Waiting on Advent – Isaiah 35:1-10, Psalm 146:5-10

What this episode covers

December is probably the busiest time of the year, but at Queer Theology, December 2019 is a time to work extra hard from the backend to make sure that Queer Theology 2020 is LIT! So Brian and Shay are taking a break from the regular lectionary reading and instead, we will be showcasing some of our best Advent podcasts. So this week, it’s all about the meaning of Advent and how counter-cultural it is. What can we learn from waiting and longing? How does the Christmas story go against our American sensibilities? Episode TranscriptBrian: Welcome to the Queer Theology podcast! Fr. Shay: Where each episode, we take a queer look at the week’s lectionary readings. We’re the co-founders of QueerTheology.com and the hosts for this podcast. I’m Father Shay Kearns  B: And I’m Brian G. Murphy. FS: Welcome back to the Queer Theology podcast, Father Shay here. Brian and I are taking a bit of a break for the month of December. So we’re replaying some of our favorite episodes from Advent and Christmas’ past. We hope you enjoy them! This week, Brian and I are talking about the third Sunday of Advent and we’re gonna take a look at the Isaiah passage and the Psalm. So, Brian, you seem pretty excited about Advent this year. What is resonating with you in these passages? B: These passages remind me that I’m not crazy. I think every year I get less and less excited about Christmas and more, and more, and more over it. I recently read this article about Advent and Christmas on the Huffington post and I realized/remembered that we’re not in Christmas time yet, we’re in Advent. I really love Advent. Ever since I was a little kid, O Come, O Come Emmanuel has been my favorite Christmas song. There’s just something about Emmanuel – God with us that’s why I find the Christian stories so compelling. So as I was reading the Isiah and the Psalm passages I remembered the things that I don’t like about modern Christmas, modern Christianity are not the Biblical parts of the story. And that we don’t wait for Jesus to be born so that He can make up for our pitiful existence and get us into heaven. We wait for Jesus to be born because it’s God incarnate in a broken world. He is coming to heal it. And so I look at this Isaiah passage where they talk about: “The desert and the dry land will be glad. The eyes of the blind will be opened, The ears of the deaf will be cleared.” I look at the Psalm passage and it says:  “The Lord: who makes prisoners free. The Lord: who makes the blind see. The Lord: who straightens up those who are bent low. The Lord: who loves the righteous. The Lord: who protects immigrants.” I’m like, “Yes!” this is the type of God that I believe in. Jesus was an immigrant, He was born to a single mother and we read at Psalm that we’re waiting for this Messiah and that is just really exciting to me. Especially as a queer person who spends a lot of time waiting for justice and equality. For the family to accept me. I understand the waiting and it’s also a really exciting time to be a queer person because lots of those things are coming to fruition. So these passages really resonate with me. FS: You know, at the church we’ve been reading The First Christmas by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, and that book really takes a look at the differences between the Matthew and Luke accounts of the Christmas story. But really, even more so, it takes a look at the ways in which the Christmas story is very much a setup in opposition to Rome. That all of the titles that Jesus was called in the gospels are the ones that were Ceasars’ title. So very much this idea that the Christmas story is really subversive. I think this idea of Advent is really subversive. It’s a time of waiting and I think for Americans were not very good often at waiting.  B: No. FS: It’s a time of longing and a culture that’s very much &#8