Coffee Cup that says Your Worth is not defined by your productivity, artwork by France Corbel
What have you been told about your worth and existence?” p. 56 Isaiah 14:3-4 Psalm 62:1 In God alone my soul finds rest, for my deliverance comes from God, who alone is my rock, my salvation, my fortress: I will never be shaken. (Inclusive Bible) Worth and Blessedness
Call to Worship (Breathe in) I am born (Breathe out) I deserve rest
Prayer of the Day God I am here My birth was not a Coincidence It was in community to be beloved, in the fabric. But that does not mean that I always need to be active Just as a baby is beloved, when they sleep in their parents arms I am just as beloved, when I rest or play as when I work Help me remember that I pray, Amen.
Call to Confession: Come, let us confess ourselves to our creator, who loved us into being.
Prayer of Confession: God, I confess I do not think of rest as a connectional time. I do not think as slumber as time spent with God, even though, the first thing you want humanity to do with you, was to stay and rest with you a while. I confess that I do not find other humans worth in how much Sabbath they take, full confession, we humans do not value one another by how good we are at resting and playing with each other. Help us God, to figure out spaces and ways to value and bless one another differently we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon Hear the good news, Jesus sits with us, blesses us, and forgives us, let us rest in the good new: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.
Suggested Rest Practices: Read p. 130-131 Reclaiming Our Right to Rest Read: “You can rest. You can shift. You can heal. You can resist. You can lay down right now. If you are in a safe space that would allow for you to lay down, please do so as you read. If it’s not safe to recline. just slow down your breathing. Visualize your favorite place to slumber and relax. Go there in your mind. May these rest moments multiply as you integrate more into your daily practice.” p. 148 Journal all the ways to think of worth and Blessedness that are not about money: Community ties, all the ways one plays or rests, hobbies, all the interest one has, favorites colors, etc. Renewal of Baptism: You are beloved and You deserve Rest Make/Decorate Small Pillows Gentle Stretching Practice
Shared: The Resistance Garden (a FB group I highly rec) Existennialmemes DON”T CHASE YOUR DREAMS! Humans are Persistence Predators. Follow your dreams at a sustainable pace, until they get tired and lie down.
If you appreciate my work, please support my D. Min in Creative Writing. I am in my final year and raising money here: https://gofund.me/391febb1
I am about a week away from my Doctorate in Creative Writing Residency. This will be my final one–it has been three years already.
It is fitting that Presbyterian’s Today published and shared one of my poems just in time for the end of the school year.
I wrote it because my family has extensive experience with restraint collapse.
However, it is especially relevant this year as my eldest is struggling with 9th grade. As is often the case, puberty has complicated everything.
We are grappling with their diagnosis and have stopped their meds, and have been in survival mode all year. The poem fits as we have been waiting to exhale–and the end is in sight, we will restart different meds after they have gained weight during summer, because they are in the midst of a growth spurt as well.
During my residency, I will be assigned an advisor and “all” I have to do is write a book–I have been given a tenative approval (i.e. as much approval as one can get) to write poems with essays, I am hopeful that I can actually do that well.
As you know I try to share my work widely for any and all to use. I happy to say I am well on my way to this year being funded. All donations make a difference! If you can spare some money towards my work I would greatly appreaciate it! I crowdfund 1/3rd, my church pays 1/3rd and I pay 1/3rd. Please donate here: https://gofund.me/391febb1
Thank you for all those who have given! I so appreciate you allowing me to write and grow!!
“I want to tell you, Go thinks you are beautiful and perfect, exactly as you are.” Rev. Katy Stenta Restraint Collapse: A Prayer” a bouquet of white flowers and the PCUSA symbol in the corner
If you appreciate my work, please support my D. Min in Creative Writing. I am in my final year and raising money here as a working Public Theologian:
Receipt Available upon request Please give credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
Venmo @Katy-Stenta (last four 7841), Paypal @KatyStenta, Google Pay Katyandtheword at gmail, Cash App $bookkats GoFundMe, if you wish to send a check please email me for info
f you use this series you must credit Tricia Hersey’s authorship and Book, as it is foundational for all of the work you see here. Please credit Tricia Hersey “Rest is Resistance” and Pastor Katy Stenta for liturgy.
Can you encourage your congregation to rest? What is the culmination of this season? Is it going to be less committees? A period of prayer only? A shift to retiring/merging congregations? A decision to take every 4th or 5th Worship off to just rest? How can you be more sanctuary?
In some ways this work is the sequel to the Sermon Series This Here Flesh, if This Here Flesh is about Emobodied Liturgy (liturgy meaning the work of the people) then this is about, what do we do with our bodies, after we learn that they are in fact liturgy. (I am sure it works vice versa as well)
How are you going to model this in your Worship? Will you encourage pillows and blankets? Put moments for stretches in worship? Hopefully at least time to close your eyes and do nothing, to listen to the birds, music, to do nothing.
Cultivate rest–do what you can to encourage sleep, encourage Sabbath, sanctuary.
Who would come to Church if it was a place of Rest?
Less is more
Not because we need to work more, but because being is more important than doing
These Questions might help your preaching* But may be “too much” for your congregation, that’s ok, meet them where they are at. The political issues are real, try to address them as much as you can. Tricia Hersey talks a lot of being in the world but not of the world, this language works well in the church.
Week 1 “What would it feel like to be consistently rested?”p. 56 Come & Rest with Me Genesis 1:27-2:3 So God created humankind* in his/their image, in the image of God he created them;* male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude.And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. Psalm 46:10a Be still, and know that I am God Notes
Week 2“What does exhaustion look like for me?” p. 56 Broken Humanity: Scarcity & Hate Hosea 5:15-6:6 I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face. In their distress they will beg my favor: “Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth.”What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early.Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Psalm 3:1-6 1 O LORD, I have so many enemies; so many are against me. 3 But you, O LORD, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high. 5 I lay down and slept, yet I woke up in safety, for the LORD was watching over me. 6 I am not afraid of ten thousand enemies who surround me on every side. Notes
Week 3“What would it feel like to be consistently rested?” p. 56 Bounty Psalm 34:8-10 Taste and see how good YHWH is! Happiness comes to those who take refuge in YHWH. Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Ecclesiastes 4:6 Better is a handful with quiet than two handfuls with toil, and a chasing after wind. Notes
Week 4“Who was I before the terror of the toxic systems? p. 56 (W)holistic Self Psalm 127:7 In vain you get up early and stay up late, sweating to make a living, because God loves us and provides for us even while we sleep. Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Mark 4:36-41 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’ Notes
Week 5“What have you been told about your worth and existence?” p. 56 Worth and Blessedness Isaiah 14:3-4 When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased! How his insolence has ceased! Psalm 62:1 In God alone my soul finds rest, for my deliverance comes from God, who alone is my rock, my salvation, my fortress: I will never be shaken. Notes
Week 6 “How do you make space to transcend the confines of a system that prays to the call of ‘profit over people’?” p. 56 Grief & Healing 1 King 19:4-7 But [Elijah] himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” Romans 8:22:26 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedeswith sighs too deep for words. 27And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Notes
Week 7 “Who do I want to be?” p. 56 Restoration & Liberation Psalm 23:2 or Psalm 23:6 Surely Goodness and Mercy Psalm 23 John 14:(1-7)27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. Notes
Parenting Decolonization: Normalize not giving fuck what white folks think about how we get into spaces. Regal Picture of Toni Morrison with her gray hair pulled back in a black shirt with a purple sweater overlaying it. “The function, the very serious function of racism, is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaingin, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language, so you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly, so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Someone says that you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of that is necessary There will always be one more thing.” Notice NO TIME AT ALL FOR REST in Racism, for ANYONE, Most of all the Black people and POC. (Toni Morrison was known for not giving her time to White Academia, because she was trying to save as much of it as possible, she got up super early before her family to write)
3 yo daughter, pointing to a broke toy: “We can fix it?” Me: Of Cours.” Her: “Why do we fix it?” Me: Umm..to make it work again?” Her: “No. Because we love it.” Me: *silently contemplates the theology my toddler just taught me* Posted by @Kylebeshears
If you appreciate my work, please support my D. Min in Creative Writing. I am in my final year and raising money here: https://gofund.me/391febb1. I am more than halfway funded! Any amount $10-$200 helps. Receipts available!
A 1950s (?) Redhead luxuriating… reading a newspaper and drinking tea in bed. “They say follow your dreams..so I’m in bed. The signature looks like it is AHS
“We have been trained to believe that everything we accomplish is is because of our own pushing alone. This is false because there is a spiritual dimension that exists in all things and in everything we do. To understand that we are spiritual beings navigating life in a material world opens us to the possibility os rest as a spiritual practice. Our entire living is a spiritual practices. Much of our resistance to rest, sleep and slowing down is an ego problem….We can do nothing alone.” p. 18
“All of culture is in collaboration for us not to rest. This includes: K-12 public education, higher education, faith and religious denominations, medical industry and not-for-profits, activist organizations, corporations.” p. 24
“We are divine. Our bodies are divine and a site of liberation. Wherever our bodies are, we can find, snatch, and center rest.” p. 26
“When we honor our bodies via rest, we are connecting to the deepest parts of ourselves. We are freedom-making.” p. 26
“You are worthy of rest. We don’t have to earn rest. Rest is not a luxury, a privilege, or a bonus we must wait for once we are burned out.” p. 28
“I want you to firmly plant yourself inside your imagination Take refuge in the beauty and power of community care and our daydreaming…Rest is a portal. Silence is a pillow. Sabbath our lifeline. Pausing our compass. Get your healing. Push back. Slow down. take a nap.” p. 32
Call me Mara Today, God Because I am bitter, and the back of my throat aches from too much crying, as the grief hits me again, and again
And the place I call home is a nation that likes to “protects” the unborn, but locks up immigrants & Black and Brown kids, and cannot strike that will not feed thousands of children,
Corners the the market on formula and then doesn’t regulate it properly, stops the payments for vulnerable families,
totally and actively destroys queer bodies children and families,
and reopened the nation before any babies could receive vaccinations.
Call me Mara, God, Embittered that people want “young families” don’t come to church in a culture where parents, especially mothers, are expected to do every single thing on their own, and are judged for every imperfection*
Call me Mara, God, For I am broken;
When there is a market for bulletproof backpacks, and its somehow acceptable for THIRD GRADERS learn Tourniquet techniques, God no!
when the news is about the latest, becomes background noise domestic violence and white supremacy is acceptable And there are no warning signals are put out for terrorism
Lord God Almighty, Seems we that we are stunned..unable respond to violence. Call me Mara, God. Because despite voting, and letters, and marching and the sobs of countless families…
Not
one
thing
has
changed.
Call us Mara God.
Because, these too are our Children And tomorrow, my throat will still be sore from crying and I will still taste the bitterness of tears–that’s what home tastes like now.
I bet you want to be called Mara too, God. Because they are your children too!
We are all Mara.
Selah! Mara, Selah! Amen.
*And then we say Happy Mother’s Day as if its a “Good” thing and not further gender violence
Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
God, we confess we want some kind of Hallmark Mother’s day. But this is a complicated holiday, where not everyone is included, where people have complicated relationships with their mothers, where those of other sexualities and genders are forgotten or mocked or excluded.
Or those for whom mother’s day is just too hard or lonely–
For whatever reason.
We confess that we breeze over those who deal with infertility or who do not define themselves by their gender or motherhood, and we too often only value “women” by how many children then have produced–and place even more value if they have produced sons, even today.
We confess that all too often we through in God as mother as a token, and then move on. We confess that we throw in Mary as meek and mild, which she is never described as, and then move on. And we admit that we do not honor Mother’s day roots as a feminist, empowering and a day to start to bring equity to all of the genders. Forgive us, and teach us to do better we pray. In your nonconforming, mothering child Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
Call to Worship When we are welcomed God you call us When we heal God you call us When we feed one another God you call us Come let us serve the Lord Come let us worship the Lord
Call to confession: Let us confess ourselves to the God who loves us and welcome us exactly as we are
Confession: Godwe confess that we do not believe that those who welcome us welcome Christ. We confess that we have trouble believing ourselves one minute to be imposters and the next taking on too much for Christ. Help us to find balance in serving you. Give us the strength, patience and understanding we need. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Be assured, Christ loves us and walks with us in disciples, so know the truth In Jesus Christ we are forgiven, Amen
Prayer of the Day Dedication: May we walk with Christ, as he walks with usour discipleship we pray. Amen
Call to Worship God we are the sheep and you are the Shepherd Come Risen Christ In Christ there is neither male nor female, slave nor free Come Risen Christ We are ready to greet Jesus Christ Come Risen Christ
Call to Confess: We are truly all made clean in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, come let us confess ourselves to Christ.
Prayer of Confession: Dear God, we confess that we would like to pick and choose our Christians. We often would like to say, we are not like those Christians, or we would like to tell people who is included in our congregation and who is not. Forgive us. Teach us how to be both inclusive, and still to tell be brave enough to denounce wrong when we see it. Help us to continue to act in love we pray.
Assurance of Pardon: Remember that Christ came returned saying “Peace be with you” and so we can be assured of the Good News: In Jesus Christ we are Forgiven. Amen
Prayer of the Day/Dedication: God may we go into the world blessed that any may be given the gifts of the Holy Spirit, may we recognize these gifts when we see them we pray. Amen.
Call to Worship (based on Psalm 40:9-10) Let us speak of God’s faithfulness Come let us proclaim God’s salvation Here is the glad news of God’s deliverance God’s love is steadfast and God is faithful! Let us praise God today! Come, let us praise God forever!
Call to Confession: Nothing is too big, too burdensome or too human for Jesus to understand, come let us confess ourselves to God.
Prayer of Confession: Jesus, we confess that we have trouble with the complexity of your final commandment. That you grant us your authority, that we are to baptize all nations–that you promise that you remain with us forever. To be honest this sounds like a lot of work for us to do, and the fact that you are with us, is hard for us to always believe. Help us when we are weary, scared or feel alone. Help us when we take your command to mean to force, ostracize or belittle other people to be Christian. Help us to understand that all of this falls under your Maundy Thursday work of loving and saving one another we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Hear the Good News, Jesus Christ Loves us, Serves us and helps us. Let us comfort one another with the the good news: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven
Prayer of the Day/Dedication: Let us go into the world making disciples, through the acts of listening, praying, inviting and loving. Let us go and create disciples through the love of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
katyandtheword 