Queerying Narrative 102

Pace Warfield-May queeries the Narrative Lectionary reading.

Genesis 12:1-9
Now the Becoming One said to Abram, “Go from your country and your people and your parent's house to the land that I will show you. ²I will make a great nation out of your descendants, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

⁴So Abram went up and left as the Becoming One told him to, and his nephew Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot and all the possessions that they had gathered and the slaves they had stolen from their families in Haran, and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, ⁶Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were native to the land and called it their home. ⁷Then the Becoming One appeared to Abram and said, “Let's make this destiny manifest–I'll just rob this land from their people and give it to your offspring.” Abram built there an altar to the Becoming One, who had appeared to him. ⁸From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel and made camp, between Bethel and Ai, and there he built an altar to the Becoming One, calling out Xyrs name. ⁹And Abram continued on his journey slowly toward the Negeb.

Queeries for the text:
What is this passage building on?
What is the accompanying reading?
Where is this headed?
Why would God give Abram an already occupied land?
Who else has used the image of God gifting occupied land for their own benefit?
What does it mean to be heirs of a stolen land?

What are your queeries?

21st after pentecost year b - amos

This text was queeried by periodic queerier River Needham with collaboration from Rev. Emily E. Ewing.

Verses bracketed in Italics are omitted from the assigned reading.

Amos 5:6-7 [8-9] 10-15
Seek the Becoming One, and you will live, else She will rush like fire upon the House of Joseph and consume Bethel with none to quench it. Ah, you who turn justice into wormwood and hurl righteousness to the ground! [Who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns deep darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the earth— Her name is the Becoming One! It is She who hurls destruction upon strongholds, so that ruin comes upon fortresses!] They hate the arbiter in the gate, and detest her whose plea is just. Assuredly, because you impose a tax on the poor and exact from them a levy of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted delightful vineyards, but shall not drink their wine. For I have noted how many are your crimes, and how countless your sins—you enemies of the righteous, you takers of bribes, you who subvert in the gate the cause of the needy! Assuredly, at such a time the prudent one keeps silent, for it is an evil time. Seek good and not evil, that you may live, and that the Becoming One, the God of Angel Armies, may truly be with you, as you think. Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; perhaps the Becoming One, the God of Angel Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Queeries for the text:
How are darkness and light dependent on each other?
How does justice become wormwood?
What does prudence mean? Should we be prudent?
What does God of the Angel Armies mean? What might that mean for peace in our time?
What would Amos have called the constellations? What might this mean for followers of the stars?  Why were two verses dropped in the middle of this text?
What are these financial practices called today?
What is the gate? What does justice at the gate look like? How are the needy cared for?

What are your queeries?

15th after pentecost year b - deuteronomy

Our guest queerier for Deuteronomy is River Needham.

Image Description: A tree formed by ribbons of many colors.

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
¹And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the Becoming One, the God of your parents, gives to you.²You shall not add to the words which I command you, neither shall you take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Becoming One your God which I command you. 

⁶Observe therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, that, when they hear all these statutes, shall say: "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." ⁷For what great nation is there, that has God so close to them, as the Becoming One our God is whensoever we call upon Em? ⁸And what great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? ⁹Only pay attention to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children's children;

Queeries for the text

What's the difference between a statute and an ordinance?

Why do following the laws lead to genocide?

Why does God not need an editor? What are the consequences for editing God?

What is Wisdom? What about understanding?

Why is God staying close? Is that creepy?

How is God staying close related to consent?

What happens to community care when you "only pay attention to yourself"?

What does the assumption of children say about when this was written? 

What are your queeries?

14th after pentecost year b - joshua

Translation Note: I used the JPS 1917 Translation as the basis of this translation. As a means of queering the text, I chose to gender God as She; my expectation is that each week I'll choose a different pronoun or neopronoun to use to gender God. This is my way of living into the realities that God is beyond, between and infinite when compared to the ways that humans can understand God. When necessary for the use of idioms, feel free to alter either the gendered aspect of the idiom or the gendering of God. To that end, I've translated the sacred name of God as the Becoming One.

Joshua 24:1-2, 14-18 JPS 1917, Adapted
And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. ²And Joshua said unto all the people: "Thus says the Becoming One, the God of Israel: Your parents dwelt beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor; and they served other gods.
¹⁴"Now therefore fear the Becoming One, and serve Her in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your parents served beyond the River, and in Egypt; and serve the Becoming One. ¹⁵And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Becoming One, choose this day who you will serve; whether the gods which your parents served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Becoming One."
¹⁶And the people answered and said: "Far be it from us that we should forsake the Becoming One, to serve other gods; ¹⁷for the Becoming One our God, She brought us and our parents up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the peoples through the midst of whom we passed; ¹⁸and the Becoming One drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites that dwelt in the land; therefore we also will serve the Becoming One; for She is our God."

Queeries for the text
How are fear and evil constructed in our society? Do they compliment each other here?
How can we honor the land where we dwell?
What does Shechem mean and where else does it show up in the Hebrew Bible and Acts? 
What is the significance of the River?
How have Christians turned away from God?
Why was it important to give God credit for genocide and why do we still do it?
Who are the Amorites? 
How is God with us wherever we go, and keeping us safe today?
How has this passage impacted the ways in which the united states was founded? 

What are your queeries?