Welcome to a Queer Lent

“Beatitudes for a Queerer Church”
by Jay Hulme

Blessed are the outcasts;
the ostracised, the outsiders. 

Blessed are the scared;
the scarred, the silent.

Blessed are the broken;
for they are not broken.

Blessed are the hated;
for they are not worthy of hate. 

Blessed are those who try;
those who transform, who transition.

Blessed are the closeted;
God sees you shine anyway.

Blessed are the queers;
who love creation enough to live the truth of it,
despite a world that tells them they cannot.

And blessed are those
who believe themselves unworthy of blessing;
what inconceivable wonders you hold.

Welcome to a Queer Lent. “Lent” is a church word, but don’t worry: you are welcome here.

In the Christian tradition, Lent is a 40-day season that begins on Ash Wednesday and culminates in Holy Week, when the church marks the holiest days of the Christian year: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter. You may know it better for the Mardi Gras festivities that precede Ash Wednesday, fasting from chocolate, or fish fries on Fridays.

During this season of preparation for Easter, Christians take up spiritual practices intended to draw them more deeply into the heart of God. The traditional language focuses on Lent as a season of repentance and self-discipline, but we’ve come to think of it as a season to cast off everything that chokes the life out of us and keeps us from experiencing the depth of divine love. Lent is a season to turn away from all that tells us we are unworthy so we can hear more clearly the good news on Easter morning: Life triumphs over death. Death has no more dominion over us. Resurrection is ours.

In other words, Lent is a season that is ready-made for queers. It is a perfect time for us to take up disciplines that help us tune out voices of condemnation and rejection—the voices of death—so we can hear more clearly the divine affirmation of queer sacredness.

It is ironic that the church has been so spectacularly bad at proclaiming that affirmation. The church routinely gets things wrong, but somehow the voice of Love is still heard.

We hope you will hear that voice here.

Many Christians have a practice of reading daily devotionals during the season of Lent. We offer something similar here for you. Every day during Lent, we will post a short devotion. Subscribe to this Substack and you will receive it each morning in your email. We begin on Ash Wednesday, February 22, and conclude on Easter Sunday, April 9. As with this post, each day’s devotion will include a reading and a brief reflection—hopefully something that helps you cast off all that drains your spirit and helps you hear more clearly what we know to be true: You are worthy. You are holy. You are loved.

Thanks for joining our 40-day journey through a Queer Lent.

Javen Swanson and Oby Ballinger