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Is God male?  No.  God is not male.  Neither is God female.

The problem really lies with the English language.  We believe that there is an entity that we sometimes call God.  Jesus describes this entity as a loving parent who wants to be loved by us, the entity’s human children.  In modern English, “parent” is a gender-neutral word, of course.  It can be used for either a male parent or a female parent.  But it is not an intimate word.  It does not carry overtones of love and affection.  The only words that carry those overtones, that sense of intimacy, are either male or female, “Father”, “Mother”, “Mom” or “Dad”.  This is the root of the problem and, as I said, it’s a problem with the English language.  It is not a problem with the entity.  Never.

When the entity introduced itself to Moses, Moses asked what its name was.  The entity replied “I am.” (Exodus 3:14).  And there you have it!  Technically, the name the entity chose to call itself is a verb, and the verb is neither male nor female.

When Jesus entered our world, he entered a culture in which people had been distancing themselves from “I am” for a long time.  They had lost interest in the commandment to love “I am”.  They had been distancing themselves by instituting a priesthood to stand between them and “I am”, and by declaring that “I am” was so holy and so distant that they were not even allowed to speak, or write, the name “I am” had chosen for itself.  (Strangely enough, our Christian Bibles continue this tradition by replacing “I am” with “Lord” on most occasions.  The Hebrew word for “I am” has no gender but “Lord” is a male term.  Why do modern scholars do this?  I don’t know.)

Jesus turned up and told the people to stop distancing themselves from “I am” and to call “I am” “Father”.   Does this imply that “I am” has male gender?  I don’t think so.  In this context, one of the most important things Jesus said about his Father’s nature is that his Father is spirit:

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)

Do spirit beings have gender?  No.  They are not physical beings.  They don’t have genitalia and they don’t have hormones.  (Angels are also spirit beings and Jesus said that, after death and resurrection, we will be like angels, and we won’t be married or marrying. (Matthew 22:30)).

So, if the entity that calls itself “I am” has no gender, why did Jesus tell us to call it “Father”?   We don’t know, but Jesus may have done so to emphasize the intimate, loving, parent-child relationship that “I am” wants to have with us beloved children.  I think that the issue of how God should be addressed is not really an issue at all, like many other issues that divide us, because I think that “I am” probably isn’t bothered how we address “I am”.  The attitude of our heart is important, not the words we use.  So, if we pray and call the loving “I am” “Father” or “Mother” with humble obedient hearts, I am confident that “I am” will listen.  (But maybe not, if we use either of those words as a means of making a point to our sisters and brothers, or showing our sisters and brothers that we are behaving correctly and they are not.  This is likely to be divisive and Jesus, who is also “I am”, does not want us to be divided.)

 

If you have read other articles on this site, you’ve probably noticed that I usually refer to “I am” as “our loving Father”.  Why?  Because I follow the teachings of Jesus who is also “I am” and he tells me to address “I am” as “Father”.  That’s fine by me and that’s what I do when I pray.  However, I do not object to anyone addressing “I am” as “Mother” when they do so from a heart that is humble, trusting and obedient.  I understand why they may want to do so.  I trust and hope that anyone who hears me addressing God as “Father” will understand that I am not attributing gender to our loving, heavenly “I am”.  I am acknowledging only that “I am” is my loving parent and that “I am” is loved and trusted by me.

 

May our loving, heavenly “I am” bless us all and keep us safe.

Jesus is “I am”.

Peter O

 

Related Articles

“Loving God, the Good Parent”

“What did Jesus say about loving God?”

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