Queerying 15th after Pentecost C

Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Jeremiah 8:18-8:23(9:1)

When in grief I would seek comfort, my heart is sick within me.

“Is not the Becoming One in Zion? Is not her Majesty within her?
 Why then did they anger me with their images, with alien futilities?”

Hark! The outcry of my poor people from the land far and wide:

“Harvest is past, summer is gone, and we have not been saved.”

Because my people are shattered I am shattered;
I am dejected, seized by desolation.
Is there no balm in Gilead?

Can no physician be found?

Why has healing not yet come to my poor people?

Oh, that my head were water, my eyes a fount of tears! Then would I weep day and night for the slain of my poor people.

Queeries for the text:
What do we grieve?
How do we find comfort?
What makes our heart sick?
What is Zion?
What do we need to be saved from? Who will save us?
How are people shattered?
Where does Gilead show up?
Who are the slain of my poor people?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke16:1-13

Then Jesus said to the disciples,

“There was a rich man who had a manager,

and charges were brought to him

that the manager was squandering his property.

²So the rich man summoned her and said to her,

‘What is this that I hear about you?
Give me an accounting of your management,

because you cannot be my manager any longer.’

³Then the manager said to herself,

‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me?

I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.

⁴I have decided what to do so that,

when I am dismissed as manager,

people may welcome me into their homes.’

⁵So, summoning her master’s debtors one by one, she asked the first,

‘How much do you owe my master?’

⁶Ze answered,

‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’

She said to zim,

‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’

⁷Then she asked another,

‘And how much do you owe?’

Fae replied,

‘A hundred containers of wheat.’

She said to faer,

‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’

⁸And her master commended the dishonest manager

because she had acted shrewdly;

for the children of this age are more shrewd

in dealing with their own generation

than are the children of light.

⁹And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth

so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the everlasting homes.

¹⁰“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much;

and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.

¹¹If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth,

who will entrust to you the true riches?

¹²And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another,

who will give you what is your own?

¹³No slave can serve two masters;

for a slave will either hate the one and love the other,
or be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Queeries for the text:
What did we skip?
How does gender change how we read this?
What kind of manager was this?
How is divide and conquer at work?
How does this manager resist the divide and conquer mentality?
How big is the difference between what is owed and what was borrowed?
What does it mean to act shrew(d)ly?
How does Jesus evaluate and value wealth?
What master do I serve?

What are your queeries?

Queerying 14th after Pentecost C

Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
At that time, it shall be said concerning this people and Jerusalem:

The conduct of my poor people is like searing wind from the bare heights of the desert—

It will not serve to winnow or to fan. A full blast from them comes against me: Now I, in turn, will bring charges against them.
-------
For my people are stupid, they give me no heed; they are foolish children,  they are not intelligent. they are clever at doing wrong and unable to do right. I look at the earth, it is unformed and void; at the skies, their light is gone. I look at the mountains, they are quaking, and all the hills are rocking. I look: no human is left, and all the birds of the sky have fled. I look: the farmland is desert, and all its towns are in ruinó Because of the Becoming One, because of zir blazing anger. For thus said the Becoming One: the whole land shall be desolate, but I will not make an end of it. For this the earth mourns, and skies are dark aboveó because I have spoken, I have planned, and I will not relent or turn back from it.

Queeries for the text:
Where is the heat coming from? Why is it the humans' fault?
What charges might God bring against humans today?
What is missing from the assigned text?
Is the speaker justified in using ableist slurs? Why or why not?
Where else are white humans unable to do right?
What does it mean to be unformed and void?
Where did the humans go?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 15:1-10
Now all the tax collectors and "those people"

were coming near to listen to Jesus.
²And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying,

“This fellow welcomes 'those people' and eats with them.”

³So Jesus told them this parable:

⁴“Which one of you,

having a hundred sheep and losing one of them,

does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness
and go after the one that is lost until you find it?

⁵When you have found it,

you lay it on your shoulders and rejoice.
⁶And when you come home,

you call together your friends and neighbors, saying to them,

‘Rejoice with me,

for I have found my sheep that was lost.’

⁷Just so, I tell you,

there will be more joy in heaven over one of 'those people' who repents

than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

⁸“Or what woman having ten silver coins,

if she loses one of them,

does not light a lamp,
sweep the house,
and search carefully until she finds it?

⁹When she has found it,

she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying,

‘Rejoice with me,

for I have found the coin that I had lost.’

¹⁰Just so, I tell you,

there is joy in the presence of the angels of God

over one of 'those people' who repents.”

Queeries for the text:
What did we skip?  What does the RCL have against salt?
What kind of nonsense is leaving 99 perfectly good sheep to find the one sheep that might already be killed and eaten?
Why would you throw a party costing more than the lost sheep?
Did the sheep repent? Or was it the shepherd?  Can sheep repent?  Can coins?
How much is a silver coin worth?  Who would search for the lost?
How do you lose one coin out of ten?
Why spend the found coin—and perhaps more—on a party?
How do we anthropomorphize what is not human or not alive?
Who is lost?  How?

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?

Queerying 12th after Pentecost C

Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Jeremiah 2:4-13

Hear the word of the Becoming One, O House of Jacob, Every clan of the House of Israel!

Thus said the Becoming One: What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they abandoned me and went after delusion and were deluded?

They never asked themselves, “Where is the Becoming One, who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and darkness, a land no human had traversed, where no human being had dwelt?”

I brought you to this country of farmland to enjoy its fruit and its bounty; but you came and defiled my land, you made my possession abhorrent. The priests never asked themselves, “Where is the Becoming One?” The guardians of the teaching ignored me; the rulers rebelled against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal and followed what can do no good.

Oh, I will go on accusing you —declares the Becoming One— And I will accuse your children’s children! Just cross over to the isles of the Kittim and look, send to Kedar and observe carefully; see if anything like this has ever happened: has any nation changed its gods even though they are not gods? But my people have exchanged their glory for what can do no good. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be horrified, utterly dazed! —says the Becoming One.

For my people have done a twofold wrong: they have forsaken me, the fount of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, which cannot even hold water.

Queeries for the text:
Why does God make this announcement?
Who is the voice of God?
How does the Becoming One deal with abandonment?
Where is the land no human had traversed and no human had dwelt?
How does land become defiled?
Who was Baal?
Why is the Becoming One accusing and commanding the heavens to be horrified?
How does the Becoming One justify Hir anger?
What is a cistern?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 14:1, 7-14
On one occasion
when Jesus was going to the house

of a leader of the Pharisees
to eat a meal on the sabbath,

they were watching him closely.

⁷When Jesus noticed how the guests chose the places of honor,

he told them a parable.
⁸“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,

do not sit down at the place of honor,

in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host;

⁹and the host who invited both of you

may come and say to you,

‘Give this person your place,’

and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place.

¹⁰But when you are invited,

go and sit down at the lowest place,

so that when your host comes,

your host may say to you,

‘Friend, move up higher’;

then you will be honored

in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.

¹¹For all who exalt themselves will be humbled,

and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

¹²Jesus said also to the one who had invited him,

“When you give a luncheon or a dinner,

do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors,

in case they may invite you in return,

and you would be repaid.

¹³But when you give a banquet,

invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.

¹⁴And you will be blessed,

because they cannot repay you,

for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Queeries for the text:
What did we skip?  What's missing?
How often did Jesus eat with Pharisees?
Who were watching Jesus closely?
How was honor important?
How do we exalt ourselves?
How are relationships transactional?
Are the categories as simple as Jesus claims?  Is Jesus creating a false binary?
Is this a parable or advice?  How has Jesus' advice caused harm to poor and/or disabled people?
What about upward mobility?

What are your queeries?

Queerying 11th after Pentecost 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.

Then 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 hir hand and touched my mouth, and 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:
Can words perform actions?
Do people exist before birth?
What does it mean to be consecrated?
Where else in the world are children used to carry a message? Is this fair?
Where else does the Becoming One touch lips or mouths
Who else does the Becoming One appoint?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 13:10-17
¹⁰Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.

¹¹And just then there appeared a woman

with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years.
She was bent over
and was quite unable to stand up straight.

¹²When Jesus saw her,

he called her over and said,

“Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”

¹³When Jesus laid his hands on her,

immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.

¹⁴But the leader of the synagogue,

indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath,

kept saying to the crowd,

“There are six days on which work ought to be done;

come on those days and be cured,
and not on the sabbath day.”

¹⁵But the One with Authority answered him and said,

“You hypocrites!

Does not each of you on the sabbath untie your ox or your donkey from the manger,

and lead it away to give it water?

¹⁶And ought not this woman,

a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years,

be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?”

¹⁷When Jesus said this,

all his opponents were put to shame;
and the entire crowd was rejoicing

at all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing.

Queeries for the text:
What did we skip this time?
Does any good come from Jesus teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath?
Can children cripple people?
How are spirits and ailments related?
Do we ever want to do anything straight?
What gifts does the sabbath bring?
How are people still in bondage?
How can we be set free?
Who was Jesus' intended audience?

What are your queeries?

Queerying 10th after Pentecost C

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 12:49-56
Jesus said:
⁴⁹“I came to bring fire to the earth,

and how I wish it were already kindled!
⁵⁰I have a baptism with which to be baptized,

and what stress I am under until it is completed!

⁵¹Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?

No, I tell you, but rather division!

⁵²From now on five in one household will be divided,

three against two and two against three;
⁵³they will be divided:

father against son and son against father,
mother against daughter and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

⁵⁴Jesus also said to the crowds,

“When you see a cloud rising in the west,

you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’;

and so it happens.

⁵⁵And when you see the south wind blowing,

you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’;

and it happens.

⁵⁶You hypocrites!

You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky,

but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

Queeries for the text:
What did we skip?  Why do we keep skipping verses?
Was Jesus a pyro?  How is fire helpful?
When are families divided?
Does Jesus bring the division or shed light on it?
What can we interpret from earth and sky?
What is in the present time?
What stress does baptism cause?
How are we divided?

What are your queeries?

Queerying 9th after Pentecost C

Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

1:The prophecies of Isaiah son of Amoz, who prophesied concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
10-20:Hear the word of the Becoming One, you chieftains of Sodom; give ear to our God’s instruction, you folk of Gomorrah!

“What need have I of all your sacrifices?” says the Becoming One. “I am sated with burnt offerings of rams, and suet of fatlings, and blood of bulls; and I have no delight in lambs and he-goats. That you come to appear before me—Who asked that of you? Trample My courts no more; bringing oblations is futile, incense is offensive to me. New moon and sabbath, proclaiming of solemnities, assemblies with iniquity, I cannot abide. Your new moons and fixed seasons fill me with loathing; they became a burden to me, I cannot endure them. And when you lift up your hands, I will turn my eyes away from you; though you pray at length, I will not listen. Your hands are stained with crime— wash yourselves clean; put your evil doings away from My sight. Cease to do evil; learn to do good. Devote yourselves to justice; aid the wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan; defend the cause of the widow.

“Come, let us reach an understanding,—says the Becoming One. Be your sins like crimson, they can turn snow-bright; be they red as dyed wool, they can become like fleece.”

If, then, you agree and give heed, you will eat the good things of the earth; but if you refuse and disobey, you will be devoured by the sword.—for it was the Becoming One who spoke.

Queeries for the text:
When did Isaiah write?
Which Isaiah wrote this?
Who were Sodom and Gomorrah? Who has this reference become toxic to today? Who commits the sin of Sodom today?
Who asked for sacrifices? Why?
What is the significance of new moons and fixed seasons?
What other religious traditions do these commitments sound like?
What is the offer the Becoming One makes at the end? Is it a good one?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 12:32-40
Jesus said:
³²“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Mapa’s good pleasure to give you the reign. ³³Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. ³⁴For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

³⁵“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; ³⁶be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for them as soon as they come and knock. ³⁷Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when they come; truly I tell you, the master will fasten their belt and have them sit down to eat, and they will come and serve them. ³⁸If the master comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

³⁹“But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, ze would not have let zir house be broken into. ⁴⁰You also must be ready, for the Human One is coming at an unexpected hour.”

Queeries for the text:
What did we skip from last time?
Why would Jesus' flock be afraid?
Why would we sell possessions, give alms, and make a purse?
Where is my treasure? our treasure?
What does Jesus' promise mean for capitalism?
What do we need to be ready for?
Why would a master fasten their belt?
Is the Human One a thief?

What are your queeries?