfries are chips. Also zucchini
is courgette and candy issweeties. And the hardest one

(07:46):
for me to grasp, dessert ispudding, whether it was pudding
or not. But there was one word Ijust could never get right
Pants. Pants must be calledtrousers. Otherwise I was saying

(08:07):
underwear. My continuedinaccurate use of the word pants
caused lots of laughter,directed my way in Love Of
course, words and their meaningsand their intentions and their

(08:28):
history. Our words represent ourbeliefs, our morals and
prejudices and principles. Thewords we use are shaped by our
experience, but also by theworld around us. The words we

(08:50):
choose and the language we usehave the power to affect the
people and the world around usas well over the next several
weeks, we are exploring holytroublemakers, people of faith,
not from the Bible, but people,nevertheless, who have worked

(09:14):
for love, compassion andjustice, even when that meant
rocking the religious boat, muchlike Jesus did. This series has
been inspired by a book writtenfor young people by Deneen
anchors. In it, she offers usfolks whose life stories can

(09:39):
inspire us all. Today, I amthrilled to introduce to you a
holy troublemaker who made somegood trouble because she cares
about the power, impact andaccuracy of words. Us,

(10:01):
especially when it comes totalking about God. Our holy
troublemaker today is theReverend Dr will Gaffney, and as
we hear her story, we will beinvited to consider what words

(10:22):
do you use for God? Will grew upin Northern Carolina, seeped in
black church culture wherescripture is held in high
regard. So memorizing andreciting. It was a deeply

(10:43):
ingrained practice, along withsinging gospel music and summer
church camp, eventually, shefelt led, called to become a
pastor while in seminary becauseof her intricate and intimate
relationship with scripture. Shefelt drawn to learn the

(11:07):
languages of the sacred texts.
She became proficient inBiblical Hebrew, Greek, Latin
and Aramaic. Today, Reverend DrGaffney is a former US Army
Reserve chaplain, an AME ZionChurch Pastor and an

(11:29):
Episcopalian priest. She is aprolific writer and professor of
the Hebrew Scriptures at BrightDivinity School in Fort Worth
Texas, and she is a holytroublemaker because she has
created holy trouble by pushingagainst the way the Bible has

(11:54):
been translated in the past,while some of these traditional
interpretations have helpedsolve or offered solace to great
human ills and needs, they havealso contributed to some of the
great social ills of our time,you see, for centuries upon

(12:20):
centuries, biblical texts havebeen interpreted by one
particular gender with onecertain color of skin, biblical
interpretation and translationwill always be influenced by the

(12:41):
life experience, perspective andprejudices of the one doing the
interpretation. So first,Gaffney invites us to consider
the limitedness of that view,she encourages us to be

(13:03):
interested in the perspectivesof the people in the texts who
often are overlooked or unheard,Usually the voices of women,
enslaved people and children.

(13:24):
Reverend will is considered awomanist scholar. She explains,
womanism is interested in thewell being of the entire
community, and that especiallymeans the well being of those
who are vulnerable and oftenexploited to get there to begin

(13:50):
new insights into Scripture, westart by listening to Black
women today, their lifeexperience gives us insight, new
insight, for many of us, intothe passages. A good example of

(14:10):
this would be the God ofAbraham, Isaac and Jacob,
cornerstones of the JewishChristian and Muslim faith, a
womanist perspective, noticesthe woman who made their
lineages continue are missingand pretty necessary to the

(14:35):
whole thing, if you think aboutit, adding Hagar, Sarah ketruah,
Rebecca and Rachel Leah, bilahaand Zilpah makes the passage
longer, but also gives us thefuller picture of the story and

(14:59):
also. Honors them, including andsaying a person's name is very
important in African derivedcultures when we try to listen
to scripture from theperspective of black women and
the marginalized people who havebeen abused by people we've been

(15:24):
taught to listen to and evenadmire. It can be very
uncomfortable and eventroubling, and for many of us,
it is nearly impossible to takethat perspective. However, that
does not stop us from listeningto their perspective as it

(15:50):
deepens our understanding of whoGod is, who we are, and what our
work in the world is to be.
Perhaps, this is an invitationfor you to consider broadening
whose sermons you listen to andwhat authors and podcasts you

(16:10):
consume. One of the other ways,Dr will Gaffney is a holy
troublemaker. She advocates howcrucial it is that we restore
the feminine to our language andconcepts of the Divine. Because

(16:32):
of her language proficiency, shecame to discover that biblical
translators and editors haveoften hidden the feminine that
is in the grammar of theoriginal Biblical text. Consider
the famous and comforting Psalm18. Usually translated the Lord

(17:00):
or God is my rock and mysalvation,
a more accurate transformation,translation is the rock who gave
us birth is my rock and myfortress and my deliverer, I

(17:27):
call upon the Holy One, may shebe praised. Normally in my
distress, I called to the Lordis better translated. In my
distress, I called upon she whohears we could also look at

(17:55):
gaffney's Careful translation ofthe first two verses of Genesis
shown us in the book The Holytroublemakers. In the beginning,
he God created the heavens andthe earth. The earth was
formless and shapeless, anddarkness covered the face of the

(18:17):
deep while she THE SPIRIT OF GODpulsed over the face of the
waters in many, many otherplaces in Scripture, male
translators left out thefeminine from the language about

(18:39):
God and simply added God. Andbecause God has been associated
with maleness, even replacing hewith God, has kept and keeps God

(19:02):
a man. I don't know if we canfully grasp how deeply ingrained
and even subconscious this isfor us. Danine anchors, author
of the book, writes in her blog,I'd been around many people who

(19:28):
talked about how every personwas part of the Imago Dei, image
of God, But every song, everyprayer, every work of art, every
metaphor for God that any leaderhad ever used in my presence,

(19:49):
was decidedly and intentionallymale as a child and even as a
young adult, I assume. God wasmale because that was the
stronger, better option. Andthen she quotes the historical
Jesus scholar and author, MarcusBorg, who affirmed her

(20:14):
instinctual sense of beingexcluded from the Imago Dei as a
woman when all references to Godare masculine. Marcus writes,
How can woman be in the image ofGod, if God cannot be imagined

(20:38):
in feminine form? Danine saysthat pervasive patriarchal idea
of God equals male has turnedinto male equals God, and that
equation has damaged us all atevery level, from personal to

(21:02):
societal, it needs to change.
For Reverend will accuratetranslations, the truer sense of
the words is about offering andextending the embrace of the
scripture to all who read andhear that they may see and hear

(21:26):
themselves in the scriptures.
It's also a way to takeseriously that we are all truly
created in the image of God. Andto me, what I find really

(21:48):
fascinating. Reverend Gaffneytells us that feminine language
for God occurs in the textrepeatedly. This means that
those advocating for inclusiveand explicit feminine God
language are not changing butare restoring the text, and

(22:16):
could actually be consideredbiblical literalists those
asking for the use of divinefeminine language are not
changing the text. They arereturning to the origin of the

(22:37):
texts. Let's check in for amoment. What are you
experiencing as you hear thesewords, discomfort, relief,
resistance, joy, all of theabove and more. I admit I have

(22:59):
not always been comfortable withthis idea of divine feminine. My
relationship with my mother iscomplex, but one day I
experienced a trauma, and in mylonging to heal, I found myself
kneeling on Red Dirt desertfloor with the dry, dry desert,

(23:20):
receiving my flood of tears, andI asked, God, where are you? I
received an image of a nativewoman sitting cross legged in a
soft skirt, inviting me into herlap. That lap was so wide I
could curl up in it a source ofhealing. She was and still is.

(23:45):
I've gotten to a point in mylife where I'm not much
interested in using the wordGod. I prefer source of life and
breath of love. So let's pauseagain if you are moving or doing
something, stop if you are ableor return to this moment later.
Maybe place opposite hands onopposite shoulders. Close your

(24:09):
eyes if you are able andcomfortable. Take a few deep
breaths andand then ask yourself, what name
Am I longing to call God?

(24:39):
What name Am I longing to callGod?

Music (24:48):
If you've closed your eyes, open them, perhaps it was
a name that is familiar. Perhapsit is one that is new. We are

(25:30):
grateful for the life and thework. Work of will. Gaffery And

(25:52):
I invite you to consider whetheror not you yourself can be a

(26:15):
holy troublemaker by using wordsthat are open and welcoming, by

(26:38):
choosing words that invite loveand justice and compassion and

(27:01):
maybe play around a bit withallowing God to be the fullness

(27:23):
of God in your life, in yourwork and in your words, Amen

Unknown (27:53):
I'd like to end with a blessing from will gaffery. It
is taken from the translation ofJeremiah 17, Blessed is the one
who trusts in the author oflife, for whom the womb of life
is their trust that person shallbe like a tree transplanted by

(28:19):
water and by the streamstretching out its roots, it
shall not fear when heat comesand its leaves shall be
luxurious, and in the year ofdrought, it is not anxious, and
it does not cease bearing fruit.
Amen

Whitney Higdon (28:44):
Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope
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(29:04):
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(29:27):
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