Queerying Easter 2C

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Acts reading.

Gospel: Acts 5:27-32
²⁷When the captain and police had brought the Sent Ones, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, ²⁸saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this person’s blood on us.”

²⁹But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. ³⁰The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. ³¹God exalted Them at Xyr right hand as Lover and Savior that They might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. ³²And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Xem.”

Queeries for the text:
Why were the captain and police bringing the Sent Ones?
How do Christians bring Jesus' blood on Jewish people?
What is of God?
What happens when someone is hung on a tree?
Who actually hung Jesus on a tree?
How are religious and community leaders complicit in oppression?
Who needs repentance and forgiveness?
What is the Holy Spirit up to?

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J. Pace Warfield- May queeries the reading from Revelation.

Revelation 1:4-8
⁴John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from Them who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before Their throne, ⁵and from Jesus the Anointed, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the Sovereign of the monarchs and leaders of the earth. To Them who loves us and freed us from our harm and harm to others by Their blood, ⁶and made us to be a kin-dom, priests serving Their God/ess and Parent, to Them be glory and authority forever and ever. Amen.

⁷Look! They are coming with the clouds; every eye will see Them, even those who pierced Them; and on Their account all the peoples of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen. ⁸"I am the A (the Alpha, the First) and the Z (the Omega, the last)," says the God/ess, who is and who was and who is to come, the Supreme.

Queeries for the text:
Who is this message addressed to?
What does it mean to be firstborn of the dead?
What or who is Jesus witness to?
What does it mean to be a member of Jesus' kin-dom and a priest serving God/ess?
Why will the peoples of the earth wail?

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Find previous queeries for the John text.

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What are your queeries?

Queerying Advent 1A

River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Isaiah 2:1-5

The word that Isaiah son of Amoz prophesied concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

In the days to come, the Mount of the Becoming One's House shall stand firm above the mountains and tower above the hills;
All the nations will gaze on it with joy. And the many peoples shall go and say:

"Come, let us go up to the Mount of the Becoming One, to the House of the God of Jacob; that She may instruct us in Her ways, and that we may walk in Her paths."

For instruction shall come from Zion, the word of the Becoming One from Jerusalem.
Thus She will judge among the nations and arbitrate for the many peoples, they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not take up sword against nation; they shall never again know war.

O House of Jacob! Come, let us walk by the light of the Becoming One.

Queeries for the text:
Where does this word start?
What images bring you joy?
How many words are present in this text?
Can land talk or teach?
What other people judge among the nations?
Where are tools of violence becoming tools of growth?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.
 
Gospel: Matthew 24:36-44

Jesus said:
³⁶“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Child, but only the Parent. ³⁷For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Human One. ³⁸For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, ³⁹and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Human One.

⁴⁰Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. ⁴¹Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. ⁴²Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Ruler is coming. ⁴³But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, they would have stayed awake and would not have let their house be broken into. ⁴⁴Therefore you also must be ready, for the Human One is coming at an unexpected hour." 

Queeries for the text:
Who is no one?
What kind of day and hour?
What arrives unexpectedly?
How do we know who is taken and who is left?
What thieves are coming today?
Who is eating and drinking today?
What flood is coming?

What are your queeries?

Queerying Holy Innocents

Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeried the reading from the Tanakh.

Tanakh: Jeremiah 31:15-17
Thus said the Becoming One: A cry is heard in Ramah—wailing, bitter weeping—Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, who are gone.
Thus said the Becoming One: restrain your voice from weeping, your eyes from shedding tears;
for there is a reward for your labor—declares the Becoming One:
They shall return from the enemy's land. And there is hope for your future—declares the The Becoming One: your children shall return to their country.

Queeries for the text:
Who weeps today?
Who weeps today?
Who weeps today?
Who weeps today?
Where is Ramah? What is its importance?
Where are the children gone to?
How can God offer a reward for such a horrible deed?
Where are we waiting for people to return to their country?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeried the reading from the Gospel.

Gospel: Matthew 2:13-18
¹³Now after the magi had left,

an angel of God appeared to Joseph in a dream

and said,

“Get up,

take the child and their mother,

and flee to Egypt,

and remain there until I tell you;

for Herod is about to search for the child,

to destroy them.”

¹⁴Then Joseph got up,

took the child and their mother by night,

and went to Egypt,

¹⁵and remained there until the death of Herod.

This was to fulfill what had been spoken by God

through the prophet,

“Out of Egypt I have called my child.”

¹⁶When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi,

he was infuriated,

and he sent

and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem

who were two years old or under,

according to the time that he had learned from the magi.

¹⁷Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

¹⁸“A voice was heard in Ramah,

wailing and loud lamentation,

Rachel weeping for her children;

she refused to be consoled,

because they are no more.”

Queeries for the text:
What are magi?
How are our dreams guiding us today?
Who provided refuge for those who were fleeing?
What happens when powerful people are tricked?
Who are slaughtered today?
Who are slaughtered today?
Who are slaughtered today?
Who are slaughtered today?
How are we carrying out Herod's orders?
How are we we weeping without consolation?

What are your queeries?

Queerying Advent 1 Year C - Luke

Luke 21:25-36
²⁵“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars,

and on the earth distress among nations

confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.

²⁶People will faint

from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world,

for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

²⁷Then they will see ‘the Human One coming in a cloud’

with power and great glory.

²⁸Now when these things begin to take place,

stand up and raise your heads,

because your redemption is drawing near.”

²⁹Then Jesus told them a parable:

“Look at the fig tree and all the trees;

³⁰as soon as they sprout leaves

you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near.

³¹So also, when you see these things taking place,

you know that the reign of God is near.

³²Truly I tell you,

this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place.

³³Heaven and earth will pass away,

but my words will not pass away.

³⁴“Be on guard

so that your hearts are not weighed down

with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life,

and that day catch you unexpectedly,

³⁵like a trap.

For it will come upon all who live

on the face of the whole earth.

³⁶Be alert at all times,

praying that you may have the strength

to escape all these things that will take place,

and to stand before the Human One.”

Queeries for the text:
What sort of signs will be in the sun and the moon and the stars?
Why are end times thought to be bad when the imagery is so positive?
What is distressing the nations today?
What is confusing us today?
What if we can't stand up or raise our heads?  How is ableism affecting this text?
What sort of time is Jesus talking about if the generation that "will not pass away" has passed away?
What sort of strength will we need?  What can we PrEPare for?
Where is Hope?

What are your queeries?



If you want to check out the sermon that came in part from this queery, you can find it here!

reformation - john

John 8:31-36
³¹Then Jesus said to the Judeans who had believed in him,

“If you continue in my word,

you are truly my disciples;

³²and you will know the truth,

and the truth will make you free.”

³³They answered Jesus,

“We are descendants of Abraham

and have never been slaves to anyone.

What do you mean by saying,

‘You will be made free’?”

³⁴Jesus answered them,

“Very truly, I tell you,

everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

³⁵The slave does not have a permanent place in the household;

the son has a place there forever.

³⁶So if the Son makes you free,

you will be free indeed. 

Queeries for the text:
Which word from the Word are we supposed to continue in?
When does truth make you free?
When does truth make you captive?
How do we re-write our own histories?
How has John's gospel been used for antisemitic and anti-Judaic purposes?
What sins am I a slave to?
Do we want a permanent place in a household that continues slavery?

What are your queeries?

21st after pentecost year b - amos

This text was queeried by periodic queerier River Needham with collaboration from Rev. Emily E. Ewing.

Verses bracketed in Italics are omitted from the assigned reading.

Amos 5:6-7 [8-9] 10-15
Seek the Becoming One, and you will live, else She will rush like fire upon the House of Joseph and consume Bethel with none to quench it. Ah, you who turn justice into wormwood and hurl righteousness to the ground! [Who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns deep darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the earth— Her name is the Becoming One! It is She who hurls destruction upon strongholds, so that ruin comes upon fortresses!] They hate the arbiter in the gate, and detest her whose plea is just. Assuredly, because you impose a tax on the poor and exact from them a levy of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted delightful vineyards, but shall not drink their wine. For I have noted how many are your crimes, and how countless your sins—you enemies of the righteous, you takers of bribes, you who subvert in the gate the cause of the needy! Assuredly, at such a time the prudent one keeps silent, for it is an evil time. Seek good and not evil, that you may live, and that the Becoming One, the God of Angel Armies, may truly be with you, as you think. Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; perhaps the Becoming One, the God of Angel Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Queeries for the text:
How are darkness and light dependent on each other?
How does justice become wormwood?
What does prudence mean? Should we be prudent?
What does God of the Angel Armies mean? What might that mean for peace in our time?
What would Amos have called the constellations? What might this mean for followers of the stars?  Why were two verses dropped in the middle of this text?
What are these financial practices called today?
What is the gate? What does justice at the gate look like? How are the needy cared for?

What are your queeries?