christmas
god is with us, so let’s get naked and love
christmas
for unto us, a child is born. the child who reveals that human and divine are eternally entwined and coexisting.
the light is here, it is time to wake up. it is time to open our eyes, remove our fig leaves, and act like people who have god with them.
when i started these reflections, i told you i was going to “queer” advent. i didn’t actually use the word queer, and i didn’t talk about any characters in the story being LGBTQIA, so you may be wondering whether i even accomplished my goal, and if i did, how did i queer advent?
one of the primary approaches of queer theology is undoing dualism. dualism is the idea that there are only two categories that things can fall into. here are some common examples when it comes to christian theology:
sin vs righteousness (or holy vs unholy)
male vs female
chosen vs other
human vs divine
dualistic thinking is normal and healthy, up to a point. our minds need to make categories that things fit into because it helps us make sense of the world around us. but at some point, we must progress into the world of abstract thought, of understanding that our categories are limited and can’t handle the nuance that we begin to see around us. things are never black and white.
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religion in general is an attempt for humanity to make meaning of our existence in the world, to understand what it is that is bigger than ourselves and how we fit with that. in the christian story, taken as a whole, we can see this narrative play out. we are constantly trying to figure out how to connect to or relate to the divine. i believe this is true in other religions, regardless of what the divine means to you. we share in the creation of meaning with the divine. it is a conversation, mutual meaning-making.
when i look at the whole story, i see that in the beginning humanity and divine existed together fully, and that something happened along the way that changed how we understood that. most christians would call that sin followed by god’s punishment, but i think that’s too simple. hopefully the point that i made is that the mutuality and reciprocity of relationship between human and divine has always been there, and rather than separation being a punishment for sin, it is the natural consequence of human decision to change the terms of relationship and institute our own systems and structures that force a separation.
god is love, and all one has to do is take a look at the news to see how our laws, our structures, our systems are not loving. but that does not mean that we do not still have access to the divine. i think that’s why the story of jesus matters. in him we see what love in human form looks like. we see him love without discrimination, and we see him challenges the systems that oppress. jesus is our invitation to participate in divine love again.
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i “queered” advent by doing away with the dualistic idea that human is separate from divine. and therefore, if this is the case, every single human possesses the divine presence. and this is why we must wake up to our privilege, to our power, to the ways we oppress others, and figure out how to love like we have god with us.
