Queer Theology

We talk a lot about the importance of community. Like, a. lot. And we do that because we both have benefited from the support a strong community can bring during times of questioning, transition, deconstruction, reconstruction, and evolving faith. It’s why we created our community, Sanctuary Collective. And we’re so amazed by what the folks inside Sanctuary Collective bring to the discussion and community everyday. It’s a place for celebration, conversation, hard questions, support, togetherness, and learning. We’d love to have you with us!

In this episode we answer a couple questions submitted to us: Does the Bible even matter for a Christian? What do I do with all of this knowledge I’ve gained around the Bible and Christianity?

Join the online community Sanctuary Collective.

Bookshop.org/shop/queertheology for a reading list we put together.

Lord Prepare Me to Be a Sanctuary: song

If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology.

The post Q&A and The Importance of Community appeared first on Queer Theology.

We’re at the final episode of our eight part series on Matthew! And here is where we come to crucifixion and resurrection.. The End… but really, the Beginning.

It’s important for us to call out and recognize in these texts the significant polemic against the Jewish leaders, even if most of Matthew’s audience still considered themselves to be Jewish. The context is crucial here for us to not continue the anti-semitic rhetoric that “the Jews killed Jesus”, but underline that the Roman Empire killed Jesus.

We have stories of the anointing of Jesus, the last supper, his betrayal, the trial, and subsequent punishment of death. From the story of the resurrection, we really look at who Jesus entrusted the continued work of discipleship.

It is not to perfect angels that this work is given to continue, but to the doubting, flawed, messy, complicated people. How can we embrace that same call to follow Jesus today?

Journey Into The Bible

Rituals for Resistance & Resilience

Celebrating Jewish Empowerment & Teaching the Masses Via Tik-Tok with @milli_no_so_vanilli

Join the online community Sanctuary Collective. 

There is a technical issue with plugin we used to display transcripts. An update is coming soon!

If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology.

The post The End. Or Is It?: Matthew Chapters 26-28 appeared first on Queer Theology.

This week, we’re talking about Holy Week! But Matthew’s Gospel is so dense, we only get through Monday and Tuesday!

This passage starts with Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem (often called Palm Sunday but spoiler alert: it didn’t happen on a Sunday!). We look at Jesus’s temple protest and some of the ways that story has fueled antisemitism (sometimes even unwittingly).

We talk about what it means that Jesus left Jerusalem that night, the wild story about the Withering Fig Tree, and more activity at the temple. And the (in)famous passage about sorting sheep from goats and are you going to burn in hell for eternity?!?!

There’s lot in this passage about the cost of discipleship, who Jesus is, why he’s here, what this all means, and what this passage asks of YOU here and now.

New Interpreters Commentary Volume VII

Scary Things Series, podcast episode

Sheep and Goats podcast episode

Black Pink

Abolition Sanctuary, Dr. Nikia Smith and her podcast interview: Abolition As Spiritual Practice

Join the online community Sanctuary Collective. 

If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology.

There is a technical issue with plugin we used to display transcripts. An update is coming soon!

Photo by Soul Winner’s For Christ

The post The Cost of Discipleship: Matthew Chapters 21-25 appeared first on Queer Theology.

We are on part 6 of our series on Matthew and here is where Jesus finally goes to Jerusalem! But first we get the Transfiguration, a bunch of familiar sayings, and questions from Pharisees. We have healing stories, references to children, temple tax, and some harsh words from Jesus. For the Disciples to say at that time that ‘I want to be at the side of Jesus,’ means in Rome that ‘you are going to be executed by the state.’ We look at what it means in the modern world to ‘follow Jesus,’ how we need to decide our level of commitment, practice doing small things to push back and resist empire, so that when it comes time to confront oppression and harm, we are ready. 

Digging the Details

Tricky Questions About Sex

Clobbering the Clobber Passages

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg On Repentance and Repair Ep. 435

Jewish annotated New Testament Edited by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler

In the Margins: A Transgender Man’s Journey with Scripture by: Fr. Shannon TL Kearns

Join the online community Sanctuary Collective. 

If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology.

Photo by Mathias Reding

There is a technical issue with plugin we used to display transcripts. An update is coming soon!

The post Join The Resistance: Matthew Chapters 17-20 appeared first on Queer Theology.

For part 5 of our series on Matthew, we look at the death of John the Baptist, some miracle stories, and Jesus’ call to treason. We see Jesus in these chapters take a political and active stance against Rome. Here is where the Disciples are tested and called to really follow the teachings of this new community. There is so much in these passages that relate to the time, to previous stories of the Israelites, to the inclusive nature of Jesus’ movement taking in outsiders. With this, we can really examine what it means for us today to “take up the cross” and follow Jesus and to consider the treasonous acts we may be called to participate in. 

Join the online community Sanctuary Collective. 

Digging the Details Workshop

Peter Staley

How to Survive a Plague

If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology.

Photo by mahdi rezaei onUnsplash

There is a technical issue with plugin we used to display transcripts. An update is coming soon!

The post Called To Treason: Matthew Chapters 14-16 appeared first on Queer Theology.

We are on part 4 of our series on Matthew and these chapters include ministry stories of Jesus and parables. Something we keep talking about is context. And it is so important to reiterate that context really matters to the richness and density of these texts, that this message was written to a community who were trying to learn how to live under empire. So the world coming to an end, apocalyptic references, and final judgment are understandable when the audience was a marginalized and oppressed people! This message is just as important today when talking about standing up for justice and truth, fighting back, and paying attention to the spaces and places that are oppressive under empire now.

Join the online community Sanctuary Collective.

If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology.

There is a technical issue with plugin we used to display transcripts. An update is coming soon!

The post The Sky Is Falling: Matthew Chapters 10-13 appeared first on Queer Theology.

We are on the 3rd episode in our series on Matthew and here is where we get a long sermon followed by some healing stories! These are well known and well used passages, there is so much to uncover here. We have the Sermon on the Mount, one of the longest recorded speeches by Jesus, and it is so rich in nuance when you look at the carefully composed discourse and deliberate structure that will become the core of Jesus’ teachings. We look at what that meant for that early Christian community, how the themes of healing were exposing the sickness caused by the Roman Empire, and what it looks like in our world today to put your faith into action.

Join the online community Sanctuary Collective. 

If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology.

Photo by Patricia McCarty

There is a technical issue with plugin we used to display transcripts. An update is coming soon!

The post Jesus Changes Everything. Or Does He?: Matthew Chapters 5-9 appeared first on Queer Theology.

In the second episode of our series on Matthew we cover chapters 3 and 4 and there is so much richness and goodness here. We really see Jesus as intentionally political and there is a theme of politics throughout these texts. We dig into what it means to follow the Kingdom of Heaven/God when you are living under empire, what discipleship and following the teachings of Jesus looked like in the time of Matthew and what it means to us now. Reading the Bible doesn’t have to be boring when you start to tease out some of the interesting bits here like the political implications of the word “worship” and how the temptations of Jesus by Satan were directly connected to the view a marginalized group had of the Roman Empire at the time! 

Links mentioned:

Rituals For Resistance & Resilience: https://www.queertheology.com/rituals/

Scary Things Podcast Series:

Scary Things: The Great Snatch and the End of the World

Scary Things: The Devil and His Many Names

Scary Things: The Fiery Pit

Scary Things: Will You End Up In Hell?

Growing up Suburban Jewish & Finding Your Faith With Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg

What’s The Deal With The Pigs?: Mark Week 2

Join the online community Sanctuary Collective.

If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology.

There is a technical issue with plugin we used to display transcripts. An update is coming soon!

The post Jesus is Political: Matthew Chapters 3 & 4 appeared first on Queer Theology.

We’re back in the studio and recording an 8 week series on the Gospel of Matthew! Prepping for this series reminded both of us how much we love diving into scripture and pulling out those beautiful, sacred nuances that make it so wholly (holy?) fascinating across generations. In this episode, we start with chapters 1 and 2. Yes, that genealogy that you might have skipped over in anticipation of the more meaty bits has so. much. depth. Follow us as we go deep into this sacred scripture, what it means for us, and what it meant for people during the time of Jesus, the Magi and the birth of Jesus and how this was a threat to religious and political power. 

Matthew and the Margins: A Sociopolitical And Religious Reading By: Warren Carter

Join the online community Sanctuary Collective. 

If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology.

Photo by Jeswin Thomas

There is a technical issue with plugin we used to display transcripts. An update is coming soon!

The post The Meaning of the Beginning: Matthew Chapters 1 & 2 appeared first on Queer Theology.

We close out this guest series with the incredibly talented Mary Lambert. She is not your typical triple-platinum-selling artist. She had never recorded music formally when she received a call from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis to collaborate on their marriage equality anthem, “Same Love.” Lambert has a successful solo career, stars in an animated series, co-hosts a podcast, is an author, and facilitates a virtual workshop on body image. We talk with her about her tough childhood, her relationship with faith and the church, and how all this has influenced her work as an artist and her journey to healing. She is lovely; she is relatable, and she is just so talented! Trigger warnings apply for sexual abuse and suicidality.

Find more of Mary Lambert here:

Web: https://marylambertsings.com/

Arlo the Alligator Boy

Everybody is a Babe Workshop

Podcast: The Manic Episodes

1946 Documentary

Book: Shame is an Ocean I Swim Across

Spoken Word Artists mentioned: Shira Erlichman, Andrea Gibson, Buddy Wakefield, Anis Mojgani

If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology.

The post Healing Is Joy with Mary Lambert appeared first on Queer Theology.