Queer Grief and Lament
An adaptation of Psalm 137:1-6
By the rivers of a dangerous land—there we collapsed and there we sobbed when we remembered Home.
On the willows there we hung up our instruments.
For there our oppressors asked us for songs and rainbows,
and our oppressors asked for joy, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’
How could we sing the Becoming One’s song in a hostile land?
If I forget you, O Community, let my purpose and agency dissipate!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Queer Community above my highest joy.
Queer Anger
Suzannah Porter uses an adaption of Habakkuk 1:1-4, 12-17, 2:1-20
The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk experienced.
O Becoming One, how long shall I cry for protection from harm, and you will not listen? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save? Why do you put harm and oppression before me?
Destruction and violence are before me; oppression and inequity arise. So the law becomes twisted and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous—therefore judgment comes forth to oppress.
Are you not from all times, O Becoming One my God, my Holy One? You shall not be destroyed. O Becoming One, you have marked the people for judgment; and you, O Brick, have established consequences for those who oppress.
[…]
Your eyes are too delicate to behold evil, and you cannot hear of wrongdoing; why do you look on those who oppress, and are silent when the violent swallow those working for justice? You have made people like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler.
The enemy brings all of them up with a hook; dragging them with his wit, the enemy entraps them, and so rejoices and smirks. Therefore the enemy sacrifices to his wit and makes offerings to his trap; for by them his portion is exorbitant, and his food is rich. Is the enemy then to keep on devastating the environment, and destroying peoples without mercy?
I will stand at my lookout place, and station myself on the defenses; I will keep watch to see how he frames the narrative, and how he will respond to my criticism.
Then the Becoming One answered me and said:
Write the vision; make it plain on social media, so that a textreader may voice it. For there is still a promise for the appointed time; it speaks of the time to come, and does not lie. If it seems to stall, anticipate it; it will surely come, it will not delay.
Look at the white supremacists and nationalists! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith. Moreover, wealth is treacherous; the wealthy do not endure. They die how they live; like Death they never have enough. They gather all peoples for themselves, and exploit the nations for their own gain. Shall not everyone deride such people and, with mocking riddles, say about them, ‘Alas for you who build rocketships while Creation cries out!’
How long will you load yourselves with goods taken through extortion and exploitation? Will not your own creditors suddenly rise, and those who hold you accountable wake up? Then you will be their workers for them. Because you have exploited many peoples, all that survive of the nations shall exploit you—because of human bloodshed, and violence to the earth, to cities and all who live in them.
‘Alas for you who are slumlords and housing bankers, setting your homes in penthouses and mansions to be safe from the reach of poverty!’ You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life. The very foundation will cry out from your house, and the plaster will respond from the woodwork.
‘Alas for you who build a sundown town by bloodshed, and found a city on redlining!’ Is it not from the Becoming One of Angel Armies that nations labor only to feed the flames of capitalism, and peoples exhaust themselves for nothing?
But the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the justice of the Becoming One, as the waters cover the sea.
‘Alas for you who make your neighbors drink, pouring out your wrath until they are drunk, in order to violate and harm!’ You will be sated with contempt instead of glory. Drink, you yourself, and become compromised! The cup in the Becoming One’s right hand will come around to you, and shame will come upon your self-aggrandizement! For the violence done to others will overwhelm you; the destruction of creation will terrify you—because of human exploitation and violence to the earth, to cities and all who live in them.
What use is an idol once its maker has shaped it—a tool of nationalism, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in what can be manipulated, though the product is only a lie meant to confuse and mislead! Alas for you who say to guns, ‘Wake up!’ to the flag, ‘Rouse yourself!’
Can it teach?
See, it is plated with capitalism, racism, and patriarchy, and there is no life in it at all.
But the Becoming One is in Their holy temple, Creation; let all the earth keep reverence before Them!
Queer Rest and Preparation
River Needham MA ThM adapts Genesis 2:1-3
Then, all the work of creating the heavens and earth were over. On this the seventh day, God completed the work that she had made. The whole host of the earth and heaven was created out of formlessness, and it was good. So, God rested. God took the seventh day and made it sacred and holy. God rested on this holy day, and it was good.
Queer Sexualities
J. Pace Warfield-May adapts Song of Songs 2:16, 4:16, 8:6-7a
My beloved is mine and I am his.
Awake, O North Wind
and come, O South Wind.
Blow upon my garden
that this fragrance may spread everywhere.
Come, beloved, into your garden,
taste these pleasant fruits.
Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its passion unyielding as mortality.
It burns like a blazing fire,
like a roaring flame, it burns.
Many waters cannot quench love;
Neither can the floods drown it.
Queer Celebration and Joy
Rev. Emily E. Ewing adapts Psalm 150
Praise the Becoming One!
Praise God in Xyr sanctuary;
praise God in Her mighty firmament!
Praise God for Their mighty deeds;
praise God according to Faer surpassing greatness!
Praise God with trumpet sound;
praise Xem with lute and harp!
Praise God with tambourine and dance;
praise Her with strings and pipe!
Praise God with clanging cymbals;
praise Them with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that breathes praise the Becoming One!
Praise God!
