There has been some discussion in my neck of the woods regarding how we address God in our Liturgies. The traditional form usually uses masculine images and their corresponding pronouns. For instance, "The Lord be with you." Lord is masculine. We never address God as Lady; we would never say, "The Lady be with you." We pray, "... for all who serve God in his church." One alternative is to neuter God and change that line to "For all who serve God in the Church." That's a little better, in terms of inclusive language, but separates the Church (also known as the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, and something more than the institution we have come to know) from the One who calls the Church into being. So we save a pronoun, but we lose a little bit of the relationship. Is there something we can do, or do better? I think so.
I have stylistic issues with replacing “The LORD be with you” with “God be with you.” It isn't the shift from a masculine noun to a more neutral noun, but a loss of balance between the five syllable phrase and it's four syllable counterpart. It is the linguistic equivalent of an off-balance washing machine. Liturgy is a song, a dance; it requires balance, movement, grace. No clunks, please.
I don’t have a problem with inclusive language, but worry that the choices we make are often too safe, bland, or (to be honest) boring. I appreciate the desire to avoid masculine pronouns, and too much “they” and “them” can both sound lame and have a potential to nudge us into polytheistic heresies or the confusions of the Persons of the Trinity. Rather than being safe, boring, or heretical, I suggest some alternatives for consideration.
The Divine One be with you … and also with you.
Adonai be with you … and also with you.
God the healer be with you … and also with you.
The One who creates be with you … and also with you.
The Holy One be with you … and also with you.
The One who embraces their creation be with you … and also with you.
The One who holds life in the palm of their hand be with you … and also with you.
The One who took up their cross be with you … and also with you.
The One who sanctifies be with you ... and also with you.
The One who enlightens be with you … and also with you.
God of love be with you … and also with you.
God who gives generously of themselves be with you … and also with you.
The list can go on and on. God has many attributes with which people of any gender can identify. We can also feel free to bounce between masculine and feminine pronouns as the Spirit leads (e.g. God who keeps us in the palm of her hand be with you … God at who’s breast we nurse be with you … God who gives new birth to us be with you … etc.) The key, in my opinion, is to find and utilize biblical imagery. God is not just a Warrior in the Bible; God is also a nurse-maid. God is not just a spy in the sky (the roving eye), but a woman who seeks her lost valuables.
Changing up our images and metaphors can freshen our worship without being coy, clever, or drawing us into pop-cultural references that could go stale in time (like the “Star Wars” liturgy AKA Eucharistic Prayer C (which I still love, by the way).
I don’t know what processes one might need to go through to acquire permission to change things up, but since so many churches are printing their services in full in place of using the actual BCP, tweaking some of these godly addresses in the Prayers of the People and Invitations to pray could rather easily be incorporated in those reformed liturgies.
Anyway, it’s just a thought here in this, God’s world. Perhaps the Queen of Heaven will enlighten us with other options. Peace!
The Rev. Keith Axberg, Retired
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