Promises & Prayers

Someday

I hope

We will raise prayers

No longer wet

With the sacrificial blood

Of children killed by guns

And violence

And hunger

And neglect

And hate.

Some day

We will care

More for health

Than test scores

More for housing

Than lawns

More for queer families

Than breaking hearts

More for disabled people

Than helping porn and “self-advocacy”

More for people of color

Than trumped up blame, hushed up histories, and subjugation.

Some day God,

The kin(g)dom

Will sneak up

On us

Like a cool breeze

On a hot day.

Like dew

On the lawn

Like a rainbow

Coming into focus

And we will all be Beloved neighbors there!

I’m standing in you

And your promise Jesus.

Because at the end

Of the day

Isn’t that what prayer is?

So I’m standing here

Breathing another one

Another prayer

For your collection

Put it on your heart please.

Amen.

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

All I want…(Magnificat)

All I want for Christmas God,

is everything

Peace on Earth, and no more guns,

and the end of the filibuster,

and every child fed.

All girls want is equity–

and all pregnant people want is easy and safe access to abortion

and childbirth, family leave and chidcare.

Jesus Christ, do you hear me?

All we want is equity, and Black Lives to Matter

and Native Land Returned

and Queer Families to be acknowledged and safe

and for all Bodies to be Affirmed.

All we want is for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

to include healthcare and shelter for every single person

and the humanity of one single person to never ever be debased.

All I want is for pronouns to be universal, and for people to not look at me weird if I refer to God as she or ze or they.

All I want is for everyone to understand that no human being is illegal,

and that disability porn is disgusting, and that any nation where people have to beg to get basic things is severely lacking.

Holy Spirit– you have heard me say this before, so you know.

All I want is a world where addiction is understood to be a disease,

mental illness care is not a shambles

and neither is blamed whenever some domestic terrorist incident happens.

All I want is a world where everyone who wants access to therapy can get it–

without barriers for free.

All I want is a place where politics are not politics but policies of care and where politicians are there to serve the people.

All I want is a world where mindless corporations are not favored and technology is first and foremost used to help one another.

God–why did you make my imagination so unlimited, when it seems that our capabilities are so limited?

How is it I can so easily imagine the Kingdom to come? I know its not really my job to bring it about, because I can’t, that’s your job.

Nor can I demand it, for it will come in its own time.

But wow Lord, whenever I imagine what can be, my mind just goes wild with the possibilities! Help me to see some of the fruit of the Spirit I pray!

Because, as you know, I want it all!

Amen.

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

Silly Humans… (or Do you Have a Flag?)

Eddie Izzard explains how we like to lay claim on things, instead of say, naming things (which I think is our Biblical Calling), we take them over and call them as our own. Or worse, say that God prefers us to own this instead of someone else..

How do we do this? with flags of course

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTduy7Qkvk8

Or in church’s its with keys. The number of conversations, wranglings, making, processing, changing of and trying to account for  keys is amazing. 

Keys to the Kingdom, right? That is what its really about!

But, to me, the doors to church should be wide open..

I guess I should come out…I am anti-key

I know there are safety concerns and I understand why congregants (esp. older ladies) don’t want to be alone in an unlocked building in the middle of town..

But, I don’t know how we can build trust if we don’t practice it…how can we make people responsible for God’s Kingdom if we can’t hand them responsibilities? How can we work together better?

We give each other space–both figuratively and literally, to make mistakes. 

Tearing Down Walls

Some may call this idealistic, I call it practical faith…

I don’t know how we are going to unlock all the doors we put between each other….but Itrust that God will show us the way!

PS watch the link 🙂