Lent 3 year C

On the afternoon of 15 March 2019, a White Supremacist inspired by politicians in the United States opened fire in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. As people trained in the Christian tradition, which often functions in Islamophobic and White Supremacist ways, we repudiate White Supremacy and Islamophobia in the strongest possible terms. Our queeries this week are in honor of those who died, may Allah open the highest levels of paradise to them.

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Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Isaiah 55:1-9

Ho, all who are thirsty, come for water,

even if you have no money;

Come, buy food and eat: buy food without money,

wine and milk without cost.

Why do you spend money for what is not bread,

Your earnings for what does not satisfy?

Give heed to Me, and you shall eat choice food and enjoy the richest viands.

Incline your ear and come to Me; Hearken, and you shall be revived.

And I will make with you an everlasting covenant,

The enduring loyalty promised to David.

As I made him a leader of peoples,

a prince and commander of peoples,

So you shall summon a nation you did not know,

and a nation that did not know you shall come running to you

For the sake of the Becoming One your God,

The Holy One of Israel who has glorified you.

Seek the Becoming One while Ey can be found,

Call to Em while Ey is near.

Let the wicked give up her ways,

The sinful one her plans;

Let her turn back to the Becoming One,

And Ey will pardon her;

To our God, for Ey freely forgives.

For My plans are not your plans,

Nor are My ways your ways —declares the Becoming One.

But as the heavens are high above the earth,

So are My ways high above your ways

And My plans above your plans.

Queeries for the text:
What genre is this text?
What is a viand?
What do we hunger and thirst for today?
How might Muslim people give heed to Allah? Do Christians have similar practices?
What does the beginning of this text refer to? What does that look like in other faiths?
What kind of summoning does this text refer to? Which country will be called?
What are the conditions of forgiveness? How are they culturally conditioned?
To whom does the last stanza refer? Is it the same "you" throughout this passage?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 13:1-9
At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans

whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

²Jesus asked them,

“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way

they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?

³No, I tell you;

but unless you repent,

you will all perish as they did.

⁴Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—

do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?

⁵No, I tell you;

but unless you repent,

you will all perish just as they did.”

⁶Then Jesus told this parable:

“A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard;

and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.

⁷So he said to the gardener,

‘See here!

For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree,

and still I find none.

Cut it down!

Why should it be wasting the soil?’

⁸The gardener replied,

‘Sir, let it alone for one more year,

until I dig around it and put manure on it.

⁹If it bears fruit next year, well and good;

but if not, you can cut it down.’”

Queeries for the text:
At which "very time"?
Does Jesus know what Paul will write?
How else is Jesus clear about victim blaming?
What are compassionate responses to those who have been killed?
Who is in need of compassion and action?
What do we need to confess and repent of?
How long does it take a tree to bear fruit?
Why do men think they know how everything should work?
Is God the gardener?

What are your queeries?

Queerying 4th after Epiphany year C

Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Jeremiah 1:4-10
The word of the Becoming One came to me:

Before I created you in the womb, I selected you;

Before you were born, I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet concerning the nations.

I replied: Ah, Becoming GOD!

I don’t know how to speak, for I am still a boy.

And the Becoming One said to me: Do not say, “I am still a boy,”

but go wherever I send you and speak whatever I command you.

Have no fear of them, For I am with you to deliver you —declares the Becoming One.

The Becoming One put out Faer hand and touched my mouth, and the Becoming One said to me:

Here I put My words into your mouth.

See, I appoint you this day over nations and kingdoms:

to uproot and to pull down,

to destroy and to overthrow,

to build and to plant.

Queeries for the text:
Who and what else is consecrated?
Who is the Becoming GOD? How is Fae different from the Becoming One? What might this difference signify?
Who are the nations for Jeremiah? Who are they today?
What would a prophet to the nations say today?
Who else struggles with words?
Where in the Tanakh is the first boy? What does Islam teach about him? What is the significance of these first two boys? What does it say about God?
Where else do we see God's finger?
What is the significance of the triad of pairs at the end?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 4:21-30
²¹Then Jesus began to say to all in the synagogue of Nazareth,

“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

²²All spoke well of Jesus

and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
They said,

    “Is not this Joseph’s son?”

²³Jesus said to them,

“Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb,

‘Doctor, cure yourself!’

And you will say,

‘Do here also in your hometown

the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’”

²⁴And Jesus said,

“Truly I tell you,

no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.

²⁵But the truth is,

there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah,

when the heaven was shut up three years and six months,

and there was a severe famine over all the land;

²⁶yet Elijah was sent to none of them

except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.

²⁷There were also many lepers in Israel

in the time of the prophet Elisha,

and none of them was cleansed

except Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸When they heard this,

all in the synagogue were filled with rage.

²⁹They got up,

drove Jesus out of the town,

and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built,

so that they might hurl him off the cliff.

³⁰But Jesus passed through the midst of them

and went on his way.

Queeries for the text:
What happened before this?
Why is Jesus offended at their amazement?
What does Joseph have to do with Jesus' proclamation?
Where is Zaraphath?  What happened to the widow?
How was Namaan cleansed?
Why were they filled with rage?
Was it a hill or a cliff?
What does the brow of a hill look like?
How did Jesus pass through the midst of them?
When does Jesus pass through the midst of us to go on his way?

What are your queeries?