ELM Pride Devotional: Cari States-Codding

Sharei Green May 26, 2022 No Comments
Come, Join the Dance of Trinity: A Pride Devotional
By: Cari States-Codding
 
 

Because I’m a church nerd, I decided to pick a hymn that gives my little queer heart life, “Come, Join the Dance of Trinity”. Let me preface this by saying that I can’t dance. I’ve seen toddlers with better moves than me. But the concept of dance, the uninhibited celebration of expression and emotions, is what draws me to this hymn.

The idea of the Trinity dancing, of making a space for us formed out of love and hope, is something that especially resonates for me as a queer person. Love of God’s children, and hope in their potential, is what this queer nerd needs. And this dance is meant for us.

Much like the toddler I mentioned earlier, nothing can stop the dancing. And, as this hymn points out, not even death can stop the dance. The love, hope, the very potential of all of us is not only accepted by God but is encouraged and sustained by God.

I’ve faced situations when being queer and being a leader in the church seem antithetical, where it feels like there’s a lot of “weight and woe”; the last thing I feel like doing is dancing (even if I could).

I feel like telling the world what it can do with its opinion of me, and it’s usually not that “we are free to move”. But this reminder that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, that no person, thing, or organization has the right to restrict our joy, gives my queer self a little boost. As if this isn’t good enough, we are invited to participate in God’s creation, to shape our lives and to shape joy. How could we ever shape joy on our own? And what love God must have to dance with us, love us, nurture our joys and our passions, and claim us as God’s own children! 

 

Amen.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Cari States-Codding (Pronouns: any, if used respectfully) is a third-year seminarian, preparing for their capstone internship. Cari and their husband live with their two fur gremlins, Archie and Thor, and their three-member support staff has helped give them life throughout seminary. 
 

ELM Pride Blog: Alex Aivars

Sharei Green May 19, 2022 No Comments
Life is a Dance Floor: A Pride Devotional
By: Alex Aivars
 
If God is a DJ,
life is a dance floor
Love is the rhythm,
you are the music
~ Pink
 
I love to go out dancing, which I’ve written about before in this blog space. This wasn’t always the case, however.
 
When I was first coming out in the mid-2000s there was a dancefloor at the first gay bar I ever went to. I remember my friends asking me if I wanted to dance. I firmly said no. Up until that point in my life, my experiences with dancing were awkward and weird, consisting of school dances where I danced with girls at an arm’s length. Dancing had no appeal for me.
 
As I started to come out to more people in my life, and get more comfortable with my gay self, I became less reluctant to go out on the dancefloor. If I was with a group of friends, and they wanted to dance, I would dance. But I would never be the first on the dancefloor.
 
After a few more years, and after I concluded that I could in fact be both gay and Christian, I was the one dragging my friends to the dancefloor. When the right song came on, at the right moment, with the right people, it was amazing. I felt the music to my soul. I no longer had to think or communicate with words; movement became my sole communication medium. The rest of the world would fade away as waves of music washed over me. These waves would then catch my soul and be translated back into the physical world into movement with my body. It was only my body, soul, and the music. It was my escape.
 
I deeply missed dancing that first year of the pandemic. Then almost a year after the pandemic began, I attended a virtual conference of queer Christians. A dance party over Zoom was scheduled for the last night of the conference. I was skeptical at first while I waited for the dance party to start, sitting there on my couch by myself in front of my computer screen. I planned to stay for 2 songs. The DJ then played the first song. I liked it. I started to move my head in time with the music. Then the next song came on, and my hands started moving as well. Soon my upper body started to move as another good song came on. Pretty soon I was on my feet, full out dancing. I was having a blast. An hour and a half later, the Zoom dance party came to an end. It was what my soul needed.
 
I hope everyone can find that place where everything fades away and you can be at one with your body and soul. It’s in those moments when we can fully and deeply hear God saying these words to us: You are my beloved. With you, I am well pleased.
 
Amen.
 
 

 
 
 
Alex Aivars (he/him) is currently starting his second call as pastor of Christ in Dewitt, MI. Since this is a part-time call, he also develops websites for businesses, non-profits, and churches. In his spare time he likes to dance, be outdoors, travel, and read.
 

ELM Pride Devotional: Caleb Crainer

Sharei Green May 12, 2022 No Comments

Last time I went back to my small midwestern hometown one of my friends from High School asked, “do you still listen to weird music?” I assured him I did. Even though I don’t really think of it as strange, I knew what he was getting at. I grew up listening to an eclectic array of music since both my parents had cassette and record collections. My first Cassette was Beach Boys “Endless Summer” and my first CD was actually the Coolio album “It Takes a Thief” …which my parents promptly confiscated because of the inappropriate language. I went through a phase of listening to Contemporary Christian Music like you do. And then just whatever was on the radio. Often my friends and I would go to the Books/Music/Video store in my hometown and browse, which is where I found their “world-music” section! In a small city that’s a big deal.

I gravitated to music without words or with lyrics in non-English languages. Something about New Age music like “Deep Forest”, Renaissance music like “Brumel”, and World Music like “Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares” resonated with my whole being. My friends thought my music was odd, but I didn’t care. One day a friend came over and shouted, “You HAVE to listen to this song.” She played me a song called “Alane” by Wes Madiko, an artist from Cameroon. I had never heard anything like it before. It starts out with soft rhythmic chanting that turns into a lively dance track with a soaring chorus that elevated my spirit every time. I had no idea what the song was about, but I immediately downloaded it on Napster. The next day I went to the world-music section at the store and miraculously found the full album called “Walenga.” Why was it here in my town? Was this meant to be? A sign from God? Yes, obviously. Each track was a whole glorious journey in itself, or so I imagined. (btw, I saw the music video for “Alane” years later on YouTube and it’s pretty fantastic.) I played it on repeat for weeks.

Apparently “Alane” had been somewhat of a hit in Europe, which is why it was available in the middle of Kansas. And why, if you were sitting on Main street in 1999, you might’ve heard it blasting from a pickup truck going by. Don’t get me wrong, I also loved Savage Garden and Shania Twain like everyone else, but I had this special connection to songs that most of the people in my life didn’t know. A special playlist of rhythms and sounds that seemed to speak just to me. 

The internet eventually gave me the power to look up the translation to “Alane.” The chorus means “Come on and dance in a love song, All together, forever.” When so many songs were about straight people’s “hearts going on,” this had been a love song for me and my queer self. Wes’ “Alane” was my glimpse that the world out there was so much bigger and more fabulous than I could ever imagine. 

 

Caleb Crainer (he/him) serves as Pastor at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Los Angeles, California, as the Dean of the LA Metro Conference in the Southwest California Synod, and as the First-Call Accompaniment Coaching Convener in Proclaim. His favorite parts of ministry are having his congregation sing in different languages and the grace they show each other when things are mispronounced.

Time After Time: A Pride Devotional by Lewis Eggleston

Lewis Eggleston May 5, 2022 No Comments
 
WWJD. What would Joel Do? I’ve been asking myself that a lot lately. I’m not yet in the Pride spirit. In fact, I feel quite the opposite. I’ve been re-reading Joel Workin’s essays this week desperately looking for his wise words for inspiration for the current events happening in ELM and the larger ELCA body. I feel the weight and added pressure as a Proclaim member and now one of the few ELM staffers to continue the platform on which the queer Lutheran movement has operated on for the past 30 years. I wish the church and my community felt the same urgency for equal rights today as Joel did when he attended the 1987 March on Washington. As the chief fundraiser for ELM, I am afraid our queer movement will not be funded at the level it requires for much longer. 
 
Because of that, to be “Here I Stand” honest, I feel like some of those who supported Joel and the Berkeley 4 are now abandoning me and my generation of queer clergy. 
 
For some- pastors, lay leaders, long-time supporters – who have quietly stepped to the back of the room- they feel the work is now finished for them in their now well-established call & congregational life, or if not finished, then ultimately they are undone by the fact that the ELM Board would defend its BIPOC board and staff members rather than looking the other way when a Bishop caused harm- ignoring too the inner turmoil this caused to the leaders advocating for queer Lutheran ministers to hold a queer “family” member accountable. I admit there is great nuance in what I just said, but at the end of the day, financial support was pulled because of this singular action.
 
ELM is committed to the work of intersectional analysis and uplifting anti-racism as a necessary partner to queer advocacy and inclusion.
 
To that point, I must also rejoice that some saw this action like the long-awaited prodigal child returning home- to witness a Lutheran organization confront power & call out racist actions- for some this was the quintessential spirit of Lutheranism & ELM maturing into a bigger bolder entity. As a result, more persons of color joined Proclaim and some donors increased their giving, joyfully. Countless others maintained their giving to ELM, acknowledging their committment to our queer movement. Thank you. 
 
The reality is however, ELM has seen a decrease of 20% in overall generosity compared to last year. The staff is shaken, yet resolved to continue the work. The board will need to make big decisions, and prayers would be appreciated. 
 
All this does not strike Pride in my heart. 
 
However, one undercurrent that continues to inspire the board- Liberation is not liberation unless it’s liberating for everyone. 
 
Personally, that is enough for me. 
 
When I celebrate Pride- it is because I know I’m working to create a space that looks like the kin-dom of God. 
 
So with a heavy but determined & hopeful heart, I’ll leave you with some of Joel’s words to inspire us- and of course below Joel’s words is my Pride music video selection of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” covered by Sam Smith. 
 
On the one hand, being, in my instance, white, male, gay, middle-class American, etc., makes no difference; being God’s makes all the difference and that is the central focus of my life and ministry. On the other hand, being white, male, gay, middle-class American, etc. makes all the difference, too. God does not make use of persons or means of grace ‘in general’; God uses the particular, the specific. My particulars have given me a keen sense of experience of the not yet-ness of the church, a feeling for and connection with those who are not yet ‘in’. I am committed to and convinced of my own and the church’s need to be always reforming, daily dying and rising, on guard against too easy identification of God’s obvious ways and answers. More than this, however, I am utterly committed to and have been transformed by the great yes’ of God. My story, other’s stories, the story of the world, are all, in the last analysis, in faith’s analysis, stories of grace. These are stories of a relentless, loving God who will not take ‘no’ for an answer, not my ‘no’ nor your ‘no; not the church’s ‘no; not the world’s ‘no!
 
Amen.

 
 
Lewis Eggleston (he/him) is the Associate Director of Communications & Generosity for Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries. He lives in Kaiserslautern, Germany with his husband and their dog-child Carla. He is and approved for & awaiting ordination in the Ministry of Word & Service. 




 

An Earth Day Reflection by Dane Breslin

Lewis Eggleston April 28, 2022 No Comments
Approaching the intersections of queerness, ecology, and theology is daunting to me. Though I hold a degree in environmental studies, have worked seasons on sustainable farms & orchards, taught stream restoration, and have always loved gardening; I still feel as though I know very little about how the organic systems which sustain our lives actually works! My queerness is also mysterious to me- it has been a constant revelatory process that defies the many binaries I thought were the only options and invites me into another way of being. My life is far more sparkly than I thought it would be- there is a saturation of color I did not anticipate. All of this exists within the major question of my heart: what the hell is this all about? What is reality about? What is real? Or, what is Divinity?
 
For me, whose previous life has exploded with the death of a beloved friend & spiritual sibling, who is still reeling from the rapid change of divorce, I can’t approach the queer-eco-theological intersection with the brain but only from the mystical space of the heart. When I speak from my heart what emerges is poetry: so below is a poem which I hope speaks to this profound intersection from my limited and privileged perspective.
 
The Body Earth
 
When you see your body
Do you see a body that is the Earth?
When your lovers kiss your skin
Their lips touch glacier, grassland, desert sand
 
Gaze into an open eye
And gaze into the eyes of the wetland!
Sing to the rafters of this old Cathedral
And join the chorus of creation! 
 
Do not strive to be stardust
But to be the kin of the sunflower
The dogwood, the ancient beetles,
(And, of course, the sacred honeybees)
Who have watched eons pass
Who are content right here, on Earth
 
Do not desire to leave this place
Instead, desire to stay rooted right here
Belong right here, as you always have and will
On this mantle of soil which gave birth to you
The origin and destination of your bones
 
To you and I, and all that moves
(Even the wild asparagus in the ditch)
We are One & We are Different
The Unitive & The Particular
Always, always, all at once
 
YES- the whole of creation is beautifully queer
So, may we dissolve the binary which divides
Parses us into “humanity” and “the environment”
This is an illusion…
 
For, we are not separate from nature
Nature brought us into being!
We are Nature
We are kindred
We are one body.
 
 
Image Description: An image with a toddler’s hands playing in the dirt with the words: Do not strive to be stardust. But to be the kin of the sunflower, the dogwood, the ancient beetles, (And, of course, the sacred honeybees) Who have watched eons pass who are content right here, on Earth. Do not desire to leave this place. Instead, desire to stay rooted right here. Belong right here, as you always have and will. On this mantle of soil which gave birth to you the origin and destination of your bones. By Dane Breslin
 
 
Dane Anthony Raphael Breslin (he/him) lives with his toddler son in the homeland of the P’Squosa (Wenatchi) people in Central Washington. He is a candidate for ministry of Word & Sacrament in the ELCA. Dane is a queer poet, artist and plant enthusiast who works to move faith communities to support queer youth, to plant sustainable gardens and joins them in unlearning colonial and racist patterns/beliefs/behaviors in heart/body/mind.

Easter Devotional: Bishop Brenda Bos

Sharei Green April 21, 2022 No Comments
An Easter Reflection
By: Bishop Brenda Bos 
I am so angry. Angry about the state of the world. Angry about the state of the church. Angry that racism and homophobia and sexism and ableism and all the other ‘isms’ that divide us are having a field day in the ELCA. As a bishop, I’m angry that I have not found the way to talk about this publicly. I’m angry that I have to think about this all the time – who will I offend? Who will I abandon as I take a stand? Where am I complicit? I have power, more than I think, less than I think, and there are no clear guidelines on how to use it. 
 
I am so sad. Sad that people I love have hurt each other. Sad that some people in power have the privilege of looking the other way. Sad that committed leaders have shown their weaknesses in painful, public ways. Sad that people of color in the ELCA are crying out… again. Sad that LGBTQ people in the ELCA are crying out… still. Where will we find solace? 
 
I am so confused. As a queer bishop (it’s a small group, if you were not sure) serving a synod with diverse communities, I do not know where my guiding principles should take me. Gospel first, YES, but what does that mean exactly? Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World? The first shall be last and the last shall be first? Seek ye first the kin-dom of God? Beware the tax collector? Jesus looked at the crowd and had compassion on them? Therefore there is no male or female, Jew or Greek, slave or free? Which gospel text is supposed to guide me in these murky waters? Because Jesus says a lot about love and forgiveness and says a lot about hypocrisy and self-righteousness and apparently there is supposed to be a clear message I can follow, but I cannot find it. 
 
Anger. Confusion. Grief. Words we have used constantly in the past two years and again now, as the Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries community tries to find its way forward after suspending a member from the historic roster on charges of racism. Anger. Confusion. Grief. As our siblings of color tell us over and over how difficult it is to find a place in this church. Anger. Confusion. Grief. As leaders of the ELCA do not have a clear path forward, especially when it comes to reconciliation and renewal. God help us. 
 
Anger. Confusion. Grief. We think of the disciples after Jesus was arrested, as He stands trial without them, as He is executed by the state without friends nearby. The disciples were so angry. So confused. So devastated. They had trusted Jesus, had committed their lives to Him and now He was destroyed. Their ministry was destroyed. Their identity was destroyed. 
 
Christians like to believe those feelings were dissipated the moment Jesus was resurrected. My mourning was turned to dancing, the psalmist writes, and Christians love to cling to that dance. We are Easter people, we proclaim. Christ is risen, He is risen indeed. Everything is coming up roses. Or lilies, if you go to church.
 
But consider the story, really. Mary does not recognize Jesus in the garden. Why? Her grief, her confusion, her anger had blocked her. Later Jesus appears to His disciples, several times, but in sporadic ways. They could not trust Him to show up at a certain time or place. His revelations were random, which, in my mind, would make it more stressful. Would He stay forever, or was He abandoning them slowly, like a lover who keeps texting even after breaking up with you. Christians like to believe those first weeks after Easter were exciting, but I believe they were excruciating. I think Jesus was preparing the disciples for the rest of life on earth. Confusing, infuriating, sorrowful. A constant search for Jesus.
 
Image Description: A picture of the shadow of 4 people holding hands against the side walk, with the words, “I am challenging us all to find Jesus in each other. The resurrected Jesus: unrecognizable, strange, illusive. Holy. Maddening. Demanding. Loving. Present. Difficult.” – Bishop Brenda Bos
A strange message for Easter, isn’t it? I focus on Mary – she did not recognize Jesus. Her grief may have obstructed her ability, but I suspect Jesus was not recognizable. I suspect Jesus is not recognizable now either. I am so angry that places and people and organizations which used to look like Jesus do not anymore. Or is it me? Is it them? Or is it Jesus, transforming into random, irritating, beautiful things? 
 
I wonder if this is the problem. We have stopped perceiving Jesus in each other. We have been devastated by the human condition, no doubt. We have hurt each other, absolutely. I ask forgiveness where I have hurt you, I ask for sacred power to forgive you when you have hurt me. I am not asking anyone to forgive too quickly. But I am challenging us all to find Jesus in each other. The resurrected Jesus: unrecognizable, strange, illusive. Holy. Maddening. Demanding. Loving. Present. Difficult. Friends, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. My prayer this Easter is that we can truly acknowledge, truly experience Jesus in each other. He is disrupting us, and in that disruption, He will heal us.
 

Brenda Bos (she/her) is the first openly lesbian bishop elected in the ELCA. She serves the Southwest California Synod, whose territory sits on the homeland of eleven indigenous peoples and includes the Hollywood sign, “The Valley”, coastal cities, farmland and urban deserts. She and her wife Janis spend their free time hiking with their dogs and making their house more fun for their young granddaughter. 

Lenten Devotional: “The stones will cry out” by Carla Christopher

Lewis Eggleston April 14, 2022 No Comments
 
I will stand on your city steps 
and call out the lies of your leaders
I will feed the hungry without permits
I will heal without license
 
Even if you silence me
the stones will cry out
 
I will block traffic and shut down streets
I will ride a donkey through your parade
of tanks and soldiers 
 
Even if you silence me
the stones will cry out
 
I will cherish sex workers for their work 
and mystics for their visions
I will embrace homeless wanderers
and give them keys to my every hidden secret
 
Even if you silence me
the stones will cry out
 
I will drink in public
and eat forbidden fruit, licking juice from my fingers
I will strip naked
and caress the feet of beautiful men
while women twine their hair around my toes
 
Even if you silence me
the stones will cry out
 
I will greet disease with a kiss
I will dismiss bribery with scorn
I will laugh at your critique
I will teach what you have banned
I will break criminals out of prison
I will die to resurrect before I cower
 
Even if you silence me
the stones will cry out
 
*and a blessed Triduum and Easter to you all!*
 
The table laid,
a Sunday made of palms intertwined
and sweetest wine.
A breeze of rising bread and 
the caress of rich spice
that carries memories of woman’s hair
and paradise-warmed skin.
We wait for you,
heart and hand and door open.
Enter us with your spirit,
Consume us with healing fire,
surrender as a gift.
We lift my eyes to the morning,
receiving you as
the sun/Son.


 
 
Image Description: a warm colorful sunset over water with a rocky beach scene with the words: I will stand on your city steps and call out the lies of your leaders. I will feed the hungry without permits. I will heal without license. Even if you silence me the stones will cry out. -Carla Christopher
 
 
Rev. Carla Christopher (she/hers) is Assistant to the Bishop in Charge of Justice Ministries for Lower Susquehanna Synod in central Pennsylvania and a multicultural Black woman who adores being a queer lesbian-ish femme.

ELM Lenten Devotional: Kristen Rice

Sharei Green April 7, 2022 No Comments
The Patience of Love
By: Kristin Rice
Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also.
For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away.
 
But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.
Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.
– Psalms 31:9-10, 14-16
 
 
My mother tells me that when I was an infant, just a few months old, I would have night terrors. And she couldn’t comfort me in the midst of them. All she could do was take me out of my crib and put me on the floor to thrash it out so that I wouldn’t hurt myself in my crib. My arms would flail and I’d kick at the air to get it all out of me. When it seemed I was done, she’d pick me up and snuggle me back to sleep. 
 
I guess I’ve always struggled to let other people comfort me when I’m in the thick of something disturbing my sense of being. It’s both the source of my power as a chaplain and pastor,  and the source of my struggle that is very often feeling lonely, different, and unlovable.
 
It’s a fine line of being overwhelmed with loneliness and sadness while also being constantly amazed at the incredible power of people who have loved me through many, many seasons of loneliness and sadness. They continue to show me they are the hands of God because they love me when I can’t love myself. They remind me I am called to serve and called to love the world greatly, even when I can’t see it for myself. (Need a good song recommendation? Pentatonix “Love Me When I Don’t”.) They stand watch while I thrash out my despair and distress, and comfort me back into life. Even though I may feel lonely, I am not really ever alone. (Note to self: remember this, again, for next time.)
 
 
 “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also…But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’” We trust in God’s promise lived out, that we belong and we are worthy of love, even when we are troubled and in distress. We trust God’s love to hold us and empower us into hope even when it feels hopeless. We can be God’s promise of love for one another, even if it means standing by and waiting until that love can be best received.
 
Goodness Gracious, God. Your mercy and love overwhelms me, and your patience with me is unceasing. Thank you for looking out for me and giving me courage and strength to work things out on my own. Thank you for picking me up and loving me into being, yet again.  Amen.


 
 
Image Description: The background of the image is a chalkboard with a flower banner with the words: “We trust in God’s promise lived out, that we belong and we are worthy of love, even when we are troubled and in distress.” – Kristin Rice
 
Kristin Rice (she/hers) is an ordained pastor in the ELCA. She currently serves as the part-time community chaplain for the Attic Angel Community in Madison, Wisconsin. Kristin spends her non-ministry time with her fluffy overlord Blessing taking many weekend walks through dog parks and playing hours of fetch. Kristin also takes pride in the level of coffee snobbery she has curated over the years.

Trans Day of Visibility by Vica Etta Steel

Lewis Eggleston March 31, 2022 No Comments
Visible
By: Vica Etta Steel
Today, March 31, is the Transgender Day of Visibility.
Do you know this day?
 
Or is it invisible in your world, do you see this day? Do you see we who are transgender? Can you hear us over the din of hate spoken in political actions, in loathing statements, and too often in the rational dismissal of our pain by those who claim to be allies. Our voices are unheard. 
Invisible.
I cannot speak for all transgender people. We are as varied as the leaves in the wind, blown in our own arcs, flitting, flying, falling in joyful tumbles. 
I can only speak, 
honestly,
vulnerably, 
from my own truth. 
From hope 
that something about my writing resonates with my family of we who transgress, we who transform, all of us in our fullness of we who are transgender. 
And of all who work to become allies.
And all whom we name allies. 
 
On this day, I call for visibility. 
Visibility of our existence.
 
I ask for visibility, I plead for visibility in your sermons. Share our truth – we exist. God did not make mistakes with us, we are the imago dei too. Humans make mistakes when humans choose to ignore God’s beauty borne in us too.
Visibility in your social media. Share the voices of transgender people. Find us, we who are speaking into the cacophony of so much casual hate. Share our love, our joy, our pain, our weary exhaustion.
Visibility in your circles.
Speak clearly that you know 
Transgender women are women
Transgender men are men
And non-binary people are delightfully, joyfully valid.
Speak clearly that children know who they are. 
Speak clearly from listening to us, we who are transgender. 
Visibility 
that we visibly suffer from those who choose silence, who choose calm instead of 
anger at the outrages of hate become politics in Texas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa . . . so many more, 
like the leadership of Luther Seminary, phrased as the banal both-sides-have-good-people argument uplifting those who exclude, who harm, as they obscure we who are harmed in their rejection of RIC conversations, in their choice to make invisible the pain laid on us by the so many, the too many churches who choose to be the buoys for fear still. 
Reach out. Check in. Be visible in your love.
And in this essay 
this prayer
this scream 
I pray from weary frustration, 
anger
too tired to 
scream above a whisper, 
still I pray 
For visibility.
I pray that you who read, you who listen
Hear our call to hear us, find us. Believe us.
 
 
Transforming God, you who speak now in the world, your voice resonating through wind in the trees, soil decaying into new growth, let the fullness of your voice sing, yell, cry into the hearts of those who embrace hate toward your Queer creations, may their hearts be unhardened and most especially sing love of your transgender children on this day. Let us all who are in this world, all who are this world, cry our love in joyful song. Amen. 
 

TAKE ACTION: In the comment section of this blog post on ELM’s Facebook page, trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming Proclaimers will be posting their cash app and venmo tags. If you heard Vica’s call today and want to make your love visible, please donate to one of the posts and when you have, comment under their post with a “heart” or “sent” so that everyone gets a chance to be blessed & so that folks can see where to share the love equally amongst the community. If everyone has been donated to, feel free to double up! If you are still unsure where to donate but wish to support trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming Proclaimers, then you can also donate through elm.org and list #TDOV in the comment and these funds will be earmarked for this community. Thank you. 
 
 
Image Description: The background of the image is the Transgender Flag with the words: On this day, I call for visibility. Visibility of our existence. I ask for visibility, I plead for visibility in your sermons. Share our truth – we exist.- Vica Etta Steel


 
Vica Etta Steel (she/her) is a woman, queer, transgender, and unexpectedly a faith leader! She attends Wartburg Theological Seminary. She preaches and does outreach at St. John’s Lutheran in Madison, WI. She keeps a ministry in her blog at Qwest.substack.com and on TikTok (@vicasteel) where she speaks of the voice of God, never silent and always present in the world around us. Vica is married to her powerful wife, Stella (36 years this March!). They live with their little dog, Arabella Longbody, their leopard gecko, Snowflake, and many other creatures and plants!

ELM Lenten Devotional: Aaron Musser

Sharei Green March 24, 2022 No Comments
A World Made New
Inspired by 2 Corinthians 5:17
By: Aaron Musser
 
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away. Look! Everything has become new! – 2 Corinthians 5:17
 
When I read this week’s epistle text, words from a choral piece by Abbie Betinis rang in my head: “Show us a vision of the world made new.” The piece, titled The World Made New, combines the text of the Lord’s Prayer with what is commonly called “Eleanor Roosevelt’s Prayer”  – a prayer Eleanor Roosevelt heard in March 1940 at St. John’s Episocpal Church in Washington, DC which left such an impression on her that she recorded it in her regular newspaper column.
 
Betinis’s choral arrangement concludes with a lively and buoyant motor to the text “the world made new” and a soaring melody to the text “show us a vision of the world made new.” It’s light and catchy, an earworm that I’m reminded of easily; as I read today’s lectionary text, it’s the first thing I think of.
 
But as I look at the rest of Eleanor Roosevelt’s prayer, three petitions stand out in particular – petitions that, at a time like this, I ought to pray myself.
 
First: Set our eyes on far-off goals. Even when those goals don’t seem like they should be far-off. Even when unanticipated obstacles get in the way.
 
Second: Keep us at tasks too hard for us. Even when those tasks are deferred and resisted by powers-that-be. Even when faced with legislation and discourse that does nothing but dehumanize.
 
Third: Show us a vision of world made new. Even when we aren’t sure if “a world made new” is possible. Even when our ability to cast new visions is exhausted.
 
Indeed, these three petitions stand out most to me at this moment, a moment of crises (plural) at our doorstep. A prayer, over 80 years old, continues to resonate.
 
May we be blessed with far-off goals. May our work on hard tasks bear good fruit. May God’s vision of a world made new pour into our communities, our nation, and our world. Amen.
 
 
Eleanor Roosevelt’s Evening Prayer:
Our Father, who has set a restlessness in our hearts, and made us all seekers after that which we can never fully find, forbid us to be satisfied with what we make of life. Draw us from base content, and set our eyes on far-off goals. Keep us at tasks too hard for us, that we may be driven to Thee for strength. Deliver us from fretfulness and self-pity; make us sure of the goal we cannot see, and of the hidden good in the world. Open our eyes to simple beauty all around us, and our hearts to the loveliness people hide from us because we do not try enough to understand them. Save us from ourselves, and show us a vision of the world made new. May Thy spirit of peace and illumination so enlighten our minds that all life shall glow with new meaning and new purpose; through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
 
 
Aaron Musser (he/him) is a second-year MDiv student pursuing ordination in Word and Sacrament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Before seminary he served in Milwaukee, WI as a church musician and music educator. He finds joy in natural things, in queer performance art, in beautiful music, and in cherry chocolate chip ice cream.