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One Coin Found: How God's Love Stretches to the Margins
The stories of Scripture are for everyone. No exceptions.
Emmy Kegler has a complicated relationship with the Bible. As a queer woman who grew up in both conservative Evangelical and progressive Protestant churches, she knows too well how Scripture can be used to wound and exclude. And yet, the stories of Scripture continue to captivate and inspire her--both as a person of faith and as a pastor to a congregation. So she set out to fall in love with the Bible, wrestling with the stories inside, where she met a God who continues to seek us out--appearing again and again as a voice, a presence, and a promise.
Whenever we are pushed to the edges, our voices silenced, or our stories dismissed, God goes out after us--seeking us until we are found again. And God is seeking out those whose voices we too quickly silence and dismiss, too. Because God's story is a story of welcome and acceptance for everyone--no exceptions.
Kegler shows us that even when we feel like lost and dusty coins--rusted from others' indifference, misspent and misused--God picks up a broom and sweeps every corner of creation to find us.
Emmy Kegler has a complicated relationship with the Bible. As a queer woman who grew up in both conservative Evangelical and progressive Protestant churches, she knows too well how Scripture can be used to wound and exclude. And yet, the stories of Scripture continue to captivate and inspire her--both as a person of faith and as a pastor to a congregation. So she set out to fall in love with the Bible, wrestling with the stories inside, where she met a God who continues to seek us out--appearing again and again as a voice, a presence, and a promise.
Whenever we are pushed to the edges, our voices silenced, or our stories dismissed, God goes out after us--seeking us until we are found again. And God is seeking out those whose voices we too quickly silence and dismiss, too. Because God's story is a story of welcome and acceptance for everyone--no exceptions.
Kegler shows us that even when we feel like lost and dusty coins--rusted from others' indifference, misspent and misused--God picks up a broom and sweeps every corner of creation to find us.
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2019
72 people are currently reading
1308 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 86 reviews
March 9, 2019
A bit about me: I am a pastor in a liberal progressive mainline denomination. I read a lot of theology and a lot of memoirs.
When the two collide, as they do in "One Coin Found," I often find moments of connection, but rarely am I overwhelmed and shouting "AMEN!" like I was while reading Kegler's story.
Kegler is able to mine her (rather short) life story and articulate how God has shown up, sometimes in the most frustrating of places. She uses her story of an "ordinary life" in suburban MN to illuminate the potency of God IN the ordinary. Kegler shares the good news of God's love active and running wild in this world and how that wild love keeps finding and capturing her, even in the midst of the cruelest pain, denial of self, which the church continues to inflict upon her, her community and the marginal of this world.
I appreciate many things about this book, but I think first and foremost is Kegler's blatant honesty that life is hard, painful and filled with disappointments. Believing in God doesn't inoculate anyone from that. I also appreciate the portrait of God Kegler illustrates through her story. It is an experience and articulation of God that resonates with me, one that rejects both the God of hellish brimstone and the God of pink fluff, bringing to bear instead a God who loves so hard and in such a variety of ways that it takes an entire chapter to sum up how Kelger has "been found by a divine love."
Lastly, Kegler is clear that this relationship between her and God isn't over. That she hasn't arrived and that she continues to wrestle. She lives into this current understanding and experience of God in the full knowledge that the relationship will continue to mature, germinate and blossom in unpredictable ways.
"One Coin Found" is for people like me, who have experienced God in the midst of our ordinary lives and need help articulating who that God is, because all past portraits fall short.
"One Coin Found" is for people who have been wounded by the church so much they can't bear to be connected to one, yet they still believe in the power of God's love.
"One Coin Found" is for people who no longer believe. It won't try to convert you, but it might help you understand why some of us, against all the horror the church has done in the name of God, can still stand in our faith (because we wobble from time to time).
"One Coin Found" is for anyone longing to understand this God-thing. Perhaps it will be in a totally new way, or perhaps like me you will finally find the very God you have been experiencing all your life articulated through someone else's story and now you finally know for certain, you are not alone.
When the two collide, as they do in "One Coin Found," I often find moments of connection, but rarely am I overwhelmed and shouting "AMEN!" like I was while reading Kegler's story.
Kegler is able to mine her (rather short) life story and articulate how God has shown up, sometimes in the most frustrating of places. She uses her story of an "ordinary life" in suburban MN to illuminate the potency of God IN the ordinary. Kegler shares the good news of God's love active and running wild in this world and how that wild love keeps finding and capturing her, even in the midst of the cruelest pain, denial of self, which the church continues to inflict upon her, her community and the marginal of this world.
I appreciate many things about this book, but I think first and foremost is Kegler's blatant honesty that life is hard, painful and filled with disappointments. Believing in God doesn't inoculate anyone from that. I also appreciate the portrait of God Kegler illustrates through her story. It is an experience and articulation of God that resonates with me, one that rejects both the God of hellish brimstone and the God of pink fluff, bringing to bear instead a God who loves so hard and in such a variety of ways that it takes an entire chapter to sum up how Kelger has "been found by a divine love."
Lastly, Kegler is clear that this relationship between her and God isn't over. That she hasn't arrived and that she continues to wrestle. She lives into this current understanding and experience of God in the full knowledge that the relationship will continue to mature, germinate and blossom in unpredictable ways.
"One Coin Found" is for people like me, who have experienced God in the midst of our ordinary lives and need help articulating who that God is, because all past portraits fall short.
"One Coin Found" is for people who have been wounded by the church so much they can't bear to be connected to one, yet they still believe in the power of God's love.
"One Coin Found" is for people who no longer believe. It won't try to convert you, but it might help you understand why some of us, against all the horror the church has done in the name of God, can still stand in our faith (because we wobble from time to time).
"One Coin Found" is for anyone longing to understand this God-thing. Perhaps it will be in a totally new way, or perhaps like me you will finally find the very God you have been experiencing all your life articulated through someone else's story and now you finally know for certain, you are not alone.
March 24, 2019
Put the Bible in the hands of a hyper-intelligent woman, a lover of stories, a vivacious reader and a queer human who lives with depression, anxiety and perfectionism. Then listen. Listen closely to her and to what sees, what she lives, and what she has to say. One Coin Found is a priceless gem. It is poetic, honest and oh so rich. Emmy Kegler reminds us of the necessity of impossibility when it comes to the God whose love is seeking us.
June 6, 2019
Delightful read. Great story of a brave and strong young queer woman bringing boundless curiosity and fierce intellect to the stories of the Bible and the practices of the church--and finding a place where she (and readers) feel found and at home.
March 15, 2024
A friend and I have a long-distance book club going on and this was a book she lent to me via snail mail several months ago and I am so glad I finally got to it. It’s a beautiful and tender spiritual memoir of sorts and Kegler gets to the heart of the woman searching for her lost coin parable in Luke through a variety of stories. Moving, true, and super accessible.
April 2, 2019
I knew Emmy’s book would be good because I’ve known for years that she was a gifted theologian, writer, exegete, and storyteller. What I didn't know was how good her book would be *for me*. Shortly after starting it I told her, “I may have to read this slowly, in pieces. Because if I read it all at once I’m afraid it’ll make me sick the way you get sick from eating too fast after you’ve been starving.” I had no idea how hungry I was for Emmy’s words.
Like Emmy, I grew up loving the stories of our shared faith. And like her, eventually my relationship with scripture became complicated as I reckoned with my own queer identity and the ways the Bible has been used against people like me: not just queer people, but women too. I still trusted that scripture held good news, but I learned to keep my guard up.
Reading this book, I was flooded with memories of my own upbringing, my own early love for the "Good Book" and my childhood certainty that God loved me without condition. I felt like I was falling in love all over again. She even made me give Paul a chance!
Emmy's storytelling captures the spirit of ancient biblical stories and the major messages of Christian faith and breathes new life into them through stories of her own experience. In One Coin Found, God shows up in dark, pre-dawn sanctuaries and starkly lit Al-Anon meetings, in tradition and in rejection. This is a word that speaks over and beyond boundaries and finds us wherever we hide, seeking solace, and carries us home. It's beautiful, powerful storytelling that reminds us scripture also speaks into our own lives, and that our stories are holy gospel too.
Emmy Kegler has a theologian's mind, a poet's pen, a pastor's heart, and a believer's spirit. And that makes for one heck of a good book. If you've ever been taught that scripture exists to condemn you, read this book and rediscover the good news it holds. If you've ever loved scripture, read this book and remember what it felt like to fall in love. Read and fall in love with scripture for the first time. Read to find God and Christ in echoes of your own story or read to find them fully present in a story unlike your own. Just read it. Trust me on this.
Like Emmy, I grew up loving the stories of our shared faith. And like her, eventually my relationship with scripture became complicated as I reckoned with my own queer identity and the ways the Bible has been used against people like me: not just queer people, but women too. I still trusted that scripture held good news, but I learned to keep my guard up.
Reading this book, I was flooded with memories of my own upbringing, my own early love for the "Good Book" and my childhood certainty that God loved me without condition. I felt like I was falling in love all over again. She even made me give Paul a chance!
Emmy's storytelling captures the spirit of ancient biblical stories and the major messages of Christian faith and breathes new life into them through stories of her own experience. In One Coin Found, God shows up in dark, pre-dawn sanctuaries and starkly lit Al-Anon meetings, in tradition and in rejection. This is a word that speaks over and beyond boundaries and finds us wherever we hide, seeking solace, and carries us home. It's beautiful, powerful storytelling that reminds us scripture also speaks into our own lives, and that our stories are holy gospel too.
Emmy Kegler has a theologian's mind, a poet's pen, a pastor's heart, and a believer's spirit. And that makes for one heck of a good book. If you've ever been taught that scripture exists to condemn you, read this book and rediscover the good news it holds. If you've ever loved scripture, read this book and remember what it felt like to fall in love. Read and fall in love with scripture for the first time. Read to find God and Christ in echoes of your own story or read to find them fully present in a story unlike your own. Just read it. Trust me on this.
May 20, 2019
For those of us who grew up in churches closed off from the gifts of LGBTQ+ people we often find the door to new possibilities opens in one of two directions. We are either given personal stories of LGBTQ+ Christians or exegetical/theological treatises. Rev. Emmy Kegler's One Coin Found offers us the best of both worlds with a compassionate, well-written personal account of her experience of coming to embrace the fullness of her identity as a queer Christian alongside rich, well-researched, and arresting biblical exegesis. I wish I could put this book into the hands of every person who asks me "but how did you come to know LGBTQ+ people as God's beloved?" Rev Kegler's story is one that will challenge, inspire, and renew your love for Scripture, your understanding of God, and your own sense of God's relentless, non-coercive love.
April 2, 2019
If the last couple of years in the United States have taught us nothing else, they've taught us the importance of stories. In One Coin Found, Emmy Kegler tells us a story about struggling with mental illness, wrestling with faith, and rejecting human rejection in favor of God's infuriating grace. Her questions, her vulnerability, and her skill as a storyteller invite us into a place where we can be honest about who we are, and be loved for it. One Coin Found provides that space for everyone, but especially for those of us who identify as LGBTQIA. This book is a balm for weary souls.
January 7, 2024
This book opened my eyes as to what the queer experience could be like in church and in faith. I’m thankful that Emmy shared her story with us- and I’m going to use to reframe how I think and how I interact with others.
June 16, 2019
Warm and lovely. Emmy has done a wonderful job of making a place for queer Christians online and I’m glad she was able to tell her own story.
November 7, 2019
Not a book meant to convince or persuade anyone. This memoir weaves Bible and world together into a cohesive whole.
April 15, 2025
Finally finished this one after it sitting in my dads house for a while. I love her perspective and think it’s very beautiful and an essential LGBTQ/Christian memoir
May 5, 2024
123:2024
More beautiful stuff for progressive Christians pushing back against the bad theology so pervasive in our culture. Definitely recommend, especially for LGBT Christians and other Christians calling for the church to love our LGBT neighbors unconditionally as true children of God.
More beautiful stuff for progressive Christians pushing back against the bad theology so pervasive in our culture. Definitely recommend, especially for LGBT Christians and other Christians calling for the church to love our LGBT neighbors unconditionally as true children of God.
January 31, 2020
Kegler is a magnificent writer. Her ability in words to draw a picture; to pull the reader into her narrative; to express in poetic prose the feelings and attitude of a soul is exceptional. She has to power to get a reader to grasp her feelings and thought.
If this monograph suffers from a flaw, it is falling in the crack between a memoir and a theological argument. She does both well, but I found both wanting, victim of the work of the other. She tells powerful stories of her childhood and adolescence; of her emerging call to ministry and her sexuality; of the deep wounds she has endured from her own depression and the judgmental venom of congregations and individuals who claim to follow Jesus. In many moments, I ached with her as she so marvelously described her journey.
What was missing (and may be intentional) were stories of fighting the demons of bad theology and bad genes. Yes, the love of God got her thought it all. But I'd have enjoyed knowing what tools; what arguments; what narratives and moments of love got her through; how the Gospel gave her tool to battle the forces of oppression.
Note, it was great to read, even if painful to experience the world through her skin. Perhaps, I just wanted more.
If this monograph suffers from a flaw, it is falling in the crack between a memoir and a theological argument. She does both well, but I found both wanting, victim of the work of the other. She tells powerful stories of her childhood and adolescence; of her emerging call to ministry and her sexuality; of the deep wounds she has endured from her own depression and the judgmental venom of congregations and individuals who claim to follow Jesus. In many moments, I ached with her as she so marvelously described her journey.
What was missing (and may be intentional) were stories of fighting the demons of bad theology and bad genes. Yes, the love of God got her thought it all. But I'd have enjoyed knowing what tools; what arguments; what narratives and moments of love got her through; how the Gospel gave her tool to battle the forces of oppression.
Note, it was great to read, even if painful to experience the world through her skin. Perhaps, I just wanted more.
March 28, 2019
The best books give us the gift of empathy, seeing the world through another's eyes so clearly that you can experience the pain and joy that they have gone through and hopefully add those lived experiences to our own cache of knowledge and wisdom, moving forward a better person, able to communicate and be in community with others in our shared world. This is one of those books, so illuminating I found myself highlighting, underlining, making comments in the margins and exclamation points next to "Ah Ha!" moments. I went back and re-read chapters and passages, thinking about friends to share it with, wishing I could have read it twenty years ago.
In One Coin Found, Kegler tells her story of growing up, discovering she is a lesbian, struggling with her powerful faith and belief in a God who's scriptures seemed to say she was flawed and sinful and at the same time was calling her to become a pastor. The conflict she describes in her inner life as she struggled with these ideas for years are heart wrenching and illuminating. She digs deeper and deeper into scripture looking for answers and shares everything she found and her ultimate joy of understanding God's immense love. Her writing is passionate and profound. Her depth of knowledge and her persistence to keep digging and look further are inspiring.
Some of my life experiences are similar to Kegler. We're both women who grew up in the Twin Cities area in Christian households with strong mothers who guided us in life. We've both dealt with the loss of a parent suffering a long debilitating illness. These similarities make parts of her experiences easy for me to relate to. There is much in Christian teachings that reflect a misogynistic society and the author explores these narratives and teachings and calls out their falseness from the true nature of God's message to us. In my adult life I left the Catholic church due to some of it's teachings like this and her writings on this topic were helpful to me in naming some of the hypocrisy I see around me and I could relate to her outrage at these aspects of the Christian church. But her identity as a lesbian is outside of my experiences. Her relating of how she has been treated by the "Christian Church," classmates, teachers, youth ministers, well-meaning adults, legislators etc etc brought me much greater understanding of the experiences of members of the queer community. As a person who wants to see myself as an ally I found this book illuminating and hopefully instructive.
I highly recommend this book for people in the LGBTQ community who struggle with the negative messages towards them from society and the church as well as for those, like myself, who want to learn more about people who's experiences are outside of their own and examine the messages found in scripture.
In One Coin Found, Kegler tells her story of growing up, discovering she is a lesbian, struggling with her powerful faith and belief in a God who's scriptures seemed to say she was flawed and sinful and at the same time was calling her to become a pastor. The conflict she describes in her inner life as she struggled with these ideas for years are heart wrenching and illuminating. She digs deeper and deeper into scripture looking for answers and shares everything she found and her ultimate joy of understanding God's immense love. Her writing is passionate and profound. Her depth of knowledge and her persistence to keep digging and look further are inspiring.
Some of my life experiences are similar to Kegler. We're both women who grew up in the Twin Cities area in Christian households with strong mothers who guided us in life. We've both dealt with the loss of a parent suffering a long debilitating illness. These similarities make parts of her experiences easy for me to relate to. There is much in Christian teachings that reflect a misogynistic society and the author explores these narratives and teachings and calls out their falseness from the true nature of God's message to us. In my adult life I left the Catholic church due to some of it's teachings like this and her writings on this topic were helpful to me in naming some of the hypocrisy I see around me and I could relate to her outrage at these aspects of the Christian church. But her identity as a lesbian is outside of my experiences. Her relating of how she has been treated by the "Christian Church," classmates, teachers, youth ministers, well-meaning adults, legislators etc etc brought me much greater understanding of the experiences of members of the queer community. As a person who wants to see myself as an ally I found this book illuminating and hopefully instructive.
I highly recommend this book for people in the LGBTQ community who struggle with the negative messages towards them from society and the church as well as for those, like myself, who want to learn more about people who's experiences are outside of their own and examine the messages found in scripture.
July 23, 2019
So much to love. Heartfelt story, thought-through theology, chock full scripture references (all footnoted!), includes suggestions for further reading..I sticky-notes so many pages to come back to. This particularly resonated with me because of my own queerness (and can I say how deeply I appreciate that Emmy Kegler didn’t leave out the T in LGBTQ but wrote about and to trans people too—it’s a rare thing, I’m coming to find out) but I think it’s a great book to read if you are straight and cisgender and want to know what it’s like to make a place for yourself in church when you’re not those things. Seriously, go read it if you’re at all into spiritual memoirs.
March 23, 2021
This is a beautiful book. Emmy Kegler writes beautifully about her own story as a lesbian called to ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church. She expertly lays out Biblical foundations for her belief that God calls everyone to God's beloved community. There are chapters and parts of chapters that read like excellent sermons. I like this, but I am not sure how non-sermon-lovers would find it. The narrative sections of the book are definitely more compelling for the general reader, I think.
Kegler is brave and honest in telling her own story, and she is passionately eloquent about her faith. I recommend it highly.
Kegler is brave and honest in telling her own story, and she is passionately eloquent about her faith. I recommend it highly.
May 26, 2019
I became aware of Emmy Kegler through social media and lovingly call her one of my social media pastors. I was so excited when her book came out and finished reading it in one evening. Now I have to re read it so I can truly let her wisdom sink it. This author and pastor is wise beyond her years.
October 29, 2020
I found Emmy's story compelling, readable, and sharp. (It's not often that a memoir has this many footnotes! and recommendations for further reading!)
Do yourself a favor and try this book!
Do yourself a favor and try this book!
January 7, 2025
I will be rereading and referencing this book often.
November 15, 2025
"I will not let you go until you bless me" I really enjoyed this book! I read it for my christian feminism class and I have learned so much through it. There are so many perspectives I have never considered that just make sense. I really recommend this book to everyone. It is a fantastic story that really gives an important insight to those that unfortunately get pushed aside in the church.
Quotes:
“Perhaps this is why I was fascinated by Jesus’s death: I saw the experience of my own people reflected in it”
“We may all look different, as each cat looks different from another, but underneath the fur, the muscles and organs and bones, the core of who we are as Christians is all the same.”
“There is no salvation in transformation in silent, unseen suffering, borne day by day and year by year and generation by generation by those who are powerless”
“The guy who found me in the communion chalice was The God Who inaugurated his ministry with ridiculous abundance, would the rich red wine at a wedding where everyone was already drunk. the God now held me in my shaking, sweaty hands was the god who drank and ate with Sinners this was The God Who Would smiled with quiet pleasure at the religious expert who failed to understand the offensive nature of mercy, and God whose feet had been washed by a woman with wet eyes and trembling hands”
“None of this is about understanding, who could understand what was happening here? Who had said we needed to try? the promise isn't of understanding of presence, not ours but Gods.”
“Each week, I reached for the Altar and felt God reaching back for me. the hook in my heart no longer tugged but held me, making my feet more steady, my hands more ready, my mouth full of the words I've been trained by a whole life to say: body of christ, given for you”
“Christ had promised the present. All I have to do is get out of my own way, to stop believing that I or others were somehow unworthy to take him to share”
“God has never stopped reaching out for us. It is not our job to be worthy of it; it is our gift to receive, given with Grace and abundance. The breath of the spirit calls us by name, inviting us to the table where we receive a foretaste of the feast to come. The only task left for us to do is to get out of our own way”
“Perhaps this was the guide for the church today. just as Peter had been willing to move Beyond everything he'd known in order to follow the spirit, perhaps the church be willing to give up on its legalistic interpretation of Leviticus to welcome me in– just as I was”
The world was in crisis; my queer family was tearing itself from the world Child by child. all I saw, in the words upon words about God that I was asked to read and write and regurgitate into us as an exams, was philosophical Babble that had, at best, stopped caring about application and practice and, more often, was fully culpable in the systems that contributed to the suffering and death around me”
“The God Who had brought the Israelite children out of slavery in Egypt and a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night was coming to look far more like the Romans who killed the son than the Hebrews who had borne him”
God centeredness began to unfold me, like a child turning into her mother's lap. I persisted the lies at the god of American religion and clung instead to the god of a world far away and yet so much closer than the false Idols of power and perfection”
“I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least”
“I have come to love the stories of scripture because I was found by love first”
“Yeah I am learning to reject what the world has offered; I am learning to believe that I am made in the image of god, fearfully and wonderfully. I have had no trouble believing that God loves everyone else, but it has been a long walk to accept that God might love me. yet that is the reality that finds Me in the stores of scripture in the proclamation of the Gospel”
"Love calls me to be wiser– to pay attention, to learn, to ask questions, to assume that my worldview has not yet reached the end of reality. Love shows me that I live in a community; my experiences do not form the ground of the reality of others. I am responsible for their stories, too: responsible to hear when others speak, to ask when others are silent, and to act when need is expressed. I cannot do this without expanding my mind and opening up the possibilities of others. Neither can I do it carelessly, with words and support tossed around without discernment. As much as I am called Beyond myself, I am called to a whole community, all of which needs care and compassion.”
Quotes:
“Perhaps this is why I was fascinated by Jesus’s death: I saw the experience of my own people reflected in it”
“We may all look different, as each cat looks different from another, but underneath the fur, the muscles and organs and bones, the core of who we are as Christians is all the same.”
“There is no salvation in transformation in silent, unseen suffering, borne day by day and year by year and generation by generation by those who are powerless”
“The guy who found me in the communion chalice was The God Who inaugurated his ministry with ridiculous abundance, would the rich red wine at a wedding where everyone was already drunk. the God now held me in my shaking, sweaty hands was the god who drank and ate with Sinners this was The God Who Would smiled with quiet pleasure at the religious expert who failed to understand the offensive nature of mercy, and God whose feet had been washed by a woman with wet eyes and trembling hands”
“None of this is about understanding, who could understand what was happening here? Who had said we needed to try? the promise isn't of understanding of presence, not ours but Gods.”
“Each week, I reached for the Altar and felt God reaching back for me. the hook in my heart no longer tugged but held me, making my feet more steady, my hands more ready, my mouth full of the words I've been trained by a whole life to say: body of christ, given for you”
“Christ had promised the present. All I have to do is get out of my own way, to stop believing that I or others were somehow unworthy to take him to share”
“God has never stopped reaching out for us. It is not our job to be worthy of it; it is our gift to receive, given with Grace and abundance. The breath of the spirit calls us by name, inviting us to the table where we receive a foretaste of the feast to come. The only task left for us to do is to get out of our own way”
“Perhaps this was the guide for the church today. just as Peter had been willing to move Beyond everything he'd known in order to follow the spirit, perhaps the church be willing to give up on its legalistic interpretation of Leviticus to welcome me in– just as I was”
The world was in crisis; my queer family was tearing itself from the world Child by child. all I saw, in the words upon words about God that I was asked to read and write and regurgitate into us as an exams, was philosophical Babble that had, at best, stopped caring about application and practice and, more often, was fully culpable in the systems that contributed to the suffering and death around me”
“The God Who had brought the Israelite children out of slavery in Egypt and a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night was coming to look far more like the Romans who killed the son than the Hebrews who had borne him”
God centeredness began to unfold me, like a child turning into her mother's lap. I persisted the lies at the god of American religion and clung instead to the god of a world far away and yet so much closer than the false Idols of power and perfection”
“I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least”
“I have come to love the stories of scripture because I was found by love first”
“Yeah I am learning to reject what the world has offered; I am learning to believe that I am made in the image of god, fearfully and wonderfully. I have had no trouble believing that God loves everyone else, but it has been a long walk to accept that God might love me. yet that is the reality that finds Me in the stores of scripture in the proclamation of the Gospel”
"Love calls me to be wiser– to pay attention, to learn, to ask questions, to assume that my worldview has not yet reached the end of reality. Love shows me that I live in a community; my experiences do not form the ground of the reality of others. I am responsible for their stories, too: responsible to hear when others speak, to ask when others are silent, and to act when need is expressed. I cannot do this without expanding my mind and opening up the possibilities of others. Neither can I do it carelessly, with words and support tossed around without discernment. As much as I am called Beyond myself, I am called to a whole community, all of which needs care and compassion.”
May 6, 2024
This was a beautiful and searingly honest and heartfelt spiritual memoir from a queer woman who is also a minister. I was profoundly moved and literally sobbed at some of the passages. This was an important journey for me, to better listen to the experience of someone who feels like a "lost" or "swept away" coin.
So many quotes which touched my heart. I'm a better person for having pondered these things.
"If we are bound up together, if the trajectory of the kingdom is toward our re-collection as the children of God, then to persist in unkindness and injustice toward ourselves and our fellow humans on earth is to actively deny our future. If one day we will eat with God, then each day on earth we are invited to learn how."
"Love calls me to be wiser—to pay attention, to learn, to ask questions, to assume that my worldview has not yet reached the end of reality. Love shows me I live in community; my experiences do not form the ground of the reality of others."
"Any pastor or congregation who welcomes back those who have been so wounded—no matter what the abuse took root in—takes a great risk. We are not easy to minister to. We question everything. We flinch at sermons on sin and holiness and the righteous. Bible quotes on phone backgrounds make us uneasy. Songs and stories of Scripture that rely heavily on a father God of condemning judgment send us for the door. Inclusion, much as it is necessary for healing, does not negate the spiritual trauma we bear."
So many quotes which touched my heart. I'm a better person for having pondered these things.
"If we are bound up together, if the trajectory of the kingdom is toward our re-collection as the children of God, then to persist in unkindness and injustice toward ourselves and our fellow humans on earth is to actively deny our future. If one day we will eat with God, then each day on earth we are invited to learn how."
"Love calls me to be wiser—to pay attention, to learn, to ask questions, to assume that my worldview has not yet reached the end of reality. Love shows me I live in community; my experiences do not form the ground of the reality of others."
"Any pastor or congregation who welcomes back those who have been so wounded—no matter what the abuse took root in—takes a great risk. We are not easy to minister to. We question everything. We flinch at sermons on sin and holiness and the righteous. Bible quotes on phone backgrounds make us uneasy. Songs and stories of Scripture that rely heavily on a father God of condemning judgment send us for the door. Inclusion, much as it is necessary for healing, does not negate the spiritual trauma we bear."
January 12, 2022
The beginning of this was 4 or 5 stars. I really appreciated all of the author’s stories about her growing up queer, and I think I’d get along with her really well. Given that I may become a pastor in the ELCA in the next ten years, I may very well meet her someday.
Toward the end though, I couldn’t really figure out what was happening. It was like someone had loaded a machine gun with queer retellings and new explanations of every Bible story I’d ever heard, and just shooting them at me faster than I could think. I didn’t disagree with anything, really, I just felt like it was a bit oddly paced, and I couldn’t get much from it.
Also, some annoyances. The author referred to Jesus having “dark, rich skin” which borders on the issue of describing people of color the same way you’d describe chocolate; and she called the Ethiopian eunuch a “powerful Black man.” I just don’t know why someone would feel the need to do that. I’m not saying he wasn’t Black (although it’d be more accurate, given this was 2,000 years ago, to say he was African), or that he wasn’t powerful, but do we really need to bring up that trope in a retelling of this Bible story?
So, yeah. Again, I’m sure I’d appreciate a sermon from this author, but I just can’t say I’d recommend this book to many people.
Toward the end though, I couldn’t really figure out what was happening. It was like someone had loaded a machine gun with queer retellings and new explanations of every Bible story I’d ever heard, and just shooting them at me faster than I could think. I didn’t disagree with anything, really, I just felt like it was a bit oddly paced, and I couldn’t get much from it.
Also, some annoyances. The author referred to Jesus having “dark, rich skin” which borders on the issue of describing people of color the same way you’d describe chocolate; and she called the Ethiopian eunuch a “powerful Black man.” I just don’t know why someone would feel the need to do that. I’m not saying he wasn’t Black (although it’d be more accurate, given this was 2,000 years ago, to say he was African), or that he wasn’t powerful, but do we really need to bring up that trope in a retelling of this Bible story?
So, yeah. Again, I’m sure I’d appreciate a sermon from this author, but I just can’t say I’d recommend this book to many people.
June 28, 2019
Many Christian memoirs have been written in the last decade or so, some by ministers and other religious leaders, and a lot of those are worthwhile reads even for the non-religious community. Among those, One Coin Found may be one of the best. Earnest believers, skeptical religious wallflowers, and good-hearted heathens will be some of the readers most enthralled with this surprisingly well-written debut. You'll discover a powerful and moving account of growing up gay and devout among earnest Christians for whom such a thing is an oxymoron. You'll be challenged and encouraged by the author's intellectual curiosity and bold theological inquiry. You'll be moved by the honesty and vulnerability of a pastor attempting to be as faithful and true to Scripture, Christian tradition, and her community as she knows how to be. Finally, you're certain to be inspired by the final chapter, a credo of sorts that stands among some of the more thoughtful and encouraging theological statements of faith that I've read. Whether you agree with everything the author believes or not, you'll be glad you read this one. I can't recommend it highly enough.
August 30, 2020
Surprisingly coherent theology
This was recommended as the top work of a narrow genre, theology by a deeply introspective and intellectually incisive but refreshingly unpedantic worship leader who happens to know firsthand the struggle against acceptance of queer, female or outcast people.
In her own words :
"I returned to the stories, working my fingers into them like fibers in a loom, unwilling to let go of the God of the Scriptures for the easier God of masculinity and might."
"I knew the world preferred a God who snatched away salvation when the scales of sin were tipped just far enough. That was a God the church could control; that was a God that power could wield against those who could not fight back."
"I refuse to pretend that the holy writ of my religion and profession has not been a weapon in the hands of the hateful. There are words in it that are not of God. There is rape, genocide, abundant hatred stamped “Approved by God” by the victors who wrote the books. I cannot pretend this is not true. I can only confess I do not believe that stamp is real."
I, the reviewer, am not yet sure what I believe, but this is much easier to believe than the typical miracle.
This was recommended as the top work of a narrow genre, theology by a deeply introspective and intellectually incisive but refreshingly unpedantic worship leader who happens to know firsthand the struggle against acceptance of queer, female or outcast people.
In her own words :
"I returned to the stories, working my fingers into them like fibers in a loom, unwilling to let go of the God of the Scriptures for the easier God of masculinity and might."
"I knew the world preferred a God who snatched away salvation when the scales of sin were tipped just far enough. That was a God the church could control; that was a God that power could wield against those who could not fight back."
"I refuse to pretend that the holy writ of my religion and profession has not been a weapon in the hands of the hateful. There are words in it that are not of God. There is rape, genocide, abundant hatred stamped “Approved by God” by the victors who wrote the books. I cannot pretend this is not true. I can only confess I do not believe that stamp is real."
I, the reviewer, am not yet sure what I believe, but this is much easier to believe than the typical miracle.
February 7, 2022
My church (an ELCA Lutheran church in WI) chose to read this book in January since that’s when we acknowledge Reconciling in Christ Sunday - an opportunity to show that we welcome and stand in solidarity with LGBTQIA+ people. The author of One Coin Found, Emmy Kegler, is a queer pastor who knows all too well what it’s like to feel unwelcome in the faith community.
Kegler discusses her early memories with religion and church, and how she was interested in ministry when she was very young. But her mental health and the realization that she was queer made it difficult to figure out where she fit in. How could she be a pastor when churches consistently told her homosexuality was wrong? Was she truly unwanted by Jesus? Kegler dives into the Bible, attempting to fall in love with Scripture. Kegler is drawn to stories where Jesus finds (and accepts) lost items - like a woman who searches her whole house for one lost coin, the shepherd who goes after one lost sheep, and the father of the prodigal son who welcomes his lost son back, no questions asked.
I found Kegler’s writing incredibly relatable. She and I are about the same age, so we had several similar experiences growing up. All of the books she talks about reading and loving as a kid were books I read and loved too. Her mother grew up Catholic in Minnesota, but they attended an Episcopalian church. My Minnesotan mother also grew up Catholic, but switched to Lutheran when the local priest was so unwelcoming. The formidable news events that happened in Kegler’s life are the same ones that shaped mine. While I don’t know what it feels like to grow up queer, it feels like Kegler and I could have been classmates and friends.
Kegler shares some details about her life (like her difficult relationship with her father), but then doesn’t seem to go into much detail about other parts. I was hoping she would share more about dating and marriage, what it’s like to be an openly gay pastor, and what type of work she does now with the LGBTQ community. Instead, Kegler ruminates on Bible passages more like a sermon than a memoir. I was expecting a lot more positivity and affirmation for LGBTQ people.
This book feels like an introduction to Emmy Kegler, and that we’ll get more from her in future books.
Kegler discusses her early memories with religion and church, and how she was interested in ministry when she was very young. But her mental health and the realization that she was queer made it difficult to figure out where she fit in. How could she be a pastor when churches consistently told her homosexuality was wrong? Was she truly unwanted by Jesus? Kegler dives into the Bible, attempting to fall in love with Scripture. Kegler is drawn to stories where Jesus finds (and accepts) lost items - like a woman who searches her whole house for one lost coin, the shepherd who goes after one lost sheep, and the father of the prodigal son who welcomes his lost son back, no questions asked.
I found Kegler’s writing incredibly relatable. She and I are about the same age, so we had several similar experiences growing up. All of the books she talks about reading and loving as a kid were books I read and loved too. Her mother grew up Catholic in Minnesota, but they attended an Episcopalian church. My Minnesotan mother also grew up Catholic, but switched to Lutheran when the local priest was so unwelcoming. The formidable news events that happened in Kegler’s life are the same ones that shaped mine. While I don’t know what it feels like to grow up queer, it feels like Kegler and I could have been classmates and friends.
Kegler shares some details about her life (like her difficult relationship with her father), but then doesn’t seem to go into much detail about other parts. I was hoping she would share more about dating and marriage, what it’s like to be an openly gay pastor, and what type of work she does now with the LGBTQ community. Instead, Kegler ruminates on Bible passages more like a sermon than a memoir. I was expecting a lot more positivity and affirmation for LGBTQ people.
This book feels like an introduction to Emmy Kegler, and that we’ll get more from her in future books.
April 2, 2019
As someone who left the church at a fairly young age, I am fascinated by Scripture and have an awful lot to learn. Trouble is, most books about the Bible make me feel sort of lonely. Too many authors when dealing with Scripture use it to tighten the circle, leave people out. Not this one. Emmy Kegler has the kind of warm and vulnerable voice that reads like an invitation. She uses the story of her own struggle to make sense of her calling to a church and profession that frequently seeks to exclude those who cry out from the margins – the very people toward whom Jesus gravitated. Some people understandably choose not to live in that tension and they leave it all behind. Kegler wages a loving battle of attrition with the church that has in turns sustained and broken her heart since childhood. This book is a safe place, an exhale sort of a place - where the reader can doubt or rage or mourn or rejoice – because the author does, too. The last chapter is so utterly lovely that I find myself calling friends and reading paragraphs out loud. Read it. You won’t be sorry.
April 1, 2019
Emmy Kegler beautifully and thoughtfully weaves her personal story with practical theology in a way that is accessible and powerful. Kegler's fresh perspective on well-known passages in scripture are life-giving to those who know the Bible well, and those who have never read it. Her smart humor and solid understanding of scripture makes this a great read for anyone, but especially for those longing to hear a word of grace. I consider this REQUIRED reading for folks who lead in congregations, especially those who work with young people. (Her own stories of growing up in the church are poignant, and at times, heartbreaking to read.) Kegler understands the importance of intersectionality and it is clear in her writing that she takes into account her own place and perspective in society. I know I will return to this book again and again in my leadership and my personal understanding of our God who is relentlessly searching for us and claiming us as beloved.
December 3, 2020
I’d probably really rate this a 4 1/2 only because, for many people, the theology might be burdensome. But for someone who is actively engaged in church and questioning the direction that some churches might take, this is an excellent read. Emmy Kegler lays out her struggles with depression which I believe is a byproduct for many members of the LGBTQ+ community primarily because of how the world treats them. I’m tired of any humans being mistreated in the name of religion. Jesus loves all and that’s the end of the story. There’s no “except lesbians” or “except criminals” or “except Black people.” All of humanity should feel God‘s love. That means that all people should have the same rights and opportunities and I’m happy that she followed her calling to be a minister. The holier than thou “Christians” do their part in turning people away from God. Humans are judgemental. God is not.
A small group in my church, led by our pastor, studied this book.
A small group in my church, led by our pastor, studied this book.
March 28, 2019
One Coin Found is the story of Pastor Emmy Kegler and her journey to discover herself, her relationship with God, and how she set out to fall in love with Scripture.
In doing so, she brings the reader along on her journey through a series of flashbacks, recounting her experiences with the Bible—learning as a queer woman how Scripture can be used to hurt and exclude, but also how God reaches beyond the hurt to lift up one’s spirit through love.
This book is for anyone who has a complicated relationship with the Bible. Emmy Kegler reminds us that wherever we are in our spiritual journey, God is always waiting for us and glad to welcome us back.
In doing so, she brings the reader along on her journey through a series of flashbacks, recounting her experiences with the Bible—learning as a queer woman how Scripture can be used to hurt and exclude, but also how God reaches beyond the hurt to lift up one’s spirit through love.
This book is for anyone who has a complicated relationship with the Bible. Emmy Kegler reminds us that wherever we are in our spiritual journey, God is always waiting for us and glad to welcome us back.
April 2, 2019
For anyone living the question about whether or not all the barriers that they were told exist between them and God, this book is for you. Emmy’s story is both her own and countless others who experience A Broke Back Mountain kind of “I-Can’t-Quit-You” sort of love affair with their faith and the often sharp edges of the Christian scriptures. The “good news” that Emmy illuminates in One Coin Found is that Jesus’ gospel isn’t a story that ends in star-crossed love between God and all our individual and communal imperfections, but is and has always been one of a Creator who views their beloved community incomplete until all the family is home.
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