Lent 5 March 26

Last Judgement
Matthew 25:31-45
Psalm 98:7-9

Call to Worship
God of the sick, naked and hungry
Help us to see you
God of the thirsty, the stranger, the prisoner
Help us to welcome you
God of the least of these, let us remember you
Come let us worship Jesus, born in the manger, minister to the sick, welcomer of all

Call to Confession: God lets us confess everything, Out Loud, at a whisper or at shout, God will hear whatever it is we need say, come let us say it all to God.

Confession: God we confess, we do not know what the difference is between invitation, welcoming, accessibility and true acceptance and belonging. Too often we think that throwing open the doors is enough, when we forget that you, Jesus Christ wandered the streets for three years, healing and teaching, teaching and toughing them and calling them individually by name. Teach us to love more deeply we pray. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: God knows how to love and forgive, and teaches us everyday, Hear the good news: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: God, may we go into the world holding tightly onto the idea that we are called to be the helpers of the world, we called to action, that we are called to find the image of Jesus Christ in every human being we meet not out of pity but out of belovedness. Teach us to do this we pray. Amen.

Hymns: Jesu, Jesu, Lord I Wanna Be a Christian In My Heart, Here I am To Worship, There is a Balm in Gilead, Amazing Grace, What Wondrous Love is This

Children: God Gave Us You Book, Talk About Seeing Christ in Every Single Person you Meet, not out of Pity but Out of Love

Notes: Kingdom of Heaven is Like Seeing Christ in Everyone, Further Mr. Rogers Theme We are the Helpers

Picture Fred Rogers “When I was a Boy and I would see Scary Things in the News My mouther would say to me “Look for the Helpers You will always find people who are Helping” –Fred Rogers


CW: Suicide, A Prayer for the Pastors

Here is a prayer for the pastors*
The ones who are quitting
the ones whose therapists ask
“Is there another line of work you can do?”

Here’s a prayer for the pastors
Who get phone calls about another piece of the building breaking…
Another pillar of the church in the hospital…
Another person threatening to leave…

Here’s a prayer for the pastor
who hears the whispers
who thought they would be backed up at the meeting
only to hear silence

Here’s the prayer for the Pastor
who draws the firm boundaries
but grinds their teeth
or gets migraines
or talks to their therapist, spiritual director and prayer partner to keep it all
together

Here’s a prayer to the pastor, who gets asked
“Are you the pastor???” on the regular
But has been serving faithfully, for many a year;
competently and well

Here’s a prayer of the pastor, who has intrusive thoughts
And suicidal ideation
Here’s a prayer for the pastor, who gets a donation for the poor
And thinks–but I am the poor

And has to figure out, which bill not to pay each month
And is striving to help their congregation
Even as they cannot meet their own needs
Because church’s cannot conceive what salary is needed to live on these days

Here’s a prayer for a pastor
who is far away from colleagues
And is lonely, and trying to preach from their scars and not their wounds
Here’s a prayer for the pastor

Who knows self care is not bubble baths and massages
But has little time, money or energy to do what needs to be done
Especially post-Covid
Here’s a prayer for the burnt out pastor

Here’s the prayer for the pastor
Banging on the governmental doors:
Civic, Denominational; Local and National
And says, “God give them ears to hear” and goes home with empty hands

Here’s a prayer for the pastor
who needs support
At every level
and cries in the shower

“My God, My God Why have you abandoned Me?”

Here is a prayer for that Pastor
I’m praying for you,
so you don’t have to

Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

*This prayer is an amalgam of all those pastors who have been overwhelmed throughout my ministry life and does not represent any one person

Questions

A Poem

Questioning
……………Is so 
beautiful Have
…………………….You Ever
Ev
……………..er
……………………. Been caught un
awares by a 
……….Child’s quest
ioning queer
ing your 
……..brain in
making you ketchup
……… the sandwich 
of the world?
Your drive in
…….ter
In
………..ter
………………………. rupted
…………. Goals
Re
…………..Vise
You cannot
……………Block the Sun
with the 
…………………….Visor
Too 
……………Bright
ly 
………Eyeing 
Shin
…………..shin
…………………….Shining
Quest
…………Questioning
Quer
…………Queering
………………….Queurying 
Requeering
……………Requestioning
………………… Quest-Re
Queer-Re
………..Quester-Eye
………..Jester-
………..Gesture
………..In
Quire
………..You-are
Squire-
………………. ing
……..Eye-ring
Rupted
……Ter
….In
Caught
…….Ever
……………You
Been Have
…………………..Caught
Child By
Child’s Ioning
………..Quest
Queer
………..You?
Beautiful So
………..is
Questioning.

Feel free use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

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March 19th Bridesmaids and Talents


Psalm 43:1-2
Matthew 25:1-30

Call to Worship
O God, send out your light and truth
Let them lead me
Let your let and truth envelope me
Let them bring me to your dwelling place
May I be awake
For then I will praise you with exceeding joy, Come let us praise the Lord!

Prayer of Confession: God says that we can always confess, for God will wait for us, come let us confess ourselves to God

Prayer of Confession: God we confess that we struggle to be awake. Sometimes we confess we do not even know what it means to be awake. What is it we are being awake for? And we worry, will we recognize you when you knock on the door? Forgive us when we try to be make busy work for ourselves. Remind us that paying attention is holy work*. Amen

Prayer of Confession: God we confess that we do not think that we should use our talents: whether that means our gifts or actual money; we confess that we humans are designed to hoard things. We do not invest or spend like you are an abundant God. Forgive us, teach us how to prepare the ground for an abundant and open Kingdom we pray. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: Hear the Good News, Jesus sends envelopes us in forgiveness and brings us back home: let us proclaim the Gospel Truth: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: God you remind us that you are equipping us. You are giving us the tools we need to be present and do the work. Let us go into the world full of your Kin(g)dom we pray. Amen.

*Its Mr. Rogers Sunday this is a whole sermon right here

Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

If you use my work a lot you might give a contribution to my Doctorate in Creative Writing as a Public Theologian any donation helps. I successfully raised money for 2/3 years 🙂

God of the Cross

Dear Jesus
You are the God of the Cross

Journeying with Us
Suffering Amongst Us

You do not Proscribe Suffering
But Walk,
Thirsty in the desert with us

Sweet Jesus
You do not make demands
But call us, and listen, when we spill our whole selves to you by the well

Compassionate Friend
You wait for us on the Cross
And tell us, it is not too late to apologize, even then, and You will be there on the other side

How beautiful is the whole testimony of the Cross:
We are not alone, We do not have to suffer, We can be our full self
And we do not have to double down
Because its never, ever to late to apologize

Jesus is waiting for us
Our theology is not ultimately about debates
But about love, and to see the humanity of each other
And Jesus
On the Cross

How beautiful is the Body of Christ,
Thank you for being the God of the Cross
Amen.


Image of Brown hammer, nails and cross of thorns on wood in a the lefthand foreground, and and a cross in the righthand background. Created on Canva

Here is the World, Beautiful and Terrible Things will Happen, Do Not Be afraid…

Content Warning: Sexual Abuse, Ordination Exams, Trauma

Bad Theology Kills
There are nicer terminologies to make
and there are definitely complete lexicons and entire books written of theology
Karl Barth has a really complete theology of love
Elie Wiesel asks tough questions about genocide war and abuse
Just today, Amanda Palmer
a somewhat Radical Feminist, who is all too imperfect herself (might I add) cited a quote her friend’s book
who quoted the famous theologian Fredrick Buechner
Amanda Palmer says “I feel this sentiment in my core today. I have seen, heard, been privy to so much darkness lately. I feel honored to stand near it, but also see – laid painfully bare, more than I ever have – the unfathomable and sometimes unbearable wounds of trauma. The depths. The seemingly unhealable.” She says this not knowing that this is a theological quote, but Amanda Palmer, pop star, gets it
that Life is a Terror text

And for me Theology is how you practice your Christianity;
It is where the rubber meets the road

Not being afraid means, dealing with the trauma as it comes, but also acknowledging that the trauma is real. One cannot pretend it isn’t real.

Because the reality is–Bad Theology kills

White Page that says Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid–Frederick Buechner

But for me…

When you force the people you want to be pastors
to sit in a room
utterly alone
with what is possibly the most traumatic text in the Bible
its abusive

I guess I should start with this: I believe in apologies. I believe in full and complete apologies. I believe in confession. I believe in stating fully who you are, what you have done right and wrong and trying to fix what is wrong so that we can fix that wrong things, and make things better. It is a core theology of mine.

I think that there is confusion
Those who are hurt do not want an apology for the Bible
The apology would be for the trauma

And when you don’t apologize
And you say–we have done such things before

And that does not make you examine how you have done things before

And when you feel like the entire weight of the church
ordination
and the denomination
is on your shoulders

And that does not make you pause
and confess
and think

Maybe there could be
a more life-giving
way to do this

And when person after person
has come to me and say
This is the last straw

And these other people tell me
I’m leaving ministry
and the process of becoming a minister
because of this test…

To pretend we have all sufficiently dealt with trauma
On the eve of the third anniversary
Of a worldwide pandemic
Is ludicrous–there is not such thing
as an untraumatized person right now
So yes, we know trauma is real
We also do not want to practice bad theological practices
Because Bad Theology Kills
We know this!

It is different to deal with a text
Where you know in advance about it
In community
When you can call your therapist
When your entire job is not on the line
When you can ask for help

Also

If you don’t think that the Judges 19 scandal
Isn’t cut from a similar cloth as the complementation scandal the Gospel Coalition is dealing with…
You are missing how women continue to be subjugated and ignored via the Bible…(See Also: How is this coming to a head when trans bans, drag bans, books bans, teaching history bans and rest is happening gives a lot of food for thought)
Because Bad Theology Kills: it is Killing calls to ministry right here and now

Picture of a women facing a panel of just men who say: It’s not that we don’t believe your story. IT’s that we don’t care. Cartoon by NakedPastor

Welp..I guess you were right..
I guess this test is that important
But not in the way you thought it was

If more self care is needed for pastor
By God, let’s do it!
I’m all for it!
What resources can we provide
Let’s hire full time Sabbatical pastors,
a therapist and a Chaplain, One for every
Synod or for General Assembly
If you want to be generous
For every Presbytery!


You think more education is needed?
Great lets open up free schools!

Let’s provide arts clubs and places of music & PE
all those things schools are cutting
(Fun fact Sunday School taught kids to read
FOR FREE
When School was inacessable, because kids had to work;
what could Sunday School be for the arts now–
If we took that as our model?
)

Lets be the most educated denomination
In the land. Let’s get that equity going!
I bet all the kids would enroll
In free college classes
In LGBTQIA and Community Organizing
classes
What more could we provide–could we give free virtual classes in the Bible?
What about classes about theology? The latest books? The Nap Ministry?
This Here Flesh? The Possibilities are endless.
Faith Seeking Understaning, we could learn so much together!

Lets help support all those Black and Brown Churches
The ones we’ve been ignoring for years
What resources do they need?
I bet they could tell us what they need, and why,
and give us a host of ideas, quick!
Let’s start it tomorrow.


You think everyone is overworked and tired?
Great, lets start pay equity and healthcare,
Could we provide healthcare for our support staffs
even more than we do now?
How much more can God do?
How is that Family Leave Overture going?

I can tell you every pastor I know is looking
at if your Presbytery has it before they consider moving there


Did your Presbytery, Synod or Leader agree or disagree
with the Judges 19 test?
Is your area dealing with a pastor shortage?
I bet there is a more experience oriented,
Justice-giving, innovative Matthew 25 way to
Educate and Support Pastors.

Did you know most pastors are older, LBGTQIA, POC?
They are not going to be the married white man
with children, and that is great, because most
ministries are going to be different from here on out.

If we are going to reach the community,
We are going to have to ordain pastors beyond the pews.

While we are re-imagining what it means to be a minister
(Hint: look at all the ways to minister in Matthew 25)
It might be time to rethink how we evaluate minister
s:

I don’t know about you, but while I am running my church’s
3 nonprofits, and taking care of my congregation,
I don’t have time to conjugate Greek and Hebrew verbs–
I love the vocabulary, but the community is just a bit more important

(Don’t worry its just me, I preach 48+ sermons a year, 13+ years, Princeton Trained, but my credentials matter less than my ministry work)

And while we are speaking of that and entry level ministry
How many entry level ministers go to a flourishing ministry
with associate ministers who take care of other things,
while they sit in the office and work on their sermons,
None?


My theology is to take care of the people first
Of course I do that about talking about the Bible
I reference (and study) the Bible EVERY single day
But I don’t do that in Greek and Hebrew
I do that by sitting by the Well and listening,

and Walking in the Community and meeting people where they are at
every chance I get to Community build and partner..
I’m just following the example of some Rabbi I admire…

I hope you have time to do that too
And maybe someday, we will realize that our goals are the same
To be a Matthew 25 Church
And to serve God and God’s people, together

Article by Pastor Katy Stenta
@katyandtheword
Feel free to use/share with attribution

March 12 Parable of the Wedding Banquet

Matthew 22:1-14
Psalm 45:6-7

Call to Worship
The Poor One Calls to The Lord
God hears, and saves the poor, out of all of their Troubles
Looks it is the Angel of the Lord
The Angel of the Lord comes, and encamps around those who fear God, and delivers them
Taste and see that God is God, Blessed is the one who takes refuge in God
Come let us take refuge in God Today

Invitation to Confession: Jesus says come to me those who are heavy burdened and I will give you rest, come let us lay our burdens at the feet of Jesus. 

God: We confess, we do not understand this Wedding Feast. This parable, confuses us and confounds us. Who are we to invite? How are we to dress? Is the violence good or bad? Who is even getting married in the first place? Perhaps the point is not about the invitations or being chosen, but that fact that we are here, at God’s table, together. Help us to gather at the table, whenever God invites us to we pray. Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon: Hear the Good news, Jesus will always forgive us, yesterday, today and tomorrow. Let us proclaim that good news to one another: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. 

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: God, help us to walk into the world, inspired to act not just like those invited, but as though Jesus is chasing humanity, over and over again. Let us remember that Jesus came not to condemn the world but to save it, yesterday, today and tomorrow. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. 

Hymns: On Eagle’s Wings, Jesus Our Divine Companion, Somebody’s Knocking At Your Door, We Walk By Faith and Not By Sight,

Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

Canva Image (created by Katy Stenta) Brown Hands welcoming a line of multicultural people, behind which is a basket of bread and wine and the Golden outline of a Middle-Eastern Couple Getting Married

Notes: the differences between invitation and belonging seem relevant

The idea of getting kicked out for not dressing right in the era of anti-Trans/Drag legislation is super ouchy. Handle with Care. But I think it’s also something that may need to be addressed. I bet this person was dressed with hate and thought that was more appropriate than the drag queens and the sec workers off the streets.

Aftershocks

They always say
that the cleanup takes the longest
that’s actually the Presbyterians specialty

Long after the Salvation Army has left
We Presbyterians are there,
Sometimes so long, that we greet the next disaster

Someday that comfort, me, and other its depresses me.

Why are so many people dying?
The prayer group asks?
As we sit on the zoom screens

A beautiful remnant of Covid
a learned way to gather with one another–
A way the we have been finally dragged into the 2st centuary

And I look at the calendar, and realize
Yes, this is the trauma-ersary,
Three years ago, we had the last normal week of our lives

Just like 9/11 2001, my entire childhood was defined one way
And then boom. Explosion
My entire adulthood
Every
Single
Thing
Changed

Forever

Back to why so many people are dying
“We are still in the aftershocks of Covid, I think” I say..slowly
“You know, like after an earthquake, and this was a worldwide event
Its not as noticeable as an earthquake, but here we are,
Still experiencing the massive aftereffects of trauma, from a pandemic”

I’m no scientist, but I know it is true
Plus I’ve seen the actual science
I know we are tired, worn, and more ready to let go
We are still in the waves, where longterm care is needed

The problem being, its needed pretty much everywhere
By everywhere,
And we humans are not so good at that

Be gentle with yourselves this moth
Be gentle with yourself this March,
When you feel overwhelmed, remember

We are all Traumatized

If you or your family feel sick or trapped, or stuck at home
(especially if you have days at home in storms or God forbid Zoom Days)
Try to give yourself space to heal or Be

Practice Self-Care
(which is not bubble baths or shopping)

Find ways to Breathe, space to be fully yourself and safe
And ways to provide yourself with long term health and care

Screw this Trauma-versary
May we all find Space within it

Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

Image is “A year ago crossed out, two years ago crossed out, three years, this was our last normal year and nobody knew it” tweeted by Santiago mayer” dated 3/3/21

Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard

March 5
Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard
Matthew 20: 1-16
Psalm 16:5-8

Call to Worship
God, how is it your grace is so expansive
Truly God, your keep calling us
Come let us bless our God who calls us
God calls us by name
Let us keep God before us, God who is always at our right hand!
God be praised, God is with us! Let us Praise God together!

Call to Confession: God is calling us to confess, Come let us confess ourselves to God

Prayer of Confession: God we confess that sometimes you have to call us more than once. Sometimes we are the ones that do not hear you until close til dusk. We confess that we envision ourselves as the early morning workers–but we do not know when it is you first called our name. God’s love is not a competition. Help us to remember that faith is always a gift, and that you are always, always calling us by name. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: Hear the Good News: The Steadfast Love of the Lord never changes, God’s mercies never come to the end, they are new every morning, so we know that God will always love and forgive us. Let us proclaim the Good News: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: Let us go into the world refreshed by the Holy Spirit and remembering that it is God who is calling us by name. God loves us from the earliest dawn til the darkest dusk–let us go forth enveloped in that love. Amen.

Hymns: Morning has Broken, This is My Father’s World, Here I am Lord,

Lent: Walking towards the Kingdom of Heaven

Christ’s Kingdom begins
with Ashes, on the brow
remembering
we are fragile
Ephemeral
mere mortals

We were transfigured
with Jesus Christ
from humans
into humans
sent back to do the work
of listening
to Jesus–and other humans

The kingdom of God is like
Figuring out the Difference
between forgiveness
and debts

The Kingdom of Heaven is like
Waiting and Preparing
And finally having the waiting en

The Kingdom of Heaven is like
Answering a question
with question

The Kingdom of Heaven is like
the wonder children have
at ants, kindness,
who compliment animals and clouds
on the daily

The Kingdom of Heaven is like
a parable
Hard to explain
but a good story about
humanity’s value

As ephemeral beings
Full of death
and resurrection
Both at the same time

Come, let us walk together

Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta