4th of July

God,
Here we are again,
Celebrating “Freedom” or whatever

But Black Lives still don’t matter
LGBTQIA rights are worse
Women subjugated
Children hunger and forgotten
Hate crimes up and rising

And I just Can’t,
Free to do what?
What are we celebrating?
I hate how Americans have turned
Freedom into an equivalency for Selfishness

And we all know that this has been a problem
For a while.
But I had some hope in the days of Black Lives Matter
and when Covid efforts were new
That we might actually learn some things.

But we are still a country
That throws more money at war and police
Then schools and social efforts and equality.

Some countries have Kings
We have Capitalism, Liberty, Christianity and White Supremacy
We all are living with the results of this.

So here’s my prayer:
for human dignity,
the right to belong
the right to eat good food, shelter and be clothed
the right to water, education and clean air
the freedom to be oneself.
The right to pray and to refrain from praying
I hope everyone gets a moment to just be today.

And maybe tomorrow, we will work for each other’s freedom’s
Instead of our own.

Please Jesus, show us the way.
Amen.

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

Supreme Justice? A Prayer

God,

You and I

know that I am uncomfortable

pledging allegiance to a flag–

because that flag’s justice

is not your justice.

Justice that flows like waters

is not promised in the flag

Supreme Justice–where mainly white men

reign like kings of the day;

welp God, I remember

all your warnings about kings,

and that you sent

ahem,

let’s say a different kind of judges

heroes who rebalanced the books

against the powers that be–

God we are the one

who are to empower the judges

against the Supreme Justices

Restoring Personhood, Privacy, Sexuality, Climate, Native Rights

Obliterating our hunger for Death Cults.

God, I do not want liberty and justice for all

because those human ideals cannot come close to

justice flowing down like water,

and righteousness like an everflowing stream

refresh our thirst for that which is good,

remind us to listen to those in the margins,

who still remember what justice tastes like.

Because surely it tastes like communion,

and the Kin(g)dom

and Love;

If only we can remember,

Whet our appetite for justice, I pray.

Amen.

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

Shaky Ground, A Prayer

God,

Maybe I’ll never take in

the shock of a country betraying my trust over and over again

first with 9/11

then the war in Iraq,

then college debt and a recession–

then motherhood unsupported, votes that don’t count,

adulthood mocked as I forced my way into the world hustling all of my hobbies into jobs

Being told that I didn’t care enough to make it in the world, and that’s why

I couldn’t have an emergency found, save for retirement, have security of house, babysitting and daycare for my children, living paycheck to paycheck,

after years of climate change, shaky policies and politics, no family leave, switching to paper straws, buying thrift clothes, and being told every single decision is my responsibility and fault

–the millennials are clearly to blame for it all

And knowing my family is ironically more financially secure now than we ever been and yet

now we are betrayed again,

And the world is on fire with pandemics and justice broken with Jan 6 and the Constitution being brought to its knees with two weeks of stacked “interpretations”

Maybe its ok that I cannot take in that the Supreme Court Justices have betrayed me yet again

That the greater church has no energy anymore

That there is no institution to fall back upon–

There is only faith and friends, and another letter to you God,

to say hey God,

I’m still here.

I still love you,

and I still believe that justice is worth it.

Babies need to be wanted,

Miranda rights are important,

Prayer should be taught by professionals

Guns are stupid, dangerous and don’t have rights

Schooling is more important than what we give it, and segregated schools through religiosity is trash

and I think we humans can do better than what we are doing now–

and I do know that sometimes there is no resurrection without death.

And I’m ok with that.

Help me God. Because trust is broken,

but I’m still here, and so are you.

Help me face today, and tomorrow,

because the path is not clear,

and we need to learn how to work together

with the people who know how to do the work already.

Thanks God.

Amen.

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Women at the Well Story

Content Warning: Abortion

On June 25th, 2022

The Supreme Court of the USA

Decided things, for women;

Abortion could be made illegal,

by any state that wished it.

***

It was then the stories spilled out

Unstoppered from the soul;

They were told because

someone had to hear them,

We were like Hagar,

naming the truth of the anguish

Telling the tales that some will deny

after we screamed by a the tree

from rage and anguish and lament.

***

The stories, bled out under the tree,

as we hugged one another;

Of illegal abortions at college,

When the friend almost bled out…

and these stories are not as my youngest says

from “Ancient times”–

of the sister whose ectopic pregnancy;

after she finally convinced the dr that she was indeed pregnant,

…that this life saving surgery that was administered mere weeks ago

was as of THIS moment illegal in some states.

Of the horrific and hard late term abortions,

that were tragic and still open wounds.

Of abortions that eased and affirmed lives,

because the individual had no means

to care for a a child at that moment.

Of friends and sisters and trans individuals who died

from lack of proper care.

***

We named how racism will kill so many women now.

Of the horrors of foster care and adoption,

and how that is a different conversation

to convolute with abortion.

Because White Supremacists want to control the wombs of all women, of all childbearing people though they deny they exist.

The grandmothers of our community, recalled the fight as it happened before.

Of moms who wanted to work, but were stuck with children instead.

Of no credit cards, no freedom, no divorce, no control.

***

We raged and we mourned and

like a miracle, we found ourselves by the well—women and childbearing people of all genders

and we were telling stories to you Jesus–

Not our husbands, because we said,

“Today Jesus, I have no husband”

and we said, we have no husband–

and Jesus you answered and said, that’s right.

You are your own self, dignified, in your own right.

Defined not by your husband, or your children,

with rights over your God-created, God-imagined, Godly and beautiful body.

Go and be blessed.

And so we will go, full of pain

And hope

and stories.

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

Don’t Give up, A Prayer

God

I am pretty mad at humans today

and Old White Men

and the powers that be

And the manipulators

Who thought one dollar more

was more important

than getting justice done

and the church

who put off

flipping tables

for another time and place

And I want to rage

and scream

and find the right punishment

for all of my enemies

except I don’t really know who my enemies are

just they they are out there

whispering nonsense about

pro-life and family first and great america

as they grind these things into dust

as they deal death

with additive drugs like “safety” “religion” and “whiteness”

And I feel like I’m going to throw up or pass out,

and my soul hurts with the magnitude of it all.

Is this when you run away into the desert? Jesus?

Or hop a boat into the ocean?

Or feed 5,000 people just for the hell of it?

Or invite yourself over to the tax collector’s house to dinner, just to piss everyone off?

Because at times like these I feel like if I don’t enact justice viscerally, I’m going to implode.

And then I have to remind myself I’m not Jesus, I cannot save the world.

So I beat my chest, scream a tree, write an angsty psalm, cry.

And maybe I retreat for one day instead of forty,

maybe I feed one person instead of 5,000

maybe I invite someone I’ve been meaning to over to dinner instead of a tax collector.

And I remind myself, it all counts.

Because all justice counts,

Because I’m not a Jesus or a superhero,

but at least I can do something,

and I’m not giving up.

Thanks for reminding us not to give up God.

Amen.

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

Abortion, A prayer

When the red blood stops

And your heart catches in my throat God,

because you know its not the Son of God

In my Womb,

and its not a permissible time.

Be with me–

The Woman who

Makes the Life Giving Choice

Not to be a Mother

At Such a Time as this.

Organize us in all the ways needed

To support that choice

So my blood may flow again

Because you know Jesus–

That I am fertile is in other ways

and called to other things.

And you affirm that authenticity

and bless that.

Amen.

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

Brim Full, A Prayer

God,

I have cried

every

single

day

this week.

Overcome with the emotionality that it takes to exist and breathe and be.

Because, did you know God that we humans frown on sitting still and being emotional.

It’s pretty embarrassing when we are this way.

But I am here.

Crying for love.

Crying out of hope.

Crying for the stories

Crying in lament.

Crying because I’m breathing.

Because every timeI am still

I am keenly aware that I am human

oh yeah, and that you are still God

It makes me wonder? Is this what it means to be fully human Jesus?

I want to know?

Sit with me while I figure it out?

Amen.

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

Belonging, A Prayer

God,

Sometimes, I confess,

I look at humans and say

REALLY?

Seriously.

And sometimes I keep my sense of humor

and say only humans…

Only humans can think up silly things like money and paperwork and Time and Countries,

(I mean how do those concepts even have meaning? They are very silly when you think about them too long)

And sometimes I think I don’t belong to humanity, or maybe humanity doesn’t belong to me.

And it makes me sad. And I don’t know where to turn.

And so here I am God, turning to you, because you promise I belong to you.

And maybe to the grass and the stars and the sea–even though I’m not really a nature child.

And secretly I think maybe I belong more to books and words and imaginary worlds that don’t even exist.

But either way, God. I guess we are figuring it out.

You, me, and this silly thing called humanity,

on this place called earth.

Good thing you made us with these things called jokes–

That I admit was a good idea on your part God.

My youngest made a good one yesterday.

Want to hear it? What do you call a bee that explodes in laughter?

Bee End.

Bee End, God,

Amen.

Please feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

Full This Here Flesh Liturgy

This Here Flesh Notes Week 9 Justice and Liberation

Ch 10 Justice

“Justice is different from violence and retributions; it requires complex accounting” p. 122

“Justice doesn’t choose choses dignity is superior. It upholds the dignity of all those involved, no matter whom it offers or what it costs.—there is no liberation without justice.” p. 123

“The freedom of God’s people did not occur in a vacuum. There were consequences. There was truth-telling. And there was a disturbingly costly justice.” p. 124

“Activism is the body of justice” p. 125

Habakkuk” In weariness and frustration, demanded God do something..the Christian story is the tensions between the promise of justice and liberation and the unjust and oppressive patterns in our daily lived experiences. “ p. 128-129

“Assata Shakur ‘Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them’…They are parched and delirious, their memory of themselves tainted. Their only hope is the hear the voices of the marginalized hiding them back to the water—a mercy they will not immediately understand. It is not until they drink from the streams that the prophet Amos calls on to roll down like justice and righteousness that their withering sons regenerate, and they recognize that all this time, the problem was not that they were thirsty; it was that they were were cursed.” p. 129

Land and Justice are the same p. 132, 133 bc we all live here 

Ch. 15 Liberation: Summation You deserve more than the despair that stalks your days. You don’t have to make a sound; just let the peace pass through your belly and be what you need it to be. p. 169

No notes, plan to reread

Full Liturgy Here

This Here Flesh Notes Week 7 Repair and Joy

Ch 11 Repair

“I think confession is liberation” p. 137

“dismantle their delusion of heroism or victimhood and begin to tell the truth of their offense, a sacred rest becomes available to them. You are no longer fighting suspend the delusion of self. You can just lie down and be in your own sling. And as you rest, the conscience you were born with solely begins to regenerate. “ p. 137

“confession alone…serves the confessor more than the oppressed.” p. 137

“Reparations are required…what has been stolen must be returned.” p. 138

even God themself is not too bold to undo the way things were meant to be, to show the most tragic and noble reparation” p. 138

“Sincere remorse” “apologize with grave specificity…look at me…describe what in you made you do it…I want your soul to write lie it was the back of God that was cut” AND “ask to be forged” p. 140 

Forgiveness can grow slowly and unity/reconciliation can be slow and painful p. 141  (Black woman’s answer)
“I don’t know if liberation depends on our reconciliation with others, but I am certain it at least depends on our reconciliation with ourselves” peace with her body, protected her inflamed legs instead of enemies  p. 144 

Touch Christ’s Wounds?

Father’s recovery did not feel like triumph “you feel ashamed. It’s once you’re clean that you remember.” p. 145

“As we heal, the need for more healing becomes apparent to us. It is painful, but healing makes us better perceivers of what is still hurting.” pp. 145

Father has 1,000 scars that “welded his selfhood back down and delivered back to me. I am indebted to every mark.” p. 146

Ch. 13 Joy

“When your child chooses you…” p. 159

I think we were made to e delighted in. And I think it takes just as much strength to believe someone’s joy about you as it does to muster it all on your own.” p. 159 

“I think when we give ourselves to play, the scope of ours lives expands.” p. 160

“After all, it is only in anticipation of sorrow that joy seems frivolous.” p. 161

“We become so used to bracing for the next devastation we don’t have time or emotional energy to rejoice. “ p. 161 “Some of us even begin to believe we are not worthy of pleasure or play.” 

“You know it’s joy when you feel it in your entire body” p. 163 Great Grandma Hedges “built for fun”

“My gramma’s deepest experiences of joy come in moments when if feels as if something has been restored or renews. When repair happens, we must bear witness to it. Joy does that. IT trains us toward a spirituality that isn’t rife with toxic positivity but is capable of telling the truth and celebrations when restoration has indeed happened.” p. 165

Depressed, “it was not that my family wanted me happy; it was that they wanted me close. They didn’t wan for me the kind of sadness that alienates you.” p. 168

“Mine is a joy born not of laughter but of peace. That is okay. p. 169

Ezra 3:13 

Full Liturgy Link