God of Pronouns, A Prayer

O God of Pronouns,
We give Praise to the Great One
the one who is identifiable as God

“I am, what I am” you say!
The great They!

The Incarnate He and She–
the God of Trans-Being!

Impregnating Mary,
Fathering God,
Breastfeeding God of Many Mounds/Breasts*
God of Mountains and Might!

You shatter all stereotypes!

Making every single person, male and female, in your image.
Exactly in your image!
male-and-female, intersex, nonbinary,

Spectrum, rainbow God who put your promise for nonviolence
in the symbol for queer love,
before humanity knew

Because you knew
who had Joseph, who could not sleep with a woman
in a beautiful lady’s cloak, perhaps of rainbow colors,
before we knew,
you knew.

God of pronouns, who said, you can call me
he or she or they; whatever makes you feel closest to me.

Invisible and Visible God: on this day where visibility is not enough
where celebration, belovedness, affirmation and acceptance is the bare minimum

Remind us that you are the God of Pronouns,
so of course you affirm and celebrate them.

God of Saul/Paul, Jacob/Isaac, Mara/Naomi, Abram and Sarai and Abraham and Sarah–

God of Joseph of the Coat of Many Colors, of the Ethiopian Eunuch of the Virgin Mary,

God of all the found families in the Bible.

Remind us that you affirm us in our full identity: Name, Pronoun, Found Family, All of it.

And for this we give you thanks and praise, to the great I am, the great They/Them.

Thank you God!

Amen.

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

*In Hebrew the word we often translate as Almighty means God of many mounds which can mean the God of many mountains (places to worship) or the God of many breasts (places to get nourishment)

Fiercely Listening, a prayer

God

sometimes I think about

how much of my job

is listening to those

who are hurt

Sometimes I pray about

all those without ears to hear

Those who are quick to judge

or center themselves

or say, if they had just…

So…

I think about how often Jesus just sat

and listened, really listened

and validated people’s pain,

and then called them by name.

Sometimes I think about

how much of the community’s job

is listening,

Fiercely listening to those

who are unheard, or drowned out our ignored

Fiercely listening

who are hurt,

without judgement

or agenda

…just listening fiercely

to those who have been

especially hurt

and then I

try to practice

that fierce listening

taking to heart

the cries of injustice

opening my ears to hear

and my heart to be melted

Help me me to do my job I pray.

Amen.

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