Maundy Thursday year C

Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Exodus 12:1-4 [5-10] 11-14.
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 him share one with a neighbor who

dwells nearby 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 man and beast;

and I will mete out punishments to all the gods of Egypt,

I the Becoming One.

And the blood on the houses where you are staying shall be a sign for you:

when I see the blood I will pass over you,

so that no plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

This day shall be to you one of remembrance: you shall celebrate it as a festival to

the Becoming One throughout the ages;

you shall celebrate it as an institution for all time.

Queeries for the text:
Does time rebegin in this text? How does time change in this text?
What do cooperative economics look like in this text? In different cultures? Today?
Why were the preparation instructions not a required part of the assigned reading?
Why is cooking it with water explicitly verboten?
Are there any meals we eat hurriedly today? Why do we hurry?
Who are the gods of Egypt? Why does the Becoming One need to mete out punishments to them? What do they do?
What is the significance of blood? Why does God upend the social structure, where Egyptians benefit from the slavery of the Israelites? What might this imply for our social structure today?
Are there any additional plagues? Does this complicate God's instruction? Who was Batyah? Why is she important?
What is the significance of passover to Christians?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Now before the festival of the Passover,

Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world

and go to the Loving Parent.

Having loved his own who were in the world,

Jesus loved them to the end.

²The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas

son of Simon Iscariot to betray him.

And during supper ³Jesus,

knowing that the Loving Parent had given all things into his hands,

and that he had come from God and was going to God,

⁴got up from the table,
took off his outer robe,
and tied a towel around himself.

⁵Then Jesus poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples’ feet
and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.

⁶Jesus came to Simon Peter, who said to him,

“Master, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷Jesus answered,

“You do not know now what I am doing,

but later you will understand.”

⁸Peter said to Jesus,

“You will never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered,

“Unless I wash you,

you have no share with me.”

⁹Simon Peter said to him,

“Master, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”

¹⁰Jesus said to Simon Peter,

“One who has bathed does not need to wash,

except for the feet,

but is entirely clean.

And you are clean,

though not all of you.”

¹¹For Jesus knew who was to betray him;

for this reason he said,

“Not all of you are clean.”

¹²After Jesus had washed their feet,
had put on his robe,
and had returned to the table,
he said to them,

“Do you know what I have done to you?

¹³You call me Teacher and Master—and you are right,

for that is what I am.

¹⁴So if I, your Master and Teacher, have washed your feet,

you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

¹⁵For I have set you an example,

that you also should do as I have done to you.

¹⁶Very truly, I tell you,

slaves are not greater than their master,

nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.

¹⁷If you know these things,

you are blessed if you do them.”

³¹“Now the Human One has been glorified,

and God has been glorified in them.

³²If God has been glorified in the Human One,

God will also glorify the Human One in Godself
and will glorify them at once.

³³Little children,

I am with you only a little longer.

You will look for me;

and as I said to the Judeans so now I say to you,

‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’

³⁴I give you a new commandment,

that you love one another.

Just as I have loved you,

you also should love one another.

³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,

if you have love for one another.”

Queeries for the text:
What's missing?
Why is John's gospel always hating on Judas?
What was under Jesus' outer robe?  How big was the towel?
Why would Jesus wash everyone's feet?
Do we ever really know what Jesus is doing?
What kind of master and slave are we talking about?  Was Jesus kinky?  A power bottom?
How has the Human One been glorified?  How is God glorified in humanity?
What can it look like to love one another?  What about those outside of the community?  How do we fail at Jesus' new commandment?

What are your queeries?

Queerying Holy Week Music

Holy Week is here!

As with past playlists, I've made a playlist for Holy Week.  This playlist has a mix of music that is familiar to me from going up in the church as well as music I've found throughout my life and music that friends have suggested.  I've also split the days into their own playlists, which are not in any particular order.  These playlists will be linked below as each day is mentioned.

Unlike my Lent playlist, this playlist is intentionally ordered.  It begins with Palm Sunday, preparations and a procession of Hosannas into what could be the bad theology of the crowd who thinks Jesus will be the military messiah instead of the suffering servant or street theater critiquing and resisting Pilate's military parade into Jerusalem.

As Palm Sunday winds down, tensions rise in Jerusalem leading into Maundy Thursday, the disciples' reluctant footwashing at the hands of their Lord, the Last Supper and institution of communion, and Jesus' commandment to love.  All of this tinged with both tension and sorrow, though the disciples do not always understand it.

After supper, Jesus heads with his followers into the dark and Gethsemane where he prays (and they fall asleep) until the soldiers arrive with Judas.  We dive deep into Good Friday as Jesus is taken into custody, the disciples scatter.  During Jesus' sham of a trial, Pilate, Herod, and the religious authorities of the time send Jesus back and forth.  Pilate doesn't want to kill Jesus, but also doesn't want a riot on his hands.  Herod wants magic tricks.  The religious authorities are threatened (as religious authorities throughout time continue to be) by this one who resists oppression and collusion with the Empire.  During this "trial," Peter denies Jesus and finally Jesus is handed over to be crucified.

Jesus journeys to the cross, literally carrying the instrument that will torture and kill him.  As he is crucified, fulfilling humanity's demands for death in response to love, the women bear witness to his suffering and his humanity and an unlikely soldier of the Empire proclaims Jesus as God's child.  Jesus connects his loved ones to each other and joins with the oppressed, marginalized, murdered, and suffering throughout history.

Once Jesus is in the tomb, we are left with our grief, our sorrow, our uncertainty through Holy Saturday.  And then in the early morning, as the sun is coming up, we gather with the women at the tomb to find that Jesus is risen!  This playlist gives you just a glimpse of the resurrection at the end.  There will be another playlist for Easter, so check back next week!

My playlists are never set in stone.  Like a good Lutheran, the canon on my seasonal playlists remains open.  Feel free to suggest additional songs or ask me why I picked certain ones (it may just be the title...or the actual lyrics.  Rarely, though occasionally, will the answer be the tune...I just don't know how to music like that).  Check out the playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/user/22zoaq4yqbmnlyw5dfzp4mfty/playlist/6lJ6c1ap85gnQTvoS9DdeA