I'm in the process of abandoning language that's influenced by caste and hierarchy to find language that can show better meaning without pushing some out while pulling others in.
And it's _hard_ because not only is the language we use familiar, it has become a fixed thing in our minds to mean this one thing that doesn't mean other things. Using "Lord," as you say, implies a relationship of power with a great one and an insignificant one. I've tried thinking about my own ways of describing the God Yahweh in today's words as Maker, Mender, Mover: the one who Makes us, the one who Mends us as people in community, the one whose presence Moves us to do better and in that process make us better.
They aren't better (although they might be worse!) than the traditional words inflected by the patriarchal societies of the past. They're just my way of trying to get to the better meaning without the clouds of distracting meanings we get from our existing terminology.
But the one thing that is interesting is that leaving behind the certainty of Evangelical thinking leaves behind the rigidity that locks us into one way of thinking and into a way of thinking that is more flexible, expansive, encompassing, and sometimes more complex than we can put into simple words.
It's like you read my mind!
I'm in the process of abandoning language that's influenced by caste and hierarchy to find language that can show better meaning without pushing some out while pulling others in.
And it's _hard_ because not only is the language we use familiar, it has become a fixed thing in our minds to mean this one thing that doesn't mean other things. Using "Lord," as you say, implies a relationship of power with a great one and an insignificant one. I've tried thinking about my own ways of describing the God Yahweh in today's words as Maker, Mender, Mover: the one who Makes us, the one who Mends us as people in community, the one whose presence Moves us to do better and in that process make us better.
They aren't better (although they might be worse!) than the traditional words inflected by the patriarchal societies of the past. They're just my way of trying to get to the better meaning without the clouds of distracting meanings we get from our existing terminology.
But the one thing that is interesting is that leaving behind the certainty of Evangelical thinking leaves behind the rigidity that locks us into one way of thinking and into a way of thinking that is more flexible, expansive, encompassing, and sometimes more complex than we can put into simple words.
Thanks again for thinking out loud with us.