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?
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
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 themselves in a Lady’s Coat
And their bros made fun of them And tried to feed them 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 them 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, patiently as only God can, 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
**Grocery prices have gone from–I’m worried To Good Lord**
God, How many prayers do you get at the grocery checkout Line?
I remember how many I gave to you when we scanned the credit cards that one of them would not bounce
Two kids, then three, in the card Aware that people around me were thinking judgmental things
Or back when WIC coupons were paper Ostentious, Obvious Burdensome and Slow And I prayed I picked all the right items So I wouldn’t hold up the people behind me While the babies fussed
And everyone judged how many cookies and healthy and whatever expensive foods I bought that week.
These days my prayers, I admit, are less desperate, But I pray a little prayer because every single week the grocery bill goes up
And I feel the panic in my gut the awareness of days past (PTSD, yes?) when I would gather up the kids cereal and yogurt and milk Putting every drop back when they finished Loathe to waste a drop, because we could not afford it
Jesus You and the Widow know that you can’t budget your way out of poverty Only money can help
God, I’m saying a prayer For all of us who are stressed Or holding our breath Or trying not to cry in the checkout line
“Feed my Sheep” You said
“Feed my Sheep” is our prayer in the checkout line. Feed us, we pray. Amen.
Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
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Did you wake up in the middle of the night Feeling like you were about to fall? From some inexplicable nightmare?
When you got through a harrowing encounter with the officially officials—you know the ones that had been in the building Did you come home with a headache?
Did you practice breathing techniques, and peaceable responses, and politeness and smiles like most of the women, disabled people and marginalized around you… All of us knowing—this is how we make it
Did you preach the Good News as a survival technique Not as a toxic positivity to push on people
But the Bare Bones to give those hungry for scraps of answers of
“Why am I Here? And “Does this even Matter?” And “How Do I face tomorrow?”
And did you sit and look at the stars—Christ—and evaluate your day, and try to comfort yourself: With the little things that went right; and the good things you saw, and the big picture you were working towards.
Did you ache with the work of it all Jesus? And roll your jaw, and take a deep breath to relax your shoulders, before you faced another fully human day?
Thank you for being human with us Jesus.
Amen.
Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
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