In the beginning of the Bible is a story about the creation of the world. It is a very well-known story, and you have probably heard it – you may even have the basic details and developments, or even some whole phrases from the story memorized. You may remember on which day God was said to have created certain things. Like how on that first day God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Much of the time that we study this story, we focus on what it says about the created world. Some even use this text as a basis for arguing how old the earth is, how long its creation took, and whether or not it is possible to hold this creation story in appropriate honor and respect while still acknowledging evolutionary science.
What we don’t often do is pay attention to how God is described in the first Biblical creation story. Well, we recognize that God is described as overwhelmingly mighty – bringing something out of nothing, simply speaking creation into being. But beyond that, we seem simply to ignore some major descriptors of God. It is worth our time – especially in our current cultural context – to pay attention to those descriptors and allow them to shape how we think about God.
In the very first sentence of the story, God is described as singular, plural, masculine, and feminine. Yes. In the first sentence. The Hebrew word that is used for God – Elohim – is a fittingly strange word. It is feminine when in the singular, but here is written in the plural form with a masculine ending. So the word for God is feminine and masculine. The noun Elohim itself is plural, but all the verbs that go along with it are in the singular. So the word for God is plural and singular. In the same sentence, God’s Spirit is mentioned, and that word is feminine. Moments later, God is referred to by the pronoun “he”.
So right out of the gates, in the first words of the first chapter of the first story of the first book of the Bible, trying even to describe God is endlessly complex. And it doesn’t stop there.
The climax of this first creation story is when God creates humans, saying, “Let us make humankind in our image.” The narrator goes on, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.” Both male and female are made in the image of the God who speaks of themselves in the plural while being singular.
It is so clear that God is non-binary by definition. This is not some cultural hot take: It’s reading the Bible seriously and being honest about how God is described. God is feminine. God is also masculine at the same time. When God creates humans in their image, one human, one gender is not enough. God is literally non-binary.
Both male and female are made in God’s image, and at the same time, God is neither male nor female. Or at least, it’s worth saying neither of these words can fully help us understand what God is. God’s identity transcends gender. I believe there’s a word for that too.
So how do we talk about God? You might be thinking maybe we shouldn’t. And you might be right. But the thing is, if you believe in God, as I do, you’re going to have to talk about God sometimes – a lot even. I believe that I am in a loving, liberating, life-giving relationship with my Creator. That relationship is both definitive and ongoing. And I’m in community with others who believe that too – so we have to figure out how to talk about that relationship, about that God. If we’re going to do that, we should acknowledge that any talk of God is a reach, is a grasping, is a messy and imperfect effort.
No words are grand or complex enough for the One who creates all things, who reconciles all things, who sustains all things. There’s a reason the Jews left the vowels out of God’s name in their Scriptures. Rendering God’s name unpronounceable speaks volumes, and attests to something so true about who God is. It acknowledges that to speak of God is itself tricky and uncertain territory. We get it wrong every time we open our mouths, but we open them anyway, because this love is worth talking about even when we get it wrong.
For much of the history of our church most Christians have referred to God as he. There is nothing inherently wrong with referring to God as he. “He” appears to be the most preferred pronoun for the various authors of the writings that comprise the Bible. But if we are honest, there is something inherently wrong with referring to God exclusively as he. When we can see very clearly that our own Scriptures describe God as he, she, and they, but we insist only on using the masculine expression of God, we are refusing to acknowledge authentic truths about God’s own identity – God’s own being.
What do you think that does for us? To be so stubborn and exclusive in the way we ascribe gender to God when speaking of her? How can we pretend it does not reinforce the basic idea – even subliminally – that God is male? That’s what “he” means in our collective conscience.
When we see portrayals of God as a big, bearded man on a cloud we think nothing of it. When we see God portrayed as a woman, we consider it first and foremost as a political statement. And if God were portrayed as non-binary or transgender? How might you respond to that? Would your first thought be joy that God is being represented in one of the ways that is biblically accurate? Or would you be offended by the audacity of it? Challenged by it? Irritable and discomfited?
Well, and what’s so bad about being offended or discomfited when thinking about God? God offends people all the time – especially those who seek to be the most faithful. God challenges and upsets our precepts and prejudices – every single one of us. If our worship and devotion to God is meant only for our own comfort and solace, we sorely misunderstand and even dishonor the God we purport to exalt.
In our Bible the God who is called Father is also called a mother hen. The Son who is God’s wisdom is also referred to as she. The God who is called Spirit is referred to as feminine, masculine, and genderless. There have been times in my life when I was uncomfortable with this, and I resisted and dismissed speaking of God in any other way but the masculine. That said a lot more about me than it said about who God really is.
So, what happens when we call God she? What happens when we call God they? Well, I think it changes us for the good. It is not a shallow signaling of modern virtue – it is a deeper dive into our relationship with God. I’m not writing this to shame anyone for using masculine language for God. I’d be shaming myself, and I try not to make a habit of that. We are being invited into the adventure of allowing our understanding of God to be expanded – to see what happens to that holy relationship when we start to see and know more of God than we have previously allowed ourselves. And then to boldly, imperfectly talk about the transformation we experience.
And please let’s not waste each other’s time with unserious nitpicking about grammar. It’s a disingenuous response to a genuine Biblical concern. We’re all grown-ups here. Every single one of us has referred to a singular person as “they” at some point in our lives, and nobody got hurt by it. It worked just fine. Besides, we know that grammar is a hot muddled mess that shifts and grows and changes with the movement of every culture. Come to think of it, that’s one of the best things about language: It’s messy and complicated and we get it wrong but keep using it anyway to communicate what matters to us, and as the language shifts so do we. Just like our relationship with the transcendent God of love.
