It’s the sequel to Advent & Sexuality that nobody asked for! But here we are talking about Lent, this broader concept of sacrifice, and how this particular season ties together with our sexuality. Because where else can you get that kind of podcast content?

Join Tom and the “Holy Crew” of Pastors Ben and Will for a discussion on the Lenten season in our last podcast before our virtual retreat later this month! Join us, won’t you?

COMMENT ON THIS EPISODE

Do you observe Lent? What comes up when you consider the spiritual discipline of fasting, or the broader one of sacrifice, as a gay/SSA person?

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  • Tom,
    I really enjoyed the Yobcast. Though you are not Catholic and I am, you managed to really captured the essence of what Lent is about to Catholics. The discipline of Lent is meant to allow us to reassess our relationship with God and identify areas where we need to grow. It is normal to fail during Lent and the darkness and discouragement that comes from failure opens us to grace through Jesus gift of humility: we learn that we need His help and His grace in our lives in order to live out our Christian call to holiness. It is not about us nor our accomplishments but about a loving and generous God who gives Himself to us and empties Himself to the point of death on a cross. May the discipline of Lent bring to the joy of the Resurrection.

    • Thanks for the support, Dan! I enjoyed this conversation with my pastor brothers, even though none of us have that Catholic/orthodox background with Lent. It’s certainly been a beneficial season to observe in my adult years. Grateful that these many streams can point us all to Jesus, now more than ever.

  • Great conversation! I never observed Lent in my upbringing, but I have grown to better understand and therefore appreciate it in my adult years.

    I’d like to give a big thanks to Will for highlighting that Paul’s message in I Thess. 4 is not saying that we shouldn’t grieve because we are Christians but rather that, as Christians, how we grieve is freed to be markedly different from those without Christ (i.e. “so that you do not grieve as the rest of mankind, who have no hope”–I Thess. 4:13), that we do, in fact, grieve but do so with hope.

    That ties to a point I’d like to thank Ben for voicing: that in the midst of reflecting on what we–perhaps especially as SSA guys in certain ways but not putting ourselves above or beyond others’ suffering/ sacrifices–have given up in our journey with Christ, dying to ourselves daily, we have such a blessing in being able to reflect on all that we have gained precisely because of our sufferings/ losses/ sacrifices and to treasure the wondrous promise of experiencing all things renewed and restored to perfectly fulfilling wholeness in eternal life with our Lord. Now that is a powerful hope.

    As a culture, generally speaking, we are decidedly averse to suffering, much more so the idea of sitting in/ with suffering, and the notion of suffering in community has faded in the past several decades. Lent strikes me as a prime example of how that approach to suffering is still in some ways being preserved.

    • Ben and Will always share amazing insights on these episodes. So grateful for their perspectives. Thanks for giving them some love, Logan! I resonate with your appreciation of Lent through my adult years. To sit in the suffering but not let it steal my hope.

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