Queerying Holy Trinity B

River Needham, MA ThM queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Isaiah 6:1-8

In the year that King Uzziah died, I beheld my Queen seated on a high and lofty throne; and the skirts of Femmes robe filled the Temple. Seraphs provided Femme with service. Each of them had six wings: with two they covered her face, with two he covered their genitals, and with two she would fly. 

 

One would call to the other, “Holy, holy, holy! The Queen of Angel Armies! Femmes presence fills all the earth!” The doorposts would shake at the sound of the one who called, and the house kept filling with smoke. 

I cried, “Woe is me; I am lost! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my own eyes have beheld the Queen, God of Angel Armies.” 

Then one of the seraphs flew over to me with a live coal, which he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. They touched it to my lips and declared, “Now that this has touched your lips, Your guilt shall depart and your sin be purged away.” 

Then I heard the voice of my Queen saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” 

I said, “Here am I; send me.”

Queeries for the text:
Who is my Queen?
What does it mean to be high and lofty?

Who provides service?

What's filling the house with smoke?

How are our lips unclean?

What about our lips is unclean?

What sins must be purged?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

 

 

Gospel: John 3:1-17

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jewish people. ²He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 

 

³Jesus answered Nicodemus, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the reign of God without being born from above.” 

 

⁴Nicodemus said to Jesus, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the parent’s womb and be born?” 

 

⁵Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the reign of God without being born of water and breath. ⁶What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the breath is breath. ⁷Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ ⁸The breath breathes where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the breath.” 

 

⁹Nicodemus said to Jesus, “How can these things be?” 

 

¹⁰Jesus answered Nicodemus, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 

 

¹¹“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. ¹²If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Human One. ¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Human One be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in that one may have eternal life. 

 

¹⁶“For God so loved the world that Femme gave Femmes only Child, so that everyone who believes in Them may not perish but may have everlasting life. 

 

¹⁷“Indeed, God did not send the Child into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Them.”

 

Queeries for the text:

Have we read this before?

Which signs does Jesus do?

What kind of biblical interpretation did Nicodemus do?

What is born of water?

What is breath, wind, and spirit?

Whose testimony is refused?

How might the world be saved?

What's the rest of the story? 

Why does today matter?

 

What are your queeries?