God created and
it was good. Freedom from
perfection’s tyranny.
Progressive
George Floyd
George Floyd.
Say his name.
Honor his memory.
Murdered
by Officer Derek Chauvin.
Murdered
by a white supremacist
militarized police state.
Murdered
for being black
and living.
But now
some semblance of justice
through accountability.
Chauvin found guilty
on all 3 charges.
2nd Degree Murder:
40 years –
but George Floyd is still dead.
3rd Degree Murder:
25 years –
but black people continue to die.
2nd Degree manslaughter:
10 years –
but a murder each day of the trial.
While we await sentencing,
we sigh a collective exhalation of relief
at this brief respite of accountability.
But we cannot replace George Floyd,
God’s beloved child,
and God’s beloved children,
who have been lost –
past and present.
But the future
is present
and we are all called
to the Christ-modeled work
of dismantling white supremacy
and demanding
imagining
transforming
an alternative to
the death dealing
militarized police state.
Say his name.
Honor his name
And let’s get to work.
Rest in power,
George Floyd.
Amen.
‘Presence’ Haiku
Presence: Being HERE –
in the now – soaking in the
raw experience.
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.
Prayer: January 6, 2021
US Capitol
We need you, oh God.
We are flawed and messed up humans who continue to divide and hurt one another.
We beseech you to intervene in the hearts, minds, and bodies of those angry and violent in Washington, and across the country, with the conviction of truth and love.
Help us to rely on your unwavering presence as we seek justice, not violence, through the power of your Spirit.
In your mysterious and loving name.
Amen.
Triune God,
The sculpted pediment (white marble) – representing the Holy Trinity - surmounting the main altar in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. This house of worship is the largest Gothic building in the Netherlands.
You call us to wholeness, not brokenness –
as a Spirit of three-persons in one substance –
demanding that we speak truths
to one another:
our friends, our foes, ourselves.
That we must not rely on worldly comforts
and temporal ease,
instead finding rest and strength
in You
with community:
the good, the bad, the real.
Because you created us for wholeness,
not brokenness.
Amen.
Deacon Grant 