#prayercast

Avery shares their poem about how tasks as mundane as preparing tea can become a prayer. They were inspired to write this poem by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg's discussion of how Jewish law fosters mindfulness and orients a person towards God.

Text of the poem:

preparing tea is its own kind of prayer – one that heat and water pray for you.

the kettle’s keening. laughter bubbling up. the steady sigh of water as it folds into the cup.

see the steam raise its arms to embrace the sunlight peering in through kitchen window?

those swaying arms enact a psalm of praise clear as voice or timbrel, or clapping trees of the field.

see how the water blushes, rich and brown, as the sachet swirls within?

likewise are we saturated through with Spirit when we open to Her dance.

each mundane task, each daily chore or act overflows with blessing.

the whole world thrums with gratitude for God Who permeates the stream, the steam, the sunbeam’s heat –

Who was with the leaves when they unfurled from the twig to taste the pulse of the earth, its breath and light;

Tonight’s prayercast that I posted on my church’s youtube! “White Supremacy is a white issue.”

Intern Avery brings a Tweet, a passage from Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me, and a video of Black activists discussing police abolition to tonight's prayercast. They use these resources to explore white supremacy as "a white issue" and white people's responsibility to educate themselves and join BIPOC in solidarity. 

“While it is not people of color’s job to snap us out of the dream, so many of them are creating tools and resources, and raising their voices, and inviting us to listen and hear them out.”

Link to the Livestream "Unlock Us: Abolition in Our Lifetime"

Avery invites us to reimagine our conceptions of heaven from an unchanging expanse of cloud to a vibrant place full of diversity and growth. How do you imagine heaven? They share a poem they wrote called "Heaven is home to quick green things," text below:

i hope Your kin(g)dom’s halls are walled with tree trunks

with canopies for roofs – in shades of green never seen before by human eyes

and veritable riots of flowers, fruits, everywhere i look! – and, when i need a rest from color after vibrant color,

i hope the leafy canopy gives way      to black           so deep i almost believe Your whole infinity could curl up in its blue-black folds, with room to spare for all your nursing galaxies.  

…

i’ve never understood how they can read Your declaration “Good! very Good!” – read how

You would not cease from making till You stood amidst a million billion nebulae that each great downdraft of Your mighty wings sent aswirl with dust and heat that coalesced

into stars and planets, split again into seas and lands, cells, plants, and only then

only then did You rest as the milky way jingled on Your wrist –

they read of this and then they paint Your heaven sterile white as far as eye can see! unbroken vault of neutralizing light devoid of all the variegating shades and creatures that You made with Your own breath and eons of delight.

…

i hope your kin(g)dom’s halls are loud with birdsong and prowling with cats, and rippling with fishes

i hope new life-forms bud a thousandfold instead of shrinking down to human beings and angels stock-still in one solemn mass;

for unity need not require extinction –

and You,       great bounty-bringer,              atom-splicer,                     dance-delighter, You

look lovelier when draped in gauzy rainbow, a diadem of ivy laced with stars and shadows silking over You like feathers –

and humankind alone, even backed by angels cannot think of enough new ways to praise You…

so let the birds of the air, the slinking things, the fish of the sea and seeds that split the dirt join in on the praise of You that words don’t cover

My church does several “prayercasts” each week, and i’m in charge of them now! so naturally i got my wife to do one and she said some smart stuff 🌈💕

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How do we balance calling on God for help and heeding God's own call to us to help, especially in this time of pandemic and protest? Grace member Leah Horn shares a passage from Sister Macrina Wiederkehr's A Tree Full of Angels, and pairs it with a video by pastor Jasper Peters as well as with Exodus 14:14-16.

Avery shares their absolute favorite Bible passage, Isaiah 56:1-8, which encapsulates God's call to draw the circle ever wider -- to include and celebrate those whom we assume have no place in God's community.

They close with a passage from Barbara Brown Taylor's book Holy Envy that envisions the Good Shepherd as one who protects many flocks, including non-Christian ones.

Further info:

A video on Isaiah 56 read through a disability lens

It's impossible for us to imagine exactly what God looks like, but it can be fun to see how other kids imagine God! We are all made in God's image, with all that makes us different and all that makes us the same.

Avery shares a story and a poem, each about small kindnesses between strangers that help make the world a little better in difficult times.

Share your own story of a small kindness that gives you hope!

Elizabeth Gilbert's story

Danusha Laméris' poem "Small Kindnesses"