On National Coming Out Day Stay Safe Find Sanctuary Spaces Find places to be you Find Belovedness Find Cozyness Corners Embrace Mystery Its ok if it doesn’t all make Sense Be Gay/Queer And Do Crime Be a Riot You are Fierce and Awesomely Made
And Forgive all of us who don’t show us In the ways you need us to
In the Name of the God who show Themselves in a Flaming Bush To an Enslaved man with a Speech Impediment to Liberate People (Who you do NOT have to Believe in)
God, We keep hoping Let freedom ring Means our definition of freedom
But we know that your promise of forgiveness liberation and justice is somehow all the same thing– that in Greek somehow: it is all contained in one word
Gracious God you gift us with our authentic selves reminding us that in the midst of the Kin-dom work
the freeing of captives the feeding of the hungry the clothing the naked
Remind us that we are beloved and that you are present the work is not ours alone– you are planting seeds and tending gardens and we are not alone
So as we hear bells and wonder if we should flinch at the fireworks Remind us that you promise a liberation that is not of our hands but is instead, full of grace it is the wedding celebration of the overflowing cup the feast of the prodigal child and coin it is the finding of a home, where there is a room for each and every one of us
And we are made welcome out of grace, and true liberation forgiveness and justice
Thank you God for the chance to rest in your liberation instead of our freedom– Amen.
Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy aka “KatyandtheWord”
“Infant so tender and mild” implies the existence of a chewy and spicy baby
The existence of rhyme schemes must make God giggle sometimes
Of course newborn babes are mild
They cannot even lift their own heads with their wee little necks… It doesn’t mean
That they are not mighty with their lungs and that you as a parent Do no jump every time they snort or sniffle In a weird way to check and make certain they are still alive.
I also want to point out God That mild Is a word that is conspicuously absent in the Bible
No one
absolutely no one is described as mild in the Nativity texts it is just a word that describes all newborns
And is probably the opposite of who Mary* is Please note every time someone asks about Mary’s mildness I want to yell out it is because it rhymes with CHILD that is why Mary is described as mild.”
Why do we think Mary was meek and mild? She agreed to bear a child out of wedlock in defiance of her culture. She sang a song of liberation and freedom for the oppressed and unjustly treated. She made a rough journey to Bethlehem when heavily pregnant and another to Egypt with an infant (note evidence says it was probably a pre-schooler which may have been WORSE). She was a revolutionary, a fitting mother for her rebel son.
I am comforted in a season where I do not feel mild that this mildness is nothing more than a myth.
@KaitlynSchiess Every Discussion of “Biblical Womanhood” should include the fact that in Luke 1, two pregnant woman celebrate their new motherhood by passionately discussing the coming overthrow of every earthly empire
Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
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“Grind culture is a collaboration between white supremacy and capitalism. It views our divine bodies as machines. Our worth is not connected to how much we produce. We ignore our bodies’ need to rest and in doing so, we lose touch with Spirit. Our bodies are a tool agents for change. A site of liberation. The time to rest is now. Our collective rest will change the world because our rest resides in a Spirit of refusal and disruption. Resist is our protest. Resit is resistance. Rest is reparations.” p. 12
Rest is a form of resistance because it disrupts and pushes back against capitalism and white supremacy.
Our bodies are a site of liberation
Naps provide a portal to imagine, invent and heal
Our DreamSpace has been stolen and we want it back. We will reclaim it via rest p. 13
“Embrace knowing that you have been manipulated and scammed by a violent system as powerful evidence. Now with this knowledge you can grieve, repair, rest, and heal.” p. 17
Grind culture has traumatized us and then begin the lifelong process of healing from this trauma. This work is about more than simply naps and sleep, it is a full unraveling from the grips of our toxic understanding of our self-worth as divine human beings. Grieving in this culture is not done and is seen as a waste of time because grieving is a powerful place of reverence and liberation.” p. 28
“Once we know and remember we are divine, we will no participate and allow anything into our hearts and minds that is not loving and caring. We would treat ourselves and each other like the tender and powerful beings we are.” p. 29 Goodness and Mercy
“When I say sleep helps you wake up—it helps you wake up to the turret of who and what you are. And the system doesn’t want that. It would crumple und the weigh to this power.” p. 29
“We can bend time when we rest and I’m grateful for the slowness and the embodied work of refusal. The way taking your time and disrupting the dominant culture’s need to rush is liberation. To just be, to just depend what already is and can never be taken from us is the praxis.” p. 32
“I want you to firmly plant yourself inside your imagination Take refuge in the beauty and power of community care and our daydreaming…Rest is a portal. Silence is a pillow. Sabbath our lifeline. Pausing our compass. Get your healing. Push back. Slow down. take a nap.” p. 32
“I want you to firmly plant yourself inside your imagination Take refuge in the beauty and power of community care and our daydreaming…Rest is a portal. Silence is a pillow. Sabbath our lifeline. Pausing our compass. Get your healing. Push back. Slow down. take a nap.” p. 32
“We are resting simply because it is our divine right to do so. That is it! Rest is this proclamation for a moment.” p. 62 Reclamation
“As a person totally focused on our Spirits, souls, minds and bodies, I am worried about the road the Metaverse will play in an already sleep-deprived and disconnected world. There are too many ways to ignore the deep inner knowing, intuition, and divine wisdom that exists in us from birth already. To exists daily over time in a space of increased virtual experiences will have lasting effect on our ability to push back against capitalism and white supremacy.” p. 70
“My freedom from grind culture is intimately tied up in the healing and liberation of all those around me. Community care and full communal unraveling is the ultimate goal for any justice world, because without this we will be left vulnerable to the lie of toxic individualism.” p. 76
bell hooks all about love “‘mutual giving strengthens community’ Mutual and collective rest disrupts, interrupts, and heals. Our collective resting coordinated with traveling deep within our hearts begins the process of dismantling capitalism, white supremacy, racism, homophobia, ableism, and patriarchy.” p. 78 Rest Interrupts
“True liberation to me is to not be constantly attempting to prove our worth and ticking off to-do lists. To just be”. p. 80
“You can begin to create a ‘Not-TO-Do List’ as you gain the energy to maintain healthy boundaries. Our opportunity test and re-imagine rest is endless. There is always time to rest when we reimagine.” p. 83
Emile Townes Womanist theologian “Liberation is a process. Freedom is a temporary state of being. Liberation is dynamic. It never ends.” p. 98
“Imagine a life outside of grind culture right now. You can create it because you are more powerful than you believe. We are more powerful than we belie. What liberations can you craft outside your grind culture.” p. 137
“The illusion of living within grind culture offers the myth of control. many of us are on automated, robot machine mode and there is not room here for the magic of mystery and Spirit to move in your life.” p. 140
Do not let your credit score, man-made poverty, and/or racism define your extreme power. Your body is a site of liberation.” p. 148
“You can rest. You can shift. You can heal. You can resist. You can lay down right now. If you are in a safe space that would allow for you to lay down, please do so as you read. If it’s not safe to recline. just slow down your breathing. Visualize your favorite place to slumber and relax. Go there in your mind. May these rest moments multiply as you integrate more into your daily practice.” p. 148
Ideas to dream into p. 151-152: Safe surfaces to nap, silence as a sound, baths, stretching, detox from social media, experiment with naps, read poetry, meditate, journal
“You don’t have to be always be creating, doing, and contributing to the world. Your birth grants you rest and leisure as well.” p. 152
“Resting is not a state of inactivity or a waste of time. Rest is a generative space. When you are resting your body, it is in its most connected state. Your organs are regenerating. Your brain is processing new information. Your connecting with a spiritual practice. You are honoring your body. You are being present. All these thing are so foundational for liberation and healing to take root.” p. 153
“Your bodies don’t belong to capitalism, to white supremacy, or to the patriarchy. Your body is a divine temple and a place of generative imagination. A place of healing and freedom.” p. 153
“I believe any work that is rooted in wellness and justice and doesn’t include the collective, without a framework about dismantling and decolonizing, is incomplete work” p. 154
“I am forever inspired by bell hooks and Octavia Butler for believing in and teaching us about imagination as a tool of our greatest liberation.” p. 159
Meditation 159 to steal back time
“I believe specifically that my Ancestors, those enslaved on plantations, had their DreamSpace stolen. A theft. The space to just be replaced with racial terror and violent terror.” p. 160
“How would our justice work look different if all involved were not sleep-deprived?” 160
“What transmissions would we receive in our dreams that guide us to our liberation?” p. 160
“There is rest for the weary. For those working two or three jobs and still unable to pay rent consistently. For those parenting, working, and going to school, there is rest available to you. For the body that is unable to labor the long hours grind culture requires, rest is a refuge to you.” p. 161
“I am not overlooking the blatant reality of poverty, low wages, late-stage capitalism, corporations generation billions of dollars while the worker isn’t offered a living wage and all other trickery and abuse that make it feel impossible to thrive.” p. 161
“Rest is an imagination tool because it makes space to simply be. To be a human being is an ancient miracle that we overlook when we work so hard to prove our worth via exhaustion.” p. 161
Discernment Journal
What do I feel called to do?
How can I create space for me and my community to heal? What needs healing in me?
Can the idea of unplugging and resting for a whole month be reimagined by creating smaller moment daily, weekly?
What does intentional rest and care look like to you? Sketch a map out a visual.
How is your heart?
Who are you being?
What are you Holding?
What story are you telling yourself? What is a more liberating Story you can tell?
How can you create rest in this moment?
Are you ready to change?
p. 163
Go on Social Media rest to create space p. 163-168
“The Nap Ministry is a commitment to an ideal that may seem unattainable. This makes it revolutionary because it creates space to imagine and hope. Both are keys to our liberation. p. 174
“In Afrofuturism, there is a future where all current problems are solved. the future is now.” p. 177 We need to remember to imagine together
“Between growing up in the Black Church, watching what the Spirit can do for and to a person during embodied worship, paired with my obsession with Afrofuturism, it is easy for me to connect the dots to rest as a portal for healing.” p. 181
“I am very comfortable with embodiment and the idea of trusting deeply what is happening behind the scenes. Things essays and ears can’t see and hear.” p. 182
“Rest on a somatic level is a small resurrection. I have always been interested in the concept of community resurrection…A resurrection is a waking up into a new thing. It’s life, insight, breathing, refusing, think and a movement that is alive and made new. Rest is resurrection. A literal raising form the dead. Grind culture is a spiritual death.” p. 182-183
Meditations for rest
I deserve to rest now
I am worthy of rest
I am not lazy. How could I be lazy? My Ancestors are too brilliant for that.
Capitalism wants my body to be a machine. I am not a machine.
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f you use this series you must credit Tricia Hersey’s authorship and Book, as it is foundational for all of the work you see here. Please credit Tricia Hersey “Rest is Resistance” and Pastor Katy Stenta for liturgy.
Can you encourage your congregation to rest? What is the culmination of this season? Is it going to be less committees? A period of prayer only? A shift to retiring/merging congregations? A decision to take every 4th or 5th Worship off to just rest? How can you be more sanctuary?
In some ways this work is the sequel to the Sermon Series This Here Flesh, if This Here Flesh is about Emobodied Liturgy (liturgy meaning the work of the people) then this is about, what do we do with our bodies, after we learn that they are in fact liturgy. (I am sure it works vice versa as well)
How are you going to model this in your Worship? Will you encourage pillows and blankets? Put moments for stretches in worship? Hopefully at least time to close your eyes and do nothing, to listen to the birds, music, to do nothing.
Cultivate rest–do what you can to encourage sleep, encourage Sabbath, sanctuary.
Who would come to Church if it was a place of Rest?
Less is more
Not because we need to work more, but because being is more important than doing
These Questions might help your preaching* But may be “too much” for your congregation, that’s ok, meet them where they are at. The political issues are real, try to address them as much as you can. Tricia Hersey talks a lot of being in the world but not of the world, this language works well in the church.
Week 1 “What would it feel like to be consistently rested?”p. 56 Come & Rest with Me Genesis 1:27-2:3 So God created humankind* in his/their image, in the image of God he created them;* male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude.And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. Psalm 46:10a Be still, and know that I am God Notes
Week 2“What does exhaustion look like for me?” p. 56 Broken Humanity: Scarcity & Hate Hosea 5:15-6:6 I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face. In their distress they will beg my favor: “Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth.”What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early.Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Psalm 3:1-6 1 O LORD, I have so many enemies; so many are against me. 3 But you, O LORD, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high. 5 I lay down and slept, yet I woke up in safety, for the LORD was watching over me. 6 I am not afraid of ten thousand enemies who surround me on every side. Notes
Week 3“What would it feel like to be consistently rested?” p. 56 Bounty Psalm 34:8-10 Taste and see how good YHWH is! Happiness comes to those who take refuge in YHWH. Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Ecclesiastes 4:6 Better is a handful with quiet than two handfuls with toil, and a chasing after wind. Notes
Week 4“Who was I before the terror of the toxic systems? p. 56 (W)holistic Self Psalm 127:7 In vain you get up early and stay up late, sweating to make a living, because God loves us and provides for us even while we sleep. Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Mark 4:36-41 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’ Notes
Week 5“What have you been told about your worth and existence?” p. 56 Worth and Blessedness Isaiah 14:3-4 When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased! How his insolence has ceased! Psalm 62:1 In God alone my soul finds rest, for my deliverance comes from God, who alone is my rock, my salvation, my fortress: I will never be shaken. Notes
Week 6 “How do you make space to transcend the confines of a system that prays to the call of ‘profit over people’?” p. 56 Grief & Healing 1 King 19:4-7 But [Elijah] himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” Romans 8:22:26 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedeswith sighs too deep for words. 27And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Notes
Week 7 “Who do I want to be?” p. 56 Restoration & Liberation Psalm 23:2 or Psalm 23:6 Surely Goodness and Mercy Psalm 23 John 14:(1-7)27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. Notes
Parenting Decolonization: Normalize not giving fuck what white folks think about how we get into spaces. Regal Picture of Toni Morrison with her gray hair pulled back in a black shirt with a purple sweater overlaying it. “The function, the very serious function of racism, is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaingin, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language, so you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly, so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Someone says that you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of that is necessary There will always be one more thing.” Notice NO TIME AT ALL FOR REST in Racism, for ANYONE, Most of all the Black people and POC. (Toni Morrison was known for not giving her time to White Academia, because she was trying to save as much of it as possible, she got up super early before her family to write)
3 yo daughter, pointing to a broke toy: “We can fix it?” Me: Of Cours.” Her: “Why do we fix it?” Me: Umm..to make it work again?” Her: “No. Because we love it.” Me: *silently contemplates the theology my toddler just taught me* Posted by @Kylebeshears
If you appreciate my work, please support my D. Min in Creative Writing. I am in my final year and raising money here: https://gofund.me/391febb1. I am more than halfway funded! Any amount $10-$200 helps. Receipts available!
A 1950s (?) Redhead luxuriating… reading a newspaper and drinking tea in bed. “They say follow your dreams..so I’m in bed. The signature looks like it is AHS
“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
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