#queer lent

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Saturday, 4/4 — Matthew 27:57-66

So Joseph took Jesus’ body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. - vv. 59-60

There was a tomb ready to go to receive Jesus’ body — one Joseph of Arimathea had hewn for himself, intending it for Joseph’s own eventual burial. But Joseph still lives, and Jesus (at this point) does not.

Deconstructing Christians who leave the death cult they were raised in can and do meet the living God they hope exists when they do as Joseph did: lovingly placing the lifeless body of the [version of] Christ they met in church into the tomb intended for their own demise. Because Joseph lives, there is room for Jesus to be dead, and because He dies Joseph lives.

So it is with you. The Body of Christ you had known has to not just die to you, but be buried by you, in the tomb you yourself laboriously carved out, expecting to make your home there. Seal that place and walk away from it.  Look elsewhere for Him.

- Kate Davoli

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Friday, 4/3 — Hebrews 10:16-25

And let us consider each other carefully for the purpose of sparking love and good deeds. Don’t stop meeting together with other believers… Instead, encourage each other. vv. 24-25a

Most of my friends and family like saying something along the lines of: “I have my faith and I don’t need to go to a church to be a good person.” But I always tell people that I go to church because I am a recovering asshole who needs an accountability group. 

This passage says something similar in nicer words: “Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together.” In the act of gathering in worship, we encourage each other to love, to do good deeds. Church is not perfect, but we need each other to be better. - Claudia Aguilar Rubalcava

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Thursday, 4/2 —  John 13:1-17, 31b-35

“No!” Peter said. “You will never wash my feet!” Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t have a place with me.” Simon Peter said, “Lord, not only my feet but also my hands and my head!” - vv. 8-9

I sat in a swivel chair in the center of a ring of chairs where my classmates were sitting and smiling back at me. I was in a full panic. I could feel the sweat beading on the back of my neck. I knew my face was red and breathing was getting harder and harder. 

The thing causing terror to grip me — compliments. The people around me were about to give me compliments and all I was allowed to say was “Thank you.” 

Receiving compliments, or in the case of Peter receiving service, from another is difficult. Jesus’s new commandment though is to love one another, which means we will have to receive love from others too. Without someone to receive love, the giving doesn’t really work. 

Who is trying to give you love that you are rejecting? (ProTip: that “who” might be you trying to love yourself)

- Bethany Peerbolte

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Wednesday, 4/1 — Hebrews 12:1-3

So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us… - v. 1

I adore the notion of a “great cloud of witnesses.” Do you know how many queer folks and queer ancestors are in your great cloud of witnesses?! So many! 

Queerness demands connection. It teaches us to be a collective. Part of that collective includes the ancestors who have come before us, and another part includes those who cheer us on from the sidelines.

Make a list of your cloud of witnesses. How have they encouraged your queerness to be ever sweeter? How have they cheered you on in the race toward self acceptance and love of others? Who is at the finish line waiting with a bottle of water and a hug to collapse your tired body into? 

Hold the list in your hand. Give thanks for it. Now make a list of who you might be a witness to.

- Addie Domske

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Tuesday, 3/31 — 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

By ordinary human standards not many [who have joined the church] are wise, not many are powerful, not many are from the upper class. But God chose what the world considers foolish to shame the wise. God chose what the world considers weak to shame the strong. And God chose what the world considers low-class and low-life — what is considered to be nothing — to reduce what is considered to be something to nothing. - vv. 26-28

I am again struck by the queerness woven into the Church’s very foundations. 

To queer as a verb is to constantly question and subvert The Way Things Are — in other words, to declare the world’s wisdom, its status quo, foolishness, uplifting instead what the world considers foolish, weak, “low-life”!

Queer God, Jesus Christ, attune our hearts and minds to the foolishness of your cross. We will celebrate the holiness, find the sacred wisdom in the parts of ourselves we’ve been taught are shameful. We will scoff at so-called “powers” of wealth and domination in favor of the power in softness, solidarity, and compassion. We will seek out the outcasts, the outlaws, the overlooked and in so doing, find you.

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Monday, 3/30 — John 12:1-11

Six days before Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, home of Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Lazarus and his sisters hosted a dinner for him... - vv. 1-2a

Read John 12:1-11. Then, read John 11.

In today’s gospel, Mary anoints Jesus after he raises her brother Lazarus from death. Martha and Mary sought Jesus’ help, and he came — from Jerusalem to Bethany — to raise Lazarus from the dead. It’s a salvific story of both miracles and devotion.

In 2013 I took my first trip to Palestine. With the guidance of a local activist group, I walked paths Jesus walked during Lent. When we reached this passage – “Six days before Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, home of Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.” – our guide stopped us at the Israeli apartheid wall separating these historic Palestinian towns. We could not get to Bethany.

These days, I feel stuck between Jerusalem and Bethany. I don’t yet see resurrection; my road feels blocked by empire. And still, God is with me. 

If you’re not feeling up for a story of anointing today, how about the story just before this one? In John 11, we see Jesus responding to Martha and Mary’s worry with shared tears. Despite the fact that Jesus knows he will raise Lazarus from the dead, he takes the time to cry with his friends. By reading John 11 in tandem with John 12, we get a fuller picture of liberation – it involves partying and resurrection, yes – but also stages where we feel blocked and full of tears. In all stages, Jesus accompanies us. We go nowhere alone.

- Addie Domske

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Sunday, 3/29 — Matthew 21:1–11

And when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up. “Who is this?” they asked. - v. 10

Jesus enters Jerusalem not with force, but with intention, riding on a borrowed colt and greeted by ordinary people offering what they have. Palms are waved, cloaks laid down, and hope shouted into the streets. This is not a parade of certainty. It is a procession of risk. The crowd names Jesus as liberator without fully grasping the cost. 

We are the ones we have been waiting for when we choose participation over passivity, when we prepare the road for justice with our own hands. In this sacred season, faith looks like showing up publicly and vulnerably, ready to follow where love leads.

- Shani McIlwain

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Saturday, 3/28 — Mark 10:32-34

They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. …[He said,] “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Humanity will be handed over…and after three days he will rise again.” vv. - 32-34

Jesus walks ahead of the disciples. He knows what is coming at the end of this road, and yet he does not turn away. And even though part of this journey will be undertaken alone, for now his friends, his community, his disciples accompany him.

As they join him in the journey, Jesus speaks honestly with them about what is about to happen. He names betrayal and death. He also names his rising. Jesus holds together what the disciples cannot yet imagine: the depth of the suffering to come and the life that will rise beyond it. 

As we continue in this journey of Lent, may we speak honestly about what is wounding and harming the world. May we accompany those who are most at risk. And may we, not in a toxic positivity way, hold fast to resurrection that lives deep in our bones. - Ashley McFaul-Erwin