The Co-Creation of the Lord’s Garden (Inspired by Isaiah 61)

The call of justice creation is upon us

because God’s Garden bears fruits

only of goodness and love;

injustice has no place to take root

in the Lord’s Garden.

Our Creator God invites us

to tend to the Lord’s Garden –

beyond performative words –

            toward a tangible justice harvest

for all people,

and all creation,

that cultivates the margins.

Our Gardner God call us

to provide clinical counseling

                        for those processing trauma;

to become abolitionists

of the prison industrial complex

and free prisoners from servitude to capitalism;

to expunge student debt;

to create housing for all;

to make medical and mental healthcare

                        accessible to all;

to demand an end to war

                        and instead fund the wholistic care

                                    of all children;

to end global hunger

                        and distribute hoarded resources

                                    equitably;

to lay fallow the Earth

                        from extractive industries

                                    and repent of our idolatrous beliefs

                        of private property ownership

over God’s creation.

We tend to these seedlings of justice –

toward the future harvest of God’s Garden –

            because they are right and just;

            because they are love;

            because God has covenanted with us

                        as followers of Christ

                                    to co-create the Lord’s Garden.

This is our salvation:

            to tend to the Earth

            and all of its inhabitants

            until God’s intended flourishing

springs forth for all creation –

from mutual co-creation –

            amidst adulation of praise,

            communal well-being,

            and the final fruition

of God’s glorious Garden.

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.