Christmas is 12 days Because it is supposed to be an entire season Enough time to rest refresh reflect It was never supposed to be all stuffed into one day There was supposed to be enough time for journeys getting lost finding our way again and then eventually room for an epiphany
Christmas is a space a season
a journey a wandering a pondering
—-so if your haven’t done all of the Christmas things Or if everything didn’t go perfectly
Remember you are in good wizardly some would even say wise company
Eyvind Earle 3 Magi (The artist for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty)
3 Crowned Men with black beards—identical, holding gifts frankincense, gold and myrrh, with black and Bluegreen cloaks trimmed in golden plants.
Offering the gifts to Mary with a baby (both with black hair) at her breast with a moon/golden plant trimmed halo around them. Mary is dressed in gold trimmed purple.
Joy is not a platitude though sometimes we use it as a mask
Joy is not smile Jesus loves you it is not happiness
Have you seen a joyful child? the gift of their giggles the wonder of life borne from love (yes I am writing all bornes with poetic “e”s this season)
Joy is rebellious it is deep-rooted sense of differentiated Belonging to Community Creation and Self All at Once
it is the ability to still Create even in the Midst of Grief
Joy is Art
Joy to the World Is practicing Advent claiming the Holy Imaginings for better How Much More For Proclaiming Lament And Claiming Tomorrow
Joy is the In-Breaking Christmas In the Midst of Advent
Even the Ancient Priests had Proclaim in Pink Excuse me I mean Rose Because they could not hold back the Gaudy Carols of Christmas During the Long Season Of Advent (and not just because it used to be Six Weeks instead of Four)
God, you know, That we know, We are tired of this Advent Season Yet Somehow You Teach us Joy In Children In Art In Gardens In Our Deep Longings for More
Remind us that Joy is a Revolution* Amen Amen
Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
Silent Night, Holy Night Womb of Love Creative Might Holy Darkness the Spirit indwells Giving Hope to the marginal Midwife of Harmony, Midwife of Harmony
Without community there is no liberation-Audre Lorde
NL and RCL covers Elijah going to the Widow of Sidon during the drought. She says “I don’t know why YOUR God sent you here, I have but one meal left for my son and I and then we will die.” She talks about the pain, loneliness and shame of having nothing. Elijah then asks–“Do you have a cup of water?” and she agrees (I like to think begrudgingly as a tough woman) that she does.
Over this established Table Fellowship and Hospitality Elijah offers pastoral care to a widow. I like to think that as she opens her heart to him, she feels seen and heard, and she realizes that the table fellowship was a moment of openness that was just the beginning of a beautiful friendship. He then says that if they establish a community, that she, her son and he will not run out of the oil, meal/flour (and one would think Elijah would then help to gather the wood to cook them).
Mutual aid works because people who have little share what they have and form strong bonds of community. Community is formed here hospitality, pastoral care, table fellowship and mutual aid, among foreigners of different races, religions, genders, and socio-economic statuses. Community is not just about leadership, but about what the people do to help one another along the way, in the times of trouble when the leadership was terrible Elijah and the widow formed community. This is the work, the hope and the blessing that is before us. 1 Kings 17:8-16
People often romanticize “being in community” without realizing community is formed and sustained through reciprocity—fulfilling mutual obligations to one another—and that this is sometimes inconvenient and often taxing! But your can’t receive support without offering it! by Baena@Silkyyy with thanks to decolonizing.love on Facebook for the images
Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta, “KatyandtheWord”
Via: farmerricshi I tried a new phrase in a meeting today. Instead of “underserved,” “underprivileged” “historically marginalized,”
Try Strategically undervalued.”
I like it because it emphasizes the purposefulness of racism(rather that the historically” which gives a kind of happenstance energy) and uplifts the community, rather than emphasizing the marginalization.
God Almighty in Heaven
This is definitely a “Do not put your trust in princes powers or principalities” week
as the value of actual human beings was strategically cleverly humorously manically and with immediate deniability
undervalued
The weariness of political clamor falls away some
God you understand that this is systematic dehumanization
Bad theology kills
And that
for us
Christians imago dei is essential for faith
We carry God
And that God contains multitudes
God is community To deny the complexity of humanity
To make the human experience one
is to lose faith
God I pray for humanity
re-human-ing I pray for peace
I carry hope that we will find flashes of true community
Walk with us in this time of anger and fear we pray. Amen
Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
God, We are so tired Of Unnatural Disasters 1, in a 1,000 chance Hurricane, Flood, Tropical Storm Things
Holy Spirit We do not have to tell you the weariness the dwells within our very Souls
It is the weariness that aches as we try to figure out Evacuate or Stay What path is the storm taking?
What Path is Humanity Taking
Sweet Beloved Peacemaking Jesus You know the trauma that is being wrought –this is not just about climate change
Perhaps it has never been It is humanity trying to hold hands with one another
before during and after
these tragedies
And then crying out because we realize we don’t know how
Teach us to sit with the Job’s who have lost everything
Teach us to understand the bitter Mara’s and the resourceful Naomi’s with their found families
Teach us to listen to the leadership of the Esther who stand up for the marginalized and forgotten at such a time as this during trauma and devastation
Teach us to sing with Miriam when there are moments of joy and triumph even in the sadness.
Walk with us God and teach us how to love one another and care for your world and all the humans in it we pray. Amen.
Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
God, I just don’t know– everything seems unstable We long for leadership Security
We would like someone to set us up to go like grand leader or perhaps a master mechanic
It reminds me of when the Hebrew people just wanted a King to swoop in and fix everything and they got David who was kind of an Ass
God’s ass, but still
God you know that we know that there is no perfect leader to save us right now
that it is time to take responsibility and start tending things ourselves
And maybe that is why we are so scared confused tired
We would rather be on auto-pilot But we are not robots
And the God created us in a Garden Growing slowing and differently
@joynessthebrave “you are not a machine. you are more like a garden. you need different things on different days. a little sun today. a little water tomorrow. you have fallow and fruitful seasons. it is not a design flaw. it is wiser than perpetual sameness. what does your garden need today?”
God teach us to think listen respond
Help us to tend what needs to be tending we pray. Amen
Feel free to share/adapt/use with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta aka “KatyandtheWord”
Jesus: I came because the commandment thing…well..it wasn’t working in the first place (and Christians have a weird understanding anyway of it. See below) You have heard it said posting the law is the answer But Truly I say to you the law has been fulfilled so that you are redeemed by grace, overflowing and freely given—And that grace is better than the law.
The code is more like “guidelines” than actual rules
God I remember–when you came out of the closet– Flaming!
And Moses, said, What are your Pronouns? And God says, I am what I am
And Moses says, Cool, I gotch-you, You’re the God of Pronouns!
And, God says, Good, because I have a feeling, This will get more complicated!
And then People were doing Violence to one another So God turned the World On and then Off again
And sent the animals two by two Upon a boat And hung up God’s weapon, a Bow (that’s an old school gun)
And said, I’m hanging up my weapon, so you will hang up yours As a sign that Love is Love is Love is Love
And Noah said Cool And God said, Cool, Because I have a Feeling this might get misconstrued someday
God I remember when Joseph Draped themselves in a Lady’s Coat
And their bros made fun of them And tried to feed them to the Lions
And God said, Nope, I claim the Queer One And then we “retranslated” it as a Rainbow coat, so no one will understand them as Queer
(And you laughed again God, didn’t you? You mysterious and all knowing I Am)
And then Joseph said what you meant for Evil, God meant for Good No one can take away my God, And God said mmm-mmmmm
And I remember Isaiah, where the prophet saw God, And clearly identified God as multiples, and referred to God as them
And scholars thought up a new word Trinity– And we ignored the singular/multiple thing–and God waited, patiently as only God can, for it to dawn upon us.
And then there was when Ruth declared her love and devotion for Naomi And said where you go I will go, your people will be my people, your God will be my God
And God laughed and said, this will be the foundation text for weddings This found-family declaration between two women, shh! Don’t tell the Conservatives.
And then came Jesus who instructed us, “Care for the Least of these” and “Let no one revile you in my name” and “Welcome the Stranger”
And we nodded along like we knew what he meant and then we disciples whispered among ourselves about exceptions
And God, God you knew You knew. You knew before we knew
You know, the Bible is so Queer; It would not even be the Bible, if it did not include rainbows and flames
It would not be Holy without found families and radical, unconventional love
God only knows, that it is not us who gets to say who belongs to God; it is but our job to practice welcome and hospitality
Someday, perhaps we will get the laughter of angels right
Amen.
Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
Blessed Holy Trauma Week Where the spying on our friends Come out to haunt our Wednesdays We feel the reality That not all of our relationships are safe
Where the Table when we eat together might feel haunted by those who are missing the ones who have died Or the ones we are not speaking to (hopefully for just now, Lord hear our prayer) The echoes of lonesome pandemic times…
We remember that Jesus ate with Judas and are comforted (How do you do that God?)
And the washing of the feet feels too much But right
And some people are wedding Bibles to constitutions And we remember that Jesus said That he would temple down And that what he did was rip the curtain that was separating the so called “holy” people from the people into smithreens (Holy Spirit flip these tables)
Blessed Holy Trauma Week when your Youth Group Leader Dies of Breast cancer that she has been battling Basically since the day you met her She counseled, supported Got you the hall for your wedding Sponsored your call to ministry…
Blessed Holy Trauma Week When Friday is supposed to be Good But your car is in the shop and you can’t get to worship to cry at the cross And you think about how trauma lives in your bones
Is not Jesus our very Sibling, who died in the cross? Do we not say we die with him? How then do we not feel it?
And so you weep instead for the children in Gaza Gaza–where the word gauze, the cloth for healing was made And no hospital has any medicine for infection And children are dying from malnutrition
Blessed Holy Trauma Week where you have permission to be fully human weak pathetic Empathetic Sympathetic To melt on the floor and weep Because we are all only human And Jesus Christ knows it Crying utterly alone on the Cross
Does everything always happen on Holy Week? All the ministry colleagues ask?
Yes my soul answers
Blessed Holy Trauma Week Where we are blessed to be fully human Fully aware and to breathe in and breathe out in-between
katyandtheword 