Author: katyandtheword

Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. She now works at Capital CFO plus as the Non Profit Director. All opinions expressed on this blog are her own and do not reflect those of Capital CFO plus. 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.

To the God who made Duck-Billed Platypuses, Help us

God
Save us from the kinds
of Unity
that require us
to be uniform

God of twilights
and sunrises

God of Duck-billed Platypuses
Tadpoles
Bearded Lizards
Caterpillers and Butterflies
God of the mysterious Bumblebee
Every Single Marsuple alive (what a delightful word)
Zebras, Giraffes, which shouldn’t even be able to breath up there

God of Covenants with weirdo in the Bible
Joseph and their rainbow coat
of Found families between Mara and Naomi
God of grumpy Noahs and Jobs
God of rascals like Isaac
and amazing women like Tabitha, Deborah and Hagar

You are the God of many names
The God of a million Pronouns
You go by he/she/they probably more if we were being honest

You are the God of Immigrants, The God of the Forgotten
The God of slaves, the Disabled God, The God of the Poor, the God of the Widow, The God of the Unnamed, The Eunuch’s God, the Trans* God

You are the In-Between God, willing to go here and there, democratizing times and space to spend time with your children, affirming us in all of our ways of being.


Why anyone would think that
you call for conformity
in our unity
Rainbow God
Is beyond my understanding

Except…
I know that change is hard
Understanding differences is hard
that structure can help when people feel overwhelmed,
scared, angry, or otherwise out of control

God of Sabbath
God of Nourishment
God of Sufficency
I pray that you help those who are in Need
Get what they need

So that they stop enforcing
Unity
And embrace it
instead

Or perhaps you can
Find something else
To do with their time

I pray in Names
Of the diverse
communal
Trinitarian God
Amen

Easter Blessings, throughout the Season

Good News can come through emptiness 

Mary didn’t know Jesus was risen
She turned to a stranger 
The person who was tending the dirt
And asked for help

Do you see the Easter moment

It’s hiding right there

It’s not in the race before
No trumpets or proclamations in John

It starts in a moment 
of hoping for hope
of reaching out 
in planting seeds
After all God was the first Gardener
Is it little wonder that 
Jesus is once again on his knees 
in the dirt

And Mary reaches out to him
Easter has started
There in the dark
Even before she knows it

The resurrection 
starts in those moments
of planting and tending

and then slowly
unfurl 
for days
months
as long as we need
to turn
our mourning
into dancing

Here’s hoping 
you have those moments
Throughout the 
Easter season

Good News can
Come even 
through 
moments 
of emptiness

Creation came
through Holy
Darkness

I hope you 
Experience 
that this 
Easter Season 

Every Knee

This is my conviction

Upon the return of Christ every knee will bow

Bc Jesus will return kneeling and serving 

And we will all kneel to get next to him 

This is Maundy Thursday

This is God kneeling, stooping, 

“inclining Gold’s ear” to get close to us in the person of ChristThis is loving and serving

Illustration From LaTonya Jackson from https://blog.brethren.org/2024/ebrethren-3-27-2024/ Kneeling Black Jesus, aglow with holy light—and adorned with with a durag and dressed in White with a purple sash, kneeling to wash a disciple with a snug hat and dressed in red robes, feet, the sandals lay discarded, another gray bearded disciple watches.

Almighty Trans* God

Trans* God
You are the
God of Abram to Abraham
of Mara to Naomi
Saul to Paul

You call us by our Chosen Name

You are the God of Joseph of the
Rainbow, Princess, Coat of their mom
who found a family in Egypt

Jesus who found Kinship with
Mary, Martha and Lazarus
You understand the importance of
Belonging somewhere other than with blood relations

Almighty Trans* God of Abraham, you know
That sometimes you have to pack up
and leave to find your true home and acceptance

And that the journey might have lions
and dangers and toils and snares

And yet here is your promise
You will see us
You will accept us
You will call us by our chosen Name

You will always be our God
Will always be your people (if we want
not in any kind of creepy way)

Jesus, Person created without any sperm
who chose to be male
Divine Trans* entity

God, the royal They
The great NonBinary

Holy Spirit
The She who can impregnante
A Woman

God you are the Almighty
the God of Many Mounds:
Which means both many mountains
to accesss and worship you
(note the inclusiveness)
and the God of many breasts
to feed every one
(Again inclusive and accessible)

We translate that
Trans* word as Almighty
Almighty Trans* God indeed!

Almighty Trans* God
You not only
See
Accept
Affirm
and Celebrate
But especially
Protect
all of our Trans* Siblings
during this turbulent time

Almighty Trans* God
May
we forge
many mighty Trans* Elders
make their names almighty
We Pray
Amen.

Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta aka “KatyandtheWord”’

May be an image of text that says 'If you're visiting family for Easter, and they won't respect your gender, remind them that Jesus's chromosomes are canonically XX, as he inherited all of his human DNA from Mary. Unless of course they think that Mary was actually a child-bearing XY cis woman, which is also a delightful and realistic possibility. So either Jesus is Trans or Mary is Intersex. Or it could also be both! Happy Easter Day of Trans Visibility!'

Hosanna, a Protest Song

Hosanna is a Protest Song
Sung
in the words
Of the meek

it starts from the back door
with a murmur
a request
for a healing for a friend
an opening in a roof
a touch on a cloak
a plea for an (unnamed) daughter at home

Hosanna is a Protest Song
it bends the norms of society
blurring the lines between
Samaritan and Jewish
Sadducees and Pharisees
Male and female
Salve and Free

Hosanna is a Protest song
Reshaping the very bounds of our understanding
allowing children to come in freely
valuing the widow like the rich man
seeing no difference between the younger and the elder
calling the eunuch to God

Hosanna is a Protest Song
Forgiving Peter before he even denies Jesus
Reminding of Thomas bravery more than his doubt
Telling the story of the Resurrection straight from the women’s lips
Reminding us all that if we want to see Jesus
He is already here, among the poor, the imprisoned and the hungry, Go and serve and you will surely see Christ

Hosanna is a Protest Song
That the world should not be like this
We know it, and we are not going to try violence to bring Jesus back
Because our God is the disarmed God, the one who hung their bow permanently in the sky, to remind us that they are the God of Peace
And when we didn’t Get the message
Sent Jesus to walk the walk of peace even unto the cross again

Hosanna is a protest song
It says
Save us
Saving us
Salvation is worth it
Kin(g)dom is an active verb
It is embodying the prayer
Thy Kin(g)dom Come, Thy Will be Done

Reminding us that Our God wants to save
most likely, probably everyone
And hard as that truth is
That God doesn’t need us to protest for Christianity
Instead, we protest,
To save EVERYBODY
And we need our actions
to fit those words

Because God Loves every stinking one of us

Hosanna
Save us
Indeed

Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta aka “KatyandtheWord”

Disarmed God

Disarmed God
I remember
that

You disarmed
Your Divine self
Permanently

That you hung
your weapon in
the sky:
Publicly
As a reminder
That you are
the Nonviolent God
The God of Love

It is little wonder
That some people
find Rainbows
Offensive

Jesus Christ
I remember
That you disarmed
Those who would
Stone a woman
in the street
with a few words
of compassion

That you healed
The blind man
Of sins and his disability
so that he had to be seen
as a person with or without
your disability
Stopping so called
microaggressions
Disclusion and other
forms of ableist violence
against him

(we can talk about
consent
and disability
not taking away
From your wholeness
Later)

Jesus I remember
You disarmed
everyone
At YOUR ARREST
when things could
go down in
absolute violence
with healing

An ear got cut off
And no one could hear the
other’s side (talk about symbolism)
You heal the slave of the enemy
…Holy Spirit the fact that you
come to the marginalized
and oppressed at this moment

and heal and disarm
at the tensest of moments

You are the God of
Disarmament
And healing
And give ears
to those who are willing to hear
And help those
who are bystanders
powerless
marginalized

There is no God of
Guns, bombs or violence
Not here
You repeat
that is not You

You don’t know any such presence
The power you exude doesn’t need
any buffoonery of triumphalism

Instead you come clothed in peace,
“Peace I will give you” Jesus,
Prince, Keeper, Steward of Peace

Disarm us
Disarm Humanity
So that we learn the art of War
No more

But only grow food
Food
to feed one another

We pray

Amen

Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta aka “KatyandtheWord”

The Muppet Movie cast singing The Rainbow Connection (Finale) | Fan art ...

All the muppets singing rainbow connection, under a rainbow

Peace and Perfume: O the Humanity

Blessed are the Peacemakers
Says Jesus
God
Teach Us
To Make
Create
Policy Even
Shalom

Peace that is
Wholeness
Health
the kind that
Forbids Dehumanizing one another

God
You know
Because
You embodied
This being Human
There really is no
Such thing as
Microagressions

That is just us
Doing violence
to one another

In another way
Is there such
a thing as
“I dehumanized you
But it didn’t count?”

“I did violence
to your reflection
of the imago dei
But it was TOTALLY
Rationale”

Jesus says
Let the one without
Sin cast the first stone

And reminds us
to judge is Human
to give Justice Divine

God See to your humans
We are down here with
Governments trying to
start WWIII
while us people
are busy trying to afford Bread

Teach us to have
Potluck together
To Liberate one another
To Celebrate one another
As humanity

Teach us to be like Mary
To extravagantly Love one another
To wash one another’s feet in
perfume, so strong
that the scent
of the act

Fills the whole house

Give us the humanity
to love and serve
one another we pray
Amen.

Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta aka “KatyandtheWord”

Psalm 3

God,
Why are there so many enemies?
I feel like
I can’t ask people
in Kansas
if they are friends
of Dorothy anymore

And the Scouts
do not feel
trustworthy
Today

Jesus Christ
How many times
Do we cry out

Hosanna
Hosanna
For the Trans Kids
Hosanna
for the Sex Abuse Survivors
Hosanna
for the Women’s Athletes
Hosanna
for the Black Actors, Artists and Musicians
Hosanna
for the kidnapped, the revealed deaths, the scared immigrants
Hosanna

Hosanna for the World
for Iraq, Pakistan, Cuba, Ukraine

Hosanna

I call to you, and many say
Why do you call to God
God doesn’t help Woke people

But I cry out
And God answers

I go to sleep and I wake up
God is sustaining us

We are not afraid of the people who are against us
Even if they number tens of thousands

God,
You are already
Awake
So I say
Rise Up
Save us
Hosanna,

O My God!
Deliver us,
Strike All my enemies on the cheek
You
Break teeth of the wicked

For

Deliverance
is God’s

Blessings belong to your People

God, protect the vulnerable
and stop evil
we pray
Amen

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

Crumbling Empires

Herod doesn’t win
Nor does Caesar
The Empire will crumble

God is with the marginalize
the poor
the imprisoned
the oppressed
the abused 
the tortured

Jesus walks 
with the different 
the disabled 
the forgotten 
the misgendered 
the repressed 
the voiceless
the hurt 

Our Divine is all about housing
everyone
feeding the hungry 
clothing the naked
and meting out equity and justice
and true liberation

It is written
It is proclaimed
It is the Good News

This is the true Glory of God
Anyone who thinks they can tame
the Holy Spirit 
is a pretender 

We recognize Jesus 

in every act 
Peace 
Empathy
and Love 

Don’t you?

Feel free to share/adapt/use with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta aka “KatyandtheWord”