Creator, Savior, Sanctifier

My faith community uses a movie theater for worship on Sunday mornings. The space is available, affordable and accessible, especially to those of us whose wounds are associated with more traditional religious architectures. Our pastor stands at the lowest level of the theater. The teaching illustrations are displayed larger than life on the full size movie screen behind him.

For the past few weeks our study of Revelation has moved slowly. We are at a difficult and complex point:

Revelation 17:3-6 the Wh*re on the Scarlet Beast.

This morning as I searched for
an image, both Google and Yahoo blocked 'adult content' from my results. Even with the filters, the images on my computer screen were deleterious, my humanity indisputably injured by exposure to evil.

I hear the enemy whisper twisted teachings, see the Wh*re as a willing co-conspirator within me.

In the absence of the feminine pronouns she, her, She, Her... my 5th grade feminist often casts aside Biblical teachings as 'not me'. I do not want our Creator referred to as a sterile genderless It, yet I long for a more inclusive language. I get sidelined by the pronouns, dismissing much that is written as male, he, his, He, His... taking myself out of the game.

I forget that ALL are created in God's image, female and male.

A beautiful blonde Bride of Christ stands in contrast to the brunet Wh*re and her Scarlet Beast. My heart is open and hopeful, healed by the images of the cities lighting her gown. And the woman/child within me is deeply troubled. I am a brunet.


The 5th grade feminist, the woman/child within me, the champion of whispered hopes, contemplates the harm: the whispered and twisted teachings of our enemy, the possibility that our men get sidelined by the female images of the Wh*re and the Bride, and risk taking themselves out of the game.

Eve and Adam. Female and Male. Sisters and Brothers.

Not promiscuity and purity, but Integrity.

The Pinnacle of God's Creation.

Humanity. Me and You.

Siblings saved from the cruel whispers of the enemy by Christ's willingness to die for us.

His willingness to die for us ... for all of us.

Rw

Illustration Credit Wh*re

Illustration Credit Bride

5th grade feminist
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