Preach Sister #queer #love #theology #Jesus

Christianity is about love and grace, about finding and defining yourself and the world in relation to God and their love.

Play Video5:53

My Sister preaches, preach sister

she is the 1 in purple. Feel free to skip to min 4

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=722264261177435

She also said on fb ““also says A reminder that that is NOT what christianity usually means. Christianity is about love and grace, about finding and defining yourself and the world in relation to God and their love. Christianity does not have to mean hatred, exclusivity, or fear of retribution. In fact, the people for whom that is what Christianity means are generally the fringe minority.
Please do not judge this religion on its extremists.”“

Ch 8: Food

Ok, so maybe cooking wasn’t the best idea…but cooking has always been fairly therapeutic for me. Granted at home its usually cookies that I am making, but there is something about working out an entire recipe that feels peaceful.

Maybe I’m just thinking about food all the time because here I feel like I’m being eaten.

The silence swallows me, the darkness drinks my personality….

I must do something, because I feel utterly lost….

I turn the page and look at the recipe for bread

Extrovert

Look, there are lots of posts about extroverts and introverts, and they are (mostly) true, and I find the (noncondenscending) ones very informative/helpful. (extroverts don’t mean to interrupt/be rude and introverts aren’t really being standoffish/antisocial, etc).

In my profession, pastoring, I have met a lot of introverts-(wait don’t you have to preach on a regular basis? you ask)

The answer is, its because of introverts super-cool-awesome listing super-powers…which are very pastoral and help a lot.

Note: this is also why pastors take Monday off, they are recovering from the preaching/being large groups/expended lots of energy thing

Usually I take Friday off, after a week of only interacting with small one-on-ones or just small groups of people, I’m drained.

Church has time for both of these types: That passing of the peace time? thats for the extroverts, that silent prayer time? That’s for the introverts…(per usual, you prob should only like about 3/4 of the service, because you want people who aren’t like you to find meaning in the worship too)

Here is, what I find, to be a helpful metaphor for introverts and extraverts

When introverts interact, they are like a balloon that is slowly deflating….and in order to regain energy, they need to go and have some down time to re-inflate…..

When extroverts DON’T interact: its like a balloon that is being filled with more and more air…and if they don’t get a change to deflate (by interacting) they will “pop”

I tend to refer to this phenomena in my own life as “emotionally throwing up” where suddenly I burst out with all of my feelings in one long-winded moment, and I don’t have the energy to pare down or be quiet (help! I’m talking and I can’t shut up)

Respect the balloon…and whatever you need to do to keep your balloon at a manageable level…do so…

and go in peace!!

Wizard of Oz Universe Flow Chart (Update)

Wizard of Oz Canon-ish stuff

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Wizard of Oz Flow Chart (Updated)

This flow chart shows connections between the authors & illustrators and the inspirations that have created a universe that is over 100 years old.

This is done in different ways, first there are four different groups that are not only charted by illustrator and/or author, but also chronologically when they were published.

  1. The first forty novels.
  2. The movies produced from 1908 to 1939.
  3. The staged musical and plays from 1902 to 2006.
  4. The very short Disney involvement.

The second way is to show the connection between authors & illustrators (who worked with who). The third way is the highlighting of inspiration. For example Alexander Volkov, a Russian author, translated Wizard of Oz and titled the novel “The Wizard of Emerald City.” He also wrote five other squeals, which spawned over thirty other novels, and they inspired American translations and adaptations.

Through the years there were authors devoted to the writings…

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Get to know me

Name: Katy Stenta

Quest: To talk about God in a cool, non condescending way that includes many witticisms and as many nerdy fantasy refs as possible

Favorite Color: Blue and Green (I know, my husband hates that I have 2, but I love the water so…)

If I Entitled My Job it would be: God’s HR rep–I handle staff, complaints, and communication between all parties in and outside the company (of saints), (God is in Operations)

The Real World Calls it: Pastor

Favorite Fairy Tale: Beauty and the Beast (also really love Donkeyskin)

Things I do for fun: Theater, Yoga, draw Disney characters, Board Games: Cataan, Carcassan, Dominion & of course read (mostly fantasy now that I’m busy with children)

Bio: Married for 9yrs, to high school sweetheart from 2000, 3 children, 3 cats and my husband says we are done “No more creatures” for this family, “no more children, cats or wives” Went to Oberlin for undergrad (loved it) hung out with the Christian Ed people at Princeton Seminary,

Interesting Fact: 9/11 happened my first week of college making me just barely a millennial (entire childhood pre-9/11 entire adulthood post 9/11), also I’m a double pastor’s kid but I pretty much existed in the nerdy version of the real world…I have 3 kids and am Christian but am well-ed. intellectual. I lose count of how many “realities” I live between.

What angers me: Preaching hate as the word of God (UGGGGHHHH!)

In my Dream World: I have time to write a fantasy series & do some community theater

Self-Descriptors include (and are not limited to): Exuberant, Leader, Christian, Fantasy-Nerd, Easy-Going, Mom of Three Boys, Straightforward, Extrovert, Extremely Hard Worker, Goal-Oriented, Encourager, All About Family

Favorite Books as a Grade Schooler: Oz, Narnia, The Hobbit, Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie, Madeline L’Engle Time Quartet

Favorite Book in Jr. High: Robin McKinley, Patricia C. Wrede Tamora Pierce, L’Engle’s Austin series, Gail Carson Levine, Just Ella, Most Rewritten Fairy Tale Novels of that era (Jack Zipes, Jane Yolen, Terri Windling, etc)

High School: J. K. Rowling, Anne Bishop, Dave Duncan, Robert Asprin,

Things I Read Now (in addition to the above list): Hunger Games, Pretties/Uglies/Specials/Extras, Laurie King’s Mary Russell Series, Gail Carriger,

Favorite Pastoral Characters: Shepherd Book from Firefly, Pastor from The Princess Bride….

Community Organizing, Vigils, and How Plans Go Awry

learning and trying new things…and living into God’s love

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“Don’t become too narrow. Live fully. Meet all kinds of people. You’ll learn something from everyone. Follow what you feel in your heart.” -Yuri Kochiyama

Lunch with a friend that I love and admire so much – we caught up as we don’t spend nearly enough time together. She’s in academic and intellectual circles, church and other social circles, and just well-connected. We shifted to remembering the #nmos14 vigil back in August and I realized I hadn’t blogged or reflected much on it.

When Michael Brown was murdered in cold blood by police on the streets of his neighborhood I knew I needed space to confront, to reflect, to mourn, to confess, to process everything. Twitter came out with ideas for mobilizing people for local protests and vigils and I jumped on the opportunity to help organize one for Bloomington. I assumed that in a university town someone or some…

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Love

We like to limit God

to say God only believes in one kind of love

two kinds of genders

and sexuality is easy to define–

placing all those who don’t fit into these “normal” parameters into a category of…

“sorry God just messed up when God was making you”

“God only believes that these aspects are valid in a human being”

“You are an invalid human being”

Don’t even get me started on ethnicity and differently abled folk

Seriously…what kind of mediocre God are you preaching about…

My God has way more flexibility, creativity and love

My God is so good that I fall to my knees before the Trinity–overwhelmed with a need to love & accept people for who they are in the way that God’s Wild Love can….

and if you say your God is very different from mine…I’m inclined to agree with you….Your God is a lot tamer than mine!

Christianity<–straight up!

“Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.”

You see, Aslan is not just a lion, but he’s a great Lion. He’s the King of the Beasts, and the real ruler of Narnia. Now, Susan asks the beavers, “Is he safe?”

Mrs. Beaver says, “If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

Lucy asks, “Then he isn’t safe?”

And Mr. Beaver says this famous line about Aslan: “’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”  The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

Why do we want to limit love anyway?

#Forgiveness and #Debt

Matthew 18:21-35

Genesis 50: 15-21

It would happen that the week I’m preaching on forgiveness (thank you God & lectionary), a bully from Jr. High would ask to friend me. (He used to tell me to shut up whenever I spoke…for like a whole entire year)

Any other week I’d say yes or no and move on

But am I a holy person or not (the answer is no, no holier than anyone else…in fact when someone comes to tell me I’m a holy person, usually its to complain about me, so I def. do not lay claim to that title)

When I posted about it on FB, the discussion turned into a “Should I friend them” discussion..harkening on the very Jr. High School Experiences I didn’t like to begin with…and were actually off point.

Here’s the deal, I’m generally not bitter about Jr. High (anymore) I went to my pastoral psych eval and realized that even though I was “over it” I was still bitter so I worked hard to reframe my bitterness (Didn’t I marry someone I met in Jr. High, so it wasn’t all bad, besides my experiences laid the groundwork for my empathy and ministry that I do today). Is that my moment to say: “Do not fear. Am I not in the place of God”

But…I wanted–something more…

Debts…I feel like this person…owed me something. The listening that is last week’s lectionary…or acknowledgement of who I am, or best yet a real and sincere apology.

What happened to the whole “all we owe each other is love” thing that I so felt and preached on last week..

Debts…

Forgiveness is about feeling a debt, which really I DON’T want to be a debtholder….I owe so many debts to so many people which I have no clue whether  I will ever pay them off…and ….I hate them…(the debts that is, not the people)

I love that my children will never starve, but I never want people to feel the horrible crushing thing that is debt in my life…I don’t want people to feel like they are less of a person because they have to think about what they owe on a regular basis…

the forgiveness of debts…the debts part of forgiveness is clearer now than ever

so…forgiveness it is….

Do You Find It Easy to Forgive?

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Two of the roughest weeks of my life culminated in returning to the pulpit on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11.  Honestly, I didn’t feel like I had much to say to anyone about anything.  I was exhausted both physically and emotionally.  But there I was and it was time to start
putting one foot in front of the other and get back to living.

The gospel lesson for the day was Matthew 18: 21-35.  It is about forgiveness.  In it Peter pipes up to ask Jesus another question.  How many times are we supposed to forgive someone?  The clear implication is that we should
forgive them more than once.  Maybe the disciples had been discussing this among themselves and finally decided to send Peter to get a definitive answer on just how many times was enough.  So Peter asks how many times we should forgive.  Then he throws in a…

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