Queerying Holy Trinity C

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: John 16:12-15
¹²“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³When the Spirit of truth comes, She will guide you into all the truth; for She will not speak on Her own, but will speak whatever She hears, and She will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴She will glorify me, because She will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵All that the Caregiver has is mine. For this reason I said that She will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Queeries for the text:
What does Jesus still have to say?
What can't we bear?
What does the Spirit of truth have to say?
What is Jesus'?
What does the Spirit declare?
How do you imagine the Trinity?

What are your queeries?

Queerying Holy Trinity B

River Needham, MA ThM queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Isaiah 6:1-8

In the year that King Uzziah died, I beheld my Queen seated on a high and lofty throne; and the skirts of Femmes robe filled the Temple. Seraphs provided Femme with service. Each of them had six wings: with two they covered her face, with two he covered their genitals, and with two she would fly. 

 

One would call to the other, “Holy, holy, holy! The Queen of Angel Armies! Femmes presence fills all the earth!” The doorposts would shake at the sound of the one who called, and the house kept filling with smoke. 

I cried, “Woe is me; I am lost! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my own eyes have beheld the Queen, God of Angel Armies.” 

Then one of the seraphs flew over to me with a live coal, which he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. They touched it to my lips and declared, “Now that this has touched your lips, Your guilt shall depart and your sin be purged away.” 

Then I heard the voice of my Queen saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” 

I said, “Here am I; send me.”

Queeries for the text:
Who is my Queen?
What does it mean to be high and lofty?

Who provides service?

What's filling the house with smoke?

How are our lips unclean?

What about our lips is unclean?

What sins must be purged?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

 

 

Gospel: John 3:1-17

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jewish people. ²He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 

 

³Jesus answered Nicodemus, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the reign of God without being born from above.” 

 

⁴Nicodemus said to Jesus, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the parent’s womb and be born?” 

 

⁵Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the reign of God without being born of water and breath. ⁶What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the breath is breath. ⁷Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ ⁸The breath breathes where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the breath.” 

 

⁹Nicodemus said to Jesus, “How can these things be?” 

 

¹⁰Jesus answered Nicodemus, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 

 

¹¹“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. ¹²If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Human One. ¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Human One be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in that one may have eternal life. 

 

¹⁶“For God so loved the world that Femme gave Femmes only Child, so that everyone who believes in Them may not perish but may have everlasting life. 

 

¹⁷“Indeed, God did not send the Child into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Them.”

 

Queeries for the text:

Have we read this before?

Which signs does Jesus do?

What kind of biblical interpretation did Nicodemus do?

What is born of water?

What is breath, wind, and spirit?

Whose testimony is refused?

How might the world be saved?

What's the rest of the story? 

Why does today matter?

 

What are your queeries?

 

 

 

 

 

Queerying Holy Trinity C as Protest

The following Call to Worship and Opening Prayer are inspired by the Romans 5 reading for Holy Trinity in Year C as part of a series on Protest as Worship for Trinity Las Americas United Methodist Church.

Call to Worship
We gather in relationship
The dance of the Trinity dances among us.

We gather for relationship
The dance of the Trinity calls us to a global dance.

We gather through faithfulness, seeking righteousness and grace.
God’s love pours into us through the Holy Spirit.

Through the Trinity God binds us one to the other
Your suffering is my suffering; their suffering is my suffering.

God calls us into relationship with our neighbors--known and unknown.
Relationship invites us into solidarity.

Solidarity gives purpose to suffering so that suffering might produce endurance.
The “suffering with” of solidarity’s endurance produces character, and character hope.

The hope of solidarity is the hope of faithfulness to God in relationship
The hope of the Trinity liberates us for the dance of collective freedom, the dance of the Trinity.

Opening Prayer
Triune God,
Your existence danced the world into existence. Together you Create, Liberate, and Empower. You invite us into the deep relationship that is the heart of who you are. You are the love that grounds us, that becomes us, and that inspires us. Bring us into relationship with you and with our neighbor. Transform our relationships with others to provoke solidarity, inspiring our collective struggle for justice. Root our worship in protest and our protest in worship as we root ourselves in you. We pray in the name of our God who is Justice, Organizer, and Protest.
Amen.

 

Queerying Holy Trinity A

River Needham, M.A. queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Genesis 1:1-2:4a

At the starting point, God formed the cosmos and the earth. The earth did not have shape; and darkness was upon the surface of the deep. God’s breath hovered over the waters on the earth.

God said: Let light be. Then God saw the light and that it was Good. God pulled apart the light and the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness Night. Dusk and Dawn were in there too. The first day came to be. Then, God wanted there to be an atmosphere between the waters. Let the atmosphere divide water from the water. So God made the sky and divided the waters under it from the waters above it. And so it was. God called the atmosphere heaven. There was dusk, then dawn. The second day.

Next, God said: Let the waters below gather together so dry land can appear. And so it was. God called the dry land earth and the gathered waters God called seas. God saw that all this was good. Later, God said: Let the earth produce grass, herbs with seeds, trees that bear fruit. And so it was. The earth produced grass, herbs with seed, trees that bore fruit. God saw that all this was good. There was dusk, and dawn. The third day.

Then, God said “Let the sky have lights to divide the day from the night. Let them move about and distinguish signs, seasons, days, and years. Let them be lights in the atmosphere of the heavens to give light to the earth.” And so it was. So, God made two big lights. The biggest one ruled over the day, and the smaller of the big lights ruled over the night and stars. God set these lights in the atmosphere of the heavens so they could give light to the earth, to rule over the day and the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that all this was good. There was dusk, then dawn. The fourth day.

Next, God said “Let the waters move with collections of living beings. Let birds fly above the earth in the open atmosphere of heaven.” So, God created the great sea creatures, and every creepy-crawly, and the waters were filled with motion; so was the atmosphere of heaven. God saw that all this was good, then God blessed the animals and said “ Be fruitful. Multiply. Fill the waters in the seas and let the birds multiply in the earth. There was dusk, then dawn. The Fifth day.

Then, God said “Let the earth create living creatures after it’s kind. Cattle, insects, and beasts of the earth after its own kind.” And so it was. God made living creatures on the ground after its kind, and every insect after its kind. God saw that all this was good. So, God said let us make a human in our image, just like us. Let them have responsibility over the fish of the sea, birds of the air. Over the cattle and all the things on the earth, even the insects. God created the human in their own image. In the image of God they created them. Male, female, between and beyond God created them. Then, God blessed them and said to them: Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and take responsibility for it, and for the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, and for every living thing down to the smallest insect.

God said: Look – I have given you every herb yielding seed which lives anywhere on the earth, and every tree which produces seeds in its fruit. To you, these things are food. Likewise, to every animal on the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth with a lifeforce, I have given every green herb for food. And so it was.

God saw every thing that they had made, and Look! It was very good. Then there was dusk, and there was dawn. The sixth day.

So, the heaven and the earth were finished. The whole project. Then on the seventh day, God finished their work and they rested on the seventh day from all they had made. God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because in it they rested from all their work which God did in the course of creating.

These were the stories of Heaven and Earth when they were created.

Queeries for the text:

Who is the main character in this story?
Why was this creation narrative chosen?
Where is humanity’s responsibility today?
What queeries do you have for this text?
What does it mean for earth to have a start or a birthday?
Are there multiple starting points? What was present at this starting point?
What does it mean to be beyond or between gender?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20

¹⁶Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷When they saw Jesus, they worshiped Them; and some doubted. ¹⁸And Jesus came and said to the disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Provider and of the Prophet and of the Protest, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Queeries for the text:

Which mountain was it?

What are the characteristics of God?  How are our songs about the Spirit disconnected from scriptural references?

What is divine authority like?
How else can we understand the Trinity?

What does it mean for God to be Provider?

What does it mean for God to be Prophet?

What does it mean for God to be Protest?

How is Jesus' great commission problematic?

How is Jesus' great commission comforting?

What are your queeries?

Queerying Holy Trinity Images

This blog was updated on 15 June 2019, after its original publishing (13 June 2019) with more images.

This week I asked folks on Facebook what images they liked for the Trinity and for the Holy Spirit.  The responses were wonderful, so I'm sharing them all together here for you.  Most of them are pictures, some are words, and some are both.  The pictures have image descriptions if you hover over them (if this is not the case, please let me know so that I can fix that!).

Jess Davis posted this image, which really embraces the relationality and solidarity of the Trinity.

Rev. Stefanie K. L. Fauth describes the Holy Spirit with: "I see the Holy Spirit as a ball of energy. Closest visual is crab nebula. Not that I think the Spirit is distant, it's just the closet visual of how I feel the energy.   "  I love outer space and really resonate with this image.  For me Space is resurrection, so whether it is a suggestion of this Crab Nebula (or Mariah's image below) or the gender of the day as a black hole, if you suggest outer space, there's a very good chance I will love it.

In looking at a variety of images, this one caught Rev. Kim Beckman's eye.  On a personal note, I particularly love the way the triangle combines with the round halo to evoke the trans pride flag.

Rev. Kim Beckman also posted this stating: "Bishop Macholz used this Pentecost picture for his cover photo this week. It moves me. There was a post by someone about Pentecost hymns in the ELW last week that noted you can either go gentle or go forceful with the Spirit and the ELW hymns mostly went gentle. I've been thinking about that a lot and how to break out of the binary, so to speak, and this image captures that for me."  Anything that breaks a binary is good and holy in my book :)

Ashley Herrikane posted this image, a common way of explaining the diversity of the person of the Trinity combined with the unity of the one essence of the Triune God.

Rev. Kim Beckman shared this image.  Along with the obvious name on the front of the uniform, the joy and relationship, even while distinct and made up of a diversity of people on the team, points toward the diversity of God's essence.

This was sent to me in a private message, reflecting on both the Vatican's recent transphobia, and images of the divine from a Christian perspective.  The English translation for the top is "Some stories have two dads" and the bottom right is "I am not your joke." This queering of family is deeply fitting for Christianity at its heart.

This image was added by Matt Bear-Fowler and Elle Dowd.  It is my favorite icon of the Trinity and I would love to own it someday.  It is queer in so many ways and deeply representative of the diversity of God.

Mariah Himes posted this and the one below stating, "I think of the holy spirit as big and beautiful and complex and deep as the universe, as well as gentle and soft and real as animal friends. I like to think she’s multifaceted 🙂"  The holding together of these two images is delightfully queer, resisting a binary or forced decision.

Mariah Himes posted this and the one above it stating, "I think of the holy spirit as big and beautiful and complex and deep as the universe, as well as gentle and soft and real as animal friends. I like to think she’s multifaceted 🙂"  The way these two images are held together breaks the binaries and boxes so often created.

Tucker O'Leary posted this one stating "This is one of my favorites. It’s an icon I have in my office with a whole explanation on the back."  The explanation on the back reads: "Crow Trinity: This Crow Trinity highlights the Great Spirit as the Sacred Eagle whose wings enfold the mystical unity of the elder and the Son.  The Christ wears a warrior shirt of native tanned hide, glass beads, porcupine quills and ermine skins.  The ermine skins indicate that the man wearing this shirt is an old-time warrior who has captured his enemy's gun.  Contemplating the Christ within the symbolism of the warrior shirt we see him victorious in disarming death of its ultimacy. / Traditional iconography gives witness to the human face of the Sacred.  This icon, imaged in the features of America's indigenous peoples, reveals anew that sacred power.  It celebrates the soul of the Native American as the original spiritual presence on this continent, and as a prophetic sign, it celebrates the reconciliation of the spiritual vision of Native and Christian peoples of this land."  This image makes explicit the beautiful connection of the Trinity with all of Creation.

Rev. Tyler D. Rasmussen posted this one, stating "I was thinking of someone who described the Trinity as 'Papa, Kiddo, and Spook' and tried to find an image of that, but instead I found this and it made me laugh.  (which apparently is Nimrod, and Babylonian god, but has occasionally be confused for the Trinity)."  The pink triangle evokes the pink triangles that were used to label gay men and transgender people especially during the Holocaust and which have become a symbol of the LGBTQ community.

Rev. Aaron Decker posted, "From Bernard of Clairvaux, preaching on Song of Songs 1.2a: The first person of the Trinity is the one who kisses, and the second person is the one who is kissed, and the kiss itself is the Holy Spirit. So, like, any good picture of a kiss would do nicely."  So, I chose this picture of a kiss-in in Russia from an article in The Advocate magazine which points towards the intimate connection of the whole Trinity as one Triune God.

Rev. Marie Sager posted Andrei Rublev's Icon of the Trinity with this link, explaining its history.  This image is taken from Abraham and Sarah's hospitality to strangers, later discovered to be angels, in Genesis and reminds us of the way that hospitality is essential to the experience of a Triune God.

Resonating with the above icon, additionally, Rev. John Michael Longworth describes the Trinity, stating "Inspired by Rubelev's Trinity, I imagine a cuddle threesome that always has a spot for a fourth."

Rev. Kim Beckman also posted this stating "I found this one on a site Aleteia thru google and it makes me smile! Trinity, Fridolin Lieber, Early 20th century." The baby angel heads, especially the ones used as footstools, make me laugh, reminding me of the delight with which God experiences Creation.

Mairi McGilvrie posted the above video of a rare Rainbow Blanket Octopus swimming, colors undulating in the water.  Mairi states, "This is my holy spirit image of the day! It just seemed to fit the question you asked! Beautiful peaceful rainbow octopus. That is the holy spirit playing dress up for me today"  To this I add that octopi are also clever, tricky as can be, and nearly impossible to capture or contain, also much like the Holy Spirit.

To end these wonderful images, Wendy Heilman posted this stating "Maybe this is not exactly what u r looking for??? Lol"

Sheri Kutsch-Stanton posted this, naming it as "Native Spirit..."  This image makes explicit the connection of the Spirit to Creation within the frame of Native Spirituality and Tradition.

Rev. Tyler Rasmussen, in looking for the hymn "Come, Join the Dance of Trinity," found the following images:

Batter My Heart, Three-Person'd God by John Donne

Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend

Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

I, like an usurp’d town to another due,

Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,

But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov’d fain,

But am betroth’d unto your enemy;

Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,

Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

 

This image and poem evoke the complexity and diversity of the Trinity within a framework of beauty and intimate relationship.

This image shows both the warm joy of the dance of navigating relationships and the connection of the Trinity as each person appears to blend into each other.

Trinity by Mark Jennings emphasizes the interconnection and overlap of the Triune God.

Dance of the Trinity evokes the movement and motion inherent in the Triune God.

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If you're wondering why none of these are Harry Potter references, it's because I've got an entire podcast devoted to that, so check out our podcast and find out what Pastor Kay and I come up with for Holy Trinity images!

What are your images for the Trinity?  For the Holy Spirit?  For the divine?

Queerying Holy Trinity C

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

John 16:12-15
Jesus said:
¹²"I still have many things to say to you,

but you cannot bear them now.

¹³When the Spirit of truth comes,

she will guide you into all the truth;

for the Spirit will not speak on her own,

but will speak whatever she hears
and will declare to you the things that are to come.

¹⁴The Spirit will glorify me,

because she will take what is mine and declare it to you.

¹⁵All that the Loving Parent has is mine.

For this reason I said that she will take what is mine
and declare it to you."

Queeries for the text:
Does Jesus have FOMO? Or is YOLO driving this speech?  Is YOLO even possible for Jesus?
What can't we bear?
How and why does truth matter?
What does the Spirit hear today?  Does she need to hear in order to comprehend?
Which possessions or people do Jesus and the Loving Parent hold in joint custody?
What things are to come?
What does the Spirit declare?
How will the Spirit glorify Jesus?  Did it already happen?  Will it ever happen?

What are your queeries?

holy trinity sunday year b - romans

Romans 8:12-17

¹²So then, siblings, we are debtors, 
     not to the flesh, 
          to live according to the flesh—
               ¹³for if you live according to the flesh, 
                    you will die; 
     but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, 
          you will live.
               ¹⁴For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
                    ¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, 
                         but you have received a spirit of adoption. 
          When we cry, “Abba! Papa!”
               ¹⁶it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit 
                    that we are children of God, 
                         ¹⁷and if children, then heirs, 
                              heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—
                                   if, in fact, we suffer with Them
                                        so that we may also be glorified with Them.

Queeries for the text:
Are our only options Spirit or flesh?  What do those words even mean?  What are the deeds of the body?
What is a spirit of slavery?
How does fear control us?
What is a spirit of adoption?
Who are children of God?
If we're heirs, what do we inherit?
Is suffering with Christ our inheritance?

What are your queeries?

holy trinity sunday year b - isaiah

Isaiah 6:1-8
In the year that King Uzziah died,
     I saw the Sovereign sitting on a throne,
          high and lofty;
          and the hem of Their robe filled the temple.
     ²Seraphs were in attendance above God;
          each had six wings:
               with two they covered their faces,
               and with two they covered their feet,
               and with two they flew.
          ³And one called to another and said:
               “Holy, holy, holy is the God of hosts;
                    the whole earth is full of God's glory.”
     ⁴The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called,
          and the house filled with smoke.

⁵And I said:
     “Woe is me!
          I am lost,
               for I am a man of unclean lips,
               and I live among a people of unclean lips;
                    yet my eyes have seen the Sovereign,
                         the God of hosts!”
⁶Then one of the seraphs flew to me,
     holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.
          ⁷The seraph touched my mouth with it and said:
               “Now that this has touched your lips,
                    your guilt has departed
                    and your sin is blotted out.”
⁸Then I heard the voice of God saying,
     “Whom shall I send,
          and who will go for us?”
And I said,
     “Here am I;
          send me!”

Queeries for the text:
Why is God so frequently high and lofty?
What was the robe made of?
What do they mean by "feet"?
If 7 is the holy number, why do they have 6 wings?
Why is the God of Peace also the God of "hosts"?
Did the incense get a bit out of hand?
What does it mean to be unclean?
How does fire purify?
Who is "us"?
How can we say, "Here am I; send me!" to God today? 
 
What are your queeries?