To say that God is Holy is more than saying that he doesn’t do bad things. To be holy is to be whole, complete, and full. God is “Wholy” in that nothing can be added that will make him more God than he already is.

Among the first ascriptions made about who God is comes in the creation story. In grand narrative God says, “Let us make man in our own image. In his own image created he them.  Female and male created he them.” Whatever it means to be male comes to us out of fullness of who God is. Likewise, whatever it means to be female comes to us out of the fullness of who God is. Maleness and femaleness are both part of the “wholyness” of God.

So it no stretch to imagine that God uses both femaleness and maleness to do  his  transformative, creative, redemptive work in the world. In the early morning light that dawned on the “gathered” followers of Jesus, Peter preached a sermon about  “wholyness”.  It had to do with  the fullness that the Spirit would bring and what that fullness would do. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days and they shall prophesy.” The word prophesy is meant to declare or proclaim the will and message of God. We understand it when we use the word “preach”.

That is the picture of the community of faith when it is full of the Spirit, when it is “wholy”.  In half full churches only the males get to do the “important” jobs.  In churches full to the overflow all people created in his image share in the tasks.

All that as a preface to saying, Beth Moore, you are welcome at Soul Cafe Church. We acknowledge you as a faithful minister of God’s word.  You would be welcomed with open arms. Please catch the nuanced difference in the resentful words “go home” and the respectful words “come home”.  You have greatly blessed us with your prophetic words.