Branding & Jesus

“He gets You” is really appropriative, because its more about “He gets me: white, straight, cis, conservative, men” 

Whereas Jesus does not say “I get you” 
Jesus says, “Do you see me”
And when people ask, “Where were you”
He says “I am among the poor, the immigrant, the forgotten, the widowed, the queer, the homeless, the ones without identification, the imprisoned, the ones your eyes slide over because you have deemed them unimportant, the dispossessed, the naked, the hungry, the powerless, the ones you refuse to listen to…” (Matthew 25)
Ministry isn’t even about power, its about something else altogether

You can’t brand Jesus for the masses
Because that’s getting the whole message backwards

Magnificat

The Rich are against my religion
God,

I am ready to magnify
Pregnant calling for the downfall of the mighty
and the poor being filled with good things

Raising up all those who have
Never
Ever, Been empowered before

I can picture Mary and Elizabeth
glowing and tired, demanding you step up and step in God

In a world, where the hospitals are full of sick children
again
I am more than ready to demand healing

God I am tired of this human nonsense:
where money is ready for war, but not for childcare, food or healing

I am am ready for magnficat
to Magnify
All the things you promise (instead of the humans)

I am hungry for the time when justice turns the world upside down
the moment when we can see the hope of all children
incarnate
in a baby

I am pregnant with it.

As my kiddos say
Lets Go, God

Let’s Magnificat,
We have been waiting for it
Forever

Amen.

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

Magnificat Artwork by Katy Stenta on Canvas feel free to use/share with credit

Rejecting Evil: a clarification, Membership Questions

The Membership Questions: If I Wrote them
Expanded:
Do you reject Evil
Of Guns
Of White Supremacy
Of the False Gospel of Hate
Of the Nationalism
Of trying to Control Your Child’s Life
Do you reject the idolatry of Power, Greed, Imperialism, Capitalism and Control?

Do you surrender to the Loving and Searing Truth of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who opens your heart in such away that you continually examine your life and ask–am I living in a way that adhere’s to God’s Life Giving Standards?

Do I, to Love my Enemies, Are the Imprisoned? Give Food to those in Near, Somehow free myself To Not Judge those different than you and to Welcome those who are different in Gender, Race, Sexuality, Age and Ability to my House, Home, Table and Life?

Do I affirm the Apostles Creed, as far as I understand it, knowing that it is a lifelong mystery. Do I affirm what I know and commit to continual study of the Apostles Creed and God?

LGBTQIA, After Colorado Springs

Sacred Space

Rainbow Tears

MicroViolence

Erasure

Dancing

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

MicroViolence


It’s never just
Books
Bathrooms
Pronouns

It’s not just
Marriage
Jobs
Names

It’s not just
Dancing
Sports
Scouts
“Belief”
or “policy”

It is
Mental health
Personhood
Belovedness
Anti-Violence

It is
Breathing
Existing

Always

Every Word
For or Against
Counts

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

Rainbow Tears

God is crying
Rainbow Tears

God who hung
Their Rainbow

Weapon
In the Sky

Before Jesus
Tread the Earth

God who Dances
With Abandon

God
who Protects

Joseph Lady’s/Rainbow Cloak
Ruth’s Found Family

Jesus of Two Dads
Baptizing the Egyptian Eunuch

God’s weeping
rainbow tears

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

Dancing

For the Dancers

They didn’t want to Just dance
They wanted Sacred Space

Without hate
Or guns

We Pray
Fight
And Vote

Angered
We Demand Justice
& Remember

Bad Theology Kills
Bad Policy Kills

Affirmative Pronouns Saves
Sacred Spaces Saves
Giving Space Saves

Go
Be A Lifegiver

Erasure

Erasure

You can’t erase Queer
It doesn’t matter
How hard You try
With bullying
Hate
Guns
Bonfires
And bookbans

Shaming cultures
And evil gods
Can’t make People “Don’t say gay”

Evidence of “Roommates”
Hermaphrodites
Two Spirits (don’t appropriate)
Third genders
And Trans*
People
Go back
to the beginning
Of time

And Don’t
Get me started
On the Bible
With the Poly Trinity
David & Jonathan
Joseph’s Rainbow/Lady’s Coat
God’s pronouns
Revealed in flames
Ruth and Naomi
Song of Songs
The Eunuch
The Bible is Queer

You can’t erase
LGBTQIA
It Only
Gets clarified
As time Goes on
So YES
You have
To learn
New terms
#NotSorry

Yes we will
Have

#TransDayOfRemembrance

No we will
Not shut up
Personhood
Is on the line

You can’t erase
People

It hasn’t worked
Yet
And it never
Will

I promise you
I will keep
Remembering
And Naming
And Believing
And Listening

And History shows me
I am not alone
QUEER are Beautifully
And Fiercely made
In the image
Of God

No one will
Ever erase
That

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

Coming Out Day Or the Bible is Queer, A Prayer

Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ed/Logo_ncod_lg.png

God I remember–when you came out of the closet–
Flaming!

And Moses, said, What are your Pronouns?
And God says, I am what I am

And Moses says,
Cool, I gotch-you, You’re the God of Pronouns!

And, God says, Good, because I have a feeling,
This will get more complicated!

And then People were doing Violence to one another
So God turned the World On and then Off again

And sent the animals two by two Upon a boat
And hung up God’s weapon, a Bow (that’s an old school gun)

And said, I’m hanging up my weapon, so you will hang up yours
As a sign that Love is Love is Love is Love

And Noah said Cool
And God said, Cool, Because I have a Feeling this might get misconstrued someday

God I remember when Joseph
Draped Himself in a Lady’s Coat

And his bros made fun of him
And tried to feed him to the Lions

And God said, Nope, I claim the Queer One
And then we “retranslated” it as a Rainbow coat, so no one will understand him as Queer

(And you laughed again God, didn’t you? You mysterious and all knowing I Am)

And then Joseph said what you meant for Evil, God meant for Good
No one can take away my God, And God said mmm-mmmmm

And I remember Isaiah, where the prophet saw God,
And clearly identified God as multiples, and referred to God as them

And scholars thought up a new word Trinity–
And we ignored the singular/multiple thing–and God waited for it to dawn upon us.

And then there was when Ruth declared her love and devotion for Naomi
And said where you go I will go, your people will be my people, your God will be my God

And God laughed and said, this will be the foundation text for weddings
This found-family declaration between too women, shh! Don’t tell the Conservatives.

And then came Jesus who instructed us, “Care for the Least of these”
and “Let no one revile you in my name” and “Welcome the Stranger”

And we nodded along like we knew what he meant
and then we disciples whispered among ourselves about exceptions

And God, God you knew
You knew. You knew before we knew

You know, the Bible is so Queer;
It would not even be the Bible, if it did not include rainbows and flames

It would not be Holy without found families
and radical, unconventional love

God only knows, that it is not us who gets to say who belongs to God;
it is but our job to practice welcome and hospitality

Someday, perhaps
we will get the laughter of angels right

And so Coming Out Day Blessings to those who can celebrate
And safe spaces and sanctuary to those who can’t

May those who are Lesbian, Gay, Trans, Ace, Bisexual, Nonbinary, Queer, Androgynous, Demi, Intersex, Questioning, Omnigender, Poly, Pan, and of Two Spirit find the space to be their full self.

And may they scream or yell or ignore or bless God as wish–
Because,

Because
You are God, and you care to endure all those things when your children have suffered so

May we create a world where Coming Out day
that is a true celebration and choice


May all people be celebrated in their fullness we pray–not because of the Bible,
but just Because, We pray this together!

Amen.

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