We Abandoned Our Mother God (Series, Pt. 4)

*Editorial Note: If you missed Pt. 1 of Amber’s piece, click here: “The Womb of God: Challenging Culturally Gendered Norms.” ~CK

Receiving the Seed and Becoming a Bride

“You must understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, for human anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore, rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.” (James 1:19-21)

The problem with accepting that men are meant to be receivers, the same as women, isn’t a theological one, despite what the hysterical sermons of some popular Christian preachers might suggest. No, the problem isn’t theological, it’s psychological.  

God identifies God’s own self as a Sower of divine seed that is to be implanted into us, His soil; and as a Bridegroom who is to be received into us, His Bride.¹ Scriptural examples include the following: For ‘Sower of Seed:’ Mark 4: 26-29; 30-32; Luke 8:4-15; Matthew 13:3-23; for ‘Bride of Christ:’ Ephesians 5:25-27; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Revelation 19:7-9; Revelation 21:2. As Gregory of Nyssa so beautifully summed up in his Homilies on the Song of Songs: “The soul becomes the bride of the Word when she receives the seed of divine life.”

 The seed and bridal imagery aren’t just poetic inspirations, but vehicles for important truths which are embedded in our doctrines on ecclesiology, sacramental theology, Christology, and Eschatology. The Church – inclusive of both men and women – is described in passive participles such as chosen, loved, cleansed, adorned, and presented, indicating that we are all receivers of Christ’s initiative. Much like the womb imagery, the bride and seed imagery coveys that we receive what God initiates and implants. We are all temples, vessels, brides, sons and daughters – receivers of God’s grace and love. 

God identifies God’s own self as a Sower of divine seed that is to be implanted into us, His soil; and as a Bridegroom who is to be received into us, His Bride. Share on X

Historically, our best theologians understood this and were comfortable with symbolic gender language, imagery that depicts both men and women in the same spiritual boat. Again, the barrier with understanding this today isn’t theological, its psychological. Ironically, what is upholding this movement of Christians who believe men should be the sole initiators and leaders of home, church, and society is nothing more than extreme reactivity to shifts in cultural norms. 

This point bears reiteration: There is a growing percentage of Christians who are willing to abandon, or worse, even vehemently reject, some of the most profound and transformational truths of the faith because they are afraid of gendered cultural changes. 

‘Masculinity vs. Femininity’ is a false paradigm which divides us unnecessarily and unbiblically, creating weak idols out of sex traits and enculturated gender norms. There is another way forward, one that pulls in the richness of the womb, seed, and bridal imagery and that is enfleshed for us by the sacrificial, tender example of Christ in his life, death, and resurrection. In this way, we are all invited by God to take our proper place as receivers of God’s initiation and implantation, neither male nor female, but as one bride awaiting her Bridegroom, one soil awaiting the Sower, one dependent humanity always in need of re-wombing. This message isn’t welcomed by some, but it remains the message of the gospel nonetheless: The entire Church is headed toward oneness and unitive love.² Scripture is equally strong on this point. See John 17; Ephesians 1:9-10; and Colossians 1:19-20, to name only a few places where our ultimate destiny is described.

There is a growing percentage of Christians who are willing to abandon, or worse, even vehemently reject, some of the most profound and transformational truths of the faith because they are afraid of gendered cultural changes. Share on X

To hear some tell it in extreme, but ever growing, patriarchal corners of Christendom, men were never meant to be part of this imagery–the eager Bride, the soil awaiting implantation, the soul longing for the womb of God. Instead, they were meant to stand by, with stoic expressions, overseeing this kind of receptiveness to intimacy and newness of life happening within their perceived subordinates, but never within themselves. Perhaps most devastating, is that it’s not only men who are being shamed because of these enculturated psychological blocks: God is also being pushed away. When is the last time you’ve heard a sermon, read a book, or seen podcast bros talking about what it might look like for them to become brides, or soil for implantation, or children in need of God’s womb? Teachings like this are rare, not because they are theologically thin or have no dogmatic foundation, but because “the spirit of this world” is at work in the cultural zeitgeist, creating a psychological block that makes receptive imagery (Which again, I must remind us, has been wrongly coded feminine in our power-obsessed culture) more than uncomfortable.³Paul, coming to the Corinthian church with “weakness, fear, and trembling” so that the power of God might be made manifest, warned and exhorted them with these words: “So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.  And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny. ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 2:11-16; Bold emphasis my own). To some, it’s downright disgusting. 

The cultural coding of initiation as male and receptivity as female is dangerous because it disenfranchises women from having agency and voice in their own lives and governance, not to mention how it opens a Pandora’s box for a host of dangers to women physically and socially. However, when this coding infects the Church, it leads to a spiritual disenfranchisement that cripples and deforms. Men are spiritually disenfranchised from participating in the very intimacy that they were made to experience, and women are infantilized and never allowed to mature into the full stature of Christ.⁴The entirety of Ephesians 4 speaks to this issue. The spirit of the world might categorize receptivity, mutual submission, empathy and care as feminine, but Scripture calls it the mind of Christ. 

As a system of control and dominance, patriarchy exists because of a lack of trust in God, an absence of belief that we all do know how to swim in God’s vast ocean of grace, stripped of our egos and with unveiled faces.⁵“Unveiled faces” is referencing 2 Corinthians 3:18. Perhaps it’s time to surrender to our blessed alliance as women and men utterly dependent on God for our particles and our souls, destined for oneness as womb-mates, as soil, and as brides. Let’s find out together what trusting God really looks like, clasping hands and taking the leap into the vulnerable unknown.

Because the alternative, in which men and women are divided and conquered in an ever-deepening spiral of dehumanization and grievance, will eventually tear our world apart. The Church can offer powerful healing to the world, standing as a brilliant lighthouse in the darkness, but only if we’re willing to take the risk of running counter-culturally, carrying our message of seeds, brides, and wombs like Jesus taught us to do.

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*Editorial Note: I have immense respect for Rev. Dr. Amber Hogan Jones. Her deep writing, impeccable theological research, and warm formational invitation into the nurturing, mothering heart of God is compelling. I urge you to listen to her.  Amber’s ongoing series, “We Abandoned Our Mothering God” can be read here, here, and here.~CK

The spirit of the world might categorize receptivity, mutual submission, empathy and care as feminine, but Scripture calls it the mind of Christ. Share on X