Today I thought about two seemingly unrelated conversations that I think actually bear remarkably on one another. Both these things happened Sunday:

1. Over lunch I told my friend about this children‘s prayer I‘d seen and paraphrasing it to her I said something like, “Oh Dear Lord… whatever, whatever…” Her only comment to me about this really darling prayer was that she didn’t like the designation “Lord.” Her partner does not like it either. Apparently many feminists do not like this designation for God. Shekina, Elohim, Adonai, even Yahwa are fine. But, Lord implies that God is more powerful than us, that we are subject to God, and might even be led to humbly bow down before God. Heavens to Betsy, we can’t have that! We must keep God manageable lest God should get out of control.

2. During Religious School my classmates were going on and on (and I do mean ad nauseum…) about the seemingly contradictory attributes of God. My classmates, fairly bright people, found this baffling. So, ever helpful, I suggested to them that we would do better to speak of that which God is not instead of trying to grapple with what God is. They ignored me. Then, after I’d had about all that decorum mandated me to tolerate, I said, “Don’t you think that anytime we anthropomorphize God we have missed the nature of God entirely?” And to this query I did get an answer. A very bright woman, Arabic scholar, university teacher, annoying but bright, she said to me, “No.” No? In other words, she feels quite able to talk about God. I was astounded. Really, just astounded.

So, today I was thinking about those two things. To my thinking, the notion that we can grasp even a part of God is just self aggrandizing. The God I know is so totally other that I am not comfortable slapping labels on God, saying which of God’s names are acceptable to me, evaluating the merits of God’s ways. Who am I to assess God’s ways as merciful or cruel? What could I possible know about it? How dare I?

And yet, it seems that many do. I am not sure what to make of that. Guess I’ll hang around and keep listening.