Queer Sermon on Matthew 25's Queer Christ, the Outcast King

Blessed Are the Binary Breakers

Matthew 25:31-46 is sometimes misused to preach hellfire & brimstone, but its focus is on compassion & community, mutual aid in the here & now.

In this sermon, minister Avery Arden explores how the Divine identification with the world's outcasts has empowered disenfranchised Christians to envision Christ as Black, disabled, gay, trans, and more.

Click here for an episode transcript.

Talking Points:

• (0:00) Invitation to sign up for daily text prayers for July's Disability Pride Month; introduction to the sermon
• (4:00) Reading the Matthew 25 text
• (7:00) It's not about threatening or bribing us into good works; establishing this text's context
• (12:00) Moving beyond a focus on the individual to a communal focus: we are one big flock of sheep-goat hybrids, called to practice mutual aid!
• (18:49) Jesus's intimate identification with the outcasts; subverting the text's kingly imagery; Christ is Black, disabled, gay, trans
• (25:25) How do you experience Christ in your hunger, your suffering?

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Resources for Disability Pride Month:

• Sign up for daily text prayers written by disabled people of faith here: https://mlp.salsalabs.org/july2023disabilitytextprayers/index.html
• Listen to episode 37, "No End to Transphobia without Uprooting Ableism"
• Check out my Disabled AND Blessed YouTube series
• Check out Laura's Autistic Liberation Theology podcast
• Masterpost of disability theology & ministry resources

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This show's theme song is "Aetherium" by Leah Horn. This episode also makes use of "Reality Cartwheeled" and "The Ants Built a City on His Chest" by Doctor Turtle.