prayer – Page 5 – katyandtheword

Community

Without community there is no liberation-Audre Lorde

NL and RCL covers Elijah going to the Widow of Sidon during the drought. She says “I don’t know why YOUR God sent you here, I have but one meal left for my son and I and then we will die.” She talks about the pain, loneliness and shame of having nothing. Elijah then asks–“Do you have a cup of water?” and she agrees (I like to think begrudgingly as a tough woman) that she does.

Over this established Table Fellowship and Hospitality Elijah offers pastoral care to a widow. I like to think that as she opens her heart to him, she feels seen and heard, and she realizes that the table fellowship was a moment of openness that was just the beginning of a beautiful friendship. He then says that if they establish a community, that she, her son and he will not run out of the oil, meal/flour (and one would think Elijah would then help to gather the wood to cook them).

Mutual aid works because people who have little share what they have and form strong bonds of community. Community is formed here hospitality, pastoral care, table fellowship and mutual aid, among foreigners of different races, religions, genders, and socio-economic statuses. Community is not just about leadership, but about what the people do to help one another along the way, in the times of trouble when the leadership was terrible Elijah and the widow formed community. This is the work, the hope and the blessing that is before us. 1 Kings 17:8-16

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May be an image of text that says 'taco belle @animalologist People often romanticize "being in community" without realizing that community is formed and sustained through reciprocity fulfilling mutual obligations to one another and that this is sometimes inconvenient and taxing! But you can't receive support without offering it'

People often romanticize “being in community” without realizing community is formed and sustained through reciprocity—fulfilling mutual obligations to one another—and that this is sometimes inconvenient and often taxing! But your can’t receive support without offering it! by Baena@Silkyyy with thanks to decolonizing.love on Facebook for the images

Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta, “KatyandtheWord”

Strategically Undervalued, A Prayer

Via: farmerricshi I tried a new phrase in a meeting today. Instead of “underserved,” “underprivileged” “historically marginalized,”

Try Strategically undervalued.”

I like it because it emphasizes the purposefulness of racism(rather that the historically” which gives a kind of happenstance energy) and uplifts the community, rather than emphasizing the marginalization.

God
Almighty
in
Heaven

This is
definitely a
“Do not put your
trust in princes
powers
or principalities”
week

as the value of
actual human
beings
was strategically
cleverly
humorously
manically
and with
immediate
deniability

undervalued

The weariness of
political clamor
falls away some

God
you understand
that this is
systematic
dehumanization

Bad theology
kills

And that

for us

Christians
imago
dei
is essential
for faith

We
carry God

And that
God contains
multitudes

God is community
To deny
the complexity
of humanity

To make
the human
experience
one

is to
lose
faith

God
I pray for
humanity

re-human-ing
I pray for
peace

I carry
hope
that we
will find
flashes
of true community

Walk with us
in this time of
anger and fear
we pray.
Amen

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

Stormy Prayer

God,
We are so tired
Of
Unnatural Disasters
1, in a 1,000 chance
Hurricane, Flood, Tropical Storm
Things

Holy Spirit
We do not have to tell you
the weariness
the dwells
within
our very Souls

It is the weariness
that aches
as we
try to figure out
Evacuate
or Stay
What path is the storm
taking?

What Path is
Humanity Taking

Sweet Beloved
Peacemaking
Jesus
You know the trauma
that is being wrought
–this is not just about
climate change

Perhaps it has never been
It is humanity
trying to hold
hands with one another

before
during
and
after

these tragedies

And then
crying out
because we realize
we don’t know how

Teach us
to sit with
the Job’s
who have
lost everything

Teach us to
understand the
bitter Mara’s
and the
resourceful
Naomi’s
with their found
families

Teach us to
listen to the
leadership
of the Esther
who stand up
for the marginalized
and forgotten
at such a time
as this
during trauma
and devastation

Teach us to
sing with Miriam
when there are
moments of joy
and triumph
even in the sadness.

Walk with us God
and teach us
how to love one
another
and care for
your world
and all the humans
in it
we pray.
Amen.

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

PHOTO:

MOUNTAIN MULE PACKER RANCH

Photo from: https://www.southernliving.com/hurricane-helene-north-carolina-mules-8721273

The Bible is Queer

God I remember–when you came out of the closet–
Flaming!

And Moses, said, What are your Pronouns?
And God says, I am what I am

And Moses says,
Cool, I gotch-you, You’re the God of Pronouns!

And, God says, Good, because I have a feeling,
This will get more complicated!

And then People were doing Violence to one another
So God turned the World On and then Off again

And sent the animals two by two Upon a boat
And hung up God’s weapon, a Bow (that’s an old school gun)

And said, I’m hanging up my weapon, so you will hang up yours
As a sign that Love is Love is Love is Love

And Noah said Cool
And God said, Cool, Because I have a Feeling this might get misconstrued someday

God I remember when Joseph
Draped themselves in a Lady’s Coat

And their bros made fun of them
And tried to feed them to the Lions

And God said, Nope, I claim the Queer One
And then we “retranslated” it as a Rainbow coat, so no one will understand them as Queer

(And you laughed again God, didn’t you? You mysterious and all knowing I Am)

And then Joseph said what you meant for Evil, God meant for Good
No one can take away my God, And God said mmm-mmmmm

And I remember Isaiah, where the prophet saw God,
And clearly identified God as multiples, and referred to God as them

And scholars thought up a new word Trinity–
And we ignored the singular/multiple thing–and God waited, patiently as only God can, for it to dawn upon us.

And then there was when Ruth declared her love and devotion for Naomi
And said where you go I will go, your people will be my people, your God will be my God

And God laughed and said, this will be the foundation text for weddings
This found-family declaration between two women, shh! Don’t tell the Conservatives.

And then came Jesus who instructed us, “Care for the Least of these”
and “Let no one revile you in my name” and “Welcome the Stranger”

And we nodded along like we knew what he meant
and then we disciples whispered among ourselves about exceptions

And God, God you knew
You knew. You knew before we knew

You know, the Bible is so Queer;
It would not even be the Bible, if it did not include rainbows and flames

It would not be Holy without found families
and radical, unconventional love

God only knows, that it is not us who gets to say who belongs to God;
it is but our job to practice welcome and hospitality

Someday, perhaps
we will get the laughter of angels right

Amen.

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

https://sojo.net/articles/joy-being-queer-and-christian/how-pride-flag-speaks-promises-god

Rainbow Prayer

A Rainbow Prayer for the Methodists
After all the rain
A promise written in the sky
that violence will cease
Love will be covenanted
kept
and celebrated

A rainbow prayer for the world
that the world will call you
by your chosen name
that your chosen family
will be found
nestled
in sanctuaries
you can escape to

when needed

A rainbow prayer
for all the children
who cradle the wonders
of the wonder
when they look at the rainbows
and see
Dreams
Wonder
and Beauty

Rainbow Prayers
Breathing in the Alleluias
Even as tears stream down
reflecting tiny rainbows
of the world
as it will be
When we all realize

the Fierce and
and Wonderfully Made
Beauty of the Rainbow

Amen

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

Gratitude

As my Graduation approaches on May 31st 2024, I wanted to thank you again for your support. Your generosity has not only allowed me to study, explore my theology and write my thesis “Let’s Yell at God” but also to write a number of Sermon Series, contextual Psalms and Prayers and Liturgies for people to reflect on, pray and share. It is my hope someday to publish if the way be clear (a phrase that means if the right pieces somehow come together and God helps along the way). However, I am aware that this was truly a community effort. The donations to my work have numbered over 300. The views of my work has been 100 a day and 30,000 a year. This is not the degree of just one person—but truly the work of Public Theology, as it will say in May.

I often think about how this theology is one in the legacy of Mr. Rogers, who’s alma mater I am attending. This is supposed to be about putting theology in the public sphere in new ways. Sometimes prayer writing seems ordinary and pedestrian, and others, it feels like the tool that needs to to spark what needs to happen, the way to give permission for people to wrestle with those things in their lives that just seem to be impossible.

As someone who is always talking—it’s just that sometimes that dialogue happens to be out loud, prayer has been a lovely outlet for me to continue process what it means to be

This thing we call

Human

Thank you for being part of the journey

And helping me to fund a degree that would not have happened without the community.

Katy

www.KatyandtheWord.com

https://substack.com/profile/105115900-katyandtheword?utm_source=profile-page

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

Ashes

Because
Dirt is beautiful
nurturing, rich, Smelling of life

Because God took dust
Formed humanity
and breathed, pneuma, life into it

Ashes

Because, God walks with us
from the mountaintops
to the sand on the beaches

God kneels with us in dirt, helping to ease the load
and when we look at our hands and feet, worried about how dirty we are
God sits with us in the grime

And then God kneels, and washes between our toes
counting the grains of sand, the remnants of our work and days
reminding us of the Abrahamic promise

Ashes, because we are mortal
And nothing is forever, and it is good to remember
Our time is limited

But enough

Created from dust–to dust we will return
Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust,
Amen

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

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Transfiguration

Selah,
God
We confess
We confess that
we do not know what to say
or to do
in Light (get it)
of the Transfiguration
We would rather just sit
and bask in it
Or build a monument to it
Or somehow or another
Find a way to stay.

But then the cloud comes
And gifts us
with the relief
the contrast
the much needed
less mind shattering
shadows of shade
Because when God is too much
for us–God shades, Godself from us.
Selah.

And reminds us that
sometimes all we have to do
Is sit still
And be present
And listen

And we think
Maybe
Perhaps
We can go down the mountain after all
(Especially if we aren’t doing it alone)

So here we go God
Down the mountain
Changed
From human
to human
Shaded from God, by God
Still not knowing what Selah means
But feeling it in our very souls
as we inhale the Holy Spirit
and exhale the Holy Spirit
Selah!

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

Let’s Write Liturgy

February 20th, 1-3pm Zoom

$50 per participant

Do you want to learn how to write prayers and liturgy? Psalms and Calls to Worship? Confessions and Personal Prayers? This Zoom Workshop is designed for all levels and experiences for people to engage in prayer writing–using the scripture as your guide. This will be an instructional, small group (limit 10) and experiential workshop.

Led by Katy Stenta, Pastor, Writer and Educator

For more information to sign up, email Katyandtheword at gmail.com. Titled “Liturgy”

Katy Stenta is a regular contributor to Sermonsuite, (formerly) RevGalBlogPals, and is published in Enfleshed, Presbyterian’s Today and Outlook. She received her undergraduate in English and History and Minor on Philosophy at Oberlin, her M. Div. and MA in Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She is all but dissertation for her D. Min. in Creative Writing as a Public Theologian at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She also writes personal prayers regularly at katyandtheword.com.

(Min. 3 People to run)

Email for registration form and payment options