The need for non-monarchial language for God
Have you ever noticed how often the word “Lord” is used in Church. We Christians use it heavily for naming God. The problem is, that it is, as a word, quite anachronistic to modern parlance. For many Lord and King, creates a sense of an outdated approach to governance, a hierarchical approach to social organisation. In our brave new post-secular culture, we need to be careful not to be lazy about our language for God, and the importance to seek out constantly changing language as a metaphor for God.
I have just met up for a coffee with Padraig, who talked about an indigenous South African word for God as the ‘Big Big’. I like that as a metaphor, as it is saying that God is bigger than the biggest thing you can imagine, so the God that is outside of our imagination… so encourages the sense of transcendence without imposing majestic androcentric understandings onto God the Creator. He also named another metaphor used by a friend of his for God, as ‘The Bigest’ I like that too.
On Sunday, Jemma Allen, our friendly New Zealand Priest continues her unpacking of a theology of friendship, to talk about the Kin-dom rather than the Kingdom, which again reconstructions an understanding of friendship as the locus of God’s purposes to draw all things back into restored relationships with the divine.
