Aspettando Gesù in un bar gay
Riflessioni di Brian G. Murphy*, liberamente tradotte da Innocenzo Pontillo
Right now I'm in a dimly lit gay bar in New York. My hands are illuminated by a soft red reflection as I write this message on my phone. A few hours ago I saw the musical Wicked at the cinema and its breathtaking images and emotional music are still in my head.
I'm telling you this because I'm thinking about how important the things we tell are.
I think about the stories we tell ourselves about gay bars. Maybe they scared you in the past. Or maybe you had an unpleasant experience in one of them.
Perhaps stories come to mind like the one about the Stonewall Inn where LGBT people turned against the police during yet another raid.
And speaking of stories we tell ourselves, I also think about how strange this Advent season is that we are about to begin.
Advent is about waiting—but a different waiting. It is the expectation of an upside down kingdom of God, where the rich and powerful are overthrown, where everyone is free, fed and where justice flows like a river.
But then I look at today's reality. In the United States we are waiting for the opposite: a potential dictator ready to take power, with his policies that will destroy the economy and separate families. It seems like we're going backwards.
This is why we need Advent, now more than ever.
Advent stories give us a vision of what the world could be like. A bit like when the film Wicked overwhelms you with its story: if you stop to really look at the Advent stories, they too can grab you and drag you along with their prophetic strength.
But Advent isn't just listening to fairy tales or waiting for a savior to do everything for us. It's also about preparing. Prepare ourselves and our communities.
As we approach this Advent season, I invite you to rediscover the ancient practices of the Advent tradition to find ways to prepare for resistance. Get ready, because you are needed to build a new world.
That's exactly what we could do together and I'd love for you to join in too.
We have a world to change. Shall we get started?
*Brian G. Murphy is co-founder of the sitequeertheology.comof resources for queer Christians and is a spiritual companion in the United States.
Original text: Wicked, gay bars and waiting for Jesus
