How precious, how fragile, how short is life!
Our lives are but a breath.
The Divine brings us into being,
weaves our lives together,
and ushers us into eternal rest.
Blessed are the Sacred rhythms of life
and holy are these tasks:
to be alive,
to pay attention,
to honor the fleeting with awe and care.
When the way is difficult and dangerous,
let us still choose what is good and just.
When evil comes to break us down and break us apart,
let us still choose to carry on with each other.
When power from on high strikes fear in our hearts,
let us still choose the courage to persist.
For we know that the love and power of God, which abides in us, will not be overcome.
One: Long ago in Galilee, there were many who were sick and suffering, isolated and oppressed. Wherever there was pain – you were there in solidarity and empowering liberation. We see and experience the same realities today. In the margins, in the hard, in the alone – you are there too. Confident of your commitment to wholeness and healing, we lift before you the wounds inflicted on your beloved queer and trans children. We name the rejection we have felt- from our churches, from our families and friends. We name that many of us wondered if you too had rejected us.
Jesus Christ, lover of all,
People: bring healing, bring peace.
One: We grieve the reality of a broken church that has been used as a place of harm rather than a safe harbor. So much pain has been inflicted. So many lies have been spread about God. In a church whose purpose is grounded in embrace, liberation, resistance, and community, instead it has enacted spiritual violence on children and adults alike.
Jesus Christ, lover of all,
People: bring healing, bring peace.
One: We hold in this space, those who have endured the worst of what the world has to offer. Those of every generation who have faced violence, the breaking of relationships, the fading of hope when basic needs go unmet.
Jesus Christ, lover of all,
People: bring healing, bring peace.
One:In silence, we name within ourselves, the things we cannot bear to speak.
(silence)
Jesus Christ, lover of all,
People: bring healing, bring peace.
Since the beginning, God has been relentlessly pursuing us in love.
Though our faithfulness ebbs and flows, God’s love endures forever.
Taking on flesh like ours, God became one with humanity in the person of Jesus Christ.
God lived and moved and ministered in the margins of power.
God incarnate was not what we expected. We did not recognize God in Jesus.Still, we struggle to recognize God with us.
And yet, God continues to dwell in our midst. Thanks be to God.
From the dust of the earth, the Holy One breathed us into life.
Through the breath of God we are all connected.
Shaped in her image, God formed us with a purpose:
To create
To serve
To tend
To protect
To love
That life may flourish in all its forms,
May the Spirit of the Living God be manifest in us!
We gather in the presence of God to encounter Love that sets free.
We do not come seeking crumbs of justice but a way of life that liberates.
Together, we practice courage in resisting evil and rejecting the temptations of complicity and complacency.
The Spirit leads us in power and truth.
Our faith is placed in Love Eternal that lifts broken spirits and brings new life from places of ruin.
With hope that is neither narrow nor fragile, we come to follow Christ.
A Queer Call to Worship (1)
Strange One. Fabulous One. Fluid and ever becoming One.
Do not allow us to make our ideas of you into an idol.
You are as close to us as our own breath and yet, your essence transcends all that we can imagine.
You are mother, father, and parent. You are sister, brother, and sibling. You are drag queen, and trans man, and gender-fluid – incapable of limiting your vast expressions of beauty.
Embodied in us, your creation, we recognize our flesh in all its forms is made holy in You. With thanksgiving, we celebrate your manifestation in all its glorious forms.
Blessed are our bodies. Blessed is our love. Blessed are we when we celebrate that which the world turns away. Fill our hearts with a pride rooted in resistance to all that seeks to destroy.
May we delight in the ways you have created us: diverse, unique, surprising, and beautiful. Thanks be to God!
A Queer Call to Worship (2)
Listen! Listen for the voice of God, naming us all: Holy. Beloved. Cherished. Valued.
We believe you delight in us!
Make us people who recognize and proclaim your beauty and goodness in unexpected places.
Surprise us. Challenge us. Transform us.
We trust in you, Holy One, to reveal to us the sacredness of every life, of every way of being, of every physical manifestation of your Spirit.
May it be so!
A Queer Call to Worship (3)
Blessed be the Non-Conforming One.
God, who took on flesh
Of the poor
Of an immigrant
As an infantWas birthed by a woman with no help of a man.
This Holy One won’t be hindered by social norms.
She defies our expectations.
She challenges our preconceptions.
She awakens us to new possibilities.
Praise be to God, the queerest of us all.
A Queer Call to Worship (4)
In the image of God, you created everything and called it good!
In abundant diversity, your likeness is found in us.
We reject all messages that belittle or degrade any among us.
And so in faithfulness to God and one another we proclaim:
Sacred are our bodies of every size and ability.
Blessed are our sexualities, drawing us towards love of many kinds.
Beloved is every gender, revealing you in different ways.
To our skin, beautiful in every shade, we say hallelujah!
Praise God, our Creator, who blesses us with this world, these bodies, and our fellow creatures, all created good, very good.
A Queer Call to Worship (5)
We, of many backgrounds and identities, personalities, and ideas, gather collectively in shared pursuit of the Sacred.
Together, we make up the body of Christ.
Wherever one of us is in pain,
our whole body aches.
Whenever one of us is cut off,
The whole body is wounded.
Whoever is kept away by discriminatory policies or practices or prejudices,
Our collective soul suffers the loss of their presence.
We need one another in order to be whole,
God make us the body of Christ as you envisioned.
May we become your presence enfleshed, in service to the world and one another.
A Queer Call to Worship (6)
God is calling us
Out of the places we hide
Out of insecurity
Out of shame
Out from under that which silences love and justice.
Come out, people of God!
Though we may be afraid
Though we will be at risk
Though the cross stands as a threat
God calls us to courage!
Our God is a god of resurrection. Of new life after devastation. Of hope in the grip of evil.
And so we dare to proclaim, with pride and faith, our truths:
We believe in the power of love.
We believe in solidarity with the suffering.
We believe we are each valuable.
We believe that our togetherness is transformative.
The world is longing for Holy truths that reveal, voices that speak real words of hope.
Come out, people of God!