A Queer Lectionary: (Im)proper Readings from the Margins - Year A

by Peter Carlson (Editor)

Overview

From an interdenominational group of preachers and scholars, a queer commentary to address recent concerns around LGBTQ+ rights.

This preaching resource features commentaries on every Sunday and feast day reading in the Revised Common Lectionary from an interdenominational group of scholars and homileticians. Offering queer interpretations of biblical texts, the series will appeal to scholars of queer theology and will support preachers in crafting sermons that convey a message of liberation, rather than one that reinforces the power structures of the world. 

A Queer Lectionary features commentators from a variety of liturgical traditions, including clergy and scholars from the Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, African Methodist Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Metropolitan Community Churches, and beyond. Written to enable preachers to engage with every assigned text, each volume features sermons that respond to every lesson in each lectionary entry. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781640657595
Publisher:	Seabury Books
Publication date:	07/01/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Peter Carlson is a scholar of religious history and gender. Their work has focused on constructions of masculinity and femininity in the late medieval and early modern periods, as well as theologies of sexuality and gender construction across religious traditions. A graduate of Claremont Graduate School and Wheaton College, Carlson was a fellow at Lincoln College Oxford. They are currently associate professor of religion at California Lutheran University, where they regularly teach courses in gender and queer theology and direct the gender and women’s studies minor. A committed Episcopalian, Carlson has presented to religious groups on the history of the Christian church, the pursuit and quality of sacred space, medieval history, and the history of gender and marriage. They also preach regularly. Carlson lives in Thousand Oaks, California.

Editorial Reviews

"AQueer Lectionary offers a liminal space—a sacred threshold—for queer Christians to journey inward, where we encounter the warm and welcoming embrace of God. In this descent, we are held in divine intimacy, and in our ascent, we return infused with radical love—a love that seeks justice and creates the conditions for all to flourish. These pages are filled with stories and queer reflections—at once familiar, strange, and surprising—that remain fiercely rooted in a commitment to proclaim, again and again, the divine invitation to “come and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8).
So come. Sashay with us through this lectionary. And in every step, expect a visitation from the Queer God who names us—boldly and tenderly—as God’s beloved queers."

Rolf R. Nolasco

"Let’s not play around. In an era when pulpits pander to power and scrub sermons clean of danger and grit, Queer Lectionary dares real life—where our bodies bleed, laugh, grieve, resist, and rise. Peter Carlson refuses to water down what’s holy or middle-of-the-road what makes us tremble. In a time when the status quo kneels before authoritarian power, these reflections run to meet us, arms wide, full of holy mischief. These (im)proper readings are not safe. This is not tepid theology, but wild, holy disruption—a liturgical side-eye and a gospel gut-punch. We need this voice. We need this witness. Pick it up. But be warned: your days of polite nods and 'nice sermon, Pastor' at the church door are numbered. This book will mess with your preaching."

The Rev. Jeff R. Johnson

"Queer Lectionary is more than a book to be used during a liturgical year. Carlson begins with a critical story about the fall of American Christianity and all its once-upon-a-time privileges. As an openly gay Presbyterian (PCUSA) pastor, I savored his critique and wholly concur. Carlson provides a constructive criticism of where we have been throughout the 20th century in terms of the place and presence of those who were brought up to live our lives on the margins of the predominant white, male cisgender, heterosexual, middle-class able-bodied culture of the 20th century. From his context of Otherness/Queerfolx-ness, Carlson is one more critical voice who is reading and telling Gospel-stories from the so-called margins, embracing his and our 'otherness,' and providing a fresh, bracing take on ancient, universal stories of faith."

Rev. Dr. Brett Mitchell

"This sermon collection will make you wonder, 'How didn't I notice this before?!' The perspectives that our queer siblings offer in this book helped me perceive new divine messages in the same old scripture readings. This Queer Lectionary is a great addition to any pastor's library, containing multiple sermons that address current U.S. situations and relevant queer issues. Its transgressive nature unsettles the status quo, making it a powerful read. Accessible and colloquial, you don't have to be an academic to appreciate its profound insights."

Rev Lis Valle-Ruiz