My God is the Immigrant God
The son of a slave
(I’m sorry do we usually translate Mary as a servant?)
The God of the found Family
the God of Queer Joseph
prancing around
in their lady’s cloak..
coat of many colors
God sees and hears the trauma
In the stories and sees the perspectives
we miss
Holding our hand
as we untangle the narrative
that we need to hear
Helping us to
get to a place of
true sanctuary
community
and Shalom: wholeness, defragmentation, peace
Our God is the accessible God
not contained to Jerusalem
Ephraim
God can be worshipped anywhere
even in
Samaria
And so God says–remember
I am the immigrant God
And when David says
Solomon says
humans say
I’ll build you a building
God says
Why would
I
EVER
Want to be
Contained in that
I’m really glad we listened to you on that one
Our God is the expanding God
The one who turns the “bad Moabites” sterotype
on it’s head with Ruth
The one who contrasts the evil people from Uz
with blameless Job
the one who shows the wholeness of personhood
Of foreigners and eunuchs
(God of immigrants)
with the magi and the baptistism of the African Eunuch
And the Samaritans, those neighbors too like the Hebrews
become “Good” in the neighbor parable of Jesus
God is a protest God
who sends yelling Prophets
and Fighting Judges of Justice
and Well Endowed Women to back
Jesus and his disciples
God is many things
a mover
a shaker
a creator
an artist
someone helping those
in the corner of your eye
Affirming the full personhood
of all those you meet
What God is not is
a Kingmaker
A wealthproducer
An institution creator
a power propper
The Divine has no interest in
human machinations
they are but
wisps
and string
Unimportant
God is interested in
how people
and relationships will flourish
Giving life and personhood
to all….
Moving in
Unexpected ways
(Which is probably why
we think the Divine is so mystery)
Thank God
for that!
Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
*with thanks to Aemina Razzina for her book and discussions about “Healing Together” to help inspire this prayer https://www.everand.com/book/813879316/Healing-Together-Trauma-Informed-Care-for-Spiritually-Integrated-Communities
katyandtheword 