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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.
For those contemplating suicide because of their “Christian Families” we pray.
For those contemplating suicide because of their “Christian Families” we pray.
L’engle’s thoughts on those who are figuring out their identity and also her wisdom I use to pray for someone I don’t know (excuse the contextually-gendered language)….#LeelahAlcorn @UnvirtuousAbbey Name us Lord, we pray, Call us by name! Help us to name one another, Mother-Father God!
#God in the #dark, #bluechristmas Madeline L’engle
“I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally. I need a God who is with us always, everywhere, in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go wrong, when good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly.” Madeline L’engle
STARs in 2014
Today the church celebrates the Feast of Epiphany.
But since we’re Presbyterian flavored Christians, we actually celebrated it yesterday in worship. (Mid-week worship for most Presbyterians I know is limited to Christmas Eve, Ash Wednesday, and maybe Maundy Thursday.) Anyhow, we received our new STARwords in worship yesterday and I’ve been drawing stars for blog and Facebook readers.
I didn’t invent this idea, but a friend shared it with me a number of years ago, and the congregation I serve has found it to be a meaningful experience.
In our church, people pick a star when they come forward for communion. Some people just take the one on the top of the pile. Others dig down to grab one from the middle. Some look at the word immediately. Others stick it in a pocket without glancing at it. Occasionally, people will trade out their star for a…
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Christmas Eve Favorites
My favorite parts of this year Christmas eve service are many…but I’d love to name some
1. The children helping to light the advent candle. I did away with pre-planning a family to light candles (who has time to do that? not me, not them) and have been cycling through the children youngest to eldest–without repeating the previous weeks’ lighters, and reviewing the meanings as the Children’s sermons (they remembered ALL of it!!!!). Christmas Eve I invited all the children up…I believe there were about 10, to come and help to light the candles. Siblings shared holding the stick, and we did not set the church on fire….then I got to explain why we were lighting the Christ Candle and how we were going to share the light. It was awesome.
2. My children were totally distracted, my eldest belted out the carols and my middle child (who has communicative difficulties i.e. words are hard for him) answered back to every single Bible reading I made, plust there was the whining and rustling and near-escapes…but it reminded me of why we were there. Its why *my* family sings “the little Lord Jesus lotsa crying he makes” for Away in the Manger.
3. Communion, where we got to hear the choir sing plus some young adults sang the Christmas Alleluia which is the cool new Christian song (YAY). We took it by intinction (where we dip the bread), which means I got to pass to every single person, it was amazing.
4. Candles at the end, and raising the lights for the last verse of Silent Night
5. Being able to wish EVERY single person there a MERRY CHRISTMAS
🙂
The Mary Who Said No (a poem)
* I wrote this poem as a way to process my response to this article about divine rape and sexism in religious narratives (which has its own issue but nevertheless raises important questions). It solves nothing and not just because I lack the authority to rewrite history. It leaves plenty of its own issues. But it gives me a momentary hope in the God I love so deeply. And this Christmas, I need that. (Also, I don’t remotely believe God is male, but it matters that we’ve interpreted God that way so for the poem – male pronouns were important.)
“No.”
She said, her voice soft.
“No.”
She said again.
Louder.
Defiance echoed in the small room.
Through the blinding light
the angel blinked, owlishly.
Silence stretched.
She shifted. Waiting.
“No… what?”
the question finally came,
uncharacteristic uncertainty in angelic tones.
“No.” She said, still surprised at her own daring.
“No…
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Explaining #christmas #mystery #joy and Madeline L’engle
“Don’t try to explain the Incarnation to me! It is further from being explainable than the furthest star in the furthest galaxy. It is love, God’s limitless love enfleshing that love into the form of a human being, Jesus, the Christ, fully human and fully divine. Was there a moment, known only to God, when all the stars held their breath, when the galaxies paused in their dance for a fraction of a second, and the Word, who had called it all into being, went with all his love into the womb of a young girl, and the universe started to breathe again, and the ancient harmonies resumed their song, and the angels clapped their hands for joy?” -Madeline L’Engle
Christmas Carols Annotated!
Maybe next year I’ll do a kids candlelight service, we can include charlie brown and Grinch music…holiday readings from classic tales….wouldn’t that be awesome?
I like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & Winter Wonderland.
But…..I prefer Christmas Carols, possibly because they are so seldom played that they are not on the radio and retail venues everywhere…
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen: This is not in my Presbyterian hymnal–it is also seriously undersung (ie its considered a carol but never included Christmas Eve and is only occasionally on the pop albums). Although the sexist words (ugh) the TAKE HEART lyrics make me super, super happy….
Away in the Manger: The other lullaby (you know not Silent Night), the second verse is my favorite…where I tend to change lowing to Mooing and “no crying” to lotsa crying (because that’s what makes sense, Jesus was fully human after all).
Hark the Herald Angels Sing: reconciliation and healing in his wings…..maybe my favorite carol…….maybe
Angels We Have Heard On High: GLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
The First Noel: I love, love, love the…
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The Waiting Room: #adoption #narrativelectionary #joseph #christmas
Jesus is adopted
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2259 here is a good resource to start thinking things and another one http://revgalblogpals.org/2014/12/16/narrative-lectionary-dreams-and-adoption-rooted-in-faith/ …but Jesus is adopted by Joseph
as scripture describes here
This fact is so, so important in understand who Jesus is…..He’s family…
NPR’s The Moth recently played Jillian Lauren’s tale of adoption
(Full 12min story here)
She flew to Africa to find her child, and was terrified, because a friend of hers had just come back from a Russian adoption empty-handed.
She had been warned that some of the people in her group were “super-Christian” so she decided to cover her tattoo, avoid talking about homosexuality (because even if they were nice, they probably actually hated them) and stop cursing.
She makes the long flight over and goes to the orphanage, where amongst beautiful babies, she and her husband are the last ones called over, and finally, finally they get to meet Tariku, for the first time and plays with him all day..and then has to put him back (at which point she wants to run away with him in her arms) until the next day. She describes the promise ceremony, where they meet the mother, who is still a young teenager, and formally hand over the care of the baby. The mother said, that Tariku’s name meant, his story because he already had such a story to tell.
This put me in mind of Jesus Christ’s story…of how he is and was the word of God how he had a story before he was born and that part of adopting Jesus is adoption of the word of God adoption of that whole story of creation….
Back to Jillian and her husband…they get to the embassy for the paperwork, and they get through the line, and the clerk tells them that they cannot adopt Tariku, because they can only adopt up to 4months…Jillian and her husband explain that it is a typo and should say 4yrs, so he goes in the back….
and they wait, and they wait, they wait hrs and there is no word, they don’t know where he’s gone or what he is doing, so by now they are asking frantically for help.
They reach a social worker who listens and also disappears in the back…
Meanwhile, of course, all the other parents received their paperwork fine, they have their cute diaper bags and their children and are ready to rest up for the long flight home tomorrow…
but they wait with the couple who is trying to figure out how to get Tariku …Tariku’s new parents wait, and all the other families wait with them…and their kids all play on the dirty floor together, they all wait beside this almost family….and finally, finally the official comes back and says everything is cleared up…and he-didn’t-know-why-they-were-so-worried-anyway….
Jillian explains how this experience formed a new family for her, for while they were awaiting to adopt Tariku, the people there adopted them…….and they became family, one that meets up regularly and keeps in contact…
Joseph adopted Jesus…just as Mary became mother, Joseph waited for him, and became his father…in fact all the people who were there…all those who had been waiting: the shepherds, the wise men, Mary & Joseph, all of them became a family…
Isn’t this what we practice every year? Aren’t we awaiting a Christ who will be adopted by us, and within that waiting, those-who-are-waiting become a family….and it doesn’t matter how different we truly are, because we have Christ in common. We wait, and we celebrate with one another and we mourn with one another and we do the hard waiting with one another….We wait for Christ at Christmas, because we are practicing, awaiting Christ’s return!
“For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba!* Father!’ 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness* with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” Romans 8:16-17
We adopt Christ, Christ adopts us
and somehow, through the love of Christ, we end up adopting each other….
That is what we do every Christmas…that is what the church is….a waiting room for Christ….one where we learn how to love each other as family….
Maybe that’s why every time I walk into a church, I feel like I am home
Painting from http://theinmanclan.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/the-painting-004.jpg
God Laughs Me Into Hope: A Poem
Some mornings
God laughs me into hope.
She is sneaky like that.
While I am busy fretting
and She’s busy
holding the mourning,
and stirring up discomfort
in the sleepy and complacent,
and loving this world
in all its messiness,
She spares a momentary finger
to poke me in the side
and then a holy hand
around my ear
to whisper:
“You are ridiculous.
And fine.
Ridiculous!”
She laughs.
“I love you.”
And since Her laugh
once birthed a world,
it gives me hope
and swells my daring.
Thank God, She knows me
and laughs.
katyandtheword 