Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Queerying 11th after Pentecost C

River Needham, MA ThM queeries the Tanakh reading.
ID: a Bird of Paradise in bloom
Tanakh: Jeremiah 1:4-10
The word of the Becoming One came to me:
Before I created you in the womb, I selected you;
Before you were born, I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet concerning the nations.

I replied:
Ah, Becoming God!
I don’t know how to speak,
For I am still a boy.

And the Becoming One said to me:
Do not say, “I am still a boy,”
But go wherever I send you
And speak whatever I command you.
Have no fear of them,
For I am with you to deliver you
—declares the Becoming One.

The Becoming One put out a hand and touched my mouth, and said to me:
Now I put my words into your mouth.
See, I appoint you this day
Over nations and kingdoms:
To uproot and to pull down,
To destroy and to overthrow,
To build and to plant.

Queeries for the text:
How did the word of the Becoming One come?
Who is still a boy?
What are Christians afraid of?
What needs to be destroyed and rebuilt, overthrown and planted?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.
ID: a purple heart surrounds line drawings in blue of a human, a dog, and a horse.
Gospel: Luke 13:10-17
10Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” 13When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.

14But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.”

15But the Leader answered the synagogue leader and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie their ox or their donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” 17When Jesus said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

Queeries for the text:
How often is Jesus active on the Sabbath?
What does it mean to be crippled?
How are people bent?
How do ailments bind? How don't they?
What is Sabbath for?
What is shameful today? 

What are your queeries?





2 comments:

Soli Deo Gloria said...

Good Afternoon Emily! I am intrigued by your use of "Becoming One" for the proper name of God in the Jeremiah reading. Can you point me to the translational work that suggests this?

Rev. Emily E. Ewing said...

That is part of River Needham, MA ThM's interpretation and translation choice. River says, "The proper name of God is based in the verb to be Hayah (to be), or in the imperfect Yihih, to become. If God's name is a wordplay with the word Hayah, it makes sense to translate it with that word becoming in it, to keep the meaning linguistically and possibly open the door for more wordplay."

I will add that the translation of "LORD" for that word doesn't come from the original Hebrew, but from a desire to not misuse God's name and so not use the proper name for God at all. I sometimes translate that in my work as Everlasting, recognizing the wordplay that River mentions above.

I hope that's helpful!