Effervescent Valentine: A Poem (CW: guns)

What is better than Child Valentine’s?
Where everyone is included?
The cost is low
the effort is loving
the joy of these children
is effervescent

What is better than Child Valentine’s?
Where everyone is included?
The cost is low
the effort is loving
the joy of these children
is effervescent

What is better than Child Valentine’s?
Where everyone is included?
The cost is low
the effort is loving
the joy of these children
is effervescent

What is better than Child Valentine’s?
Where everyone is included?
The cost is low
the effort is loving
the joy of these children
is effervescent

My youngest woke up at 4am
They made all their cards on the computer

A kid
on a mailbox
17 of them, printed
awash in their favorite red
(we are out of red ink)

Taped them to fun dip
Painstakingly wrote first
and last names
on Every Card,
Despite Being Dyslexic

What is better than Child Valentine’s?
Where everyone is included?
The cost is low
the effort is loving
the joy of these children
is effervescent

I want to stay in this joy

And yet, all I can think about
I how
all I want
for Valentine’s Day
is for all the guns
the AK-47s
and Bullets
to be regulated

A true celebration
of love

Erasure

Erasure

You can’t erase Queer
It doesn’t matter
How hard You try
With bullying
Hate
Guns
Bonfires
And bookbans

Shaming cultures
And evil gods
Can’t make People “Don’t say gay”

Evidence of “Roommates”
Hermaphrodites
Two Spirits (don’t appropriate)
Third genders
And Trans*
People
Go back
to the beginning
Of time

And Don’t
Get me started
On the Bible
With the Poly Trinity
David & Jonathan
Joseph’s Rainbow/Lady’s Coat
God’s pronouns
Revealed in flames
Ruth and Naomi
Song of Songs
The Eunuch
The Bible is Queer

You can’t erase
LGBTQIA
It Only
Gets clarified
As time Goes on
So YES
You have
To learn
New terms
#NotSorry

Yes we will
Have

#TransDayOfRemembrance

No we will
Not shut up
Personhood
Is on the line

You can’t erase
People

It hasn’t worked
Yet
And it never
Will

I promise you
I will keep
Remembering
And Naming
And Believing
And Listening

And History shows me
I am not alone
QUEER are Beautifully
And Fiercely made
In the image
Of God

No one will
Ever erase
That

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

Sacred Spaces

A Sacred Space
Does not mean pews or Prayer

It means safety
for one to be their full self

A Sanctuary, does not mean a Pastor
or a Sign that says “Everyone’s Welcome”

It is a place where the food is abundant
and the boundaries keep people safe

Church is not a building
Its the Community that its neighbors

God is not an authority or a shamemaster
They are a home to safely come to, at the end of the long journey

Safety is not straight heteronormativity ableism in middleclass suburbs
Its the freedom for everyone to dance in their club

in their beautiful and fierce incarnation
without being shot, or being hassled on the way home, or the cops being called

Sacred Spaces
Means a Space for everyone to be Sacred, no more, no less.

If there is one things all humans need–
its real and salient sacred spaces

Selah
Don’t break humans

Selah,
Don’t break the Sacred Spaces

Nov 20th Christ the King/Light Sunday

Justice, Mercy & Light Extended Advent

November 20th Christ the King Sunday
Swords into Plowshares (Thanksgiving?): Light
Isaiah 36 1:3, 13-20, 37:1-7, 2:1-4 Swords into Plowshares
Matt 5:14 Light of the World City on the Hill
Psalm 131

Call to Worship 
Come let us go to the mountain of the Lord
That God may teach us God’s ways
For out of Zion shall come instruction and light, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem
Come, the Lord’s House will be established, and peoples will stream to it
They shall beat their swords into poughshares, and know peace
Come let us find peace, and learn war no more in the God’s place

Call to Confession: Come let us draw ourselves closer to God with our confession

Prayer of Confession: God, we long to be a part of your City on the Hill. We confess that this longing is so deep that sometimes we try to manufacture it here on earth. We also confess that we do not have the patience to plant and grow peace. We do not want to wait for people to stream to God, we do not want to see God’s city come. We do not have the patience for God to open our eyes. It all seems really hard. Encourage us, Enlighten us, Imbue us with peace we pray. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: God’s peace is from everlasting to everlasting. Know then the truth: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: Let us go forward knowing that God is the City on the Hill, not us. God is helping us to plant the peace that is needed. Let us go forward ready to build the tools of peace. Amen

Hymns: I’ve Got Peace Like a River,  Crown Him with Many Crowns, Jesus Priceless Treasure, Lord Make us Servants of Your Peace, O Day of Peace, Song of Hope, Near to the Heart of God, As Deer Long for The Streams, For the Fruit of All Creation, Let All Things Now Living, We Plow the Fields and Scatter

With Children: Talk about how peace is hard work, and how war is built on hate/fear, and what the tools of peace might be “Harold’s Fairy Tale”

Harold and the Purple Crayon Book Featuring Harold drawing a Crayon

Image: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/harolds-fairy-tale-further-adventures-with-the-purple-crayon_crockett-johnson/403566/item/70790/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwqoibBhDUARIsAH2OpWg5QyBw_HnoXPv16N2_WQ-o2VHHTQ19pBZe7JFOEeAftSrrGWim_GoaAtFcEALw_wcB#idiq=70790&edition=2339925

Please Support my Writing, I am Funding some of my Doctorate in Creative Writing as a Public Theologianthrough donations https://gofund.me/554d36e3 Thank you to all those who have donated, I have successfully completed 2 years thanks to your support.

Full Extended Advent Resource

Potent Promises: Flood and Promise

Full Resource

God’s Potent Promises for Peace

Flood and Promise
Genesis 6:5-22, 8:6-12, 9:8-17 Flood, Promise Rainbow
Matt 8:24-27 Jesus Calms Storm
Psalm 23 Lord is My Shepherd

If you want a document version of this entire series for easy viewing and formatting just email me at Katyandtheword at gmail and title it Narrative Lectionary and I will be happy to send it to you.

If you would like to support my work, please give to my gofundme for my D. Min in Creative Writing or in an exciting new prospect become a Patron for only $3 a month!

Call to worship: 
Our God is the God of storms and rainbows.

The God of doves and the God of promises

Our God is the God of mighty waves, and calm peaceful seas.

How mighty is our God

How trustworthy is our God

Come let us worship God.

Call to Worship 

God we long for your care

Help us when we need your care

Lead us to the still waters

God renew your covenant with us

God we give thanks to the God of peace

Come let us praise God’s Holy Name

Invitation to Confession: God’s compassion is wider than the sea. Come Let us confess ourselves to God. 

Confession: God, I confess that I do not understand that potency of your promise. What does it mean that you made a covenant with Noah and all future generations? What does it mean that you permanently hung your bow, your weapon, in the sky? I confess that my wonder at the rainbow is still just a beginning of the understanding of your promises and covenants. Help me to dig deep into your promises I pray. (Silent Confession) Amen.

Just as the storm will be calmed, as certain as God hangs God’s rainbow in the sky, we can be certain God loves us, God knows us and God forgives us, Let us proclaim the good news to one another In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Amen

Call of the Day/Dedication: God may we continue to seek your promises, and to know that your joy is in creation and love, and you are with us. Remind us to be a people of your promise as we go, we pray in your most Holy name. Amen. 

Children: Talk about the rainbow as God Disarming Godself. God promises never to weaponize anger against us. Book Suggestion “Where the Wild Things Are” “The Napping House” “The Napping House”

Hymns: God of the Sparrow, My Shepherd Will Supply My Need, Wherever I May Wander, I’ve God Peace Like River,

If you want a document version of this entire series for easy viewing and formatting just email me at Katyandtheword at gmail and title it Narrative Lectionary and I will be happy to send it to you.

If you would like to support my work, please give to my gofundme for my D. Min in Creative Writing or in an exciting new prospect become a Patron for only $3 a month!

Full Resource

Not Oppressed, A Prayer

God
How stupid are humans
That we have to claim
Christians are oppressed
To get attention

Is it bc we know
Your the God of the oppressed?

Oh Jesus
Who weeps
Who wants to protect
The broken under your wings

Tell the Pharaohs,
Street Corner Prayers,
Herods & Warmongers

To shut up
(a word we gloss
Differently in the Bible)

And if they don’t listen
Shut them up
Anyway

Do your thing God
For the oppressed,
Enslaved, orphaned,
Widowed
Care for the children.

Do your Prince of Peace thing
Because surely
That is the way
To help the oppressed

And we Christians,
We will muddle along
Definitely not oppressed
And hopefully
Helping the oppressed
Too

Lead the way Prince of Peace.
Lead the way.
Amen!

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

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

Idolatry

God

Jesus

Holy Spirit

How can I pray to the Holy Trinity

In a work of idols?

How can explore the mystery faith

When we humans use labels as weapons?

Instead of names of exploratory wonder..

I don’t know creator,

When humans seem bent on being destructors

And death cults

And weapon makers

How to bear your image, how to preach your image,

how God can I better be your image in the universe??

::am I doing it wrong?:: my very soul whispers.

How can we free ourselves from our idols?

How can we become seed planters and tenders of things that grow?

God I long for healthy growing things..

(And you know I have a black thumb so if it need to be metaphorical so be it)

Our hearts are already broken—return us to life and live I pray.

Return us to community we pray.

Amen

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

Prayer for Peace

Life Giving God
Erase all the things
That Rob us of life
Open the ears
Of those who can’t hear
Break apart the bad policies
And politics


Breath Giving God
You know how to
Get us to become a culture
Of seed planting
Instead of death dealers

Help us to slough off
All the skins
That we think
“Protect” is
Lay us bare before you
So that can finally heal
And find peace

Please
God of Respite
Melt our hearts
And resurrect us
Into tranquility
We pray
Amen

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