I have the post over at Revgals this week so I focused on on Jesus’s grief and how we humans handle grief and how that might eat on our prolonged pandemic https://revgalblogpals.org/2021/11/01/rcl-all-saints-sunday-jesus-wept/?fbclid=IwAR1DdrhWunqYyuDGgxF_3kF_CRwEmOUeV8_PSxLLmpa3oFwnUE5opwS1pWw
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.
God Speaks to Elijah
Call to Worship (based on Psalm 34)
I will bless the Lord at all times
Let the Praise of our God be continually in my mouth
My soul makes its boast in the Lord
Let the humble hear and be glad
O Come, magnify the Lord with me
Come let us exalt God’s name together
Prayer of Confession: God, I confess that sometimes I need to seek you. Sometimes my soul cries out for nourishment. The night falls and I am hungry, or lonely, or miserable. Help me when I need it, forgive me when I forget to ask, teach me what we need to learn I pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Taste and See that the Lord is Good, Let us tell one another the good news: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.
Prayer of the Day/Dedication: May we always glorify the Lord, especially when that means taking time to listen for that still small voice, help us to focus in on what it is you are calling us to do we pray. Amen.
Hymn: Precious Lord Take My Hand, Theres a Sweet Spirit in This Place, There’s a Balm in Gilead, For All the Sands, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
Children: Read Be Still and Know that I am God and ask them to try to listen for God’s voice, take away a word each time “Be Still and Know that I am God””Be Still and Know that I am” “Be Still and Know that I” Be Still and Know that” Be Still and Know” Be Still and Know” Be Still and” Be Still” “Be”
More Year 4 Narrative Lectionary Resources
If you find these resources useful please consider contributing to my Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing!
Here’s a Prayer for the People
God, today I’m thinking about all the stuff,
the stuff that we worry about, the money and the possessions and the taxes, and the things.
And I can imagine Jesus, whispering in our ears
Reminding us, coaxing us, murmuring to us “don’t worry about the stuff,
I didn’t put you here to worry about the stuff….
I put you here to worry about the people….
Consider the lilies of the field,
the birds and the bees,
and the cute koala bears….”
I think about how generous you are God, how you don’t mind if we give money and laws to Caesar and the government, how utterly unbothered you are by the fact.
Because that’s not what you are worried about.
Instead, you are too busy learning the name of every single being in the universe. Instead you are too busy
healing up the wounds of the forgotten
telling those who live in-between that their lives are beautiful and radical and good
you are too busy doing the real work of the world.
So, though I need the stuff God, you know, to live.
I will try to make sure everyone has enough stuff,
and worry instead, about the people.
God please help us to love and worry and serve the people, and remind us–all of us,
that you created us, not to make stuff
but to love people.
In Christ’s name we pray.
Amen.
Feel free to share/adapt/use with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
Full of Justice, A Radical Advent Calendar for Narrative Lectionary
One is plain and one has the line drawing, I would send both.
For a pdf version of this that you can overlay and fold to open, please email me at Katyandtheword at gmail.com and I will happily send you a copy! (Subject Line: Advent Calendar)
If find these resources useful please consider contributing to my Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing!
A Disappointed Prayer
It happened again God,
A person I admired,
let hate and errors spew from their mouth
accusing other of not being humans
refusing to understand.
I know what you mean when you
say their ears were closed
and their hearts were hardened.
And it hurts, God, when the chinks in the armor
turn out to be pieces of hatred,
Screw TERFism
–and White Fragility
And Sexism
And Heternormativity
And Colonialism
And Exceptionalism
And Ableism–
when people who you hoped could imagine worlds
Of openness, people who helped you to see a better kingdom of God,
turned out to be as human as everyone else.
I guess we all need Jesus in the end–but it’s timeslike these
I really need the Holy Spirit,
to come down and protect my marginalized beloved ones–transgendered, black and brown, poor and disabled.
It’s times like these I need the Holy Spirit to come down and inspire and comfort me,
because I really don’t know what to do with the pieces of my heart when they lie shattered by the people who I trusted to care for it.
And of course, still, always, none of us are Jesus
I guess this is why the Kin-dom God can never, ever
ever
be the vision of one person
No one person is ever going to get all the pieces–
help us to keep imagining it,
together,
encourage us,
especially in times like this we pray.
Amen.
Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
If you find these resources useful please consider contributing to my Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing!
Oct 31 Solomon’s Temple
Call to Worship
Praise the Lord from the heavens and in the heights
Praise God, all his anger, all his host!
Praise God, sun and moon and all of the shining stars!
Let us praise the name of the Lord, for God commanded and they were created!
Let us praise God, men and women, young and old together!
Come, Let us praise the name of the Lord together!
Prayer of Confession: God we confess that we sometimes are searching for wholeness, sometimes we want to build a temple or find a special spot, when the truth is, you are with us the whole way. Show us how you have the whole world in you hands we pray . (Silent Confession) Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: God is with us, guiding us and forgiving us. Let us proclaim the truth to one another: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Amen.
Prayer of Dedication: God, that you are always holy, and that holiness does not need to be trapped or contained. Help us to share your holiness with the world we pray. Amen.
Hymns: Holy, Holy, Holy, Immortal Invisible God Only Wise, Jesus Thy Boundless Love to Me O Christ the Great Foundation
Children: Here is the church, Here is the Steeple Open the door and see all the people but change it to Here is the church, here is the church here is the church
More Year 4 Narrative Lectionary Resources
If you find these resources useful please consider contributing to my Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing! I have already Successfully funded year 1, and am now working on Year 2!
A Scattered Prayer
God, this is a prayer
For the pieces of my brain
That don’t fit
Or make sense to me right now.
You know, God, that I do not like to be confused.
And I hate when my body does things without telling me.
I feel tattered, and frayed around the edges
And my thoughts are frayed bits of something, that I still can’t catch ahold of—
In truth my thoughts still want to fly apart
And so I’m scattering a prayer, like seeds
To grow into something,
Can you please tend it?
In the in-between?
And I will try not to worry, about what is lining up, and what isn’t,
And instead just trust,
That scattered prayers are ok today.
Take them off my hearts, and hold them in the palm of your hand
And remind me
That every scattering helps and counts
Take each scattered prayer, I pray.
Amen.
Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
If you find these resources useful please consider contributing to my Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing!
My Columbus Day Confessional
God, I’m contemplating today–
in an age of Columbus day, and Capitalism and Cancel Culture.
God I’m thinking of the slow spread of Indigenous Peoples’ Day,
Where we try to slowly acknowledge a heritage
we cannot claim,
and a past of slavery and disease and Colonialism, we must confess.
God, I’m thinking hard today about my white bloodstained past
My Pilgrim heritage–my ancestors physically came over with them —
My Imperialistic Roots–after the revolution we disappeared in shame for a while
My Religious anxiety–we pushed our white God onto everyone with the best of them
I’m thinking hard God, because Indigenious history is my history, even as it isn’t my heritage.
And I know (and you know God) that no land acknowledgment is going to fix that.
There is work to be done–that isn’t cancel culture or capitalism or Columbus Day.
But it is confessional and listening closely and doing the hard work of the day.
God help me to do the hard work of Decolonizations today,
and everyday, but especially today,
I pray.
In the name of Jesus Christ–refugee of his time, friend of the marginal and victim of Imperial violence, in the name of that Jesus Christ I pray.
Amen.
God Calls David
Living Into this God Given World: Judgement
1 Samuel 16: 1-13; Psalm 51:10-14
Call to Worship:
God, we approach you asking that you bless us
Let us bless one another, and bless you, God
Come Let us worship the Lord
Come, let us worship, God together!
Prayer of Confession: God we confess that we are far too eager to judge based on appearances–actually we are far to eager to judge period. This is not our job but yours. Unburden us from judgement, and remind us that most of our work is to bless and be a blessing we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Our God promises always to forgive us. Let us remember: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Amen.
Prayer of the Day/Dedication: God, you remind us that kings and government and justice do not always go together, but God and grace always does. Help us when we are uncertain or afraid or judgemental to lean into your grace, so that we might handle things with more patience, clarity and equanimity, and remind us always to work towards a kingdom of justice and peace we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Children: Justice isn’t fair! Talk about how being the oldest is different than being the youngest or being an only child is being different than being an only child. Discuss how it is really, really hard for things to be equal in human world–and that humans are not very good at being fair. Then talk about God’s justice and mercy, and the good news is that God’s justice and mercy isn’t about everyone getting the same thing, but instead everyone getting what they need according to their needs and talents. Justice is much better than fair.
Hymns: There is a Wideness in God’s Mercy, Amazing Grace, God Our Help and Constant Help and Refuge, God Our Lord a King Remaining, All Hail to God’s Anointed, O God of Every Nation, This Is My Father’s World, God is My Strong Salvation, My Shepherd Will Supply My Need,
More Year 4 Narrative Lectionary Resources
If you find these resources useful please consider contributing to my Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing! I have already Successfully funded year 1, and am now working on Year 2!
October: A Prayer
God,
I’m thinking a lot this October,
about how sweet and innocent I was over the summer.
How I thought it would be all downhill this fall.
How we would be older, and wiser, and vaccinated.
And I must confess that the reality is not really living up to the dream Lord.
I really have to stop being in survival mode–because I can’t sustain that anymore.
So one of these days, I’m going to sit down, and figure out
what October 2021 means–
even as October 2021 marches on,
and I have to look at my phone real quick to double check
are we in 2022 yet? Am I wrong? are we in 2021? I’m still confused about time God.
So here’s a prayer God, to get out of survival mode, and into resurrection mode.
Can these bones live Lord? I say to the Halloween decorations, as I spread out
the skeletons and spiders in yard, and buy enough candy for one of the few safe holidays to celebrate
Can these bones live Lord? As I pray and pray
and pray and pray and pray for 5-11 vaccines, so that we can finally get
down to the brass tacks of baby vaccinations.
Can these bones live, Lord?
As I think of the two years lost in the ministry, the wise saints who have gotten older
the families that have gotten more worn down,
the community that has huddled closer over the last 18 months.
But they are good bones of ministry, I think fiercely,
And we are doing good things, as we brave the elements to worship ouside,
as we pray and take care of those in our congregation who are sick
these are the bones of ministry I think as our deacons keep in touch with our far flung families,
and our Sunday School teacher bravely starts a new ministry
Can these bones live?
You know God….
Meanwhile, I think I’ll concentrate on the plan of getting through October
–Thanks for letting me do it one day at a time God—
and thank you for October.
Amen.
katyandtheword 