September 15, 2023
This Sunday, our worship is going to look at putting words into action when it comes to the call to care for creation – all the Holy’s creation, the world around, one another and ourselves. There is much talk about caring but there sometimes seems to be a disconnect between caring words and actual life-giving caring actions.
Part of the challenge is that there are so many voices and messages that we hear about all sorts of challenges that this human world has in learning to care. How do we sift through all the noise – all the words – to find those that are positive and lead us to living in right relation to the world, lead us to transforming the world into a better place?
As followers of the way of Jesus, we are called to care. Even when bombarded with uncaring words, we must care. Queer folks (and our allies) must learn to discern the voices that speak from a place of love and grace and let them be our guide. We must look for the spark of the Divine influence in the world around us and hold on to that, amplify that. This world – all of God’s creation and God’s beloved – needs caring.
We can play an important part in teaching the world to care. As queer folk, we have had to learn to stand up for ourselves, to be a scandal to society, to teach folks that there is a diversity in creation that deserves and demands care. We are built and gifted for this work.
As queer (and non-queer) followers of Jesus, we should follow Jesus’ example and challenge those around us to repair the disconnect between right words and right actions. But (there’s always a but, right) we must first look within ourselves and work on repairing the disconnect between our words and our actions. Not one of us is perfect, but we can lean into the Holy to help us.
By doing that work with ourselves first, we can then invite others into the same work – turning caring words into caring actions – with the grace and understanding that we were offered. Not all will want to join us but we will find more and more who do. And that is how change begins. That is how we turn words into actions that will care for creation.
I hope you can join us on Sunday.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Cindy
Service Link – https://youtube.com/live/XtauUcA8xlA
September 1, 2023
Happy Pride Week to all you queerly beloved!
I hope that this week has given you a chance to feel seen and celebrated whether you were out and about attending events, watching your feeds light up with affirming images and messages, or just quietly reflecting on what it means to have this celebration we call “Pride”.
I also hope that you honor the ways in which you can feel ambivalent about celebrations like this. Perhaps it is a reminder for you that there are also ways in which you are still facing challenges in living your life as a queer person.
That is a natural response because even as we celebrate how far we have come in our struggle to just be and do as we are, there is still work to be done.
Earlier this week, a young gay man very dear to my heart called to share with me that while walking from his home to the grocery store, he was shouted at by someone on the sidewalk. He was going for groceries and had to endure being called a “faggot” by a passerby. It was for him a disheartening reminder that even during Pride Week, even when we have come so far and he enjoys a life lived as an out and proud gay man, he is not always safe from the fear and hatred that is sometimes targeted at us.
There is work to be done.
As beloved creations of God, though, we cannot let this deter us from celebrating who we are – the ways in which our being and our doing, our loving and our living make are a true reflection of the wondrous diversity of the Holy and the Holy’s vision for this world.
This celebration that is Pride Week is so much more than celebration. It is, as it has always been when we march together, stand up, and speak out for our truth, a revolutionary and life-giving act of defiance in the face of hatred and injustice. What a gift that we do not do this alone – queers and allies alike.
I see you in your courageous acts of celebration – this week and every week. And whenever someone tries to deny your place in this world, in God’s kindom, I stand with you.
Together with one another and with the Holy, we will march on with laughter (and sometimes with tears). Together we will celebrate the gift that diversity is in our lives and in this world. We will continue on our journey and in our work towards a world where love and affirmation overwhelm hatred and marginalization.
So let’s celebrate and let’s march on. Let’s drown out those who would try to silence us.
This Sunday at 7:00 pm we will be holding a special Post-Pride Service where we will talk about how to balance the feelings that Pride Week can bring up (I call it the Pride Hangover). I hope that you join us either in person at Fish Creek United Church (77 Deerpoint Road SE) or livestream on YouTube.
Be well and safe this weekend as you finish up Pride Week my friends.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Cindy
service link – https://youtube.com/live/jLkbXNPHoJ8
December 2, 2022
If you have been checking out service the last couple of weeks, you will have noticed a common theme of trying to reconcile the reality of the world we live in with the world we long for.
That is because in the aftermath of yet another deadly attack on queer folk and queer space, we are beginning the season of Advent. As a follower of Jesus, I prepare to celebrate the coming of God into the world by once again reflecting on the hope, peace, joy, and love that my life in the Holy brings me. It is a time when I once again ground myself in my faith that the good in this world can overcome the bad. I once again make the choice to look for the divine in others and in the world and not be blinded by the hatred and fear that sometimes rules human hearts.
Once again though, I have also been reminded of just how powerful hatred and fear are, and how high a price those of us who are the targets of hatred and fear sometimes pay. Queer folk, racialized folk, marginalized folk – we are always at risk of being targets. Whether in small ways or in large ways, we become targets simply because of who we are.
As a believer in the way of Jesus, the way of love, I am heartbroken and angry and tired in these weeks following the shooting at Club Q. As a queer person, I am sad and exhausted and scared.
And I am outraged.
Because I was not created to be the target of someone’s fear or hatred. I was created to be loved. I was created to love. Jesus warns often in scripture that the way of love is not easy – and Jesus themselves paid the ultimate price for inviting and loving all – but I cannot believe that Jesus meant we were to be content to be targets. I know that Jesus would also be heartbroken and outraged at last week’s shooting. I know that Jesus would condemn the system that leads to this kind of violence (as well as the daily “small” attacks on our Divine image and being).
Jesus came to walk among us because of love. That little baby who was born into a world of violence and oppression came to walk among us to begin a revolution against hatred and fear. Jesus was born into this world to show us and teach us about a new way.
And now more than ever, as we were reminded last week, we need to find a new way together.
In this time of Advent and holiday preparations/pressures, I hope that you have a chance to reflect on the times you have experienced or seen good in this world. I hope that these shining moments of memory become a guiding star leading you to find faith in this sometime daunting world; faith that there is more, there is sacred, there is Divine, there is God. I hope you can look to your faith and be reminded that transformation is always possible.
This Sunday evening, we will reflect on how we can work even as we wait for the transformation of this world and of our hearts that is an integral part of the promise of the Christ Child. Please know that you are invited to join us.
Stay well, stay connected.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Cindy
“So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God, for those who enter God’s rest also rest from their labors as God did from theirs. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest” ~ Hebrews 4:9-11
This week’s Sunday service is about persistence – persistence in making our voice heard, persistence in working for justice.
Persistence is a good thing for sure and something that queer folk are asked to lean into in a big way in order to live our lives as we are called to. Our history and our lives are marked by marches and protests and struggles. These are not always in big and visible ways either, our own individual lives as queer folk mean that even in the ordinary small moments of our days we have to stand up and speak out and fight for the right to be seen and heard and honored for who we are.
Persistence takes a lot out of us. And though we must persist, we must also rest.
We must rest queerly beloved. The Holy calls us to persist yes, but also to rest. There are times when we must step back and find renewal.
Rest – the idea of Sabbath – is as important a part of a healthy spiritual life as persistence. And I would argue that rest is an integral part of persistence. It is rest, time with God, time with others who support and love us, time with ourselves celebrating that which brings us peace and joy, it is rest that allows us to carry on.
Persistence in our work in the world is not possible unless we are rested.
You deserve to have time and space where you do not have to explain or educate or advocate for yourself. You deserve to have time and space where you can simply be.
Take time my friends. Take time to rest.
I hope that you join us on Sunday evening (or whenever it is that interact with the service) and I do hope that you are inspired to persist in the unique and sacred walk that we as queer folk are called to.
Just don’t forget to rest as well. The Holy wants you to speak up and stand out, yes, but more than that the Holy desires you to be rested and supported in your journey. God loves you and wants you well.
Blessings,
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Cindy
Service Link: https://youtu.be/MG-9v5Imj_E
