Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Queerying Baptism of Jesus B

River Needham, MA queeries the Tanakh reading.

ID: an artists rendition of a formless void, not as in earth, but as in a black hole.

Tanakh: Genesis 1:1-5

When God began to form the heavens and the earth.
The earth, unformed and empty, with darkness over the surface of the deep, felt wind from God's breath blowing over the water. 

God said: Let there be light!
And there was light.

God saw the light was good, so She pulled the light apart from the dark and separated them. 

God called the light Day, and the darkness, She called Night. And there was evening and morning, a first day.

Queeries for the text
:
When does God begin to form?
What does unformed and empty mean?
How are breath and wind different?
How is light formed?
Where is Day celebrated? What about the (longest) Night?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.
 
ID: blue clouds in the sky open with a bolt of lightning and a deluge of water onto the desert.

Gospel: Mark 1:4-11

4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to John, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7John proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of this one's sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but the one to come will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

9In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Child, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Queeries for the text:
Where have I read some of this before?
What sins need to be confessed?
What happens after repentance?
What do we proclaim?
What do shoes have to do with anything?
What do heavens torn apart look like?
When else are divisions torn apart?
What has Jesus done to deserve divine pleasure?
 
What are your queeries?
 
 


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