to claim one’s self in
Christ: to imagine God’s King-
-dom into being.
LGBTQ Christian
Be Still…God is Our Refuge
God, you call me to
act for justice and mercy.
But teach me stillness.
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I like to do. I see following God as action. Faith as a verb. That is true. But what does it also mean to also ‘be still’ in God’s presence? To find stillness in God as my refuge (Psalm 46)?
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God,
I am called to act,
to do:
to advocate
to collaborate
to demand justice
to show mercy
to love profusely.
But what does it mean to be still?
To know that you are my refuge?
To find refuge
and strength
in the stillness
of God’s presence and power:
God’s love.
Lord, hear my prayer.
Amen.
A Pigeon and God’s Presence
I scratch and crawl
through fatal attempts
at prayer perfection;
seeking the right words
and phrases to crack
the code of Divine Engagement.
But then, a glance
out the window –
the vibrant blue sky and
the awkwardly fluttering pigeon –
I found God
looking at me
deeply and desirously
with an audible hearty chuckle.
The pigeon landed on a telephone wire
and shit without shame
sure of its belonging and being.
And I laughed,
deeply and uproarously,
prayer punctuating the giggles
as I felt God’s gentle caress
to not take myself
too seriously.
But to rest in the seriousness of
God’s love and desire
for me; in my
most basic needs and desires,
without shame,
as with the bumbling and shitting pigeon,
God is present with me.
What is ‘Basebuilding?’
Basebuilding:
Foundations built on faith, conviction, and justice.
Collaboration with community, church,
ancestors, prophets,
and future generations.
Unique in poetic and prophetic imagination
speaking and doing
an alternative narrative and
story into being.
Renouncing and denouncing
the narrative and
story of domination and supremacy
through a communal vision,
achievable and concrete,
grassroots grown,
in our ecclesial spaces
and beyond
for the queering and decolonizing
and expanding
and including
of Beloved Community.
Basebuilding:
Intentional connections and relationships,
with imagination,
as power
and wholistic transformation
for the well-being
of all people and creation.
Citizenship in Heaven (Response to Philippians 3:20-21)
Our citizenship is in Heaven;
not in the systems and structures
that our societies value:
power maintenance,
economic control,
and resource exploitation,
by which people and creation are
oppressed and marginalized
for the comfort and supremacy
of a few.
Our citizenship is in Heaven;
in the Love and Justice of God
that transforms our hearts, churches, and societies
through the model of our Savior,
Jesus Christ,
and the power of
the Holy Spirit,
by power sharing,
economic jubilee –
equitable resource stewardship –
and communal creation caretaking.
Our citizenship is in Heaven
by co-creating Heaven on Earth –
this Earth –
here and now,
for all people
and creation.
Amen.
Doxology
God of Love:
Working for the flourishing of all people –
toppling white supremacy, patriarchy, and affluence –
dispersing power to all people –
enabling all of creation to live fully.
Centering marginalized and oppressed voices
from prophetic resistance
to Kingdom community
of holistic well-being.
Racism, homophobia, sexism –
all tools of oppression and domination –
cast into the flames of Hell.
Hell:
the chosen rejection of God’s love
and flourishing of God’s creation.
And the God of wholeness
will be uplifted and
reign in Love,
Eternally.
Amen.
Where You Lead, Oh Lord, I Follow (Based on Psalm 138:1-8)
I rejoice in You, my Provider;
my heart beats with praise.
I raise my palms and lift my eyes
toward Your glory and wholeness,
in thankful exultation
of Your steadfast love
and faithful word.
At a young age, You called me;
I heard and followed.
But the Church and the world
conspired to silence Your voice
and extinguish my call
by moralizing away my belovedness
as Your child, oh God,
as a condemned and unworthy queer.
But, amidst these trials of human
malevolence and lies,
You journeyed with me,
never leaving nor forsaking,
waiting for a receptive heart
to remind me of my call –
not despite of my sexuality,
but because of it –
the experiences of expansive and just-filled love.
And now,
through my approval for Ordination
as a Deacon in the UMC,
You have brought Your Purpose to further fruition in me,
proving that Your radically inclusive love endures,
and expands,
forever.
Where You lead, oh Lord, I follow.
Amen.
Deacon Grant 