Queerying Easter 1B

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries a Gospel reading.

 

 

Gospel: Mark 16:1-8

When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Jesus' body. ²And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. ³They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” ⁴When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. 

 

⁵As they entered the tomb, they saw a youth, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. ⁶But the youth said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. They have been raised; They are not here. Look, there is the place they laid the body. ⁷But go, tell the disciples and Peter that They is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Them, just as They told you.” ⁸So the women went out and fled from the tomb, for fear and anticipation had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

 

Queeries for the text:

What kind of spices did they bring?

How do stones roll?

Who laid Jesus there?

What is in Galilee?

What is the difference between fear and anticipation?

What don't we talk about?

What do we need to say? 

-----

 

Guest queerier, Pace Warfield-May, queeries a Gospel reading.

 

Gospel: John 20:1-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance to the tomb. ²So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the man Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Leader out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." ³Then Peter and Jesus’ beloved set out and went toward the tomb. ⁴The two were running together, but Jesus’ beloved outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the funeral clothes and burial cloth lying there, ⁷and the shroud that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the other linens but rolled up in a place by itself. ⁸Then Jesus’ beloved, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; ⁹for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that Jesus must rise from the dead.

¹⁰Then the two of them returned to their homes. ¹¹But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; ¹²and she saw two angels wearing white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. ¹³They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Leader, and I do not know where they have laid him." ¹⁴When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing Them to be the gardener, she said to Them, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." ¹⁶Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Them in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means My Great One). ¹⁷Jesus said to her, "Do not try to hold on to me so tightly, because I still must go up to our Caretaker. But go to my chosen family and say to them, 'I am in the process of going up to be with my Caretaker and your Caretaker, to my God and your God.'" ¹⁸Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Leader"; and she told them that They had said these things to her.

Queries for the Text:
Who is missing from this account?
Who is Jesus’ beloved?
Why did Mary not recognize Jesus?
How do we grieve, both individually and communally? 

How do we police how others' grieve?
Who is the real angel in this story?
Who is your chosen family?
What is in need of resurrection today? 

What are your queeries?

 

 

 

 

Queerying Palm Sunday B

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

 

Gospel: Mark 11:1-11

When Jesus and the disciples were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of the disciples ²and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. ³If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Leader needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” 

 

⁴They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, ⁵some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” ⁶They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. ⁷Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. ⁸Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. ⁹Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,

“Hosanna! 

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Becoming One! 

¹⁰Blessed is the coming dominion of our ancestor David!

Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

¹¹Then Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Queeries for the text:

What else happens near the Mount of Olives?

How do they know the colt has never been ridden?  

Can a colt actually support Jesus' weight?

When else are bystanders important?

What dominion was already in place? 

When and why else do marches happen?

Why did Jesus go to Bethany?  What happened next? 

What would a Holy Week soundtrack be?

 

What are your queeries?

 

 

Queerying Lent 5B

River Needham, MA queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Jeremiah 31:31-34

Look, the time will come, the Becoming One said, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors, when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, a covenant which they broke, though I adopted them - says the Becoming One. But such is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel after these days—declares the Becoming One: I will put my teaching into their inmost being and inscribe it upon their hearts. Then I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer will they need to teach one another and say to one another, “Heed the Becoming One”; for all of them, from the least of them to the greatest, shall heed Me—declares the Becoming One. For I will forgive their iniquities, and remember their sins no more. 

Queeries for the text:
What is a covenant?
What covenants are important today?
Where do Jewish People write God's teaching?
What does it mean to remember sin?

-----

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

 

 

Gospel: John 12:20-33 

²⁰Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. ²¹They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Mister, we wish to see Jesus.” ²²Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 

²³Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Human One to be glorified. ²⁴Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for everlasting life. ²⁶Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Holy Parent will honor.

²⁷“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Holy Parent, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. ²⁸Holy Parent, glorify your name.” 

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 

²⁹The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Jesus.” 

³⁰Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. ³¹Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. ³²And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” ³³Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. 

Queeries for the text:

Which festival?

Who knew the game of telephone dated back to pre-electricity?

How does wheat grow?  How does it die?

What does it mean to hate?

Who has hope to be saved? Whose hour?

When has God glorified Zer name?

What does God sound like?

What did Jesus' drawing look like?

 

What are your queeries?

 

 

Queerying Lent 4B

River Needham, MA queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Numbers 21:4-9
The Israelites set out from Mount Hor by way of the Sea of Reeds to skirt the land of Edom. But the people grew restless on the journey, and the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why did you make us leave Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread and no water, and we have come to loathe this miserable food.” The Becoming One sent flying snakes against the people. They bit the people and many of the Israelites died.

The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned by speaking against the Becoming One and against you. Intercede with the The Becoming One to take away the serpents from us!” Moses interceded for the people.

Then the Becoming One said to Moses, “Make a winged figure and mount it on a standard. If anyone who is bitten looks at it, she will recover.” Moses made a copper serpent and mounted it on a standard; and when anyone was bitten by a serpent, she would look at the copper serpent and recover.

Queeries for the text:
Where do snakes fly?
What do we complain about? 

What is biting us today?

Who and where is God amidst the pandemic of flying snakes and coronaviruses?

Where is recovery?

-----

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

 

 

Gospel: John 3:14-21

Jesus said:

¹⁴“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the One Born of Woman be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in the One may have everlasting life. 

 

¹⁶“For God loved the world in this way: Ze gave Zers only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have everlasting life. 

 

¹⁷“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Those who believe in the Son are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

 

Queeries for the text:

Who is Jesus talking to?

How did Moses lift up the serpent? Why?

How does and doesn't grammar matter?

What is salvation like today?

Who is light?

What happens with too much light?

What do we hide? Why?

 

What are your queeries?

 

 

Queerying Lent 3B

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

 

Gospel: John 2:13-22

¹³The Passover of the Jewish people was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. ¹⁵Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. Jesus also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” 

 

¹⁷Jesus' disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 

 

¹⁸The Judeans then said to Jesus, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” 

 

¹⁹Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 

 

²⁰The Jude then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” 

 

²¹But Jesus was speaking of the temple of his body. ²²After Jesus was raised from the dead, the disciples remembered that Jesus had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

 

Queeries for the text:

Why is this so early in John's gospel?

How long does it take to make a whip of cords?

When is a sanctuary a marketplace?

Where is it written?

Which temple is Jesus talking about?

When was the Temple constructed?

How does memory spark belief?

 

What are your queeries?