Queerying Christmas Eve

River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Isaiah 9:2-7

The people that walked in darkness have seen a brilliant light. On those who dwelt in a land of gloom, light has dawned. You have magnified that nation, and have given it great joy. They have rejoiced before you as they rejoice at reaping time, as they exult when dividing spoil.

For the yoke that they bore and the stick on their back—the rod of their taskmaster—you have broken as on the day of Midian. Truly, all the boots put on to stamp with and all the garments donned in infamy have been fed to the flames, devoured by fire. For a child has been born to us, a youth has been given us. Authority has settled on her shoulders. She has been named “The Mighty God is planning grace; The Eternal Mother, a peaceable ruler” in token of abundant authority and of peace without limit, upon David’s throne and kingdom, that it may be firmly established in justice and in equity now and evermore. The zeal of the Becoming God of angel armies shall bring this to pass.

Queeries for the text:
What is brilliant light?
How often does light dawn?
What event brings great joy?
What happens at reaping time?
What are days that exist in infamy? Which days are missing?
Which grace is God planning?
Who is the becoming God?

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For more queeries, especially Gospel queeries, check out our queeries from last year also on these same passages.

Queerying Easter 3C

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Acts and Gospel readings.

Acts 9:1-6 [7-20]
Meanwhile Saul,

still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of Jesus,

went to the high priest
²and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus,

so that if Saul found any who belonged to the Way, of any gender,

he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

³Now as Saul was going along and approaching Damascus,

suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

⁴He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him,

“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

⁵Saul asked,

“Who are you, Sovereign?”

The reply came,

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

⁶But get up and enter the city,
and you will be told what you are to do.”

[⁷The ones who were traveling with Saul stood speechless

because they heard the voice but saw no one.

⁸Saul got up from the ground,

and though his eyes were open,

he could see nothing;

so they led Saul by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

⁹For three days Saul was without sight,

and neither ate nor drank.

¹⁰Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias.

The Sovereign said to him in a vision,

“Ananias.”

Ananias answered,

“Here I am, Sovereign.”

¹¹The Sovereign said to Ananias,

“Get up and go to the street called Straight,

and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.

At this moment he is praying,

¹²and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in
and lay his hands on Saul so that he might regain his sight.”

¹³But Ananias answered,

“Sovereign, I have heard from many about this man,

how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem;

¹⁴and here he has authority from the chief priests

to bind all who invoke your name.”

¹⁵But the Sovereign said to Ananias,

“Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen

to bring my name before Gentiles and rulers
and before the people of Israel;

¹⁶I myself will show Saul how much he must suffer

for the sake of my name.”

¹⁷So Ananias went and entered the house.

He laid his hands on Saul and said,

“Brother Saul,

the Sovereign Jesus,

who appeared to you on your way here,

has sent me so that you may regain your sight

and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

¹⁸And immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes,

and his sight was restored.

Then he got up and was baptized,

¹⁹and after taking some food,

Saul regained his strength.

For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus,

²⁰and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying,

“Jesus is the One born of God.”]

Queeries for the text:
Who breathes threats and murder against faithful people today?
How do we persecute Jesus today?
How much evil is done while thinking it is for God?
How is blindness a gift for Saul?
Why would anyone want a street (or anything) called Straight?
How much must Saul suffer for the sake of the Holy Name?
When do we begin to call him Paul?
When have we encountered the Divine?  Do we recognize it?  Do we name it as such?

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Gospel: John 21:1-19
After these things

Jesus showed themself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias;

and they showed themself in this way.

²Gathered there together were Simon Peter,

Thomas called the Twin,
Nathanael of Cana in Galilee,
the sons of Zebedee,
and two others of the disciples.

³Simon Peter said to them,

“I am going fishing.”

They said to him,

“We will go with you.”

They went out and got into the boat,

but that night they caught nothing.

⁴Just after daybreak,

Jesus stood on the beach;

but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

⁵Jesus said to them,

“Children, you have no fish, have you?”

They answered Jesus,

“No.”

⁶Jesus said to them,

“Cast the net to the right side of the boat,

and you will find some.”

So they cast it,

and now they were not able to haul it in

because there were so many fish.

⁷That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter,

“It is the Sovereign!”

When Simon Peter heard that it was Jesus,

he put on some clothes, for he was naked,

and jumped into the sea.

⁸But the other disciples came in the boat,

dragging the net full of fish,

for they were not far from the land,

only about a hundred yards off.

⁹When they had gone ashore,

they saw a charcoal fire there,

with fish on it, and bread.

¹⁰Jesus said to them,

“Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.”

¹¹So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore,

full of large fish,

a hundred fifty-three of them;

and though there were so many,

the net was not torn.

¹²Jesus said to them,

“Come and have breakfast.”

Now none of the disciples dared to ask Jesus,

“Who are you?”

because they knew it was the Sovereign.

¹³Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them,

and did the same with the fish.

¹⁴This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples

after being raised from the dead.

¹⁵When they had finished breakfast,

Jesus said to Simon Peter,

“Simon son of John,

do you love me more than these?”

Simon Peter said to Jesus,

“Yes, Sovereign;

you know that I love you.”

Jesus said to him,

“Feed my lambs.”

¹⁶A second time Jesus said to him,

“Simon son of John,

do you love me?”

Simon Peter said to Jesus,

“Yes, Sovereign;

you know that I love you.”

Jesus said to him,

“Tend my sheep.”

¹⁷Jesus said to Simon Peter the third time,

“Simon son of John,

do you love me?”

Peter felt hurt because Jesus said to him the third time, “Do you love me?”

And Peter said to Jesus,

“Sovereign, you know everything;

you know that I love you.”

Jesus said to him,

“Feed my sheep.

¹⁸Very truly, I tell you,

when you were younger,

you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished.

But when you grow old,

you will stretch out your hands,
and someone else will fasten a belt around you
and take you where you do not wish to go.”

¹⁹(Jesus said this to indicate

the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.)

After this Jesus said to him,

“Follow me.”

Queeries for the text:
How many times will Jesus show themself to the disciples?
Why did Simon Peter want to go fishing?
Do the fishing disciples always follow instructions and advice from strangers they don't recognize?
How does the Beloved Disciple know it's Jesus?
Why is Simon Peter in such a rush to get to Jesus?
Why does the disciple whom Jesus loves wait for the boat to get to short to see Jesus?
Why does Jesus want more fish if some was already on the fire?
Why 153?
How many times must Jesus appear for the disciples to get it?
Why does Jesus ask Simon Peter three times?

What are your queeries?

Lent 2 year C

Periodic queerier, River Needham, and guest queerier, Jessica Davis, queery the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Genesis 15:1-12, [13-16], 17-18

Some time later, the word of the Becoming One came to Abram in a vision.
She said, “Fear not, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.”
Then Abram said, “O Becoming God, what can You give me,

seeing that I shall die childless,

and the one in charge of my household is Dammesek Eliezer!”

Abram continued, “Since You have granted me no offspring,

my steward will be my heir.”

The word of the Becoming One came to him in reply,

“That one shall not be your heir;

none but your very own issue shall be your heir.”

She took him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars,

if you are able to count them.”

Then She added, “So shall your offspring be.”
And because he put his trust in the Becoming One, She reckoned it to his merit.
Then She said to him, “I am the Becoming One who brought you out

from Ur of the Chaldeans to assign this land to you as a possession.”

And he said, “O Becoming God, how shall I know that I am to possess it?”
She answered, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram,

a turtledove, and a young bird.”

He brought Her all these and cut them in two, placing each half opposite the other;

but he did not cut up the bird.

Birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. As the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great dark dread descended upon him.
[Then She said to Abram, “Know well that your offspring

shall be strangers  in a land not theirs, and

they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years;

but I will execute judgment on the nation

they shall serve, and in the end they shall go free with great wealth.

As for you, You shall go to your ancestors in peace; You shall be buried

at a ripe old age.

And they shall return here in the fourth generation,

for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”]

When the sun set and it was very dark, there appeared a smoking oven,

and a flaming torch which passed between those pieces.

On that day the Becoming One made a covenant with Abram, saying,

“To your offspring I assign this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:..."

Queeries for the text:
Are the Becoming One and the Becoming God the same?
Who else is a steward? How do stewards exist today? What might justice look like for stewards?
What does it mean to count the stars?
What allows Abram to be so forward with demanding things of G-d?
How did Abram carry all the animals? Did he have a pickup truck?
Why was so much of the Becoming One's Covenant omitted from the pericope?
What does it mean for God to give humans land to possess? What does it mean to possess land?
Where did the smoking oven and flaming torch come from? What powers them?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 13:31-35
³¹At that very hour

some Pharisees came and said to Jesus,

“Get away from here,

for Herod wants to kill you.”

³²Jesus said to them,

“Go and tell that fox for me,

‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow,

and on the third day I finish my work.

³³Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way,

because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’

³⁴“Jerusalem, Jerusalem,

the city that kills the prophets

and stones those who are sent to it!

How often have I desired to gather your children together

as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,

and you were not willing!

³⁵See, your house is left to you.

And I tell you,

you will not see me until the time comes when you say,

‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Becoming One.’”

Queeries for the text:
At which hour?  Where was Herod?
Why were Pharisees warning Jesus?
Why would Jesus call Herod a fox?
Have prophets ever been killed outside Jerusalem?
Can Jesus the Hen actually protect the brood from a fox?
Who else is like a mother hen?
When will people say "Blessed is the one..."?  Why?
Why does Jesus leave the house to them?

What are your queeries?