Queerying 14th after Pentecost B

River Needham, MA ThM queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Song of Solomon 2:8-13
Hark! My beloved! There she comes, leaping over mountains, bounding over hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or like a young stag. There she stands behind our wall, gazing through the window, peering through the lattice. My beloved spoke thus to me, “Arise, my darling; my fair one, come away! For now the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The blossoms have appeared in the land, the time of pruning has come; the song of the turtledove is heard in our land. The green figs form on the fig tree, the vines in blossom give off fragrance. Arise, my darling; my fair one, come away!

Queeries for the text:
Who is my beloved?
Who speaks in this text?
What blossoms are we waiting for?
What are green figs?
What's going on?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Now when the religious authorities and lawyers who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, ²they noticed that some of Jesus' chosen family were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. ³(For the religious authorities, and all the Jewish people, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the ancestors; ⁴and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) ⁵So the religious authorities and lawyers asked Jesus, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the ancestors, but eat with defiled hands?”

⁶Jesus said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
⁷in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

⁸You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” 

[...]

¹⁴Then Jesus called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: ¹⁵there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

[...]

²¹For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: immoral sex, theft, murder, ²²adultery, greed and extortion, wickedness, deceit, shameless excess, envy, slander, pride, folly. ²³All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Queeries for the text:
What's missing?  How is it problematic?
What kind of handwashing is traditional?
How is washing good?
Why is Jesus so reactive towards these religious authorities? When else is Jesus reactive?
Which human traditions have taken over God's commands?
When else is defilement addressed?
What does immoral sex consist of?  Shameless excess?  Envy?
What else defiles from within?

What are your queeries?


 

Queerying 4th after Pentecost B

River Needham, MA ThM queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: 1 Samuel 17:32-49

David said to Saul, “Let no person's courage fail them. Your servant will go and fight that Philistine!”

But Saul said to David, “You cannot go to that Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth!”

David replied to Saul, “Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep, and if a lion or a bear came and carried off an animal from the flock, I would go after it and fight it and rescue it from its mouth. And if it attacked me, I would seize it by the beard and strike it down and kill it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and that uncircumcised Philistine shall end up like one of them, for he has defied the ranks of the living God.

The Becoming One,” David went on, “who saved me from lion and bear will also save me from that Philistine.” “Then go,” Saul said to David, “and may the Becoming One be with you!”

Saul clothed David in his own garment; he placed a bronze helmet on his head and fastened a breastplate on him.

David girded his sword over his garment. Then he tried to walk; but he was not used to it. David said to Saul, “I cannot walk in these, for I am not used to them.” So David took them off.

He took his stick, picked a few smooth stones from the wadi, put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s bag and, sling in hand, he went toward the Philistine.

The Philistine, meanwhile, was coming closer to David, preceded by his shield-bearer.

When the Philistine caught sight of David, he scorned him, for he was but a boy, ruddy and handsome.

And the Philistine called out to David, “Am I a dog that you come against me with sticks?” The Philistine cursed David by his gods; and the Philistine said to David, “Come here, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.”

David replied to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come against you in the name of the Becoming God of Angel Armies, the God of the ranks of Israel, whom you have defied.

This very day the Becoming One will deliver you into my hands. I will kill you and cut off your head; and I will give the carcasses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. All the earth shall know that there is a God in Israel.

And this whole assembly shall know that the Becoming One can give victory without sword or spear. For the battle is the Becoming One's, and Femme will deliver you into our hands.”

When the Philistine began to advance toward him again, David quickly ran up to the battle line to face the Philistine.

David put his hand into the bag; he took out a stone and slung it. It struck the Philistine in the forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.

Queeries for the text:
What makes things scary? What are the big scary things in your life?
What is a wadi?

Why did the Philistine die?

How does God make Femmes will come to be?

Where is God's preferential option?

Where do we celebrate death today?
 

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Mark 4:35-41
³⁵On that day, when evening had come, Jesus said to his chosen family, “Let us go across to the other side.”

³⁶And leaving the crowd behind, they took Jesus with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. ³⁷A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped.

³⁸But Jesus was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and his chosen family woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

³⁹Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. ⁴⁰He said to his chosen family, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

⁴¹And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Queeries for the text:
On which day?
When does Jesus call us to cross to the other side?
Who do we take just as they are?
When is weather dangerous?
What have you slept through?
Who is perishing?
Why are we afraid?  Where is our faith?

What are your queeries?