Tag: Holy Spirit

Throw Jesus Off the Cliff

Some days
God
I feel like
we are throwing
Jesus
off a cliff


I feel like
we hear the words of prophecy
that say
Make things easier
help those in need

It is amongst the cacophony
of “Masculinity” “Capitalism”
and “Christian Nationalism”


Do you hear it under the cries for
Nazareth First?

Jesus says: I am here for the immigrant widow,
the strangers,
the broken,
the disabled,
the weird,
the LGBTQIA,
and the strange

I feel like
when we hear the echo
of Jesus’s voice
Calling us
to do the hard work
of the gospel

that when Jesus walks with us
and says
you are correct
Christianity
is not
about success

We have to sit down
and say
what is life about then

and many people
throw Christianity
leadership
Jesus
or whatever out

Why do we do this worship
thing
If it isn’t about that anyway?

Sometimes I want to put out posters
Come to church
We do brokenness
really well

Come to worship
We are bad at community

Join us Sunday
We have had to practice
for 2,000 years and are
still getting power dynamics
wrong

Put your faith not in
princes
power
and principalities

But the dandelion
still bloomed
A perfect
Weed
spreading
Wishies
for children
to blow
in the yard

I treasure God
calling me
a dandelion
full of
seeds
and
Wishes

Image: A child, in a red coat, you happily cannot tell their gender, drawing butterfly and heart) out of a giant dandelion (like making a wish). Image sourced from https://img.freepik.com/premium-photo/child-blowing-dandelion-with-heart-star-sketch_587981-17165.jpg


Practice focusing on God
practice community
practice honesty
exercise everyday–not
because you will win any races
But because walking together
is the journey

And some days
I too want to throw Jesus off the cliff
Because it’s clear
I still don’t get it

And then Jesus floats back
and hugs me
Because
it never was about
perfection
in the first place

But the moments of
beauty
community
laughter
still count

Thank God
for that

Amen

Feel free to use/share Adapt with Credit to Pastor Katy Stenta aka KatyandtheWord

Blessed Holy Trauma Week

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


Lent 2, Lord Teach Me to Pray/Give Yourself to God

Lent 2 Themes: Breath Prayer, Orientating Yourself (to God) 

Breath Prayer you find yourself and then orient/reorient yourself. 

So you ground down and then ground up; Or Root down and then root down more firmly; Or Orient yourself up/then Outward, or orient yourself in yourself and then yourself in God; or figure out where you are and then where you are in community; or find where you are in community then differentiate yourself within the community. 

Mark 4:25-41 or Matthew 11:28-29
Psalm 150 or Psalm 46

Breath Prayer
Inhale: I am
Exhale: We are

Inhale: God loves us
Exhale: We are beloved

Inhale: God can work with emptiness 
Exhale: it is enough to exist today

Inhale: There is time
Exhale: God sits with us

Inhale: I am a Divine Image Bearer
Exhale: God creates through me

Inhale: Peace
Exhale: Love

Call to Worship
Praise God, we are in God’s sanctuary
Let everything that breathes praise the Divine
Praise God, the mighty firmament, grounding us down
Praise God to the heavens, the deeds that lift us up
Praise God with trumpets, with the gentle lute and heart
Praise God with every breath, for God is worthy of Praise 

Call to Worship
God breathed life in the first humans
It is enough to be present with God
Whether we need to feel grounded or more supported
God will orient us in the ways we need to go
Teach us to pray in the ways we need to pray
Breathe into us today God, Holy Spirit Come!

Call to Confession: God breathed life into us, and taught us to pray. Thus we are able to lay anything that troubles us at the feet of God, come let us confess ourselves to God. 

Prayer of Confession: God, I confess I do not yet know how to pray without ceasing. I confess that sometimes my breath catches in my throat, and I feel stuck. Remind me that your pneuma, breath flows through my body, and that when I do not know what to pray, the Holy Spirit prays on my behalf. Teach me the rhythms of breath and prayer I pray. (Silent Confession) Amen. 

Prayer of Confession: God, we confess that we struggle to feel present. Shopping lists, worries and distractions overcome and overwhelm us. We forget that you know all of these trouble, and that you want us to slow down, to take stock, and to breathe. Teach us to take the time to Sabbath and breathe we pray. (Silent Confession) Amen

Assurance of Pardon: God breathes forgiveness into all things, know the truth In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: God breathes life into all things, reminding us that God is present in the empty spaces, and that some days existing is enough. Let us be present with God today. Amen. 

Taize: Holy Spirit Come to us

Prayer Activity: Body Prayer https://www.cascadialivingwisdom.com/body-prayer-julian-of-norwich or https://katyandtheword.com/2024/01/03/body-prayer/ (seated or standing)

Write a Breath Prayer

Breath Prayer: https://colearthurriley.com/writing/project-three-xdb2n

breath up with a gold heart on either side, breath out with a gold heart on either side

Trinity Sunday Liturgy

Call to Worship (based on Psalm 8)

God, how majestic is your name in all of the earth.

When I look at your heavens, thew work of you fingers: the moon and the stars. I think, what are human beings that you are mindful of them?

Yet you have put us a little lower than you, and crowned us we glory and honor!

O God, how majestic is your name in all of the earth. 

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Romans 5:1-5

Prayer of Confession: God, we confess that we do not always feel that your wisdom is present. We confess that this lack makes it hard to practice grace, that suffering seems abundant, and endurance lacking. We confess that we do not always find hope. Send us your Holy Spirit to supply whatever it is we need we pray. Amen. . (Silent Confession). Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: Christ advocates for us, always, so we know the truth: In Jesus Christ you are Forgiven

Prayer of Dedication (based of Proverbs 8:30-31): Remind us that your wisdom delights in us, daily, rejoicing in the inhabited world, and in humanity. Send us into the world holding tight to that we pray. Amen. 

Hymns: Immortal Invisible God Only Wise, God of the Sparrow, God of the Ages Whose Almighty Hand, Great God We Sing That Mighty Hand, When in Our Music God is Glorified, God who stretched the spangled heavens

Children: Compare and Contrast what God considers “Power” (serving, love, creating things) to human Power (money, politics, popularity)

Messy Hope, a Prayer

God

I wonder if everything

In heaven will be well loved

Like a comfortable sweater

And a couch that hugs your butt just the wife way.

Holy Spirit you know how I am longing for comfort.

For the things of childhood that were so soothing:

Playing in the grass, coloring so hard you could smell the crayons, saying hi ready to make friends with the world.

Sometimes when people long for the good old days. I think they are wishing for their inner child

—even if they don’t remember who that was.

Ans yet Jesus, you know

And say that a child shall lead us.

God you know that nothing is gently used in my house—my kids are busting with energy and ready to fully embrace everything life has to offer.

Couches are to jump on.

Juice boxes spilling out with sweet goodness.

Mud and dirt brimming with life.

God, in this time of turmoil, help me to taste heaven.

Because surely this chaos is what Pentecost was like!

Come Holy Spirit! Fill us with some messy hope today we pray.

Amen.

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

Living Water

Signs of God: Baptism/Holy Spirit

Psalm 147:1-11

John 7:37-52

Call to Worship

Praise to Our God, it is Good to praise our God who Gracious

God heals the broken-hearted, and binds up their wounds

God determines the number of the stars, and gives them their names, our God is abundant in power, and has an understanding beyond measure.

Come let us praise our glorious God!

Call to Confession: God we confess that we are tired and in need of the nourishment you promise. Please give us that nourishment today. Let that living water flow from our hearts as promised we pray.

Assurance of Pardon: Hear and Know God is here with us, sustaining us. Know the good news In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Prayer of the Day/Dedicaiton: Jesus you promise that the living water, the Holy Spirt, will come from your followers hearts, help that to happen today and everyday we pray. Amen.

Children: Holy Spirit talk about all the meanings of the Holy Spirit: Wind, Water, Fire, Inspiration, Breath. Talk about which image might be their favorite and why. Discuss how Jesus talks about how their is a piece of the Holy Spirit in every single human being to help comfort, sustain and inspire us, and that’s what today’s story is about!

Hymn: I’ve Got Peace Like a River, Breathe On Me Breath of God, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Out of Deep Unordered Water, Stand Up and Bless the Lord

If you find my work useful, please consider giving to my Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing https://gofund.me/70a114f9. It is a “working theologian’s” doctorate where I preach, write and share my work with the world all at the same time. If your church uses my work extensively and could use a receipt email me at katyandtheword at gmail and let me know!

A Disappointed Prayer

It happened again God,

A person I admired,

let hate and errors spew from their mouth

accusing other of not being humans

refusing to understand.

I know what you mean when you

say their ears were closed

and their hearts were hardened.

And it hurts, God, when the chinks in the armor

turn out to be pieces of hatred,

Screw TERFism

–and White Fragility

And Sexism

And Heternormativity

And Colonialism

And Exceptionalism

And Ableism–

when people who you hoped could imagine worlds

Of openness, people who helped you to see a better kingdom of God,

turned out to be as human as everyone else.

I guess we all need Jesus in the end–but it’s timeslike these

I really need the Holy Spirit,

to come down and protect my marginalized beloved ones–transgendered, black and brown, poor and disabled.

It’s times like these I need the Holy Spirit to come down and inspire and comfort me,

because I really don’t know what to do with the pieces of my heart when they lie shattered by the people who I trusted to care for it.

And of course, still, always, none of us are Jesus

I guess this is why the Kin-dom God can never, ever

ever

be the vision of one person

No one person is ever going to get all the pieces–

help us to keep imagining it,

together,

encourage us,

especially in times like this we pray.

Amen.

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

Pandemic Prayers & Resources

If you find these resources useful please consider contributing to my Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing! 

Sept 12 Creation by the Word

Living Into this God Given World: God Gives Creation

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

John 1:1-5

Psalm 33: 1-12

Call to Worship

God you created all the things

Combining the Light with the Darkness, the Sky and the Earth, the Water with the Land

God, you are not a God of singularities, but combinations, yielding all kinds of crops and animals and sunsets

And you saw that this was good.

Let us rejoice in the manifest glory of your creation today and everyday!

Let us praise God, mysterious, manifold and and always creating. Glory to our God, the creator!

Prayer of Confession: God, we confess that sometimes we ignore the manifold of your creation. It is hard to imagine that you created so much that you needed to rest aftewards. It is hard for us to imagine that you hallowed every aspect of creation. It is hard to imagine that you designed the earth out of abundance so that every single being should have enough. We confess that we are very limited in our understanding of your creation. Forgive us, teach us to have a better understanding of your creation we pray. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: God promises God’s mercies are new every morning. Let us tell one another the good news today. In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Prayer of Dedication/Day: God as you first shaped the world and breathed life into it, we ask for your continued inspiration and shaping. Grant us the gentle breeze of your your Holy Spirit, especially when we are weary and out of breath, to cool and inspire us. Continue to minister to us in your gentle way as we go into the world, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Children: Play with Legos, Cooties or some other interchangeable toys, discuss how many variations there are, discuss how God made so many varieties of the earth. Talk about the our human job to do science discover, create and name things with God as “Co-creators.” Read God Gave Us You.

Hymns: “Spirit” “This is My Father’s World” “God of the Sparrow” “Morning Has Broken”

More Narrative Lectionary Year 4 Fall Resources

(If you appreciate my work donations for my Creative Writing Doctorate in Ministry accepted for my GoFundMe here)

Confession of a stiff-necked person

God, my neck has been cracking all day.

And I don’t think it’s the 12 minutes of yoga I did last night. I think it’s years of stress.

Years of permission giving to racists, bigots and white supremacists, years of Christians defending heinous actions, years of children being separated from their parents, lgbtqia abuse and state violence against black and brown people.

And a year of a pandemic.

Makes me rethink those stiff necked people in the Bible God. Those who you confront.

Full Confession Jesus: I did not know that I was a stiff necked person. Though I am in good company with Hebrews in the desert, who time and time again were too obstinate and stubborn to listen.

What have I been unable to hear these last 4, 5, 6 years? As I tensed my shoulder blades and endured many headaches, where was I stubborn (in ways I did not realize) to survive.

It is a relief to let go a little bit, to roll my neck a little bit, to confess a little bit and to loosen my soul a little bit.

So here is a little bit of a hallelujah–as I watch the snow swirl and listen to music.

A little piece of hallelujah that you have opened things up, and that the yoke of life rests easier today.

Thank you, alleluia, Amen.

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

Please Share/Adapt with Credit to Katy Stenta and Please contribute to my Doctorate of Ministry with a Donation  I have PayPal https://paypal.me/KatyStenta?locale.x=en_US Venmo www.venmo.com/Katy-Stenta or Google Pay to Katyandtheword at gmail. My go fundme is gf.me/u/y8n94m

Hoping for Hope

Do you have hope? I asked one of the mental health patients on my ward, way back in Seminary as a I served my clinical unit.

No, she said, but I’m hoping for it.

God, you know how many times I have been in this position, hoping for hope.

I don’t have the hope yet. There are too many uncertainties, but I’m hoping for it.

Because God knows, God knows that we don’t have enough in place for us to be hopeful yet. God knows the illness, inequities and sheer number of existential crises that are going on right now.

But, you also know, God, that the Holy Spirit comes for us with radical changes in the crux of her very being.

So today, I will look for the Holy Spirit: for inspiration, encouragement, and yes even hope embodied.

Because even if I don’t have it, maybe I can at least recognize it along the way.

I’m just here, hoping for hope God.

So that is my prayer, that I can continue to hope for hope.

Amen

Image an original mixed art collage “Hope for Jan 20th” by Bea Stenta

Feel free to use or share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta