Language is important. The way we think about things and the way we talk about things and people affects the way those things and people seem to us. When my daughter was a baby, she didn't have much hair. Joy and I would take her out somewhere, and people would come up to see the beautiful new baby. (She was and is beautiful). It didn't matter if she was dressed in a frilly pink dress with a pink bow on her head, people regularly said he was a good looking young boy.
The perception of who they thought our daughter was didn't change who she was, but it limited their vision to see her.
That is one of the ways that we limit God. Our language about God is often gendered. I think most people would agree that God is neither male nor female, but calling God "he" all of the time overtly and covertly limits who we think God is. If God is primarily male, that means God is only secondarily female. If we continue in that line of thinking, we can see where people might continue in sexist thought. The same type of problems arise when we think of God as a particular ethnicity, gender, color, or whatever limiting factors we want to throw in there. If God is more like one sort of people, then God is less like another sort of people. The way we think about and speak about God doesn't really limit God, but it limits our ability to see God.
There's another limiting factor that we place on God--the ability for God to call whomever God chooses. In the United Methodist Church there has been a recent ruling against allowing people in the LGBTQ+ community to be ordained clergy. A push for the same type of ruling is happening within the denomination I serve. Here's why I think this is a bad idea.
Humans are little like God. In our understanding, our power, our abilities, we are not like God at all. Yet we strive to become like God. That is at the heart of the story of the first sin. The tempter said if the humans ate of that particular fruit, they would be like God. Of course they tried it. If there was a chance of being like God, that would be pretty hard to resist.
Yet, we are still nothing like God, not having God's understanding. We can't even understand out neighbors across the street who are so much like us in so many ways. The efforts to determine who God can call to ministry and who God can't call are like people trying to eat of the fruit. People want to put themselves in the place of God and say this one's in, and this one's out. That's limiting a limitless God.
Scripture is filled with examples of surprising people who were called by God. That is to say, the surprises are for us, not for God. God saw the qualities in people in scripture that we would never see, and many that those who were called did not even see themselves. God called them, and they served. Thankfully an institution didn't stop people like Moses, David, Abraham, Jacob, Mary the mother of Jesus, and many others from serving. They heard the call from God and they responded.
The people of this time will continue to disagree on many things. Limiting God is something we should agree about. God cannot be limited. Our language, our culture, and many other things limit our ability to understand God and other people. But let's not make the mistake of saying that God intends for us to limit God's work in the world. I think if we'd just accept people who have been called by God to serve, and if we'd step back and get out of their way, we'd see some awesome work that God can do through loving people. That may be surprising to some of us, but it isn't a surprise to God.
Anyway, that's the view from where I stand.
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