Almost every Wednesday since the beginning of this year, I have had the great pleasure of having a member of our congregation pick me up here at the church, and taking me to visit some of our homebound members. I’ve greatly enjoyed the opportunity to get to know some of our homebound members better, and also to get to know better those who have gone with me on these visits.
I’ve also had the opportunity to observe your different driving styles…and you all who have driven me places have had the opportunity to observe how well I play the role of “passenger.”
You know how, when you’re in the driver’s seat, and someone is riding with you, sometimes that person will offer helpful advice to you while you drive. Things like, “Watch out for that pedestrian.” Or, “There’s a stop sign.” Or, “I think you want to turn here…”
And drivers tend to react to this type of helpful advice in one of two ways. The first is to say, “I see it, you don’t need to tell me! I know how to drive!”
And the other is to politely say, “thank you.”
When I’m the driver, I try my best to react positively, and express my gratitude. Some of the time, I actually succeed at this. All my passenger really wants to do is help me get to my destination, and to get there safely. And God knows that when it comes to driving, I can use all the help I can get!
The same is true when it comes to following Jesus, or understanding scripture: I can use all the help I can get.
So I am always seeking out those who can help guide me on my faith journey, and help me understand scripture a little better. I try to listen to their voices, even when they challenge me in some way. Even when they correct me in some way.
This is what the prophet Micah meant when he said we should “walk humbly with God.” Walking humbly with God means admitting you don’t know all there is to know. It means seeking out, and listening to, other, more knowledgeable voices, voices that can help you grow in faith and understanding.
Throughout my ministry, I have sought out the voices of scholars who know more about scripture than I do. And in the past year alone, I’ve read articles and essays by dozens of Jewish and Christian scholars on what the Bible says about gender.
I want to share with you what I’ve learned, what these scholars and rabbis and pastors have taught me.
I couldn’t fit it all into one sermon, so I’ve made it into a 3-week sermon series, which I’m starting today. I hope you find it as fascinating and as enlightening as I have.
When it comes to gender, many of us have been taught that there are only two, and that you are either one, or the other. You are either male, or female. I grew up with this assumption, and you probably did, too.
And I brought this assumption with me to my reading of scripture, and allowed it to influence how I read scripture.
We ALL do this. We all bring our assumptions and our preconceived notions with us when we read scripture. There’s no escaping it. The only thing you can do is work to be AWARE of the assumptions you make, and the PREJUDICES you bring with you when you try to interpret and understand scripture.
👈The scripture from Genesis 1 presents a great starting point to examine all this.
In the updated NRSV—one of the best translations out there, and the one we use in worship—God says “let us make humans in our image.”
Let us make humans in our image.
There are several interesting things about that.
First, God uses a plural pronoun to refer to himself. “Let US make humans.”
Scholars have written a lot about this, about the idea of a heavenly council of supreme beings, and it’s all very fascinating… but that’s not what I want to talk about today.
What I want to talk about today is how this verse then refers to what God created.
The updated NRSV is the only translation I could find that refers to what God created in a plural form. Let us make HUMANS.
In the King James Version, and in the New International Version, God says, “Let us make MAN in our own image.” The reference is to a singular being: the first human. The first MAN.
The NRSV, in an attempt to be more inclusive, changed that singular MAN into the plural HUMANS… so that what comes next flows a little more smoothly.
Because what comes next is God saying, “let THEM have dominion.”
And then it says “God created THEM in his image.”
And then it says, “God created them male and female.”
And it’s all so awkward, to use the pronoun THEM to refer to the first MAN.
But as far as I can tell, that’s how it is in Hebrew: a mix of singular and plural. God made MAN, and made THEM in his image, male and female.
That mix of singular and plural, and having that first created individual being both male and female… that doesn’t fit our preconceived notions, our assumptions, about things; and it is awkward grammar.
We want to fix it. We feel this urge to make it “right.” We want to make it conform to the way WE think things are, or the way we think things should be, instead of letting the scripture be itself–instead of letting scripture be its messy, beautiful self.
So instead of translating that word with a singular MAN, or HUMAN, the translators of the updated NRSV made it plural, to match the plural pronouns that follow, and isn’t that nice and neat?
And now we have the male and female image of God spread out among HUMANS, rather than being in one MAN, which is also very convenient, and easier for us to imagine.
It was just too difficult to imagine how that first MAN could be made, male and female, in the image of God.
Scientists have long had similar issues, similar problems, similar challenges, when they have studied animals in the natural world that don’t fit into our distinct categories of male and female.
When I taught at Catalina School Adventures, a science camp on Catalina Island in California, one of the native fish species we introduced to our students was the sheephead. All California sheephead are protogynous (or sequential) hermaphrodites. That means that they are all born female but transition into their male form later in life.
Sea hares, on the other hand, are simultaneous hermaphrodites; every sea hare has both male and female characteristics at the same time.
There are many other hermaphrodite species, including banana slugs, snails, clownfish, and frogs.
I read that Sigmund Freud got really frustrated when he was studying eels and couldn’t find sexual organs that would definitely define them as “male” or “female.” He, like many other scientists, scholars, and theologians, approached his studies with a bias toward heteronormativity, and when that bias was not easily confirmed, he and other scientists panicked.
Well, ancient Jewish commentaries on this passage from Genesis were not afraid to imagine that the first human defied our gender categories. Some of the ancient rabbis said that when God first created MAN, and made them male and female, that the creation known as Adam was one creature with both male and female characteristics. That’s according to these ancient rabbis.
⬛ And the Talmud, a huge, ancient, and authoritative compendium of Jewish legal traditions, allowed for even greater gender diversity among all the humans God created; those early rabbis and teachers in ancient times recognized at least six or seven or even eight different genders, depending on how you break them down, which you can see on the screen.
Zachar: male
Nekevah: female
Androgynos: both male and female
Tumtum: lacking sexual characteristics
Aylonit: identified female at birth without developing secondary female sexual characteristics at puberty
Saris hamah: identified male at birth without developing secondary male sexual characteristics at puberty
Saris adam: identified male at birth without developing secondary male sexual characteristics because of castration
At one point Jesus himself actually talks about several of these genders, but that deserves a whole sermon by itself, so you’re going to have to wait a week or two for that.
And I should point out that those ancient rabbis were strictly concerned with biological sex traits; the idea that gender is more than that wasn’t yet a part of their understanding.
So what’s the point of all this? Why does it matter that the Bible has a more complex view of gender than we’d been led to believe?
Well, first of all, when we read the Bible, we need to let the Bible speak for itself. We shouldn’t let our preconceived notions, our biases and prejudices have much influence over how we read the Bible. We want to be faithful in our interpretation and in our understanding, as much as possible.
Another, perhaps even more important, reason, is that there is a lot of hate and condemnation these days, directed toward individuals who do not fit into mainstream society’s strict gender categories… and that hate is often presented as biblical.
Well, hate is never biblical. Hate is never true to the gospel. God didn’t send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but to give the world life, to restore the world to wholeness, to set people free from hate and oppression and the ways that lead to death.
A few weeks ago, Dream Johnson—a 28 year-old Black trans woman, was murdered in Washington, D.C. Black trans women have perhaps the highest murder rate of any demographic group, many times the average for the general population. And the hate that inspires this violence is often inspired by the way many people have interpreted the Bible.
So, understanding what the Bible really says about gender is a life-and-death issue.
Here at First Christian Church, our commitment to grow in love, to grow in welcome, to grow in the full affirmation of ALL God’s children, including those who do not fit society’s strict gender categories, is not a commitment we’ve made in spite of the gospel, or in spite of what the Bible says.
I’ve been asked: “Do you welcome gay people? Do you accept transgender people? Or, do you follow the Bible?”
It’s not an either/or.
The Bible commands us to love. The Bible commands us to embrace, to welcome, and to celebrate all people, just as Jesus did.
And the Bible itself acknowledges and celebrates the full spectrum of human gender and sexuality.
Genesis 1 is just the beginning.
And my views on this, and the views of all those many pastors and rabbis and scholars I read, is based on intense Biblical study and prayer.
The bottom line is this: every human on earth is created in the image of God: whether they are male, female, a mixture of male and female, or not really fitting into those categories at all, they—we—are all made in the image of God.
And we are all loved by God. And God declares each one of us to be beautiful, and precious.
And all I want to do is share that message with the world: that you, whoever you are, are worthy of love; that you, just as you are, are made in God’s image; and that you are beautiful and precious in God’s eyes.
That’s the most biblical message I know.
