**Thoughts from Our Bridge Pastor**

Rev. Barbara K. Peronteau

Thoughts from the Pastor…

My thoughts about the question for “Theology on Tap” (Friday, October 1 at 4 PM on Zoom) germinated from Julie Stokstad’s sermon on September 12th. Julie spoke about Wisdom as a feminine aspect of God. This got me thinking. We talk about the Triune God; Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit has been understood as the feminine Sophia. Proverbs tells us that Wisdom was at the beginning of creation and was that very breath God sent forth to create creation out of the existing chaos.

Wisdom, understanding, and knowledge is all part of Wisdom, a feminine aspect of who we understand as God. This got me thinking. What if the question for “Theology on Tap” would be “How might expansive language for God change our faith and lives?”

One of the experiences I had with my sojourn with the Lutherans, is their liturgical prayers ended with, “…In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.” Okay, fine. But every time? Isn’t Jesus so much more than “Savior and Lord?” What does this do to us when our image of God is limited? I would usually change the language to something more relevant and, well, expansive, for example, “The Holy One who calms the storms of our lives,” or “The One who makes all things new.”

I remember reading something explaining how God can also be referred to as a rock, and a mother hen (both being Biblical images.) The question was, as I remember, “Isn’t it great to know that God can be thought of as a rock or a mother hen?” Well, no. What is comforting is that amid anxiety fueled fear and uncertainty God is there; God is my hand hold, my toe hold, my foundation, my cornerstone. God is also the One who gathers and comforts us in our aloneness, our disconnectedness, and when we feel ‘out there.’

I use my Lutheran experience as an example. How many names do we personally use for God? I might have maybe five go-to-names. Creating a liturgy every week helps me imagine a more expansive list of names of God. Some of us might understand God as Father and Lord. Okay, fine, but isn’t God more than that? God of Creation, Ground of my being, and Liberator.

There is something called “Holy Envy.” Holy envy is when we observe a ritual or gesture another faith tradition does that is not in our own tradition, but that we might appreciate. Muslims, for example, have a set of beads, much like a Rosary, called a “subhah.” The subhah comes in strings of 25, 33, or 100 beads. Once a day a faithful Muslim counts out and says the 100 names Muslims have for God. I like the discipline. I like the expansive list of names. By the way, the name Christians in the Middle East use for God is Allah, because that’s the Arabic name for the English word for God.

My question for “Theology on Tap” then, is “How might expansive language for God change our faith and lives?”

Peace and Wonder,
~ Pastor Barbara