Blessed be the God of Israel;
she has looked favorably on her people and redeemed them.
She has raised up a mighty savior for us,
born of the house of her servant David.
As she spoke through the mouth of her holy
prophetesses from of old
that she would save us from our enemies,
from the hand of all who hate us.
Thus she has shown the mercy promised to our mothers and fathers
and has remembered her holy covenant,
the oath she swore to Sarah and Abraham:
to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve her without fear, in holiness and righteous
before her all our days.
And you, child, shall be called the prophetess of the Most High;
for you will go before Emmanuel to prepare her way,
to give knowledge of salvation to her people
by the forgiveness of their sins and their returning to God.
By the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us
to give light to those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
(New Revised Standard Version NRSV)
Imagining this prayer in a women’s voice, where did you feel it? Does the female tone really send the message with different feeling? Is there a residual effect with each tone? How about a non-binary voice? If so, how much are we missing by limiting the tone in all these stories and prayers only to a male voice?
Elizabeth Johnson writes in She Who Is, “The goal toward which this theological effort [Feminist liberation theology] passionately journeys is transformation into new community. [It] hopes to change unjust structures and distorted symbol systems that a new community in church and society becomes possible, a liberating community of all women and men characterized by mutuality with each other and harmony with the earth…The goal of feminist theology, in other words, is not to make women equal partners in an oppressive system. It is to transform the system.” (P. 32,33)
