Wednesday August 3, 2005
Sacrificial mothers
Our dog sauntered down to the water to get a drink and disturbed a family of ducks hiding in the bushes. They exploded into the lake. A couple of ducklings actually ran between the dog\’s paws to get there.
In the world of Irish Setters, our Phoebe is vocationally challenged. She has no interest in birds. She doesn\’t even know how to swim.
But the mother duck doesn\’t know that. She and her brood of little ducklings have beaten the water into a froth getting away from this presumed predator.
Now the small ones are well out from the shore, but the mother duck is thrashing back and forth just beyond the dog\’s nose, quacking furiously. “Chase me!” the duck seems to be saying, “not my little ones!”
I\’ve seen similar behaviour from other mothers. Ptarmigan and quail will feign a broken wing to lure predators away from their chicks. To protect her kittens, the cuddliest of cats will bite the hand that feeds her. Even crocodiles, not known for sentimental feelings, show occasional maternal instincts.
Self sacrifice seems to be a theme of motherhood.
A male, I suspect, would attack the intruder, on the principle that the best defence is a good offence.
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All this makes me think about the supreme act of self-sacrifice in the Christian tradition, the crucifixion of Jesus. And I wonder how different the Christian faith might be, had its interpreters through the ages been mothers rather than fathers.
The story might be the same. But I suspect the nuances might be quite different. Because the Bible was written by men, for men. And other men defined what those writers intended to say. And still other men ruled on what interpretations were acceptable.
Those men inevitably phrased their understandings in terms of their male experience. Of being warriors. Of making decisions. Of handling finances. Of obeying orders.
So the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross has been portrayed in a variety of ways. He was the ransom, that paid off a vengeful God. He was sent by God to be sacrificed, and was obedient even unto death. He paid off the debts incurred by past human sins. He was the unsoiled victim offered as a ritual sacrifice to gain favour with God. He was punished for our sins…
But those interpretations don\’t apply to a mother duck. Her self-sacrifice had nothing to do with paying the price for past actions, with ritual, with ransom to pay off an authority, or with punishment.
It was a totally voluntary act. She draw attention to herself, even at personal risk. She wanted to distract attention from those she loved, those she felt an instinctive responsibility for. She wanted them to survive, even if she didn\’t.
I don\’t hear many echoes of that motivation in traditional Christian theology.
And I can\’t help wondering how different Christianity might be, today, if women and mothers had been shaping that theology through the ages.
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Copyright © 2002 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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