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Prayer List
Friends, 1 Corinthians 13 is often read at weddings, but scholars understand Paul was writing about love within a community. So let us reflect on these words in the days ahead - how do they inspire us as individuals and as a community?
12 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing God directly just as the Lord knows us! 13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation:
Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
~ 1 Corinthians 13:12-13 (The Message)
Whatever else you might say about it,
Love is queer. queerer than Queer.
Which is to say, it flows more freely between and betwixt
then even our strangest surmise.
Don’t be afraid to let it unravel all your preconceptions.
It’s ok to grow aflutter at its notions of
possibilities yet explored, worlds yet revealed.
Go ahead and let it win you over (and over again)
with all the gestures of affection scattered promiscuously
throughout the land and waters, across species and friendships.
It wishes to beckon all of us away from the
tired romance of hierarchies and domination
that know so little about what it means to be alive,
why we are so unsatisfied,
or how to tend longings that span generations.
Be forewarned, however.
Like all that is queer, risk is involved.
Abandoned into such arms, you will find yourself
at odds with gods and empires.
Their wrath is not to be dismissed,
but neither are we, the queers and the queer -
Love and all the peculiar power
of those who find and cherish each other
materially, affectionately, relentlessly.
~ M Jade Kaiser (enfleshed)
This week we pray for:
Deb Hostettler
Continued prayers for Deb who is hoping to regain her appetite and energy following an adjustment in her medication to reduce side effects.
Karen, friend of Candy Relle
Continued prayers for comfort and healing for Karen who is receiving treatment for blood clots that developed in her legs and lungs after a recent surgery.
Erin Guzmán, COW Chaplain
Continued prayers for healing for Erin who is recovering from surgery on both wrists.
Barbara Mykkanen
Continued prayers for Barb as she participates in a study to help others with similar cancer diagnosis.
We pray for
- those grieving over 39,000 deaths after the earthquake in Turkey and Syria;
- the campus community of Michigan State University, grieving the deaths of three students and the injuries of five more after a campus shooting on Monday, and all other campus communities for whom this event is a painful reminder of their own trauma after gun violence;
- the 73 migrants missing after their boat sank off the Libyan coast; for all who risk their lives in search of safety and sustainable, good life;
- those struggling with mental health and anxiety;
- those who are facing daunting decisions and complex transitions;
- the Creator’s Love to shine bright in the darkness and to inspire us to show up with courage and compassion.
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