I grew up in a house divided, not by politics or sports-ball teams but religion. Not even a fun division like one parent was Jewish and the other was Catholic. No, my mother was Pentecostal, and my father was Baptist. This meant they could agree on a great many things, but there was always a little sticking point: the Holy Spirit.
At church, my mother was free. She would dance, sing, and speak in tongues. On the other hand, my father was reverent and stoic. It wasn’t that he doubted the Holy Spirit (apparently, a big no-no regardless of your denomination); he just didn’t really get all excited about the Spirit in the Sky.
One thing that both of my parents did agree on in the area of religion is that my becoming a liturgical Christian was pretty close to heresy. Sure, they took issue with the idea of that I now ate God or that I prayed to Mary, but there was a bigger sticking point just waiting to surface: the Holy Spirit.
The more I studied the historical context of the Spirit of God, I realized that I really liked Her. She was very, very different from the chaotic Loki-eques character I had been introduced to in the Pentecostal Church. She was tenderness, healing, and wisdom. She was a Mother, the divine feminine.
I’d like to introduce you to Her.
Unholy Sh+t: An Irreverent Bible Study
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Today’s Reading: John 14:15-21
Jesus has really taken his disciples on a whirlwind tour: he basically kidnaps them from their boats, promises them a big adventure with a side of eternal life, then basically springs on them that he’s really God, gets Himself unalived during what they thought was a political coup, reanimates, and then just before He decides to float back up into heaven he gives them the, “but wait, there’s more!” Treatment.
Honestly, I sympathize a lot with Thomas and any of the others who are getting a bit of whiplash from the whole thing. First, Jesus is like, “I’m going to disappear for a while, but I promise I’ll brb,” and then says, “Oh! But I am going to send you a helper called the Holy Spirit; they are just like me except not me, and they are also God, but They will live inside you like they live inside me. Anyway, I am sure y’all will figure all this out eventually without any complications, confusion, or hurting anyone at all along the way. K, thx bye!” Then He ascends into Heaven, and that was about two thousand years ago without so much as a good morning text unless you believe Paul’s bullsh+t road to Damascus story.
I will not jump the gun here because a lot of weird stuff happens after the Holy Spirit shows up, but we will get into all of that later. What I want to focus on is what the Apostles would have heard Jesus saying, not how we currently read it within the modern translations of the Bible.
The word Jesus would have used for Spirit is feminine, and the language Jesus used to describe the Holy Spirit was feminine. That means, to the ears of those around him, when he spoke about the indwelling Spirit of God, they would have been quite surprised to find that Jesus is suddenly changing God’s pronouns and gender identity. In the first part of Jesus’ ministry, he talks about God the Father and identifies himself as the Son of Man and the Son of God. Suddenly, his vocabulary about God is shifting: I will send a helper, a healer, the Holy Wisdom.
Now, before you start going, “This is a whole new heresy you are teaching, bro,” I want to set the record straight, what I am saying isn’t even close to a heresy; as a matter of fact, it is an affirmed doctrine of the Catholic Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states that God has no gender and is the perfect embodiment of all things:
“In no way is God in man's image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective 'perfections' of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father…” (CCC 370)
The overarching theological lesson of Jesus’ time in ministry was that God is all things: Life and Death, Creator and Destroyer, Divine Masculine, and the Divine Feminine. More importantly, God fills in all of the space in between. God is neither entirely but all things at the same time. They are not owned by a singular identity but can present Themselves in every way all of the time.
The Holy Spirit is another part of the expression of the Divine. They are beautiful, intoxicating, whimsical, feminine, loving, tender, kind, and full of magic. Yet, they are fully God and part of the triune nature of the Godhead. In this way, we see the duality of who God truly is: the nonbinary Creator and Divine Parent who is not a house use divided, neither all stoic nor completely wild, but the fulfillment of all things possible.
Unholy Sh+t: The pronouns of God
As a therapist dealing with complex PTSD (warriors and their families), I invited the Holy Spirit into the room, and asked for holy guidance. All the training in the world is often not enough to reach the wounds of my clients. I can tell you that often my words and approach were not my own doing. The healing spirit and aura in the room was not just for my client. I too was healed from hearing my client’s trauma. It was a magical and calming presence, and I am entirely grateful for the assistance in getting through my work.
This was beautiful. Thank you for sharing. God is so much above and beyond all things human beings can conceive of. Nonbinrary? Please, no sweat. God is something so beyond "nonbinrary" that for any human to suppose an understanding of God is a HUGE claim. I really love this idea of the Holy Spirit as feminine. Somewhere in Christianity, there must be room for both sexes, or else it loses its power as an explanatory framework for the world. I love the way you have flipped the script and made the world an explanatory framework for God. That's where we should be headed.