Easter 2021 Devotion
April 4, 2021
Belief, Imagination, and a Queer Celebration of Life
by Phoebe de padua
Having grown up steeped in the life of the American evangelical church, I was exposed to so many wild, fantastical, and unbelievable biblical stories. The Christian story around Jesus’s death and resurrection, in particular, always felt like it required me to believe in something beyond human imagination and comprehension (because as a Christian, I choose to believe that Jesus rose again and is alive after dying from a brutal and torturous crucifixion and death.) To me, celebration during Easter Sunday is about faithfully believing in a miraculous story that I will never witness firsthand. In many ways, my Christian faith is about embracing uncertainty, choosing to celebrate what I don’t fully know or fully understand, believing in the fullness, expansiveness, and vastness of life, and living an imaginative life.
At HA:N church, one element of our mission is “queering the status quo.” In many ways, living a queerful life and queering the Christian church requires creative and innovative imagination. To live out this mission, as a church, we must not only challenge the status quo but also tap into our boundless imaginations to create new ideas, possibilities, and ways of being and to build a future that celebrates all our differences. For those of us who are queer and Christian; do not have affirming parents, families, friends, and community; and/or have experienced devastating emotional, psychological, or physical violence from a society that perpetuates heteronormative norms, we have no option but to cling on to the hope that there is a different way to be.
Queerness does not accept violence, pain, and death as normal. Queerness does not minimize hurt and accept oppression as just the way things are. Queerness does not accept silence and complicity with the status quo. Queerness is rooted in healing and liberation. Queerness is about a profound and extraordinary love that a hurtful, pain-stricken world may not be able to fully comprehend or understand. Queerness is about choosing joy and celebrating life.
Recently, the violence and harm on our Asian communities have received heightened visibility. I believe that God, our Divine Creator, is inviting us to collectively address our wounds, to heal deeply, and to transform ourselves. In the midst of our grief, mourning, anger, pain, and trauma, I invite us to a communal practice of queer belief, imagination, and celebration:
Healing is possible, and our pain, hurt, and grief will not keep us down.
We believe.
Light can shine brighter than darkness, and there is joy for the despondent.
We believe.
Faith rooted in liberation can transform us, the people we love, and our society.
We believe.
Our Asian American communities are seen, heard, and respected in our fullness.
We imagine.
Our LGBTQI loved ones and siblings are seen for their holiness and treated with dignity.
We imagine.
Our communities have all of the resources to keep ourselves safe and free from violence.
We imagine.
Despite all of the hurdles, barriers, and obstacles, we continue to show up and be present.
We celebrate.
The toxic church is reckoning with purity culture and misogyny against women and LGBTQI people, and religious abuse and exploitation continues to be exposed by the brave and the bold.
We celebrate.
Prayers of the faithful have been answered, and the visionary leadership of marginalized people and their communities are building new futures.
We celebrate.
Prayer: Divine creator God, we know that the sanitized heteronormative binaries that is fed to us as false propaganda by white, cisgender, patriarchal, ableist America does not reflect your vast and expansive imagination. Transform our eyes, hearts, and minds to see your image in ourselves and those different from us. Lead us into a radical self-love that accepts us and the people around us as fearfully and wonderfully created. Cultivate in us a rich imagination that sees holiness beyond the pews of the Christian church. Help us choose fullness in our life and celebrate more abundantly. We want to imagine so much more and build our liberated futures together.
Weekly Lent Devotions - 2021
March 24, 2021
Into Paradise Faithfully
by kyei kO
One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ 42 Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ 43 He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’ Luke 23:39-43
As I started thinking about what I could possibly share, I did not know where to start. I am also not much of a writer outside of the realm of music and academic papers. So I did what I do best. I went to my piano keyboard and started to hash out a song.
Given that I was writing for Lent, I thought about the cross. Oftentimes, when we sing about the cross, we in the Christian music world write songs that are centered on Christ, and rightfully so. However, I started to think from the perspective of the criminal who was invited into paradise with Christ. Unlike the criminal who hurled insults at Jesus, the other criminal humbly acknowledged why he was being rightfully punished while Jesus had not done anything to deserve it. From such a response, I believe Jesus acknowledged the genuine heart of the humbled criminal and declared that the man would enter into paradise alongside him. And so I began to write…
Not to get too long-winded, my music conveys the perspective of that criminal who was humbled by the love of Christ. For many Christians, our end goal is to be in paradise with Christ, and so we often toil out of habit to attain it. When we compare the lives of the religious authorities who had worked their whole lives to get their place in God’s Kingdom to the humble criminal, it was the humble one who Jesus said would join him in paradise. My prayer as you read the lyrics is that we will always humbly live this life that reflects Christ’s love, and that we may thrive and soar with him.
Verse#1
I lift my eyes to the hill of Calvary.
And I see the eyes of the Lord.
You looked to me and pierced my heart to know
That You have loved and love me still
Pre Chorus #1:
Though the nails of sins had bound You
To the cross of shame, I nailed You
Still the love of God remained in You
That You welcomed me into Your Heart
Chorus:
Oh Lord, Oh Lord forgive me of my sins
Forgive me of the pain I've caused on you
Caused by my unfaithfulness
Oh Lord, Oh Lord revive this lifeless soul
Help me turnaround to walk with You
Into paradise faithfully
Verse #2:
We set our eyes to hill of Calvary
Where our Lord, Your blood spilled for us
No longer there on the cross of shame and guilt
But alive and here with us today!
Pre Chorus#2:
Though the years of old have come and gone
Lord Your Life it still empowers us
To believe in You and live this life
That reflects Your Love You showed on the cross
Chorus#2:
Oh Lord, oh Lord, come receive our lives
Come and change our hearts of sinfulness
To reflect Your righteousness
Oh Lord, oh Lord, bring us to our knees
Help us live this life renewed by You
Into paradise faithfully
Bridge:
Though this life is marked with sorrow
There is joy in knowing You
Give us strength to persevere like You did on the Cross
Help us to live, help us to thrive, Help us to rise and soar with You.
March 17, 2021
This is my Beloved. Listen to Them!
by Sulkiro Song
Immediately after Jesus had been baptized and was coming up out of the water, the sky suddenly opened up and Jesus saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and hovering over him. With that, a voice from the heavens said, “This is my Own, my Beloved, on whom my favor rests.” Matthew 3:16-17 (Inclusive Bible)
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved [Child] with whom I am well pleased; listen to [Them].” When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. Matthew 17:1-8 (Inclusive Bible)
New York City, 1973. “Y’all better quiet down!” shouts Sylvia Rivera to a jeering crowd at NYC’s Gay Pride rally. Despite the taunts, she continues to address the mostly middle-class gay and lesbian crowd, attempting to boo her off stage. “I've been trying to get up here all day for your gay brothers and your gay sisters in jail that write me every motherfucking week and ask for your help and you all don't do a goddamn thing. Have you ever been beaten up and raped and jailed? Now think about it!”
Puerto Rican transgender woman Sylvia had been fighting for gay and trans rights — particularly for queer and homeless youth. Although middle-class and wealthy lesbian feminists and gay people found their existence at odds with a heteronormative society, poor and genderqueer people found themselves outcasted even by the middle-class gay and lesbian community. In the gay and lesbian fight for equality as well as acceptance into heteronormative society, transgender and genderqueer people were often overlooked and were treated as an embarrassing blight.
Sylvia had been orphaned at a young age and in her grandmother’s care. However, her grandmother abandoned her at the age of eleven for Sylvia’s effeminate behavior. Drag queens and transgender sex workers quickly took her in and sheltered her, fed her, and gifted her with their sole knowledge of survival as outcasted people. Sylvia dedicated her life doing the same, taking in homeless queer youth, sheltering and feeding them, and fighting for their lives.
Watching the YouTube video of Sylvia Rivera’s famous “Y’all better quiet down!” speech, I have difficulty recognizing her by her appearance. I have mild prosopagnosia — a difficulty recognizing and remembering faces. However, when I listen to her fatigued yet booming voice filled with the pain of love and betrayal, I recognize her. I recognize the voice of righteous anger and divine heartache that chastises, teaches, implores in love.
Here stands Jesus transfigured as a Puerto Rican transgender woman. And here, the Gospel also transcends from the confines of the canon, taking on the fiery voice of a trans woman that reverberates from the microphone, her words feeding the multitudes present not only at the rally in 1973, but feeding those listening generations later on their phones and tablets. Here we also see the Bible, too, transfigured.
March 2021. For these past couple of weeks, I have been mourning the death of Byun Hee-Soo, a woman who had been forcibly discharged from the South Korean military where they bar transgender people from joining. She spoke up, demanding recognition of her own humanity as well as a the humanity of other queer and trans Koreans. The very people she wanted to serve in uniform mocked and harassed her, demanding to know where she lived. Queerphobic Koreans accused her and other queer and trans people for copying western trends. But queer and trans people have always existed in Korean society — just as Two-Spirit, Nádleehi, Fa’atama Fa’afafine, Māhū, Hijra, Waria, and many other third gender identities have existed long before “western influence.” In the video where she addresses journalists, she speaks bravely, fighting back tears. Here stands Christ transfigured as a Korean transgender woman.
As a society, we suffer from a spiritual prosopagnosia — a difficulty in perceiving Christ when she stands in front of us. But it is in people like Sylvia Rivera, Byun Hee-Soo, and historically marginalized groups that I am sometimes able to recognize the many transfigurations of Jesus. When I do, I feel God’s beaming voice reverberating through the bones of soul, “This is my Beloved! Listen to Them!”
Prayer: God, help us to be able to perceive the Divine Belovedness in one another — particularly in the ones the Church has demonized as anomalous, alien, deviant, and even demonic. Help us not only in our perceptions, but guide in our own personal and collective transfigurations as we speak aletheia (truth) to the world as your beloved ones.
March 10, 2021
‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers - Emily Dickinson
By Lia Joo
“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” (Romans 12:9-13)
In doing some spring cleaning a year back, I found this small piece of wrinkled paper where I neatly wrote this bible verse down as if I was going to memorize it. Of course, I never did, but I decided to leave it out so I can see it whenever I can. I thought it was because of the pandemic that this verse was supposed to be for me but a week or so ago, I found out why.
In 2019, we all thought 2020 was going to be an amazing year. Hope was cheap and everyone was buying in. ‘Our lives are okay but 2020 is going to be THE year it becomes great!’ we all thought. Yea, then the rug got pulled out from under us and the year got progressively worse and worse and worse. During this time, we had a family member who had been in the midst of a 3 year struggle with alcohol addiction. The pandemic was almost second on our list of top concerns and it got to the point where we had to let go of the situation and focus on ourselves to breathe. The lesson we had learned was this: it is so difficult as a Christian to give hope to an addict who is not a believer.
When you see a loved one slowly killing themselves, how long do you wait for God without losing hope? How do you save someone who sees nothing but pitch black? As a believer, the answer is, you ask God to turn on a light. You ask until you get weary of asking and then you ask others to pray when you can’t.
Eventually, it came down to the passage, ‘Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.’ When you ask more people to pray with you like I did at H:AN UMC, you feel the burden become a bit lighter.
I know it’s cliched to hear stories about how miracles happened and prayers were answered. But this miracle and answered prayer cannot be dimmed by the immense darkness we have all felt. My family member became a Christian. He now shares the hope we so longed to give him years ago. It may not cure him from his addiction but now no one can take his hope away from him. He is with us as we all run this race and that’s all that matters. No longer are we chasing him, dragging him, kicking and screaming. We have his arms around our shoulders and we are all looking at the finish line knowing we will cross together. Our prayers helped show him and reminded ourselves that our hope is not cheap. It was paid for by a Father who sacrificed his Son to offer hope and love to all of us.
Now, when I look at him and say, “We will get through this.” He knows the promise. He knows we will get through this. Hallelujah.
PRAYER: Lord, forgive me for taking my hope in You and Your promise for granted. Thank you for my family, my family at H:AN, and my friends who all prayed with me and shared with each other the priceless gift of hope salvation has given us. Let us be joyful in the hope that we now know to be more valuable than anything. Let us be patient in affliction and ask for help when we need. And finally, let us never stop praying for those who have lost hope or are growing weary, for we all need a reminder from time to time that we will get through this. Amen.
march 3, 2021
Releasing the Stones We Hold: A Personal Meditation Reflection
by Kelly lee
Suggestion: Find a hard object and place it in your hand and to your heart as you read.
The bold italics are meant to be read as a meditation or prayer.
“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” -Ezekiel 36:26
(I hold tightly onto the stone.)
I wake up and roll over to my side and grab for my phone. I turn on the news. I begin scrolling. I look at the corner of my screen to notice that it is already March 2021.
(I hold tightly onto the stone.)
It’s March! Women’s History month! It’s March… it’s already been one year of the pandemic.
(I hold tightly onto the stone.)
I turn back to scrolling. NPR tells me that the $1.9 billion COVID relief package heads to the Senate. (Not before U.S. airstrikes Syria). Women have bravely spoke out against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment. 18 civilians were killed for protesting in Myanmar after its military coup. Another day, another long list of disheartening news.
(I hold tightly onto the stone.)
I turn off my phone. I sit up. I take a deep breath.
I quiet my mind and begin reflecting on the impact this last year has had on the earth and on humankind.
(I hold tightly onto the stone.)
Loss. We have lost so much. We have grieved and mourned. We realize we had taken so much for granted. We have been isolated. We have fought… oh, have we fought. And we have yearned. O, Lord. We yearn. I turn my attention inward.
(I recognize the stone. Firmly gripped by pain, hopelessness, disappointment, frustration, fear….)
So often throughout the last year, we have been grappling with levels hatred and anger. We have been in exhaustion from silence of our administration. We have dealt with the disappointment of an un-changing and broken system. We have been confronted of the division of this nation, the division as a people.
We felt helpless in the face of a virus that forced us into our homes and into small screens. We felt abandoned when we lost our jobs but the demand for our economy over our humanity continued. We have sat with pain and sorrow as we watched our loved ones become ill. And yet, we could not offer a simple hug. We silently ached as we witnessed and heard of neighbors, friends, family say their last goodbyes. Over 500,000 people have left us.
We felt until we no longer could feel, except for the heaviness of the stones we carry.
(I hold tightly onto the stone.)
Where is the hope of your people, O God? How can we find light in the midst of this darkness? Take this heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh. Thaw away the numbness with your warmth. O Lord, we yearn for your presence. I pray.
(I release the stone from my grip.)
The words of Ezekiel comfort me. “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Soften my heart. Awaken me to your goodness. Move me into compassion. I pray.
(I release the stone from my grip.)
My heart opens at the thought that I am not in this alone. I am empowered by the history of ancestors and a generation of pioneers who have shown me the way with their embodied work and liberating words. I am reminded that there is more joy to seek and more victories to achieve. I am reminded that I am not alone but am walking with a communion of saints who champion God’s call to love and that in the end, love is our victory. Liberation is around the corner.
(I release.)
My heart is softened by activist Yuri Kochiyama who said, “So, transform yourself first… Because you are young and have dreams and want to do something meaningful, that in itself, makes you our future and our hope. Keep expanding your horizon, decolonize your mind, and cross borders.
(I release.)
My heart is softened by poet June Jordan who said, “To tell the truth is to become beautiful, to begin to love yourself, value yourself. And that's political, in its most profound way.”
(I release.)
My heart is awakened by activist Grace Lee Boggs who said, “You cannot change any society unless you take responsibility for it, unless you see yourself as belonging to it and responsible for changing it.”
(I release.)
My heart is awakened of the feminist theologian Kwok Pui Lan who said, “Without the power of imagination we cannot envision a different past, present, and future… what we cannot imagine, we cannot live into and struggle for.”
(I release.)
My heart is renewed by activist womanist writer Audre Lorde who said, “When I use my strength in the service of my vision, it makes no difference whether or not I am afraid.”
(I take a deep breath to fill the empty spaces)
I have found that when our hearts are softened, it does not become weaker. Rather it becomes more open and compassionate. It allows for space to confront difficult things. In fact, it gives us the renewed strength to confront it. The Prophet Ezekiel was speaking to the hardened hearts of the Israelites who, in exile, have chosen complacency in injustice and harm over the love of God. They had forgotten about their identity as a people of God and God’s call "to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8).
On the one-year mark of this pandemic, it is not hard to imagine the despair of the Israelites who felt displaced and detached from everything they once held valuable. However, the Israelites choose apathy which led to the disconnect with God and with one another. In response, Ezekiel called for the cleansing of their stubborn and hardened ways and to receive a new thing God is offering. This Lenten season, as we remember where we came from and to whom we belong, let us practice the releasing of our stone and welcome God’s refreshing spirit into our hearts. For our hearts are stronger when it is softer.
Prayer: Dear Giver of Life, cleanse us anew with your holiness. Teach us how to release the grip of the heavy stones we carry and to receive your new spirit. Make us sensitive to your movement and open us up to the warmth you offer.
February 24, 2021
Turning the Other Cheek
By Charles Buck
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also” (Matthew 5:38-39).
Some years ago, I attended an education summit. I don’t remember any of the issues or topics discussed, but I clearly recall lunch. We were assigned to tables as a way for us to network and form alliances. We began with introductions. I said I was a local church minister, the woman next to me a community activist, and so on around the table. Then we started eating.
As we ate, the community activist started talking—directly to me, to tell me all the problems she had with Christians and Christianity. How, she asked, can you do what Jesus said and turn the other cheek? How can you make things right if you’re always having to be meek and give in? What good will result if you don’t stand up and fight for what’s right? And on she went.
I didn’t say much. I couldn’t, actually: she did all the talking. But, truthfully, I was also speechless, totally unprepared for this verbal attack!
Later, in the perfect clarity of hindsight, I realized two things. First, maybe nothing needed to be said. She probably had a greater need to get some things off her chest. Maybe she wasn’t trying to pick a fight with me, but turning to me as someone who would, in fact, “turn the other cheek” and listen.
And second, had there been a chance for me to say something, I would’ve asked her to consider that Jesus may have meant something different. Not that in the face of attack or oppression we just give in, accept our fate, or let others take advantage of us. Rather, don’t make it a personal vendetta and fight back, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Instead, respond to the real need, whether it’s a matter of the heart or of a societal injustice. Never fight back for your own gain, but for the benefit of others; not out of love for yourself, but for the love of neighbor.
Jesus concluded this in his Sermon on the Mount, from where our scripture passage comes: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). So “turning the other cheek” isn’t about giving up at all. It’s putting ourselves—our cheeks—out there and showing that we aren’t giving up. We will always use the power of God’s transforming love, especially with our enemies, to fight for what’s right.
Prayer: God, show us the power of your transforming love, and help us to be vessels of that love wherever we go and to whomever we meet, now and always. Amen.
february 17, 2021
Storing Treasures Up In Heaven
by daniel Cho
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)
Ash Wednesday was the beginning of our Lenten journey, and we were reminded that "out of the Earth we were created, and to the Earth we shall return." During the season of Lent, we are reminded of both our frailty and the call to self reflection and preparation for a life of discipleship.
I recently heard a stand up comedian who was agnostic saying how silly it was that we think we can own things… because we all die. It doesn't take a Christian or a religious person to come to this realization. Yet, unfortunately, even as Christians, who have a religious tradition that affirms this, grounded in our own sacred text, spoken by Jesus himself, we still find it easy to lose sight of this and live in a way that builds treasure for ourselves on earth rather than in heaven.
Many have often taken storing up treasures in heaven as a focus on the otherworldly. In essence, according to this line of interpretation, storing up treasures on earth was being too concerned with the world, and storing treasures in heaven was about praying a little harder, reading the Bible a little more, converting more people, and whatever else to show everyone what a faithful person they are to ensure their own personal salvation, so that they can eventually collect their treasure, their riches, their belongings when they reach heaven.
However, I would like to suggest for us during this season of Lent that Jesus's exhortation to store treasures in heaven is very much about about how we live our current mortal lives in unselfish ways. In fact, leading up to these verses, Jesus admonishes those who would flaunt their piety and "faithfulness". This is what Jesus describes as storing treasures on earth. It's not about being too concerned with worldly matters, but rather being too self-involved with their own faith or captive to the toxic anxieties and trappings that this world is often oppressed by.
During this Black History Month, I'm reminded of the way that the Black Church pursued this treasure in heaven. They pursued justice and liberation, in the face of evil and oppression clung to hope, and through their work, giving dignity and life not only to their own community, but to other oppressed communities as well.
With March 1 around the corner, I'm also reminded of Ryu Gwan Sun who stored treasures in heaven by leading a protest against the Japanese Colonial Empire in the face of violence and certain death. She worked for the liberation and dignity of her people at the young age of just 16.
I'm reminded of a handful of congregants storing treasures in heaven during my time in a small town in Indiana who quietly worked to make the local church safe for their LGBTQ children by using their privilege as community leaders and sharing their kindness and generosity to all people.
Here at HA:N, we are trying to store treasures in heaven by living out the healing and liberating message of Jesus Christ, queering the status quo, and confronting all forms of injustice and oppression. During this Lenten season, how might you begin storing this treasure in heaven that is meant to be shared in the present?
Prayer: Loving God, may we be brave and compassionate, listening and seeing, finding ways to offer ourselves for that journey. May the world treasure one another, and especially those in need the most. Amen.