Advent, the four weeks leading up to Christmas, marks the beginning of the Christian liturgical year as a period of reflection and preparation for the birth of Christ.  Traditionally, the themes of Advent are hope, love, joy and peace. The penitential nature of the season is addressed in the purple color of the candles and stoles. 

At the heart of the Advent season is waiting, not for a savior to come and save us but for the actualization of a vision of a changed world.  These passages are about promise and judgment, hope and repentance, and call us, above all, to visions of a different world.  However, they differ in how they speak of political hopes and about personal salvation.

	This Advent as you envision God’s transformed world, what continuing injustices come to your heart and mind?   Where is your hope directed?

Isaiah 2:1-5 speaks to a universal vision of many people coming to worship the one God of Israel at the Temple in Israel, both to worship and learn (verses 1-3).  The result would be a change in the nation from a war economy to a sustainable agricultural economy (verse 4). 

Psalm 122 is a hymn of Zion which talks about Jerusalem as the national capital where the economy is centered and justice is dispensed.  The priestly powers in the Jerusalem temple are symbols of oppression and exclusion.  The psalm leads us to ask, “Today, what would truly have to change in God’s house for LGBT people and our allies to finally ‘stream’ to it when it has often been the place of greatest judgment and condemnation in our lives?”  Are the hopes of some LGBT people so connected to the benefits of the status quo that they close their eyes to the oppression of other LGBT people whose class and race lock them out of the privileges of the society?  Authentic freedom cannot be purchased at the expense of others, and a comprehensive vision of justice must address not only heterosexism, but also classism, racism, sexism, ableism and other dynamics of oppression.

	Where have you caught a glimpse of the “kindom of God” in the real lives of LGBT people?  How do these glimpses reflect God’s good news for all God’s children – including all who are oppressed?

Romans 13:11-14 and Matthew 24:36-44 shift the focus from dealing with a national agenda to the status of individuals.  As a common technique, each passage sets up insider/outsider dynamics.  The Romans passage invokes polarized opposites of light and darkness, of day and night (verse 12), with the dark side as the negative pole.  Verse 13 has a too familiar ring: the diatribes often hurled unjustly against LBGT persons as debauched sinners. 

While Romans draws the contrast between the “saved” versus the “unsaved,” Matthew speaks of those “taken up” and those “left behind.”  There is a call to be watchful since we don’t know the hour.  We also don’t know what differentiates those taken up and those left behind.  We don’t even know if it is better to be “taken away” or to be “left behind.” This type of ambiguity often leads LGBT people second-guessing how to survive in a world, and in a religious climate, which often appears irrational and fraught with danger.

On the one hand, we could look at the admonitions in these passages as reminding LGBT and other oppressed people not to think they are immune from judgment because of their oppression – that theirs is the only true revelation from God.  On the other hand, if we are not careful, the individual-focus of these passages could lead us to divert our attention away from the need to transform society to be more inclusive and just. 

The seemingly arbitrary actions and focus on sex-negativity in Romans 13:13 and Matthew 24:38, as well as the heterosexist and classist assumptions about life and work in these passages, also raise questions about how these texts impact LGBT people and other oppressed groups.

	In your experience of the church and society, who usually decides what behavior is “becoming,” to use Paul’s term?   What behaviors usually identified as becoming are oppressive or repressive for LGBT people of faith?  What is becoming behavior for us especially in this Advent season?

Living on the losing side of in/outside dynamics should alert us to be wary of any power inequalities or justifications for social divisions, including religious warrants.  In the midst of such dynamics, God often works through personal prayer in healing many LGBT people from a personal internalized oppression.  We must, however, work for transformation of public systems of oppression which crush many and dehumanize all – especially in our churches and other religious institutions.  When our love and work for justice is fully compatible with God’s purposes we can experience the great joy promised by the Advent season.

	How is God calling you and your community to wait – personally and publicly/politically – during this Advent?