Mary’s Affirmation–A Prayer about Cana

Jesus,

Today I wonder if you shared some insecurities with your mom,

If you told her you had to leave home,

and start to do all of the dangerous things

she sang about

when you were still in vitro–

and I wonder if you had imposter syndrome

Because your were–after all, fully human,

I wonder if you whispered that you didn’t want to leave home to her

in the middle of the night

or if you worried about leaving your brothers and sisters

when Joseph is so conspicuously absent from the picture now

You, the eldest, the man of the house,

would be leaving too, just to cause a revolution, that’s all

and here is your Mother’s blessing,

at a wedding,

I wonder if she wanted to give you a good memory to start your journey…

if these were good family friends

who had more friends than they could afford–and I can just imagine God

how you looked Jesus when you were like,

“Seriously Woman, this is not what God’s power is for!”

And Mary, Chosen of God, doesn’t even deign to answer her son.

Lord, I just imagine the Mom Look she gives Jesus.

God, I’d love to be able to see someone giving

Jesus, Christ our Lord and Savior, a Mom Look

Because aren’t those Mom Looks affirming of all that we are, and can be–

they are the opposite of imposter syndrome, are they not?

Mary, gives the Mom Look and then commands everyone in the Room

“You will do as my son says” and gives a grand exit,

Beginning Jesus’s ministry with a flourish…of hospitality,

She blesses Jesus’s ministry with a Party–She starts the ministry as it must end–

with the outpouring of wine.

There is no formal communion narrative in John, but it fits in right here…

as we on the inter-webs argue about what can make communion..

telling us all we need to know about communion

God you turned water into wine,

you know the truth–

its all real,

every drop of Hospitality and Communion,

and identity Affirmation,

It

Is

All

Real

Ministry.

Don’t ever let us forget I pray.

In the name of your Partying Jesus Christ,

and his affirming Mother I pray.

Amen.

Feel free to use/adapt/Share with Credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

If you find my work useful, please consider giving to my Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing https://gofund.me/70a114f9. It is a “working theologian’s” doctorate where I preach, write and share my work with the world all at the same time. If your church uses my work extensively and could use a receipt email me at katyandtheword at gmail and let me know!

"Water To Wine" is a painting by Darcie Pike,
Image” https://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/Darcie_Pike_Water_To_Wine_sm.jpg

Author: katyandtheword

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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