Queerying Easter 4B

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Acts reading.

 

First Reading: Acts 4:5-12

⁵The next day the people's officials, religious leaders, and lawyers assembled in Jerusalem, ⁶with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. ⁷When they had made the prisoners, Peter and John, stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 

 

⁸Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, ⁹if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this one has been healed, ¹⁰let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this person is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. ¹¹This Jesus is ‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.’ ¹²There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”

 

Queeries for the text:

The next day after what?

Who are the prisoners today?

How do names matter?

When do we question good deeds?

Who are the actual builders?

What happened after Peter's speech? 

What happens when the truth is too obvious to deny?

 

-----

 

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

[video description: video shows a sheep being pulled out of a ditch by a young person. The sheep, once freed, immediately leaps back into the ditch and gets stuck again. The video then repeats this, but in slow motion.]

Gospel: John 10:11-18 

Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down their life for the sheep. ¹²The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. ¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵just as the Caretaker knows me and I know the Caretaker. And I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. ¹⁷For this reason the Caretaker loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. ¹⁸No one has taken it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Caretaker."

Queeries for the text:
Who are the low-wage, seasonal, or migrant workers in our society?
Who is the wolf?
Who is the hired hand?
How do we know our own?
What else does Jesus say about shepherds and sheep? 

What are your queeries?