selah – katyandtheword

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

Selah! Praying for Babies & Vaccines

Praying

for all the babies

to be vaccinated

ASAP,

and praying

for all the parents

(and grandparents and beloveds)

of those babies

who have been waiting

half past forever

to exhale

they know

what Selah means

Selah God

Selah!*

Amen.

*Selah is some kind of exclamatory sigh thing in the Bible that we don’t really know how to translate

Feel free to use/share/adapt/sigh/scream abundantly with some kind of credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

#Selah #violence and #thecross

I love the word Selah, the untranslatable cry to God. We have guesses, but we don’t know exactly what it means

For me it translates into the prayer that we don’t know how to pray

Selah

Its the cry out on Maundy Thursday when Jesus is worried about something that we cannot yet conceive, Selah

The cry when the first Muslim judge- Sheila Abdus-Salaam-is found dead, the domestic murder of a teacher-Karen Smith-and her student-Jonathan Martinez-registers as almost normal and when an Asian man-Dr. David Dao–is assaulted to give up his airline seat. Selah.

The cry when it is revealed that one of your friends will betray your teacher, Christ. When the fellowship is still intact, but Friday is coming. Selah

The cry when your leader bombs not one but two countries in the same Fortnight. Selah

The cry when Friday is coming, and you wish this cup can be taken from your lips, but you know it can’t be, so you pray at Gethsemane, and Friday still comes. Selah.

Drought in Africa, Dirty water in Flint, Trans Man outed by a Gay Competitor, Black Lives Still Matter, Missing Teens of Color some of these prayers never seem to end. Selah.

“There’s usually a point in Holy Week when I inform God that I’m really not sure humanity was worth all that.

We’ve reached it.”-@revlucymeg. Selah.

The violence that makes up the Cross is present, its real, its stark and needs to be mourned. Selah.

Selah.