Guns
Against
Gender
Care
In
That
South
God
You
Have
A
Tear
For
Every
Word
I
Have
A
Policy
For
Each
One
Category: stop gun violence
RCL: Trust Your Neighbors
Call to Worship
Let all who are afraid come
The Shepherd is here
Let all who are weary come
The Shepherd is here
Let all who hunger come
The Shepherd is here
Let all who are looking come
Truly, the Shepherd here. Let us come, and find the Shepherd together
Call to Confession: Come, the gate is open, we do not need to fear the one who is calling, let us confess ourselves to God.
Confession: Jesus Christ we are weary, too long we have put our trust in money and stuff and weapons and governments and institutions and we look around and realize, that we are still not but confused sheep. We long for your voice. We long for green pastures and still waters, we long for goodness and mercy. We want a land where good food is so plentifully even our enemies get it. Forgive us, teach us your voices, so we can hear it, and follow it, and live in fear no more we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Hear the good news, Jesus is calling us towards grace, In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.
Prayer of the Day/Dedication: Fear not the angels said, Peace be with you Jesus said. God, you come and comfort your sheep, reminding us to live without weapons or fear. You remind us we are meant to flock together. God may we go forth building a world of green pastures, safety and hope we pray. Amen.
Topical prayer: The Lord is my Shepherd Sheep Scale Prayer https://katyandtheword.com/2020/08/20/the-lord-is-our-shepherd-a-sheep-scale-prayer/
Wrong Turns
CW: Gun Violence, Racism
God,
I am praying for the young adults, the teens, the kids
who take the wrong turns
Sweet Resurrected Jesus
You and I know, that I have no sense of direction–
How many times have I been
lost and alone in the car
Making my way across the country
(Pre-cell phone directions even)
–Luckily I am a white girl
But the shooting mere miles from my house
In upstate NY
proves that
it’s the guns
the guns
the guns.
And Lord save all the Black Boys, The beloved
Beautiful, made in your image
Black Brothers
My soul keens for them
God, you hung up your weapon,
your bow, your version of a gun
in the sky–way before Jesus
In the time of Noah–so that every single time we see it
We might, maybe possibly remember
That you are a Disarmed God
A Weaponless God
A God who refuses to Destroy anymore
A God of Peace
And when we refused to believe it
You sent your Son
What-His-Name
The Prince of Peace
Down to Earth
You don’t bring the Weapons
I’ll bring the Revolution
“Drop your swords” He says
When he is being arrested–
By the Empire no less
“And I’ll heal your ears, so you can hear
my words of peace”
And when you were resurrect Jesus
Among the huddled and fearful disciples
Did they raise arms against you
in “defense” and fright
(Its a question I don’t want to think about)
You replied to the fervor of frightened humans
“Peace be with you”
When we are lost
or feel invaded
or scared
or alone
“Peace be with you”
Disarm yourselves
God demonstrated
coaxes
whispers
If you really trust God,
I promise, you won’t need any guns
the end of the world won’t be with a bang
It will be with the whisper
“Peace be with you”
I’m still praying for the kin(g)dom
come
Peace be with you
Amen.
Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
Rainbow and clouds with an orange car heading towards it, created on canva by Katy Stenta, feel free to use
Hosanna, a Dangerous Prayer
“Hosanna” God we cry
When did we make this
an easy prayer to pray
We hand it to our children
And make it a parade
–Filling their hands with palms
to dance around the room
Hosanna, the children Scream
“SAVE US”
As the rooms fill with gunfire
As their gender identities are destroyed
as they are ripped away from their parents at the border
As they cry for hunger when we cut their SNAP benefits
And Jesus takes a child
puts them on his lap and says
unless you understand the children
you will not see the Kingdom of Heaven
“How do we tell the children about school shootings?”
They know
They have been practicing for them, like maths or piano
And they know the grownups are not preventing them
Hosanna, they cry
My youngest came home from kindergarten
And said to me we are practicing being quiet for when bad guys come to school.
Shhhh!
Hosanna!
My middle child has autism
He will never be able to be quiet
If a bad guy comes to school
Hosanna!
Hosanna, God, Grace alone
But Still we know we have to participate
in our own salvation
Thoughts and prayer won’t do it
Policy and Change
will be our chant of Hosanna
Jesus paraded into the City
And then Flipped the Tables
It is not enough to cry out and pray
Action and Accountability must follow
Hosanna, we pray–what a Dangerous Prayer
on our Lips
Maybe only the Children truly know what it means
Hosanna God, Hosanna Christ!
May we Hosanna this together we pray
Amen
Feel free to use/share/adapt with Credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
Gun Violence Prevention Prayers
Image is a pair of AK47s crossing, covered with the words Hosanna and palms layered, and Save us at the Top and Prince of Peace, Flip the Tables, Policy and Change on the Bottom. Created by Katy Stenta on Canva, free to use with credit.
Effervescent Valentine: A Poem (CW: guns)
What is better than Child Valentine’s?
Where everyone is included?
The cost is low
the effort is loving
the joy of these children
is effervescent
What is better than Child Valentine’s?
Where everyone is included?
The cost is low
the effort is loving
the joy of these children
is effervescent
What is better than Child Valentine’s?
Where everyone is included?
The cost is low
the effort is loving
the joy of these children
is effervescent
What is better than Child Valentine’s?
Where everyone is included?
The cost is low
the effort is loving
the joy of these children
is effervescent
My youngest woke up at 4am
They made all their cards on the computer
A kid
on a mailbox
17 of them, printed
awash in their favorite red
(we are out of red ink)
Taped them to fun dip
Painstakingly wrote first
and last names
on Every Card,
Despite Being Dyslexic
What is better than Child Valentine’s?
Where everyone is included?
The cost is low
the effort is loving
the joy of these children
is effervescent
I want to stay in this joy
And yet, all I can think about
I how
all I want
for Valentine’s Day
is for all the guns
the AK-47s
and Bullets
to be regulated
A true celebration
of love
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
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
Charlottesville, A Prayer
Here’s a prayer for Charlottesville
Where the gunshots echo across
a million schools in the United States
A Prayer for Charlottesville
For the Black People
who tiptoe lightly across the land
While White Boys bluster loudly
with their guns and tiki torches, because they know who has rights
and who doesn’t, as they high five the police along the way
Here’s a prayer for Charlottesville
Where Heather Heyer was brutally run over
with a car filled with malice and fossil fuel
And now
Where football players, mere children, Black, Young and Gift
Have their lives too lost
Because America cannot
will not
in its obsession with power, colonialism and capitalism
is sinfully unable disarm itself
We are a death cult
Here’s a prayer for our children
brutalized by “Shooter drills”
I remember when I had thought that Columbine was a
historical rarity–Back in the day when I was in high school
I turn forty this year
I remember 9/11 when we cried no more
And gave blood and ate together
And then prayed to God and immediately brutalized
our black and brown neighbors
And bought bombs and guns
Here’s a prayer for America
obsessed with “Safety”
instead of loving our neighbors
Is love safe?
Here’s a prayer for love
Beautiful and fierce
May it renew us in ways we do not expect
Away from cars
and guns
and violence
May we let people rage
and cry
and lament
as needed
And then may we turn our words
Into actions
And to do what needs to get done
We Pray
Amen.
Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
God!
Decolonize!
Because, Lord I’m tired of Gun violence.
That’s my whole prayer today.
Amen.
katyandtheword 