Queerying Palm/Passion C

 Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 19:28-40
²⁸After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. ²⁹When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of the disciples, ³⁰saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Becoming One needs it.’”

³²So those who were sent departed and found it as Jesus had told them. ³³As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

³⁴They said, “The Becoming One needs it.” ³⁵Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.

³⁶As Jesus rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. ³⁷As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the chosen family began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, ³⁸saying, “Blessed is the ruler who comes in the name of the Becoming One! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”

³⁹Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.”

⁴⁰Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

Queeries for the text:
After Jesus had said what?
Why a colt that has never been ridden?
Where are the palms?
Who benefits from silence? 

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Gospel: Luke 21:37-22:16
³⁷Every day Jesus was teaching in the temple, and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives, as it was called. ³⁸And all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the temple.

22Now the festival of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was near. ²The religious authorities were looking for a way to put Jesus to death, for they were afraid of the people. ³Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve; ⁴he went away and conferred with the religious authorites and officers of the temple police about how he might betray Jesus to them. ⁵They were greatly pleased and agreed to give him money. ⁶So he consented and began to look for an opportunity to betray Jesus to them when no crowd was present.

⁷Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. ⁸So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover meal for us that we may eat it.”

⁹They asked Jesus, “Where do you want us to make preparations for it?”

¹⁰“Listen,” Jesus said to them, “when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow them into the house they enter ¹¹and say to the owner of the house, ‘The teacher asks you, “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ ¹²The owner will show you a large room upstairs, already furnished. Make preparations for us there.”

¹³So they went and found everything as Jesus had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal. ¹⁴When the hour came, Jesus took his place at the table, and the chosen family with him. ¹⁵He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; ¹⁶for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the dominion of God.”

Queeries for the text:
What else happens in the temple?
What is Passover? What isn't it?
Who colludes with police? How is Satan at work?
How is antisemitism at play?
What kind of man carries water?
Who prepares room for unknown strangers?
How is it fulfilled? How is it not?

What are your queeries?


  
 

Queerying Easter 6A

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Acts reading.

Acts 17:22-31
²²Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. ²³For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, who is Leader of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, ²⁵nor are They served by human hands, as though They needed anything, since God Themself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. ²⁶From one ancestor They made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and God allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, ²⁷so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for Them and find Them—though indeed God is not far from each one of us. ²⁸For ‘In God we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are Their offspring.’ ²⁹Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. ³⁰While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now They command all people everywhere to repent, ³¹because God has fixed a day on which They will have the world judged in righteousness by a human whom They have appointed, and of this God has given assurance to all by raising Them from the dead.”

Queeries for the text:
What's the Areopagus?
What is it like to be extremely religious?
Does God need humanity?  Adoration?  Worship?
Which poets said we are God's offspring?
How are we God's offspring?
What do the art and imagination of mortals produce?
Where is judgment lacking?  Where is it needed?
How do people hold space for the unknown?

What are your queeries?