Queerying Narrative Lectionary 107

Pace Warfield-May queeries the Narrative Lectionary readings.

2 Samuel 11:1-5, 26-27; 12:1-9
¹Kings often went out to battle in the spring, so King David sent Joab with his officers and all of Israel to ravage the Ammonites and besiege Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem while his army went off to fight his battles. ²Late one spring afternoon, David rose from his settee and went for a walk on the roof of the palace. While on the roof he saw a woman bathing and thought she was very beautiful. ³David sent someone to find the identity of the woman. The person reported, "This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite." ⁴So David sent messengers to bring her to him, and she came to him, and he raped her while she was in the stage of purifying herself after menstruation. Then she returned to her house. ⁵Bathsheba conceived; and she sent and told David, "I am pregnant."

[…]

²⁶When Bathsheba heard Uriah, her husband, was dead, she grieved for him. ²⁷When the official period of mourning was over, David sent and brought Bathsheba to his house and married her. She gave birth to a son.

But the Becoming One saw what David had done to Bathsheba and became upset, ^12:1and the Becoming One sent the prophet Nathan to David. Nathan came to him and said, "There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. ²The rich man had many herds of animals and many sheep, ³but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of the meager food he could provide and drink from his cup, and lie in his house, and the ewe was like a daughter to him. ⁴Now a traveler came to the rich man. The rich man didn't want to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, so he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him." ⁵David became greatly angered against the man in the story. He said to Nathan, "As the Becoming One lives, the rich man who has done this deserves to die; ⁶he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity."

⁷Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the Becoming One, the God/ess of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; ⁸I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your heart, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if all of that had still been too little, I would have added as much more. ⁹Why have you despised the word of the Becoming One, to do what is evil in my sight? You have purposefully caused Uriah the Hittite to be struck down with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

-----

Psalm 51:1-9

To the leader. A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had raped Bathsheba.

¹Have mercy on me, O divine one,

as your love is steadfast

and your mercy overflows in abundance

erase the harm I've done.

²Bathe me so that my inequity may be washed away,

and cleanse me from the harm I've done.

³For I know my transgressions,

and my harm is ever before me.

⁴Against you, you alone, have I caused harm,

and I have done what is evil in your sight,

so that you are justified in your punishment

and without blame when you pass judgment on me.

⁵Indeed, I was born guilty,

a sinner when my mother conceived me.

⁶You long for a truthful heart,

so teach me wisdom in my deepest, most secret part of me.

⁷Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

⁸Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.

Look away from the harm I've done,

and erase my inequities.

Queeries for the text:
What is this building on?
What is missing from this passage? Why was it left out?
What is the companion text?
Where is this headed?
Who has agency in this story?
What makes sex consensual?
Who did David commit sin against?
What is holy about blackness? What is sinful about whiteness?

What are your queeries?

Queerying 19th after Pentecost C

Suzannah Porter and Brooke McLain musically queery the RCL readings.

How does dealing with the past help to move into the future?

How can scripture strengthen against injustice?

How does proof-texting justify harm?

How do you persist for justice?  How does justice persist against you?

-----

Pace Warfield-May queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Jeremiah 31:27-34
²⁷The days are surely coming, says the Becoming One, when I will plant seeds of humans and animals in the two houses of my people, the houses of Israel and Judah.

²⁸And just as I've tended over them to pluck, break down, overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will continue to tend over them to build up and to plant, says the Becoming One.

²⁹In those days there will no longer be the saying, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, or the children must have the bad karma of their parents" ³⁰Rather, all shall die for their own harm, the bad apples will remain in the rotten tree that sprouted them."

³¹ The days are surely coming, says the Becoming One, when I will make a new covenant, a new unbreakable promise, with the houses of Israel and Judah. ³²It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I, like a gentle lover, held them by their hand to guide them out of the land of Egypt--a promise that they broke, though I was and remain their committed partner, says the Becoming One. ³³But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Becoming One: I will write my law within them, bind it to their DNA, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be God, their beloved, and they shall be my people, my beloveds. ³⁴No longer shall they have to teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the Becoming One" for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Becoming One; for I will wipe away the barriers that separate them, and remember their harm no more."'

Queeries for the text:
What is the context for this passage?
What is karma?
What would this day to come look like?
What else is written in our DNA?
How does one cheat on God?
What does it mean for God to be your beloved partner?
What barriers separate us from one another?

-----

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
Then Jesus told his chosen family a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. ²He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. ³In that city there was a widow who kept coming to the judge and saying, ‘Avenge me against my adversary.’ ⁴For a while he refused; but later the judge said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, ⁵yet because this widow keeps coming at me, I will avenge her, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” ⁶And the Leader said, “Listen to what the corrupt judge says. ⁷And will not God avenge her favorites who cry to her day and night? Will she delay long in having patience with them? ⁸I tell you, she will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Human One comes, will they find faith on earth?”

Queeries for the text:
What did we skip?
Whose heart is being lost?
What do judges do?
Who neither fears God nor respects people?
Who annoys the powerful?
What happens when you continually come?
What is justice? Who cries to whom for justice? 

What are your queeries?



 

Queerying Narrative Lectionary 106

River Needham, MA ThM queeries the Narrative Lectionary reading.

Joshua 24:1-15
Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned Israel’s elders and commanders, magistrates and officers; and they presented themselves before God. Then Joshua said to all the people, “Thus said the Becoming One, the God of Israel: In past times, your ancestors—Terah, father of Abraham and father of Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods.
But I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates and led him through the whole land of Canaan and multiplied his offspring. I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau the hill country of Seir as his possession, while Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

“Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with the wonders that I wrought in their midst, after which I freed you— I freed your ancestors—from Egypt, and you came to the sea. But the Egyptians pursued your ancestors to the Sea of Reeds with chariots and horses. Your ancestors cried out to the Becoming One, and Xe put darkness between you and the Egyptians; then Xe brought the sea upon the Egyptians, and it covered them. Your own eyes saw what I did to the Egyptians.

“After you had lived a long time in the wilderness, I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan. They battled you, but I delivered them into your hands; I annihilated them for you, and you took possession of their land. Then Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, made preparations to attack Israel. He sent for Balaam son of Beor to curse you, but I refused to listen to Balaam; he had to bless you, and thus I saved you from him.

“Then you crossed the Jordan and you came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho and the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites fought you, but I delivered them into your hands. I sent a plague ahead of you, and it drove them out before you just like the two Amorite kings—not by your sword or by your bow. I have given you a land for which you did not labor and towns which you did not build, and you have settled in them; you are enjoying vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.

“Now, therefore, revere the Becoming One and serve Xyr with undivided loyalty; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt, and serve the Becoming One. Or, if you are loath to serve the Becoming One, choose this day which ones you are going to serve—the gods that your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or those of the Amorites in whose land you are settled; but I and my household will serve the Becoming One.”

Queeries for the text:
What is this building on?
What is the companion text?
Where is this headed?
Who is missing from this text?
Who are the other gods that we serve?
How is darkness holy?
What does it mean to annihilate a people?
What must be done with the land stolen by God?
Where are other gods treated more favorably?

What are your queeries?

Queerying Narrative Lectionary 105

Pace Warfield-May queeries the Narrative Lectionary reading.

Exodus 19:3-7; 20:1-17
^19:3Then Moses went up to God; the Becoming One called to him from the mountain: “This you shall share with all the descendants of Jacob, the entire nation of Israelites: ⁴'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles' wings to safety, to myself. ⁵Dear ones, if you listen to what I am saying and keep our covenant, you will be dearly treasured, my most prized keepsake, out of all the peoples. Yes, the entire earth is mine, ⁶but you shall be for me a people made of priests and a sacred nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites."

⁷So Moses went to the elders of the people, summoned them, and set before them all the words that the Becoming One had told him to share.

[…]

^20:1Then God spoke all these words,
²I am the Becoming One, your God, who brought you to safety out of the land of Egypt, who freed you from the house of slavery; ³you shall have no other gods before me.
⁴You shall not make an idol for yourself, whether it is in the shape or form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth below or that is in the water under the earth. ⁵You shall not bow down to the idols or serve them, for I am the Becoming One, your God, and am a jealous God, who will revisit the inequities of those who hate me to their children up to the third and the fourth generation, ⁶but I will show steadfast, enduring love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and who keep my commandments.
⁷"You shall not use the name of the Becoming One, your God, in wrong or harmful ways, for the Becoming One will not let anyone go free who misuses my name.
⁸"Remember the Sabbath day, the day of rest, and keep it holy. ⁹Six days you have to labor and do all your work, ¹⁰but the seventh day is a day of rest to the Becoming One, your God. You shall not do any work nor ask or require anyone else to do work, whether it is your children, the people you enslaved or the people who work for you, your animals, or even the migrant workers in your towns. ¹¹For in six days the Becoming One made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that fills them, but rested on the seventh day; therefore, the Becoming One blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as a holy day of rest.
¹²"Give honor to your parents so that you may live many days in peace in the land that the Becoming One is giving to you.
¹³"Do not kill.
¹⁴"Do not violate intimate relationships.
¹⁵"Do not steal.
¹⁶"Do not lie about or mischaracterize one another.
¹⁷"Do not long for your neighbors' house, spouse, the people they enslaved or those who work for them, animals, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor."

Queeries for the text:
What is this building on?
What is missing?
What is the companion text?
Where is this headed?
Who do these commandments protect? What communities are left out of the commandments' protection?
How were the ten commandments originally understood?
How do we tell the truth?
What counts as murder?

What are your queeries?

Queerying Narrative 103

Pace Warfield-May queeries the Narrative Lectionary reading.

Genesis 39:1-23
¹After Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, he was taken to Egypt where Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of the Pharaoh and the captain of the guard bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there. ²The Becoming One was present with Joseph, leading Joseph to become successful in the house of his Egyptian master. ³His master saw that the Becoming One was alongside Joseph and that the Becoming One caused all that Joseph did to prosper in his hands. ⁴So Joseph became Potiphar's favorite and attended to him; Potiphar made Joseph the overseer of the house and put him in charge of all his finances and possessions. ⁵The Becoming One made all that Joseph touched prosper, leading Potiphar to prosper as well, so that Joseph would be taken care of. ⁶So Potiphar left all of his possessions in Joseph’s care, and with Joseph in charge of the household, Potiphar was able to rely on Joseph's labor for all things so that all Potiphar had to worry about was what to eat.

Now Joseph was very, stunningly attractive. ⁷ And after a time his master’s wife saw Joseph and said, "Sleep with me." ⁸ But Joseph refused and said to his master’s wife, "Look, with me here, my master Potiphar has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has under my control. ⁹ As a result, he sees me almost as his equal and he hasn't kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this awful deed and cause harm against God?" ¹⁰And although she asked Joseph day after day, he would not consent to lie beside her let alone sleep with her. ¹¹One day, however, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and he was alone in the house, ¹²she caught hold of his clothes saying, "Sleep with me!" In his hurry to leave, she was able to keep hold of his clothes as he ran away, leaving them with her. ¹³ When she realized his clothes had torn off and were in her hand as he ran outside, ¹⁴she called out to the members of her household and said to them, “See, my husband has brought among us a Hebrew to insult us! He came in to my room to rape me, and I cried out with a loud voice, ¹⁵and when he heard me raise my voice and cry out for help, he left his clothes beside me and fled outside." ¹⁶Then she kept his clothes by her until his master, Potiphar, came home, ¹⁷and she told him the same story, saying, "The Hebrew slave, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to rape me, ¹⁸ but as soon as I raised my voice and cried out for help, he left his clothes beside me and fled outside."

¹⁹When his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, saying, "This is the way your slave treated me," he became enraged. ²⁰And Joseph’s master took him and put him in the prison where the Pharaoh's prisoners were confined; Joseph remained there in prison. ²¹But the Becoming One remained faithful to Joseph and showed him steadfast love, which in turn gave Joseph favor with the chief jailer. ²²The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s care all the prisoners who were in the prison, and whatever was done there, Joseph was the one who did it. ²³The chief jailer gave Joseph free reign over the prison because the Becoming One was with Joseph, and whatever Joseph did, the Becoming One made it prosper.

Queeries for the text:
What is this passage building on?
What is the accompanying text?
Where is this headed?
Does God have favorites?
In what ways is Joseph's story queer?
How do prejudice, power, and racism play into this narrative?
Who has agency in this passage?
Why does God reward Joseph's masters?

What are your queeries?

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?

Queerying Narrative 101

Pace Warfield-May queeries the Narrative Lectionary reading.

Genesis 6:5-22; 8:6-12; 9:8-17
^6:5The Becoming One saw that evil had infected humankind's hearts, ever increasing as it forced wickedness against other humans and the earth. ⁶And the Becoming One became remorseful that Xe had created humanity on the earth, and Xe grieved this in Xyrs heart. ⁷So the Becoming One said, "I will blot out from the earth the humans I have created–people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air–for I am bitterly hurt that I made them." ⁸But Noah found favor in the sight of the Becoming One.

⁹These are the offspring of Noah. Noah was righteous, blameless among his generation of wicked humans; Noah walked with God. ¹⁰And Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹Now the earth was polluted in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹²And God saw that the earth was corrupt, for all humankind had polluted its ways upon the earth. ¹³And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end to all living things, for the earth is filled with violence and pollution because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. ¹⁴Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. ¹⁵This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. ¹⁶Make a roof for the ark and finish it to a cubit above, and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. ¹⁷For my part, I am going to bring a great flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under the sky all living things in which is my breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. ¹⁸But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. ¹⁹And of every living thing, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be a reproducing pair. ²⁰Of the bird according to their kinds and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in with you, to keep them alive. ²¹Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up, and it shall serve as food for you and for them." ²²Noah did all this; he did all that God commanded him.

[…]

^8:6At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made ⁷and sent out a raven, and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. ⁸Then Noah sent out the dove to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground, ⁹but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to Noah to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. ¹⁰Noah waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark, ¹¹and the dove came back to him in the evening and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. ¹²Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and it did not return to him anymore.

[…]

^9:8Then God said to Noah and to his family with him, ⁹"As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, ¹⁰not just with the humans, but with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. ¹¹I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall I destroy all living things by waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the entire earth." ¹²God continued, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature, for all generations: ¹³I have set my weapon, a bow, down upon the clouds over the earth and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and all the earth. ¹⁴When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ¹⁵I will remember my covenant that is between me and all living creatures, and the waters shall never become a great flood that destroys all life. ¹⁶When my weapon, the bow, is laid to rest in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all kinds that is on the earth." ¹⁷God finished speaking to Noah, saying, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all living things upon the earth."

Queeries for the text:
What's missing?
What is the accompanying reading?
Where is this headed?
Why didn't Noah argue back against God?
What ways do floods harm the environment and humans?
How are humans wicked against the earth today?
What else does a rainbow symbolize?

What are your queeries?

Noah’s Ark
Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César, Kingdom of Jerusalem (Acre) before 1291
British Library, Additional 15268, fol. 7v

Queerying 8th after Pentecost C

Pace Warfield-May queeries the reading from Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23
1:2 Meaningless, meaningless, says the Teacher, absolutely meaningless! All is meaningless.

[...]

¹²I, the Teacher, when caretaker over Israel in Jerusalem, ¹³ applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all things under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with. ¹⁴ I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is meaningless like a paper bag blowing in the wind.

[...]

^2:18I hated all my work in which I had labored under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me ¹⁹--and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will take over all for which I labored and worked hard on and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is meaningless.

²⁰So I turned and gave in to deep despair concerning all the work and labors under the sun, ²¹ because sometimes one who has labored and studied with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all their labor to be exploited and enjoyed by another who did not work for it at all. This also is meaningless and a great evil.

²²What do we mere mortals get from all the labor and strain with which we labor under the sun? ²³ For all their days are full of pain and heartache, and their work is frustrating and tiresome; even at night their minds are not free to rest. This also is meaningless.

Queeries for the text:
What's missing?
What is the exploitation of labor?
What makes this exploitation meaningless and a great evil?
What causes you to feel despair?
What things feel meaningless, frustrating, or tiresome?
What can be holy and helpful about feelings of despair and meaninglessness?

-----

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 12:13-21
¹³Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”

¹⁴But Jesus said to them, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?”

¹⁵And Jesus said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

¹⁶Then Jesus told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. ¹⁷And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ ¹⁸Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’
²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your possessions demanded of you your life. And the things you have hoarded, whose will they be?’
²¹So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

Queeries for the text:
Who has a family inheritance to receive?
Who judges and arbitrates?
Who has abundant possessions?
How does land produce?
Who is raising bigger barns?
What is the purpose of abundance?
Who stores food for many years?
How do possessions claim our lives?
Whose will your possessions be? 

What are your queeries?

Queerying 2nd after Pentecost C

River Needham, MA ThM queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Isaiah 65:1-9
I responded to those who did not ask,
I was at hand to those who did not seek Me;
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
To a nation that did not invoke My name.
I constantly spread out My hands
To a disloyal people,
Who walk the way that is not good,
Following their own designs;
The people who provoke My anger,
Who continually, to My very face,
Sacrifice in gardens and burn incense on tiles;
Who sit inside tombs
And pass the night in secret places;
Who eat the flesh of swine,
With broth of unclean things in their bowls;
Who say, “Keep your distance! Don’t come closer!
For I would render you consecrated.”
Such things make My anger rage,
Like fire blazing all day long.
See, this is recorded before Me;
I will not stand idly by, but will repay,
deliver their sins into their bosom,
and the sins of their fathers as well
—said the Becoming One—
For they made offerings upon the mountains
And affronted Me upon the hills.
I will count out their recompense in full,
Into their bosoms.
Thus said the Becoming One:
As, when new wine is present in the cluster,
One says, “Don’t destroy it; there’s good in it,”
So will I do for the sake of My servants,
And not destroy everything.
I will bring forth offspring from Jacob,
From Judah heirs to My mountains;
My chosen ones shall take possession,
My servants shall dwell thereon.

Queeries for the text:
Who is speaking in this passage?
What does it mean to say "Here, I am"?
Who does/does not have agency?
Why does God DARVO? Who else does?
Where does this fall in the cycle of abuse?

-----

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 8:26-39
²⁶Then Jesus and his chosen family arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. ²⁷As Jesus stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had gone naked, and he did not live in a house but in the graveyard. ²⁸When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Child of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”— ²⁹for Jesus had commanded the contaminated spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; the community kept him under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but breaking the imprisonment, the demon would drive him into the unpopulated areas.)

³⁰Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?”

He said, “Brigade”; for many demons had entered him. ³¹They begged Jesus not to order them to go back into the abyss.

³²Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. ³³Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

³⁴When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. ³⁵Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. ³⁶Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been restored.

³⁷Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned to Galilee.

³⁸The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with Jesus; but Jesus sent him away, saying, ³⁹“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So the man went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

Queeries for the text:
Who are the Gerasenes?
Who bears the shame of nudity?
Who else has been driven by a spirit into the uninhabited places?
How do communities harm those who react in unexpected ways?
What else is a brigade?
Why would swine be feeding?
Why does exorcising the Empire scare people?
Where are you called to declare what God has done?

What are your queeries?

Queerying Pentecost C

River Needham, MA ThM queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Genesis 11:1-9
Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them hard.”—Brick served them as stone, and asphalt served them as mortar.— And they said, “Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; or else we shall be scattered all over the world.” The Becoming One came down to look at the city and tower that humanity had built, and the Becoming One said, “If, as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach. Let us, then, go down and confuse their speech there, so that they shall not understand one another’s speech.” Thus the Becoming One scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because there the Becoming One confused the speech of the whole earth; and from there scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Queeries for the text:
How many languages exist now?
How tall would Babel have needed to be to have its top in the sky?
What purpose does babel hold?
How did these languages evolve into today?
What else can we mourn today?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: John 14:8-17, [25-27]
⁸Philip said to Jesus, “Lover, show us the Caregiver, and we will be satisfied.”

⁹Jesus said to Philip, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Caregiver. How can you say, ‘Show us the Caregiver’? ¹⁰Do you not believe that I am in the Caregiver and the Caregiver is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Caregiver who dwells in me does Xyr works. ¹¹Believe me that I am in the Caregiver and the Caregiver is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. ¹²Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Caregiver. ¹³I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Caregiver may be glorified in the Beloved. ¹⁴If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

¹⁵”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ¹⁶And I will ask the Caregiver, and Xe will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. ¹⁷This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Her nor knows Her. You know Her, because She abides with you, and She will be in you.
...

²⁵”I have said these things to you while I am still with you. ²⁶But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Caregiver will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. ²⁷Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

Queeries for the text:
When is this conversation taking place?
Why does Philip want proof?
How do you show someone the divine?
What works is Jesus talking about?
What power is in a name?
Where is the Spirit of truth today?
Who needs an Advocate?
What's missing?
What does the Holy Spirit need to remind you of?
How does the world give peace?  How does Jesus give peace?

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Find previous queeries for the Acts text here.

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What are your queeries?

Queerying Ascension C

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Acts reading.

Acts 1:1-11
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning ²until the day when They were taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the Sent Ones whom They had chosen. ³After Jesus' suffering They presented Themself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to the Sent Ones during forty days and speaking about the reign of God. ⁴While staying with them, Jesus ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Caregiver.

“This,” Jesus said, “is what you have heard from me; ⁵for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

⁶So when they had come together, they asked Jesus, “Lover, is this the time when you will restore the empire to Israel?”

⁷Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Caregiver has set by Xyr own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” ⁹When Jesus had said this, as they were watching, They were lifted up, and a cloud took Them out of the Sent Ones' sight.

¹⁰While Jesus was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two beings in white robes stood by them. ¹¹They said, “People of Galilee, why do you stay looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Them go into heaven.”

Queeries for the text:
What first book?
What sort of proofs did Jesus present?
What is the promise of the Caregiver?
What happens when the oppressed become the empire?
How are we witnesses?
How did Jesus ascend?
Why do we stay looking?

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J. Pace Warfield-May queeries the Psalm.

Psalm 93
The Becoming One is Qween, Xe is wearing a majestic caftan;

the Becoming One is in drag; Xe is wearing a corset of strength.

Xe has established the world so that it cannot be moved.

Your stage is established from before the dawn of time;

you are from ancient times and beyond.

The floods have risen, O Becoming One,

the waters and floods have raised their voice;

the waters and floods raise a roar of waves.

More majestic and glittering than the thunders of these mighty waves,

more majestic and glittering than the waves of the sea,

the Becoming One is majestic and glittering on high!

Your witness is beyond reproach;

holiness overflows your house,

O Becoming One, from ancient times and beyond.

Queeries for the text:
How do you imagine the Becoming One as a drag queen?
What is a corset of strength?
What does the roar of waves sound like?
What does it mean to bear witness?


What are your queeries?



 

Queerying Easter 6C

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Acts reading.

Acts 16:9-15
⁹During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. ¹¹We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, ¹²and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days.

¹³On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Becoming One opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul.

¹⁵When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Becoming One, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.

Queeries for the text:
During which night?
What would Paul have done if the vision was of a woman?
What role do dreams play in faith and action?
What was this journey like?
Why focus on the women?
Why purple cloth? What is special about purple?
How does Lydia have a household?

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J. Pace Warfield-May queeries the reading from Revelation.

Revelation 21: 10, 22-22:5
¹⁰And the angel carried me away on a wind to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of the sky from God.

²²I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the supreme Becoming One and the Lamb. ²³And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its sunlight, and its night time candle is the Lamb. ²⁴The nations will walk by the city’s sunlight, and the rulers of the earth will bring their glory into it. ²⁵Its gates will never be shut during the day or night. ²⁶People will bring into the city the glory and the honor of the nations. ²⁷But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices lies or sets up false idols, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. ^22:1Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ²through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³Nothing cursed or imperfect will be found there any more. But the judgment bench of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and Xe’s servants will worship Xem; ⁴they will see Xyr face, and Xyr name will be written on their foreheads. ⁵And night will no longer be perceived as bad or scary; they need no light of candles or sun, for the Becoming God will be their sun, and they will dwell there forever and ever.

Queeries for the text:
What is missing from the text?
How do you imagine God’s glory as the sunlight would look and feel?
What is the book of life?
What is the tree of life?
How do we challenge light and dark binaries in scripture? Why is it important?

What are your queeries?

Queerying Lent 2C

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 13:31-35
³¹At that very hour some religious authorities came and said to Jesus, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.”

³²Jesus said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. ³³Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ ³⁴Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁵See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Becoming One.’”

Queeries for the text:
At what very hour and where?
Why did Herod want to kill Jesus?
Why tell a fox? How do foxes respond?
What is impossible?
Who is killing today?
How does a hen gather her brood?
When do we say "blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Becoming One"?

What are your queeries?


 

Queerying 4th after Epiphany C

River Needham, MA ThM 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 Itself!
I don’t know how to speak,
For I am still a boy.
And the Becoming 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 Her 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:
What nations does this author refer to?
Who are the prophets?
What is God saying today?
What can we build and plant?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 4:21-30
²¹Then Jesus began to say to the crowd gathered in the synagogue, “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:
Which scripture?
Who is spoken well of today? Who speaks well of others?
What expectations do we place on helpers?
What did God do in Zarephath?
What did God do to Namaan?
How do some people fill with rage so quickly?
How do people pass through the midst of crowds? 

What are your queeries?


 

Queerying 2nd after Epiphany C

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: John 2:1-11
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and Mary, the mother of Jesus was there. ²Jesus and his chosen family had also been invited to the wedding. ³When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”

⁴And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.”

⁵His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

⁶Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.

⁸He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.”

So they took it.

⁹When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the wedding party ¹⁰and said to them, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

¹¹Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Queeries for the text:
The third day after what?
Who gets invited to weddings?
What happens when wine runs out?
When is Jesus' “hour”?
What Jewish rites of purification?
What do servants know?
Why does quality matter?
To whom can this text be harmful? 

What are your queeries?