Maundy Thursday year C

Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Exodus 12:1-4 [5-10] 11-14.
The Becoming One said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:

This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months;

it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.

Speak to the whole community of Israel and say that on the tenth of this month

each of them shall take a lamb to a family, a lamb to a household.

But if the household is too small for a lamb, let him share one with a neighbor who

dwells nearby in proportion to the number of persons: you shall contribute for

the lamb according to what each household will eat.

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a yearling male;

you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

You shall keep watch over it until the fourteenth day of this month;

and all the assembled congregation of the Israelites shall slaughter it at twilight.

They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel

of the houses in which they are to eat it.

They shall eat the flesh that same night;

they shall eat it roasted over the fire,

with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs.

Do not eat any of it raw, or cooked in any way with water,

but roasted—head, legs, and entrails—over the fire.

You shall not leave any of it over until morning;

if any of it is left until morning, you shall burn it.

This is how you shall eat it:

your loins girded,

your sandals on your feet,

and your staff in your hand;

and you shall eat it hurriedly:

it is a passover offering to the Becoming One.
For that night I will go through the land of Egypt

and strike down every first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast;

and I will mete out punishments to all the gods of Egypt,

I the Becoming One.

And the blood on the houses where you are staying shall be a sign for you:

when I see the blood I will pass over you,

so that no plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

This day shall be to you one of remembrance: you shall celebrate it as a festival to

the Becoming One throughout the ages;

you shall celebrate it as an institution for all time.

Queeries for the text:
Does time rebegin in this text? How does time change in this text?
What do cooperative economics look like in this text? In different cultures? Today?
Why were the preparation instructions not a required part of the assigned reading?
Why is cooking it with water explicitly verboten?
Are there any meals we eat hurriedly today? Why do we hurry?
Who are the gods of Egypt? Why does the Becoming One need to mete out punishments to them? What do they do?
What is the significance of blood? Why does God upend the social structure, where Egyptians benefit from the slavery of the Israelites? What might this imply for our social structure today?
Are there any additional plagues? Does this complicate God's instruction? Who was Batyah? Why is she important?
What is the significance of passover to Christians?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Now before the festival of the Passover,

Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world

and go to the Loving Parent.

Having loved his own who were in the world,

Jesus loved them to the end.

²The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas

son of Simon Iscariot to betray him.

And during supper ³Jesus,

knowing that the Loving Parent had given all things into his hands,

and that he had come from God and was going to God,

⁴got up from the table,
took off his outer robe,
and tied a towel around himself.

⁵Then Jesus poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples’ feet
and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.

⁶Jesus came to Simon Peter, who said to him,

“Master, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷Jesus answered,

“You do not know now what I am doing,

but later you will understand.”

⁸Peter said to Jesus,

“You will never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered,

“Unless I wash you,

you have no share with me.”

⁹Simon Peter said to him,

“Master, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”

¹⁰Jesus said to Simon Peter,

“One who has bathed does not need to wash,

except for the feet,

but is entirely clean.

And you are clean,

though not all of you.”

¹¹For Jesus knew who was to betray him;

for this reason he said,

“Not all of you are clean.”

¹²After Jesus had washed their feet,
had put on his robe,
and had returned to the table,
he said to them,

“Do you know what I have done to you?

¹³You call me Teacher and Master—and you are right,

for that is what I am.

¹⁴So if I, your Master and Teacher, have washed your feet,

you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

¹⁵For I have set you an example,

that you also should do as I have done to you.

¹⁶Very truly, I tell you,

slaves are not greater than their master,

nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.

¹⁷If you know these things,

you are blessed if you do them.”

³¹“Now the Human One has been glorified,

and God has been glorified in them.

³²If God has been glorified in the Human One,

God will also glorify the Human One in Godself
and will glorify them at once.

³³Little children,

I am with you only a little longer.

You will look for me;

and as I said to the Judeans so now I say to you,

‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’

³⁴I give you a new commandment,

that you love one another.

Just as I have loved you,

you also should love one another.

³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,

if you have love for one another.”

Queeries for the text:
What's missing?
Why is John's gospel always hating on Judas?
What was under Jesus' outer robe?  How big was the towel?
Why would Jesus wash everyone's feet?
Do we ever really know what Jesus is doing?
What kind of master and slave are we talking about?  Was Jesus kinky?  A power bottom?
How has the Human One been glorified?  How is God glorified in humanity?
What can it look like to love one another?  What about those outside of the community?  How do we fail at Jesus' new commandment?

What are your queeries?

Lent 3 year C

On the afternoon of 15 March 2019, a White Supremacist inspired by politicians in the United States opened fire in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. As people trained in the Christian tradition, which often functions in Islamophobic and White Supremacist ways, we repudiate White Supremacy and Islamophobia in the strongest possible terms. Our queeries this week are in honor of those who died, may Allah open the highest levels of paradise to them.

-----

Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Isaiah 55:1-9

Ho, all who are thirsty, come for water,

even if you have no money;

Come, buy food and eat: buy food without money,

wine and milk without cost.

Why do you spend money for what is not bread,

Your earnings for what does not satisfy?

Give heed to Me, and you shall eat choice food and enjoy the richest viands.

Incline your ear and come to Me; Hearken, and you shall be revived.

And I will make with you an everlasting covenant,

The enduring loyalty promised to David.

As I made him a leader of peoples,

a prince and commander of peoples,

So you shall summon a nation you did not know,

and a nation that did not know you shall come running to you

For the sake of the Becoming One your God,

The Holy One of Israel who has glorified you.

Seek the Becoming One while Ey can be found,

Call to Em while Ey is near.

Let the wicked give up her ways,

The sinful one her plans;

Let her turn back to the Becoming One,

And Ey will pardon her;

To our God, for Ey freely forgives.

For My plans are not your plans,

Nor are My ways your ways —declares the Becoming One.

But as the heavens are high above the earth,

So are My ways high above your ways

And My plans above your plans.

Queeries for the text:
What genre is this text?
What is a viand?
What do we hunger and thirst for today?
How might Muslim people give heed to Allah? Do Christians have similar practices?
What does the beginning of this text refer to? What does that look like in other faiths?
What kind of summoning does this text refer to? Which country will be called?
What are the conditions of forgiveness? How are they culturally conditioned?
To whom does the last stanza refer? Is it the same "you" throughout this passage?

-----

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 13:1-9
At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans

whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

²Jesus asked them,

“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way

they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?

³No, I tell you;

but unless you repent,

you will all perish as they did.

⁴Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—

do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?

⁵No, I tell you;

but unless you repent,

you will all perish just as they did.”

⁶Then Jesus told this parable:

“A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard;

and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.

⁷So he said to the gardener,

‘See here!

For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree,

and still I find none.

Cut it down!

Why should it be wasting the soil?’

⁸The gardener replied,

‘Sir, let it alone for one more year,

until I dig around it and put manure on it.

⁹If it bears fruit next year, well and good;

but if not, you can cut it down.’”

Queeries for the text:
At which "very time"?
Does Jesus know what Paul will write?
How else is Jesus clear about victim blaming?
What are compassionate responses to those who have been killed?
Who is in need of compassion and action?
What do we need to confess and repent of?
How long does it take a tree to bear fruit?
Why do men think they know how everything should work?
Is God the gardener?

What are your queeries?

Queerying 6th after Epiphany year C

Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Jeremiah 17:5-10

Thus says the Becoming One:

Cursed is the one that trusts in a human,

and makes flesh their arm,

and whose heart departs from the Becoming One.

For they shall be like a tamarisk in the desert,

and shall not see when good comes;

but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,

a salt land and not inhabited.

Blessed is the one that trusts in the Becoming One,

and whose trust the Becoming One is.

For they shall be as a tree planted by the waters,

that spreads out its roots by the river,

that shall not see when heat comes,

and its foliage will be luxurious;

it shall not be anxious in the year of drought,

Neither will it cease from yielding fruit.

The heart is deceitful above all things,

and it is exceedingly weak—who can know it?

I the Becoming One search the heart,

I try the reins,

even to give every one according to their ways,

according to the fruit of their doings.

Queeries for the text:
What does it mean to be cursed? What curses follow us today?
Is the text pointing back to Judges? Does Hosea point back here? What do our hearts lust after today?
What is a tamarisk? Does it show up elsewhere in the Tanakh?
Is good a person? How does good come?
What is a blessing? Who is blessed? How many are there?
What is luxurious foilage? How could we reinterpret this metaphor for today?
How is the heart weak and deceitful?

-----

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 6:17-26
¹⁷Jesus came down with the twelve

and stood on a level place,

with a great crowd of his disciples

and a great multitude of people

from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon.

¹⁸They had come to hear Jesus

and to be healed of their diseases;

and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.

¹⁹And all in the crowd were trying to touch Jesus,

for power came out from him and healed all of them.

²⁰Then Jesus looked up at his disciples and said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,

for yours is the dominion of God.

²¹“Blessed are you who are hungry now,

for you will be filled.

“Blessed are you who weep now,

for you will laugh.

²²“Blessed are you when people hate you,

and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you

on account of the Human One.

²³Rejoice in that day and leap for joy,

for surely your reward is great in heaven;

for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

²⁴“But woe to you who are rich,

for you have received your consolation.

²⁵“Woe to you who are full now,

for you will be hungry.

“Woe to you who are laughing now,

for you will mourn and weep.

²⁶“Woe to you when all speak well of you,

for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets."

Queeries for the text:
Where did Jesus come down from?
How does power come out from a person to heal?
Who are poor?  Hungry?
Who weeps?
Who is hated, excluded, reviled, and defamed?
What do our ancestors do to the prophets?
Who are rich?  Full?  Laughing?
How do we speak well?

What are your queeries?

Queerying 4th after Epiphany year C

Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

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 Faer hand and touched my mouth, and the Becoming One said to me:

Here 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:
Who and what else is consecrated?
Who is the Becoming GOD? How is Fae different from the Becoming One? What might this difference signify?
Who are the nations for Jeremiah? Who are they today?
What would a prophet to the nations say today?
Who else struggles with words?
Where in the Tanakh is the first boy? What does Islam teach about him? What is the significance of these first two boys? What does it say about God?
Where else do we see God's finger?
What is the significance of the triad of pairs at the end?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 4:21-30
²¹Then Jesus began to say to all in the synagogue of Nazareth,

“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

²²All spoke well of Jesus

and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
They said,

    “Is not this Joseph’s son?”

²³Jesus said to them,

“Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb,

‘Doctor, cure yourself!’

And you will say,

‘Do here also in your hometown

the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’”

²⁴And Jesus said,

“Truly I tell you,

no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.

²⁵But the truth is,

there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah,

when the heaven was shut up three years and six months,

and there was a severe famine over all the land;

²⁶yet Elijah was sent to none of them

except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.

²⁷There were also many lepers in Israel

in the time of the prophet Elisha,

and none of them was cleansed

except Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸When they heard this,

all in the synagogue were filled with rage.

²⁹They got up,

drove Jesus out of the town,

and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built,

so that they might hurl him off the cliff.

³⁰But Jesus passed through the midst of them

and went on his way.

Queeries for the text:
What happened before this?
Why is Jesus offended at their amazement?
What does Joseph have to do with Jesus' proclamation?
Where is Zaraphath?  What happened to the widow?
How was Namaan cleansed?
Why were they filled with rage?
Was it a hill or a cliff?
What does the brow of a hill look like?
How did Jesus pass through the midst of them?
When does Jesus pass through the midst of us to go on his way?

What are your queeries?

We Are Church Confessing

On Sunday, an ecumenical group called We Are Church Confessing gathered at Cowles Commons in Des Moines to confess together the ways that we as the church, particularly the predominantly white churches, have not responded adequately to the injustices being perpetrated in the united states.  You can find the video of our gathering here.  This gathering occurs the first Sunday of the month at 1pm.
 

The Lutherans hosted this event and I wrote the liturgy with collaboration from Rev. Minna Bothwell and periodic contributor River Needham.  Below is the liturgy as it was written, designed for about a 20 minute service.  Each person received a large paper that was a bulletin on one side and had space to write a confession and a prayer on the other, so that is referenced during the liturgy.  Communal responses are in bold.

If you are interested in using or adapting this liturgy, please comment on the blog or contact me directly.

Gathering

If you haven’t done so already, please write out a confession specific to you around power or privilege and a prayer specific to you for the world as it could be.  Liturgy is the work of the people and the work in this liturgy is complicated, heavy, and important.  As we work through this liturgy, you may find yourself to be among those who are oppressed by what we are confessing.  When that is the case, use your discretion to participate or refrain as appropriate.  

For those who hold identities of privilege and power, especially as relates to different points of confession, even if you don’t think you have specifically done what we are confessing, I invite you to recall not only active ways you may have oppressed others, but also the ways that you may not be aware of, by which you have contributed to others’ oppression and in that sense, please join in on the responses to confess our sins as a whole church.

Confession

People of faith, we gather on land originally inhabited by the Báxoj'e, or Ioway Nation, and the Sauk and Meskwaki peoples. People who were systematically targeted by white settler colonialism for extermination.  In the 1800s, through treaties, some of which were fraudulent and all of which were made under duress, the united states government took all of the Ioway and Sauk and Meskwaki lands and forced the tribes onto reservations.

Colonizers selected Two Spirit people, who were oftentimes held in places of high esteem within their tribes, as the first targets for extermination.  White settler colonialism still celebrates “Columbus Day” and calls Turtle Island the “new world.”   The genocide perpetrated against Native Peoples and their forced removal to reservations, justified by the Church’s Doctrine of Discovery, was a model for Hitler in the Holocaust.  We continue to destroy this land out of greed for oil, money, and power.  We join in Indigenous struggles for sovereignty only after we recognize how eminent domain abuse harms us.  

We pretend to celebrate Native peoples through hypersexualized costumes of Pocahontas who was kidnapped, raped, and died in another land at the age of 21.  We do not teach the history of the lands we live and worship on.  We do not acknowledge, let alone honor, respect, or learn from, the original inhabitants of this land we now occupy, pollute, and exploit.

These are sins of the Church. 

So, dear people,

do you confess? 

We confess that we have supported settler colonialism and native erasure by what we have done and by what we have failed to do. We are sorry for the harm this has caused and we repent.

People of faith, many of us trace our faith traditions back to the Protestant Reformation and, especially for Lutherans, Martin Luther.  Antisemitism and anti-Judaism are a part of our histories we would prefer to deny or excuse.  Martin Luther was antisemitic.  Churches have participated in and actively supported pogroms and the Holocaust, and the Inquisition and Crusades before that.  In Christianity’s push for power, we allied ourselves with Empires and remain tethered to our places of power. 

When we read Jesus into the Hebrew Bible, our supersessionism harms and undermines the faith of Jewish people.  When we set Jesus against faithful Jewish people, maligning Pharisees and Jewish leaders, we hide and yet reinforce our anti-Judaism.  When we refuse to honor the holy days of other faiths, allowing Christian holidays to be the standard for elected officials, school systems, and government schedules, our Christian supremacy harms and marginalizes people of every other faith and no faith—all in exchange for power and privilege.

The attack on the Tree of Life congregation in Pittsburgh and the vandalism that has taken place at synagogues before and since are our responsibility to atone for as the Church. 

These are sins of the Church. 

So, dear people,

do you confess? 

We confess that we have supported antisemitism, anti-Judaism and Christian supremacy by what we have done and by what we have failed to do. We are sorry for the harm this has caused and we repent.

People of faith, the same doors to church buildings that welcomed and were built by our immigrant ancestors now close and lock themselves off from immigrants whose skin is darker, whose language is different, who haven’t met the recent, unrealistic standards for official u.s. documentation.  

We eat and drink from what immigrants grow and harvest, yet we will not share a Table together.  We take mission trips to places we say we love and then demonize people from those same countries when they come here seeking a better life, fleeing violence, often a result of military dictatorships propped up by our own government.  

We lift up Jesus and the Holy Family as refugees and immigrants in Egypt, pretending our churches have never turned away immigrants or looked down on those from different cultures than our own.  We refuse to acknowledge our connections to people of other cultures and faiths, and by our silence we allow the demonization and encourage harmful stereotypes of Muslims from this country and around the world as well as immigrants from throughout the colonized parts of this world.

These are sins of the Church. 

So, dear people,

do you confess? 

We confess that we have supported xenophobia and Islamophobia by what we have done and by what we have failed to do. We are sorry for the harm this has caused and we repent.

People of faith, the Church legitimized slavery, institutionalizing racism in this country.  The church abused sacred scriptures to keep people of color, particularly people of African descent, as well as Native peoples oppressed and enslaved.  The church has worshiped whiteness and power instead of the God of the Oppressed.  We have whispered #BlackLivesMatter, if we’ve said anything at all.   

We have not stopped racist policing.  We remain oblivious to the ways whiteness makes life easier.  We do not put forth the effort to pronounce Laquan or Juliana that we do Dvořák.  We assume people of color are not from here.  We allow classism and racism to divide all who need economic justice from each other.  We reproduce images of God and Jesus as white and lift up whiteness as purity and cleanliness while calling darkness dirty and scary.  We perpetuate racism.

These are sins of the Church. 

So, dear people,

do you confess? 

We confess that we have supported racism and white supremacy by what we have done and by what we have failed to do. We are sorry for the harm this has caused and we repent.

People of faith, Christianity has created and enforced transphobia and cisheteronormativity as standard and “faithful.”  The church has and continues to persecute queer people throughout the world, both actively with violence and through more subtle means.  Churches support conversion therapy, bathroom bills, and book burnings.

Our worship spaces and liturgies are not accessible.  Churches refuse to hire or call queer and trans people, especially women, femmes, and nonbinary folks, into leadership positions; support discriminatory organizations like Focus on the Family and Thrivent Financial; segregate bathrooms and groups according to the false gender binary; and make unclear statements of “all are welcome.”  These contribute to the erasure, oppression, and hatred queer people experience in the church.  

These are sins of the Church. 

So, dear people,

do you confess? 

We confess that we have supported transphobia and transmisogyny and cisgenderism by what we have done and by what we have failed to do. We are sorry for the harm this has caused and we repent.

As you gathered you took time to write your own individual confessions and prayers on the sheets of paper that you have. At this time I invite you to state your confession aloud and after each confession we will join together to respond with “we confess”.

Forgiveness

Dear people of God, we are all caught up in systems of oppression and violence. Our sins are both corporate and individual. Intentional and unintentional.  Yet God comes into the midst of it all with this good news: through the power of Christ, death, sin, violence, and oppression no longer have power over us. By the power of the Spirit, I now declare to you, the entire forgiveness of all your sins. 
Amen.

Song and Offering “There is More Love Somewhere” 

[Our offering went to Iowa's American Friends Service Committee, specifically to support DACA recipients as well as family reunification for families separated at the border] 

Renunciations

Drawing on the Lutheran baptismal tradition, we will now enter into a time of renunciation—naming that which opposes the God whom 1 John 4 calls Love and renouncing it, turning away from it and towards Love.  When asked, please respond: I renounce them. 

Evil manifests itself in many ways: implicit bias, harmful stereotypes, ignorant questions, comments, and expectations, fear and perceived scarcity, and active prejudice and violence against others.

Do you renounce these manifestations of evil and all the forces that defy the God who is Love?

I renounce them.

Evil is insidious and works within systems and institutions to oppress and marginalize.  Evil manifests itself in the ongoing legacy of colonialism, slavery, and queerphobia perpetrated by this country and the church.  These evils, along with xenophobia and Islamophobia have been encouraged through the current administration and strengthened in legislation, policies, and plans put forward in governments and churches throughout this country and world.

Do you renounce the powers of this world that rebel against the God who is Love?

I renounce them.

We understand sin as separation—from the Divine, from each other, and from Creation.  Sin keeps us focused inward on ourselves, ignoring or fearing any who we deem as “Other,” putting our wants before others’ needs, and isolating ourselves.

Do you renounce the ways of sin that draw you from the God who is Love?

I renounce them.

Prayers for Help

Creator God, your sacred nature is in all things.  Help us to honor, respect, and support the Native peoples of this land and protect the earth and all its inhabitants.

Help us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

Holy One, you are worthy of praise.  Help us to affirm, celebrate, and support people of all faiths, especially Jewish people and Muslims, challenging antisemitism and Islamophobia whenever we encounter it.

Help us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

Sojourning God, you come to us as the stranger and foreigner.  Help us to create sanctuary for immigrants, provide for those in need, and challenge the fears of ourselves and others.

Help us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

God of the Oppressed, you join with the oppressed in life and death.  Help us to recognize your image in Black and Brown bodies, confront racism, and destroy white supremacy.

Help us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

Transgressing God, you break binaries between human and Divine, sinner and saint.  Help us to celebrate queer and gender expansive understandings of scripture, protect the rights and existence of trans and gender expansive people, and challenge gender segregation in every space.

Help us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

Liberating God, we need you.  We need your help to live into your liberating power, into the vision you cast of a world free from oppression.  We now lift up our prayers, those we have written down and those on our hearts. At this time I invite you to state your prayers aloud, ending each prayer with “Help us, O God,” to which we will join together to respond with “Your mercy is great.”

[Leader will end the prayer time with the following] 
God of hope, may all you know is needed be done, we pray in your holy and precious name.  Amen.

Benediction (Blown byGod toward Newness by Walter Brueggemann)

The news is that God’s wind is blowing.

It may be a breeze that

cools and comforts.

It may be a gust that

summons you to notice.

It may be a storm that blows you where you have

never been before.

Whatever the wind is in your life,

pay attention to it…

…Go in peace.  Live into God’s liberation.

Thanks be to God.