What If God Is A Woman?                       12.7.25

Good morning gracious ones, And welcome to the Sedona Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

I welcome you in the name of the Ancestors, on whose shoulders I stand, and I welcome you in the name of all that is holy and sacred for you.

It is indeed an honor and a pleasure to be able to share this space with you on this beautiful morning. I honor the sacred land on which we stand. The land of the Apache, Navajo, Hopi and Yavapai people.

My appreciation for the principles of Unitarian Universalism are best summed up in the welcoming words adapted from the Unitarian Church of Dublin, Ireland, and I quote: “We do not ask what you believe, or expect you to think the way we do, but only that you try to live a kind and helpful life, with the dignity proper to a human being”.

Welcome, all who believe that religion is wider than any sect and deeper than any set of opinions. Welcome all who might find in this fellowship – friendship, strength and encouragement for daily living. Otherwise we say – “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing”

Today I invite you beloveds, to gather close. Today we step into a question that glows like an ember in the dark: What if god is a woman? Not as a slogan. Not as a provocation. But as a serious spiritual inquiry — the kind that shall we say, rearranges the furniture in the soul. I have found that some questions are locks, and others are keys. This is a key question. Because the god-language that we inherit, is kind of like the old wallpaper in your childhood bedroom, it keeps whispering to us even when we think we aren’t listening. And for many generations, that whisper has sounded like a deep baritone, a patriarchal pronouncement, a father-god enthroned above the clouds.

But what if — what if — the holy is a she? What if the universe itself is not a kingdom, but a womb? What if creation is not commanded, but birthed? What if the divine is less a king on a throne and more a grandma stirring a vast pot of stars?

Let’s begin by telling the truth: Across traditions, cultures, and continents, the dominant image of god has been male — often aggressively so. This male god blesses some, punishes others, issues decrees, demands obedience, rewards loyalty, and also commands armies. He has been depicted as judge, ruler, warrior, father, and king. This is not wrong in itself… but I offer that it is at least …it is Partial. And what is partial, when preached long enough as total, partial becomes oppressive. We see the patriarchal god reflected in our politics, our families, our economic systems — even in our inner monologue. He reinforces hierarchies. He upholds the myth that power is domination, that authority is masculine, that creation itself is the work of a single male voice shouting order into chaos. But long before that, there were other images. Softer ones. Wilder ones. Wiser ones. Archaeology whispers to us a secret older than any scripture: For tens of thousands of years, early humanity imagined the sacred as feminine. The oldest religious artifacts on Earth — from the plains of Africa to the valleys of Europe — are figures of the Great Mother: wide-hipped, life-bearing, powerful, fertile, and mysterious. People prayed not to a lord above, but to a life-giver within. In those ancient imaginations, god was not a distant judge but an intimate presence. God was nourishment, cycle, rhythm, heat, birth, death, return — the great spiral of existence. When people asked, “Where did we come from?” They looked not to the heavens for a Father, but to the earth for a Mother. When people asked, “Where do we return?” They did not say, “Into the hands of a king,” but “back into the womb of the earth”. What if that memory is still inside us? What if the soul remembers the Mother even when the mind has forgotten?

Rev. Anthony poem….

What if god is a woman? And she’s coming soon.
Have you ever seen a man that didn’t come from a womb?
Ever see one that didn’t end up in a tomb? Of some kind?
Me, I’m a child of the commode…I see all behind.
And I listen with my eyes…
I see her, in skin of black lacquer, pipe in her mouth, full of wondrous laughter. Calling her out of her gender all these years, No wonder feminine energy sheds so many tears.
Can you imagine what it would feel like if god was always referred to as an eel? How could a gorilla relate? Somebody better call Darwin, the hours getting late.

So, if god is a woman, how would we treat women? Let’s make this plain: A divine image shapes how we treat human beings. If god is always he, then masculinity becomes spiritually privileged, morally justified, socially elevated. But if god is she, then the hierarchy collapses. Suddenly womanhood is not secondary, nt an afterthought carved from a rib. If god is a woman, then the feminine is Holy — not just motherhood, but leadership, reason, sexuality, intuition, creativity, and power. If god is a woman, then harming women becomes sacrilege. If god is a woman, then equal pay is not just economics — it is theology. If god is a woman, then domestic violence is not merely criminal — it is blasphemous. If god is a woman, then gender justice is not a political movement — it is an act of worship. If god is a woman, then all of us — men, women, trans, nonbinary — are all invited to expand our imagination of what divine power looks like. The world begins to soften in some places and sharpen in others. The world begins to heal. What happens inside each of us?

Now, let’s turn inward for a moment. What happens in you when you imagine God as a woman? Take a breath and notice. For some, it is like fresh air sweeping through a stale room — liberating, relieving, awakening. For others, it is unsettling. It feels like the ground shifting, because it challenges the most quietly inherited assumptions. But this discomfort is sacred. It’s the tremor that comes when a cramped soul begins to stretch…stretch…If god is a woman, then the divine might speak in tones we have ignored: The whisper of intuition, the quiet wisdom of cycles, the fierce tenderness of protection, the kind of strength that lifts — not the kind that crushes. If god is a woman, perhaps she is the one saying:

Child, your worth is not negotiable.

You came through me, you are of me, you are loved by me.
Your body is not a mistake.
Your voice is not an accident.
Your existence is not an apology.
Perhaps she says: come home.

Even our Unitarian Universalist faith affirms this through our sources: the wisdom of world religions, earth-centered traditions, the teaching of prophets, the direct experience of mystery and wonder.

Our faith asks us to widen the circle of the holy. If god is a woman, then the world is our child. Here is a truth that lands softly but strongly: If god is a woman, then creation is not a product — it is a child. Earth is not a resource — it is a daughter. The oceans are not commodities — they are amniotic waters still swirling with life. Every creature is kin. Suddenly environmental justice becomes a family matter. Climate action becomes the work of honoring our mother. Care for the earth becomes a sacred obligation rooted in gratitude, not guilt. What if god is a woman…and she is watching what we do to her children?

Now — just in case anybody worries that I am replacing one limited image with another — let me say this clearly: God is not a man. God is not a woman. God is not a gender at all. God is the great mystery beyond all…The vastness that holds every expression of being. But — and here is the sacred twist — If we never name god as a woman, we make that mystery smaller than it is. Expanding our god-language expands our souls. Imagining god as a woman doesn’t trap the holy in femininity. It liberates the holy from masculinity. It reminds us that the divine is plural, fluid, abundant, spacious, dare I say…” yielbongura- the thing that knowledge cannot eat”.

Like light passing through a prism and becoming a rainbow…. this sermon is more than a thought experiment. It is an invitation. A summons. A spiritual practice. A spiritual subpoena – you gotta’ show up! And finally, I offer this: No single image holds the whole truth.

May we live as if the holy is not just above us, but within us — pressing and daring to be born again and again.

Amen. Let it be so. Blessed be. Ashe’