Our Father....Why we don't call Him Mom

Father is not literal.

We pray “Our Father” we call Him “Our Father in Heaven.” But can we call Him mom? With the fiction book, “the Shack” published a few years back it reinvigorated the debate whether we can call God our mother.... Now I realize you all are part of a traditional church body and therefore might even suggest that this is a black and white issue. But allow me to unpack it a bit.

“God has not had a physical body and, therefore, he doesn’t have male features: facial hair, musculature, male genitals, no Y chromosome, no male hormones. Male is a biological word, and God is not a biological being”

John 4:24 ESV

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

As Jesus calls God His “father” He is not speaking literally… God did not biologically produce Jesus with Mary. Jesus’ story is not a Hercules story. He is not half man and half god. Jesus is using the metaphor of the “father-son” relationship to describe the nature of their relationship.

“God has not had a physical body and, therefore, he doesn’t have male features: facial hair, musculature, male genitals, no Y chromosome, no male hormones. Male is a biological word, and God is not a biological being”Verses with Feminine language.

Female metaphors used to describe God’s actions or character.

Psalm 132:2–3 ESV

how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, “I will not enter my house or get into my bed,

Psalm 131:2–3 ESV

But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.

Psalm 132

Deuteronomy 32:18 ESV

You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.

Is

Isaiah 49:15 ESV

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

Hosea

Hosea 13:8 ESV

I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs; I will tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rip them open.

We see Jesus uses one from the OT when he describes the way he wants to nurture and protect Jerusalem.

Matthew 23:37 ESV

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

And as we say last week he describes the Holy Spirit as “giving birth” to those “born of the Spirit.”

John 3:3–8 ESV

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

John 3:5 ESV

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Animal Metaphors

Lion, bear,

No female Titles

In his book Our Father in Heaven: Christian Faith and Inclusive Language for God, John Cooper published the conclusions from his study of these passages. One of his major discoveries was that while feminine metaphors for God’s activity are indeed used on occasion to illustrate the tender nurturing character of God, none of these references include feminine titles for God. Cooper explains,

Linguistically, all the clear and plausible instances of feminine reference to God are imagery or figures of speech: similes, analogies, metaphors, and personification. . . . There are no cases in which feminine terms are used as names, titles, or invocations of God, and thus there are no feminine pronouns for God. There are no instances where God is directly identified by a feminine term, even a metaphorical predicate noun. In other words, God is never directly said to be a mother, mistress, or female bird in the way he is said to be a father, king, judge, or shepherd. (89)

That explains why in Scripture we find many masculine titles for God: Lord, Father, King, Judge, Savior, Ruler, Warrior, Shepherd, Husband, and even a handful of metaphorical masculine titles like Rock, Fortress, and Shield. While feminine titles for God — Queen, Lady, Mother, and Daughter — are never used.

Trinitarian Nature and Economy

Jesus’ relationship with the Father

John 3:35 ESV

The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

John

John 5:17 ESV

But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

John 5:17–18 ESV

But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

John 5:17–19 ESV

But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

John 10:30 ESV

I and the Father are one.”

John 10:

John 14:9–10 ESV

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

John 14:6-7

John 20:21 ESV

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

Jesus is LORD - He decides how we address God.

How we learn from each other, reflect each others strengths and value each others differences...

The apostle Paul’s anguish over the growth of his churches was for him like the pain of birthing a child (). And Paul’s apostolic gentleness was something like the kindness and patience of a nursing mother (). Obviously, Paul’s maleness is never brought into question by these female metaphors.