lgbtqia – katyandtheword

God of Chosen Names

God of Chosen Names
Jesus
Yesu
El Shaddai
God of Many Breasts;
Y/Know the God of Many Mountains-Able to be Worshiped anywhere
Otherwise translated as Almighty
Abundant God
Merciful God
Purveyor of Peace
Everlasting Guardian
King of Kings
Ruler of All
Kin-dom Creator

God of Chosen Fam
Sibling Maker
Creator of Heirs
The One who makes us all Heirs
of Love

Creator of Peace
the one who faces
Trauma
Hard Family Dynamics
Gossip
Rocky Friendships
And walks with people
With dirt between your toes
and washes our feet
dries our tears
Sits with us

In silence
Waits
And calls us
By our Chosen name

God of Compassion
Empathy
God of the in-between
God of Grays
Twilights
Sunrises
Sunsets
Dragonflies
Amphibians
Marsupials
Fungi
Duck-Billed Platypi

God of the Blackholes
Stardust
God the quarks and leptons
You are inst and amongst the rainbows
Encouraging personification of self
Co-creation, Naming
You celebrate our being
the Imago Dei
and the DEI
Diversity
Equity
and Inclusion

You are proud of all of your children
You oo and ahh and shout with joy
Proclaiming the fullness of
your Trans*
Queer
Lesbian
Gay
Ace
Nonbinary
Intersex
and Pansexual Children

You send angels
before them
(canonically nonbinary
themselves)
Proclaiming
That they are
Fierce
And Wonderfully Made
Saying
Make way
for them
For they
are Children of God

May the world
Have ears to Hear
And Hearts to Understand
The beauty of your Creation
Amen
Amen!

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

Nebulous Prayers

And this morning God
All I can think about
is the passage

What forbids me from being baptized Philip?
asks the Ethiopian Eunuch
and I’m sure
Philip thinks
of all of the ramifications
that this person
is of nebulous rank
nebulous gender*
nebulous status
from another country

what authority does Philip have?
But Philip was sent by an angel
to say yes

And I feel like Philip
running alongside chariots
not knowing
what authority
we have

We are in a nebulous
time

knowing things are in flux
being asked hard questions

and I hope
we say
yes
as often
as we can

Because God knows
God is not preventing us
from loving
and including
each other

God’s yes
is strong
even when
we don’t know

And it’s ok
not to know

I don’t know God
that’s my prayer
I just don’t know
Amen

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

*Though to be clear that individual, the Ethiopian Eunuch, may have known exactly who they were and what their gender status was, the LBTQIA breadth and depth is beautiful in all of it’s multiplicities

Childhood, a Prayer

God there are so many
worries I have in
the world

But then I remember
that Ozma**
was restored
to rule
and got
her happy ending
and became a girl***
without any fuss at all

And that stories of
Defying Gravity
for
Different
Divergent
Witches
In not Pink Skins
are inspiring
Songs everywhere

and that Glinda too
realized
she needed a castle
with women

I remember that
Banksy is creating
and recreating
for Peace

I read all the
Science Fiction
and Fantasy
about acceptance

I remember
that people are
upset about
Woke
things
Because they
sell so well

And I take a deep breath
And sing
the Magnificat
Again

With Mary
As
We Advent
(Wait, Long, etc.)
again
for Jesus

*Footnote: Link above Mary Poppins Spoonful of sugar was inspired by the oral Polio vaccine which was given with a square of sugar to help the medicine go down. I am very worried about the discrediting of vaccines in this day of age. I am also worried because I have a child with autism, and although vaccines do not cause autism, time and time again people have insisted they basically would rather risk death then have a child with autism. It is a sobering thought.

**Footnote: Read Ozma of Oz, it is one of the first happy endings for LGBTQIA. Also L. Frank Baum wrote many, many women based upon his feminist mother-in-law, some of them funny, some of them strong, all of them amazing. There is a lot of variation in Oz, because it is fantasy. It is amazing, per usual. Wicked also has LGBTQIA acceptance obliquely within it, however L. Frank Baum’s stories are wide open for interpretation as most fantastic stories are.

***Footnote: “became a girl” is not quite right but it’s fantasy and this is poetry I don’t want to ruin for you…so excuse my clumsy wording for the gist of the mystery of the book that you will now have to read.

Waiting for Results, a Prayer

God,
We just don’t know

Picture of the United States drawing scribbled over/colored by a child “What we know so far” Shared by Dan Chan @danchaon.bsky.social on bluesky social app

So many have done
what they can
to sew peace

To establish
humanity
human rights

And
Lord have mercy
because
we are
already
exhausted

“Next Week Has Been Exhausting” by Diane Duane

Anticipatory
Exhaustion
may be the hardest

I remember
when my child
was in the run away
and legitimate
insomnia
(beyond normal)
phase

And I would
wake up
looking forward
to a nap
I would have for
the day
after
today

God
you know
My soul is weary
Is your
soul weary
God?

Because
even after the
election

You know
We know
That no matter
the outcome

There is
hard work
to do

This is about more
than leadership

(I remember
in the Old Testament
When
Hebrew people
wanted a King
and you warned them
That is not enough)

And yet
Breathe in: I am here
Breathe out: God is here

This is true today
This is true tomorrow

This is how I will wait
Because all good work counts

Maybe especially
when
it seems
like it doesn’t

Pneuma
Holy Spirit
Breathe for me
When I can’t

Breathe in: I am here
Breathe out: God is here

Amen

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

Prayer for when we legislate things..

This is a prayer for those
who need
Legislate
posting the ten commandments

and the denominations that need
to

expel women
define “marriage”

in ways the devalue personhood

This is a prayer because
God melt the hearts
of those

who only have
one hardened
understanding of

scripture
God
humanity

God I pray that you melt
their hearts

God I pray that you
sing poetry to them
in their dreams

And show them
the mysteries of the heavens
And
tell them
that it is

ok

not to have a quick

answer
and solution

I pray for children that ask awkward
questions

I pray for elders
with mystical wisdom

I pray for animals
with unspoken relatedness

This is a prayer
for all parts of faith
that are not words
etched in stone

But people
beautifully alive
in community
eating, dancing
laughing in the mystery of faith

this is my prayer
for all those who are stuck
in the “right” Christianity today

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

Rainbow Prayer

A Rainbow Prayer for the Methodists
After all the rain
A promise written in the sky
that violence will cease
Love will be covenanted
kept
and celebrated

A rainbow prayer for the world
that the world will call you
by your chosen name
that your chosen family
will be found
nestled
in sanctuaries
you can escape to

when needed

A rainbow prayer
for all the children
who cradle the wonders
of the wonder
when they look at the rainbows
and see
Dreams
Wonder
and Beauty

Rainbow Prayers
Breathing in the Alleluias
Even as tears stream down
reflecting tiny rainbows
of the world
as it will be
When we all realize

the Fierce and
and Wonderfully Made
Beauty of the Rainbow

Amen

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

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

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

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