Queerying Advent 3B

River Needham, MA queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

The spirit of Becoming itself rests on me because the Becoming One has annointed me. She has sent me as a herald of good news to the humble, first aid to the injured, release to those in prison, liberation to those oppressed. To proclaim a year of the Becoming One's favor, and of God's vindication. Comfort for those who mourn, provisions for them, turbans instead of ashes and festive ointments instead of ashes. Clothing full of color and joy instead of sadness. They shall be trees of victory for the Becoming One. The ancient cities will be restored, so will the desolate villages. The renewed city and desolations will teem with life.

[....]

For I, The Becoming One, love justice and fair wages. I hate robbery with burnt offerings, so I pay wages regularly and fairly. I make a timeless covenant with them. Their offspring will be known among the nations, their children among many people. All those who see these children will know that the Becoming One has blessed them. 

I rejoice in the Becoming One, my whole essence celebrates my God because she clothed me with triumphant clothes and put a victor's robe on me. Like a groom wearing a turban or a bride wearing her finest things. As the earth fosters plant growth and a garden of seeds shoot up, so will Becoming itself make victory and renown emerge in the presence of all the nations.

Queeries for the text:

Who or What is Becoming itself?

What is first aid to the injured?
How do we release those in prison?

Where is the liberation in our world?
What text was left out?
What areas in Israel long for restoration? What are possible resolutions?
Where are fair wages lacking in the US?

How are plants and growth becoming signs of victory?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading

Gospel: John 1:6-8, 19-28

⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷John came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through the light. ⁸John himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 

...

¹⁹This is the testimony given by John when the Judeans sent clergy and leaders from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 

²⁰John confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” 

²¹And they asked John, “What then? Are you Elijah?” 

John said, “I am not.” 

“Are you the prophet?” 

John answered, “No.” 

²²Then they said to John, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 

²³John said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Becoming One,’” as the prophet Isaiah said. 

²⁴Now they had been sent from the clergy. ²⁵They asked John, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” 

²⁶John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, ²⁷the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of their sandal.” 

²⁸This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

Queeries for the text:

What happens to witnesses?

What's missing?

Who questions prophets?

Who is not the Messiah?

To whom do you owe an answer?

What is John misquoting?

Who would want anything to be made straight?

Why do people baptize?

What else happens in Bethany?

What are your queeries?

Queerying 14th after Pentecost A

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

Tanakh: Exodus 12:1-14
The Becoming One said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.

Speak to the whole community of Israel and say that on the tenth of this month each of them shall take a lamb to a family, a lamb to a household. But if the household is too small for a lamb, let them share one with a near neighbor, in proportion to the number of persons: you shall contribute for the lamb according to what each household will eat. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a yearling male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep watch over it until the fourteenth day of this month; and all the assembled congregation of the Israelites shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they are to eat it. They shall eat the flesh that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs.

Do not eat any of it raw, or cooked in any way with water, but roasted—head, legs, and entrails—over the fire. You shall not leave any of it over until morning; if any of it is left until morning, you shall burn it. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly: it is a passover offering to the Becoming One. For that night I will go through the land of Egypt and strike down every first-born in the land of Egypt, both human and animal; and I will mete out punishments to all the gods of Egypt, I the Becoming One.

Queeries for the text:
How else has this story been queered?
When does the first of the year fall this year? Have the traditions changed? How?

What Mitzvot are connected with this holiday?
Where else might we all contribute to ensure that everyone may be free?

What mitzvot involves doorposts today?

When is genocide permissible?

What are your queeries?

Queerying 12th after Pentecost A

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

Tanakh: Exodus 1:8-2:10

A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph, and the king said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us. Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the ground.”

So the Egyptians set taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor; and they built garrison cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians ruthlessly imposed upon the Israelites the various labors that they made them perform. Ruthlessly they made life bitter for them with harsh labor at mortar and bricks and with all sorts of tasks in the field.

The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, saying, “When you deliver the Hebrew women, look at the birthstool: if it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.”

The midwives, fearing God, did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, letting the boys live?”

The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women: they are vigorous. Before the midwife can come to them, they have given birth.” 

 

God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and increased greatly. Since the midwives feared God, They established households for them. Then Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, “Every boy that is born you shall throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” 

A certain man of the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw how beautiful he was, she hid him for three months. When she could hide him no longer, she got a wicker basket for him and caulked it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child into it and placed it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. His sister stationed herself at a distance, to learn what would befall him. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile, while her maidens walked along the Nile. She spied the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to fetch it. When she opened it, she saw that it was a child, a boy crying. She took pity on it and said, “This must be a Hebrew child.” 

 

Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a Hebrew nurse to suckle the child for you?” 

 

Pharaoh’s daughter answered, “Yes.” 

 

So the girl went and called the child’s mother, and Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, who made him her son. She named him Moses, explaining, “I drew him out of the water.”

Queeries for the text:
What did Joseph do for Pharaoh? (What did we miss last week?)
What are the rights of immigrants in the u.s.?

Who are the Shiprah's and Puah's of today? Who is Pharaoh in this analogy? What are the orders?
What life is found in the River today?

What should we be looking out for as we work for freedom for the whole human family?

What parts of the story do we miss when we read in translation?

 

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

 

Gospel: Matthew 16:13-20

¹³Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Human One is?” 

¹⁴And the disciples said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 

¹⁵Jesus said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 

¹⁶Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Offspring of the living God.” 

¹⁷And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. ¹⁸And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. ¹⁹I will give you the keys of the dominion of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 

²⁰Then Jesus sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Queeries for the text:
Who do people say is human? 

Who do people say the Human One is?

Who is revealing humanity and divinity today?
Why are names important? How is naming powerful?

Why doesn't Jesus want the disciples to tell anyone? 

What are your queeries?

Queerying 13th after Pentecost C

Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Jeremiah 18:1-11
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Becoming One:

“Go down to the house of a potter, and there I will impart my words to you.”

So I went down to the house of a potter, and found her working at the wheel. And if the vessel she was making was spoiled, as happens to clay in the potter’s hands, she would make it into another vessel, such as the potter saw fit to make.
Then the word of the Becoming One came to me:

O House of Israel, can I not deal with you like this potter?—says the Becoming One. Just like clay in the hands of the potter, so are you in My hands, O House of Israel! At one moment I may decree that a nation or a kingdom shall be uprooted and pulled down and destroyed; but if that nation against which I made the decree turns back from its wickedness, I change my mind concerning the punishment I planned to bring on it. At another moment I may decree that a nation or a kingdom shall be built and planted; but if it does what is displeasing to me and does not obey me, then I change my mind concerning the good I planned to bestow upon it. And now, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus said the Becoming One: I am devising disaster for you and laying plans against you. Turn back, each of you, from your wicked ways, and mend your ways and your actions!

Queeries for the text:
Where else do potters show up in the Tanakh?
How do you make pottery?
How was pottery used during this time period?
Where else does God change hir mind?
Where today do we hear the message that change is possible?
How can we (white u.s.ians) repent of our past ways?
What do we (white u.s.ians) need to repent of in our ways and actions?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 14:25-33
²⁵Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus;

and he turned and said to them,

²⁶“Whoever comes to me

and does not hate parents of all genders,
spouse and children,
siblings of any gender,
yes, and even life itself,

cannot be my disciple.

²⁷Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me

cannot be my disciple.

²⁸For which of you,

intending to build a tower,

does not first sit down and estimate the cost,

to see whether you have enough to complete it?

²⁹Otherwise, when you have laid a foundation
and are not able to finish,

all who see it will begin to ridicule you, ³⁰saying,

‘This person began to build and was not able to finish.’

³¹Or what king,

going out to wage war against another king,

will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand

to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand?

³²If he cannot,

then, while the other is still far away,

he sends a delegation
and asks for the terms of peace.

³³So therefore, none of you can become my disciple

if you do not give up all your possessions.

Queeries for the text:
What did we skip?
What does it mean to hate family?
What about Christian Family Values™?
What does it mean to carry the cross?  What does it not mean to carry the cross?
What happens when tariffs are imposed mid-build?
What is being built now?  Will it be finished?
What about seeking peace if we have the 20,000?
Is Jesus a socialist?
What can happen when you don't finish?


What are your queeries?