I was trying to reclaim my garden this afternoon from the grass that benefitted from our rains and the trip to Georgia. Our stony southwest Oklahoma soil is remarkably fecund if enough rain falls. Of course, I've added from my compost pile, and purchased manure, to build up the soil. As I was grubbing with my mattock (too rocky for a regular hoe still, maybe someday I'll get all the rocks out) I got to thinking about goddesses and the problem of referring to God.

Interesting, and perhaps not surprising, that so many cultures have an earth goddess, not an earth god. The rain from the sky, compared to semen in many belief-systems, falls upon the waiting earth, like a fertile womb, and new life comes forth. Fertile rolling hills, with some imagination, can remind one of the female form. The earth goddess and the sky god, uniting to bring life.

I am, as regular readers know, a Christian. And a preacher. So I refer to God a lot. Sometimes I use sexless terms: God saves because of God's love; God's actions glorify Godself. Theologically, this terminology is not wrong, because traditionally Christian theology has taught that God is without gender. But, sexless terminology works by not using pronouns; that makes for awkward speech, and sounds too impersonal.

When I use pronouns for God, I use the masculine. God himself, The Lord called and he said. I do so because Scripture usually does so. Perhaps you may say that I am using the inclusive "him" to mean both male and female. OK. But then, why is "she" not as acceptable as "he?" Why not an inclusive "she?" While there is a little bit of feminine imagery for God, overwhelmingly the imagery in the Bible is masculine: Lord (not Lady), King (not Queen), Shepherd (not Shepherdess). And, Jesus, now alive and living in heaven thence to return, is a man. Was the choice of a male incarnation accidental? Could God have taken human form as a woman, so that we worship Ruth the Christ? Speculation on this gets us nowhere. God chose to be incarnate as a man, with a Y chromosome, penis, and testicles. For now, at least, I'll use masculine imagery predominately, and masculine pronouns for God.

This afternoon in the garden I was contemplating another reason. Sky gods tend to be associated with power and action, and perhaps are more easily understood as transcending time and place. Earth goddesses are receivers, active in giving life indeed, but tied into the natural cycles of months and years, returning again and again, more easily understood as immanent, that is, within time and place. If we adopt feminine language for the Christian God, will our conception of God be altered, more tied up in Creation? I don't know.