Queerying 22nd after Pentecost C

Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 20:27-38
²⁷Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus ²⁸and asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. ²⁹Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; ³⁰then the second ³¹and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. ³²Finally the woman also died. ³³In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”

³⁴Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; ³⁵but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. ³⁶Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. ³⁷And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Becoming One as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. ³⁸Now God is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to God all of them are alive.”

Queeries for the text:
What did we skip?
Why ask about what you don't believe?
Why ask theoretical questions?
What if she didn't want to marry any of the men?
Which ages are we talking about?
What does it mean to be alive?
What are angels like?

What are your queeries?

Queerying 19th after Pentecost C

Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Jeremiah 31:27-34

See, a time is coming—declares the Becoming One—when I will sow the House of Israel and the House of Judah with seed of humans and seed of cattle;  and just as I was watchful over them to uproot and to pull down, to overthrow and to destroy and to bring disaster, so I will be watchful over them to build and to plant—declares the Becoming One. In those days, they shall no longer say, “Parents have eaten sour grapes and children’s teeth are blunted.” But every one shall die for their own sins: whoever eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be blunted.  See, a time is coming—declares the Becoming One—when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors, when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, a covenant which they broke, though I espoused them—declares the Becoming One. But such is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel after these days—declares the Becoming One: I will put my teaching into their inmost being and inscribe it upon their hearts. Then I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer will they need to teach one another and say to one another, “Heed the Becoming One”; for all of them, from the least of them to the greatest, shall heed Me—declares the Becoming One. For I will forgive their iniquities, and remember their sins no more.

Queeries for the text:
Who is the House of Israel?
Are humans and cows planted?
What are sour grapes?
How are teeth blunted?
How might we have our hearts inscribed?
How do we do the work of forgiveness?
Does God forget when ze forgives?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.
 

Gospel: Luke 18:1-8

Then Jesus told the disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. ²Jesus 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, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’  

⁴For a while the judge refused; but later said to zirself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’”

⁶And the Powerful One said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷And will not God grant justice to Faer chosen ones who cry to Fae day and night? Will Fae delay long in helping them? ⁸I tell you, Fae will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Human One comes, will Ze find faith on earth?”

Queeries for the text:
What did we skip?
What kind of judge are we talking about?
What if the widow had not been just in her request?
How do we wear out the unjust?
Who is more God-like: the widow or the judge?
Where does the after explanation come from?
What does it take for the widow to get justice? 

What are your queeries?

Queerying 18th after Pentecost C

Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Jeremiah 29:1, [2-3], 4-7

This is the text of the letter which the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the priests, the prophets, the rest of the elders of the exile community, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon  

[after King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen and smiths had left Jerusalem. [The letter was sent] through Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah had dispatched to Babylon, to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.]

Thus said the Becoming God of Angel Armies, the God of Israel, to the whole community which I exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there, do not decrease. And seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to the Becoming One on its behalf; for in its prosperity you shall prosper.

Queeries for the text:
How might this text be sent today?
Is the omitted portion necessary? Why was it omitted?
Where were the Angel Armies before the exile?
Who can build houses?
Who are the acceptable family members?
Who is erased in this passage?
Why is multiplication important?
What is the advice of this text to the exiles? What advice would you give instead?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 17:11-19
¹¹On the way to Jerusalem

Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.

¹²As he entered a village,

ten people who had leprosy approached him.

Keeping their distance,

¹³they called out, saying,

“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

¹⁴When Jesus saw them, he said to them,

“Go and show yourselves to the priests.”

And as they went,

they were made clean.

¹⁵Then one of them,

when ze saw that ze was healed,

turned back,

praising God with a loud voice.

¹⁶Ze prostrated zirself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.

And ze was a Samaritan.

¹⁷Then Jesus asked,

“Were not ten made clean?

But the other nine, where are they?

¹⁸Was none of them found to return and give praise to God

except this foreigner?”

¹⁹Then Jesus said to zem,

“Get up and go on your way;

your faith has made you well.”

Queeries for the text:
How much does the number 10 matter?
Why did the one turn back?  Why didn't the 9?
Why does it matter that ze was a Samaritan?
In returning to Jesus, did the Samaritan come out about zir identity?
Where can we give praise to the Divine?
Who isn't a foreigner in the region between two places?
Why does praising the Samaritan's faith matter?
Who are foreigners?  Who have always lived in the place?



What are your queeries?

Queerying 17th after Pentecost C

Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Lamentations 1:1-5

Alas! Lonely sits the city that was once great with people! She that was great among nations has become like a widow. The princess among states has become a thrall. Bitterly she weeps in the night, her cheek wet with tears. There is none to comfort her of all her friends. All her allies have betrayed her; they have become her foes. Judah has gone into exile because of misery and harsh oppression; When she settled among the nations, she found no rest; all her pursuers overtook her in the narrow places. Zion's roads are in mourning, empty of festival pilgrims; all her gates are deserted. Her priests sigh, her maidens are unhappy—she is utterly disconsolate! Her enemies are now the masters, her foes are at ease, because the Becoming One has afflicted her for her many transgressions; her infants have gone into captivity before the enemy.

Queeries for the text:
What cities were once great with people?
Who weeps bitterly in the night? Why?
Who has been betrayed?
Who is in exile?
Where are there roads in mourning?
Where are the gates deserted?
Who is disconsolate?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 17:5-10
⁵The apostles said to the Powerful One, “Increase our faith!”

⁶The Powerful One replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

⁷“Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? ⁸Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? ⁹Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? ¹⁰So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”

Queeries for the text:
What did we skip? Why might that be?
How does someone go about increasing someone else's faith?
What does Jesus' question imply about slavery?
(How) is slavery (in)compatible with following Jesus?
What sort of environment do mulberry trees need to grow?
Who among us has slaves?
Who does and who doesn't get a place at the table?

What are your queeries?

Queerying 16th after Pentecost C

Periodic queerier, River Needham, queeries the Tanakh reading.

Tanakh: Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Becoming One in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the prison compound attached to the palace of the king of Judah. For King Zedekiah of Judah had confined him,
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Jeremiah said: The word of the Becoming One came to me:

Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, will come to you and say,

“Buy my land in Anathoth, for you are next in succession to redeem it by purchase.”

And just as the Becoming One had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the prison compound and said to me,

“Please buy my land in Anathoth, in the territory of Benjamin; for the right of succession is yours, and you have the duty of redemption. Buy it.”

Then I knew that it was indeed the word of the Becoming One. So I bought the land in Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver.I wrote a deed, sealed it, and had it witnessed; and I weighed out the silver on a balance. I took the deed of purchase, the sealed text and the open one according to rule and law, and gave the deed to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah in the presence of my kinsman Hanamel, of the witnesses who were named in the deed, and all the Judeans who were sitting in the prison compound.  In their presence I charged Baruch as follows:

Thus said the Ruler of Angel Armies, the God of Israel: “Take these documents, this deed of purchase, the sealed text and the open one, and put them into an earthen jar, so that they may last a long time.”

For thus said the God of Angel Armies, the God of Israel: “Houses, fields, and vineyards shall again be purchased in this land.”

Queeries for the text:
What is missing from this reading?
When did this happen? What did the world look like?
Who is confined?
Where is Anathoth?
When can prisoners buy and sell today?
How long do earthen jars last?
When were houses, fields and vineyards again purchased in the land? Who remained in the land?

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Rev. Emily E. Ewing queeries the Gospel reading.

Gospel: Luke 16:19-31

Jesus said:
¹⁹“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. ²⁰And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.

²²The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.

²⁴He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’

²⁵But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. ²⁶Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’

²⁷He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— ²⁸for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’

²⁹Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’

³⁰He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’

³¹He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Queeries for the text:
What did we skip?  Why?
What is with Jesus and all the rich folks?!
What's so great about purple?
What does the name Lazarus mean? Why is the name important?
What impact do dogs have?
Why does the rich man still think he can get what he wants?
Is the after life zero-sum?
What will it take for true repentance from evil?

What are your queeries?

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.
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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?