Drag Queen Ranting (Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4)

God can be such a queen!
  
  The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received in a vision.
"How long, Our God, am I to cry for help while you do not listen?
     How long will I cry  'Oppression!' in your ear and you do not save?
Why do you make me look upon injustice?
     Why do yo countenance tyranny?
Outrage and violence - this is all I see!
     All is contention, and discord flourishes.
The law loses its hold, and justice never shows itself.
     The corrupt triumph over these who are righteous, and justice is perverted once again."
.....
     Our God replied, 
"Write down this vision,
     inscribe it legibly on tablets so that a herald can read it,
since this vision will stand as a witness to the appointed time of judgement;
     it gives a faithful testimony, about a time that will come.
It it is slow in coming, wait for it -
     for come it will, without fail."

Look - those who hearts are corrupt will faint with exhaustion,
     while those who steadfastly uphold justice (alternatively, "faith") will live.

Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

Jessica in Bobbé Half-Drag 

I yelled at God today. 

I was tired and feeling a bit put out. Nothing new that I haven't already ranted about. A Facebook post. You know, one of those going on about the queers being the cause of the decline in U.S. prestige. I don't know why it got under my skin, but it did.

So I yelled. 

It was a brilliant rant about all the real reasons the world is going to hell in a hand basket: oppression, injustice, tyranny, violence, discord, perversion of the right. I pulled the list straight from Habakkuk. It seems not much has changed since the early 600s B.C.E. I threw that in too, just to mess with God's head.

I'm a classically trained minister. I know all the arguments. So I let God have it. Someone had to. In you face God! 

Mic drop.

Then God talked back. Now, I'm not saying I heard an audible voice. God has never talked to me in such a way. No, it was more of a nagging feeling, more of a fleeting thought that didn't quite fly off. Even in this mode of communication God can be blunt, for God really is not one for subtleties and innuendos.

"Look at the drag queen, he/she lives in the fluidity of gender identity among many who abhor any notion beyond binary gender categories. Beat on, leered at, and laughed at as stereotypes of human audacity, the drag queen lives on, faithful to who she/he is and does what is right. And in doing what is right, finds life."

God can be such a queen!

I hate life (Genesis 3:8-11)

I hate this walk. I hate life. And here She comes.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"

And he said, "I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid."

Genesis 8-11 (HCSB)

Adam and Eve, by Abu Said Ubaud Allah Ibn Bakhitshu

Today I walked with God through the forest. I wore my rainbow shoes. Queer pride on display. Queer pride taking me forward.

I didn't get far and soon realized my mistake: my old nemesis - mud. It is found in society as that deep sucking, sinking-past-your-ankle, stealing-your-shoes mud of fear and anxiety. How often did it send me home barefooted to my angry mother?

"Where are your shoes, boy?!"

Sure enough - gluck, gluck, gluck - my queer pride was snatched away. Fearfully, I raised my naked feet.

"Shit!" I shouted. Forgetting I was on a walk with God my Mother. 

Great - lost shoes, lost pride, and now my loose tongue will get my mouth washed out.

I hate this walk. 

I hate life at this moment.

And here She comes. 

Failing this thing called "faith," I start stammering out the ten commandments. Can't remember but three of them. So I start to quote the Beatitudes? Crap, who is among the blessed? Certainly not me. 

She's here. Stinky rainbow shoes muddying her hands. In Her eyes - laughter.