Queerying Narative Lectionary 113

Pace Warfield-May queeries the Narrative Lectionary reading.

Habakkuk 1:1-7; 2:1-4; 3:[3b-6], 17-19
^1:1The message that the prophet Habakkuk saw.

Habakkuk's request to God:
²Hey Becoming One, how long shall I beg for help,

and you won't listen to me?

Or like cry out to you "Look at this violence!"

and you will not bring salvation?

³Why do you make me see all these awful things, all this suffering

and make me look at trouble?

Destruction, devastation, and violence are all before me;

turmoil, violent divisions, keep arising.

⁴So the laws meant to protect people are ignored

and justice never prevails.

The wicked, the oppressors, the evil surround the righteous–

therefore judgment, what little there is, comes forth broken and incomplete.

God's response to the prophet:
⁵Look at all of the nations and see what is happening!

Be astonished! Be astounded!

For a work is being done right now in your very lifetime

that you would not believe is happening even if you were told.

⁶For I am rousing the Chaldeans from their slumber,

that fierce and anxious nation,

who march through the entirety of the known earth

to seize and colonize lands that are not their own.

⁷Indeed, they bring dread and fear wherever they go;

they put the law into their own hands and bring honor only to themselves.

[…]

Habakkuk responded:
^2:1I will stand at my watch-post,

and keep watch on the ramparts;

I will keep watch to see what Shee will say to me,

and what She will answer concerning my complaint.

²Then the Becoming One answered me and said:
Write this vision down,

meme-ify it and post it to the socials

so that anyone even scrolling through their feeds will be able to read it.

³For there is still a vision for the time to come that I have appointed

it speaks of the end of all things and it does not lie.

Even if it seems like the appointed time is forever away, wait for it anyway;

it will surely come, I promise. It will not be delayed.

⁴Look at the proud!

Their spirit is not right within them,

but the righteous live by their faith.

[…]

[^3:3bGod's glory covered the cosmos,

and the ground beneath us was full of Her praise.

⁴The brightness was so bright, it was like the surface of the sun;

rays of sunlight came forth from the Becoming One's hand,

where Her power lay hidden behind the light.

⁵Before the Becoming One went out a plague,

and in Her footsteps was left a pandemic.

⁶She stopped and Her stopping shook the entire earth;

with one look all the peoples of all the nations trembled in fear.

The tallest mountains were shattered;

along the ancient pathways,

the everlasting hills sank to the ground.]

[…]

¹⁷Though the fig tree is not in bloom,

and there are no fruit on the vines;

though the olive trees aren't bringing forth olives

and the fields aren't giving forth food;

though the flock appears lost and cut off from the herd

and there are no animals in the stalls,

¹⁸I will still rejoice in the Becoming one;

I will find joy in the God/ess of my salvation.

¹⁹God/ess, the Becoming One, is my strength;

She makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

and allows me to tread upon the cliffs with no fear of falling.

To the leader: with stringed instruments.

Queeries for the text: What is this building on?
What is missing from this passage?
What is the companion text?
Where is this headed?
What does it mean to put the law into your own hands?
How does one watch and wait for the divine?
Why does a pandemic follow in the footsteps of the divine?
How bright is the light of the sun?

What are your queeries?