Lent Week 2: Queer Communion: A Liturgy

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The Word of God

Celebrant: Blessed be God: Parent, Caregiver, Child, Friend, Holy Spirit of Wisdom; multiple identities, yet one person. 
People: And blessed be their kin-dom, as we look to the future, but most importantly, here, in this moment. 

Celebrant: The God of the queer, the misfits, the lonely is with you. 
People: As she is with you. 
Celebrant: Let us pray.

The Collect

Celebrant: God of justice, you are intimately acquainted with the ways our human hearts break when we are not fully known and accepted. You also know the peace of what it means to love. May our lives be a reflection of the love you express within yourself; that we will come to a place where we cannot help but love, and to know this love fully - for ourselves, the people who surround us, and the earth which we inhabit. This love is an extension of who you are, the source of all kindness, which turns love, into love, into love, into love. Amen.

The Lessons

Lector: An excerpt from & O, bright star of disaster, I have been lit, by Franny Choi.

& who isn’t bruised around the edges,
peaches poured into the truckbed, receipts
faded to white? i have only ever wanted to bite
down hard on whatever was offered to my hot,

grasping mouth. & here i am, licking corners
like a nervous cat, squirming in the hallway
outside the bathroom. i pick up the accent
of whoever i’m speaking to. nobody wants
to fuck a sponge. nobody wants to crush
on a ghost. o sure, we all do it anyway…

& isn’t that
what you paid for? isn’t that what you came
to see?             a god, on loop, failing?

Lector: Words of truth are spoken here.
People: For this we are grateful.

Celebrant: The Holy Gospel as it was always meant to be heard. Fluid, bold, affirming, grounded in love. 
People: What a glorious gift we have received.

You were born a blessing, you who are queer.
For you are accepted. 
You were born a blessing, you who feel invisible. 
For you are seen. 
You were born a blessing, you who have not felt at home in your own body. 
For you belong.

This is not a joy that you must wait to experience. For they are a God of the here and now. And if anyone tells you otherwise, they are wrong. Remember that you are a blessing, a perfect vessel of love. Come find rest in the arms of the one who has named you good.

Celebrant: The Gospel of love. 
People: We receive it with open hearts.

Confession of Sin

Celebrant: Let us confess the ways that we have not loved our neighbors. 

All-loving Christ, 
we confess that, despite your call to love all folx,
we have failed to demonstrate acceptance to those around us. 
We have not loved through our actions of exclusion and judgment, driven by fear. 
We have not loved through our inactions of silence and complacency. 
We have not loved ourselves, and in turn, we could not love our neighbors. 
Our hearts are broken and we come together to find wholeness.
The grace that you have instilled within each of us is great, 
and we offer it to ourselves and to one another. 
We reject the phobias that keep us from embracing this grace.
Bring us back to the path of love;
that we may delight in the joys of this life we have been given,
living fully in each moment. Amen. 

Celebrant: We confess not out of guilt, but out of hope. You have always been forgiven, you have always been redeemed. Hold this truth in your heart, feed on it and be free. Amen. 

Holy Communion

Celebrant: We gather to celebrate the table to which we have all been invited. It is a table where death becomes life, where darkness becomes light, where heartache becomes hope. At this table, to be redeemed is to be queer. This table was turned upside down and inside out for you. It is your table. And all, all, all are welcome.

This is the gift of love, for you, the people of love. Come, feast at the table prepared for you before you even knew yourself. We have been waiting to welcome you home. 

Celebrant: Let us pray.

Eternal Spirit, 
who becomes uniquely incarnate to each of us in our individual needs,
we are filled with gratitude for the ways that you have fed us 
through communion with one another.
We now go bravely into the world
with the courage and strength that has always dwelled within, 
to be the incarnation of love to those around us. 
Because love is love is love is love, 
now and forever. Amen. 

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