to claim one’s self in
Christ: to imagine God’s King-
-dom into being.
Triune God
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.
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.
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 