Processing with God: Narrative Lectionary, Liturgy, Prayers
The Kingdom of Heaven Prayer
God, my heart is so happy whenever I hear or see that anyone has received the vaccine. It makes me want to throw a party.
So God, today the kingdom of heaven looks like everyone being vaccinated and going to a party.
No one is too early and no one is too late to join the party.
We are all dressed like we want God, to the nines or comfortably.
No one is jealous or pushing in line, no one is worried that there is not enough food or glamour or belovedness to go around.
Every single person is called by their name and preferred pronouns are used without a misstep or a blink of surprise.
God, today the kingdom of heaven looks like Spring with kids playing freely, unbothered but the stresses of the pandemic.
Homes are warm and dry and safe and accessible; everyone has one to go to and no one is afraid to go home.
People are supported: their status is not defined by their age or gender or class or marital status. Every person is celebrated.
People’s traditions and roots and experiences are valued and validated. Science is no longer, ever, seen to be in conflict with faithfulness.
And Faith is in the room. Faith that word which is almost never used to refer to a singular person’s set of beliefs, but instead is a word that honors the system of the community that glues them together through ritual and hope. Faith is abundant.
God, your kingdom come, your will be done. I pray now and forever.
Amen.
Feel Free to Use/Adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. Prior to that she studied both Theology and Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also served as an Assistant Chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and as the Christian Educational Coordinator at Bethany Presbyterian at Bloomfield, NJ.
She is an writer and is published in Enfleshed, Sermonsuite, Presbyterian's today and Outlook. She writes prayers, liturgy, poems and public theology and is pursuing her doctorate in ministry in Creative Write and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
She enjoys working within and connecting to the community, is known to laugh a lot during service, and tells as many stories as possible. Pastor Katy loves reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, theater, arts and crafts, music, playing with children and sunshine, and continues to try to be as (w)holistically Christian as possible.
"Publisher after publisher turned down A Wrinkle in Time," L'Engle wrote, "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was too difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adult's book, anyhow?" The next year it won the prestigious John Newbery Medal.
Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one.[66] Instead he preferred what he termed "applicability", the freedom of the reader to interpret the work in the light of his or her own life and times.
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So point on I am sharing with all my friends. Thank you!