An Advent Reflection for Uncertain Times

Father Shannon kicks off the Advent season with a solo episode where he reflects on the meaning of Advent as both a spiritual and practical season of preparation. During this time of rising threats for trans, non-binary folks, and immigrants, uncertainty and fear hangs over us. Fr. Shannon offers some grounding reflections about community, care, safety, resistance, and showing up for one another. You’re encouraged to bring your journal to this one! The Christian story calls us to co-create a more just and compassionate world, and we encourage listeners not only to reflect, but to take action in their communities. 

 

Takeaways:

• We’re asking this question not out of a sense of doomsday prepper.
• What do I need to do right now, right where I am?
• Creating the kind of community I long to live in.
• Building a world that will protect the most at risk.
• The importance of personal responsibility in community building.
• Resilience is key in facing challenges.
• Safe spaces are essential for vulnerable populations.
• Community building requires active participation.
• We must think about our actions in the present moment.
• Creating supportive environments is a collective effort.

 

Resources:

• Join us and be part of Queering Advent! Find more info here.

 

This transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors or omissions.

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2 (43s):
Welcome to the Queer Theology podcast. I’m Brian G. Murphy.

3 (46s):
And I’m Father Shannon TL Kerns. We’re the co-founders of queer theology.com and your hosts

2 (51s):
From Genesis, revelation. The Bible declares good news to LGBTQ plus people, and we want to show you how tuning

3 (57s):
Each week on Sunday for conversations about Christianity, queerness and transness, and how they can enrich one another. We’re glad you’re here. Hello. Hello and welcome back to the Queer Theology Podcast Today, you’ve got a solo Father Shannon episode. It is the beginning of Advent, and I just have a couple of thoughts and reflections that I wanted to share with you as we get this Christian season started. Advent has arrived. I kind of can’t believe that we are already at this point in the year. Hopefully you are already ready to go with your advent practice and that you’re raring to, to kick it off.

3 (1m 39s):
I know for me, it sometimes takes me a bit to, to get into the season, but I, I find that advent is a, is a really important and reflective time. A time when we prepare, not only for Christmas of course, but also we reenter the Christian story. You know, advent is the beginning of the Christian calendar, and we begin anew to replay this ancient story, the story of Jesus, the story of the Christian people, a story that still resonates and resounds today, and, and whether or not you still consider yourself a Christian, whether or not you’ve ever celebrated or observed Advent before.

3 (2m 25s):
I think that there’s a lot that we can get out of the themes of Advent and thinking through kind of this cycle of the Christian life, the cycle of the spiritual life, the cycle of the stories that we tell about ourselves and our communities. And I’ve been thinking a lot about the themes of advent, particularly in these days. You know, advent is often thought of as a time of preparation. And you know, right now, as I am recording this, we’re, we’re getting ready to enter into this season. And, you know, the threats against trans and non-binary people in particular continue to rise.

3 (3m 7s):
So do prices and potentially healthcare costs if we can even get healthcare at all. And there’s so much violence and fear and anxiety the way that immigrants are being treated in this country. The political rhetoric all over, you know, it feels really scary sometimes, and it also feels often, I think with the 24 7 news media, like things are getting a lot worse. And, and I know for me as a trans person, I’ve been thinking a lot about what can I do to prepare? And I know a lot of other trans people are, are thinking about this as well.

3 (3m 47s):
And we’re asking this question not out of a sense of pessimism or like a doomsday prepper, but we’re thinking about it, or at least I’m thinking about it, of, you know, what do I need to do right now, right where I am right in these moments in order to create the kind of community that I long to live in. What do I need to do right now, right here, right in this moment in order to keep building a world that will protect the most at risk? And so in this advent season, I am thinking both theologically and practically about these questions, about this theme of preparation.

3 (4m 31s):
And I’m working to answer these questions for myself. And, and I thought that today it, it might be interesting to offer them as reflections for you too, if these questions feel useful. And so I’m, I’m gonna ask the question and pause just for a couple of seconds. If you wanted to use this as an exercise, as journaling prompts, as time to think, you could simply hit pause on the podcast after each question. If it’s more helpful for you to hear all the questions and then spend some time to reflect, feel free to do that. But here are the questions that, that I’m reflecting on, and then I offer to you as a reflection as well. The first is simply who is in my community?

3 (5m 15s):
And you can think of this as narrowly or as broadly as you want. I encourage you to think about it, especially concretely, both like who is in your community, right, in your location and lo locality, like who around you is in your community. But you can also think more broadly of who is in your community. What does community care look like? What matters to me when it comes to my health? And how can I put measures in place to protect that health?

3 (5m 60s):
What might I need to think about when it comes to legal documents moving forward? Who are the people I trust who can inform me about what I need to do to keep myself safe? How did my elders make it through similar times? What can I learn from strategies of resistance and strategies of care from the past? How am I giving back to my community?

3 (6m 41s):
What can I offer my community? And after you’ve spent some time reflecting, I invite you to not just leave these as answers on paper or a screen, don’t just leave them in a journal, but use these answers to start to inform how you’re showing up. Maybe you wanna show up in some new ways. I am particularly using this advent to prepare and answer these questions so that I can begin to act so that I, I can begin to show up in my community in new ways. I think that the story of Jesus wasn’t just about a miraculous intervention into human history.

3 (7m 26s):
You know, often we talk about the advent story and the Jesus story as you know, the people were waiting and then Jesus came and, and it was all fixed, right? ’cause, ’cause Jesus came. I think that instead the story of Advent is a reminder that there are always prophets who are pointing out what’s wrong in the world. There are always prophets who are looking around and saying, we don’t have to live like this. And then those same prophets are inviting us to be a part of the solution. And so in this advent time, I think it’s a time for us to look around and point out what’s wrong. It’s a time for us to uplift the voices of the prophets and to echo the voices of the prophets.

3 (8m 13s):
But it’s also a time for all of us to remember the invitation, to be a part of the solution, to remember the invitation, to continue to build a new world together, to continue to look out for the most marginalized and the most at risk in our midst. And to do whatever we can to make the world safer for them and for all of us. And so I offer this as an advent reflection for you. If you want some extra support throughout this advent season, you can join Sanctuary Collective. We would love to have you as a member of the community. This

2 (8m 50s):
Is Brian popping in as we edit. To let you know that inside of Sanctuary Collective during Advent, we have a guided audio advent experience for you called queering Advent. It’s a mix of bible readings, queer reflections, prompts for you to reflect on, and even a few suggestions for adventures and experiments to put your faith into an action. A new prompt drops every day of Advent, so you can learn more in signup@queertheology.com slash advent. It’s just $1 per day. And you also get access to the entire Sanctuary Collective community and spiritual study hall resources collection. Again, that’s queer theology.com/advent, and it’s happening all advent long. I hope to see you inside.

3 (9m 28s):
We would love to support you through Advent and this holiday season. Be well and we’ll see you next time.

2 (9m 35s):
The Queer Theology podcast is just one of many things that we do@queertheology.com, which provides resources, community, and inspiration for L-G-B-T-Q, Christians and straight cisgender supporters.

3 (9m 44s):
To dive into more of the action, visit us@queertheology.com. You can also connect with us online on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram.

2 (9m 51s):
We’ll see you next week.

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