Diversion: Marriage as Community

Not surprisingly, John Vest’s contribution last week to the Fourth Church class on the marriage and the church was excellent and not long enough. For the first time, someone has explained for me, fairly simply even, what exactly the point of Christian marriage is and how it relates to God. The class two Sundays ago went through a whirlwind tour of bible passages that make reference to marriage and relationships, both good and bad passages to a present day progressive’s eye.

Two key lessons from the class:

1. The Bible has crazy things to say about marriage. As such, the concept that conservatives like to throw around of “biblical marriage” is ridiculous and means essentially nothing. Unless, of course, by biblical marriage, they mean marriage where wives are treated as property, where multiple wives are allowed, where adulters are stoned to death, where widows get the privilege of marrying their dead spouse’s brother, or where you’re locked in because you can’t have a divorce. I’m sure that’s exactly what they’re thinking of…
2. Marriage as a reflection of God, in the sense that God actually is relational (Trinity). This is the one that pretty much blew my mind. Said in another way, marriage is a recognition of the need for and value of community and it’s that relationship that is a reflection of what God is.

So, John didn’t exactly expound on this second point (in fact, he kind of backpedaled on it when someone in the class asked a question that took it in a different direction), but my boyfriend and I spent a lot of time discussing and dissecting it afterwards. I’m not talking about the whole “marriage is a reflection of the vertical covenant that God has with us” thing. I’m talking about the horizontal relationship between two people is a reflection of the relationship of God. Considering God is three entities in one, you can’t really get any closer than that. There’s no way, really, that people can be as close to each other as God-Jesus-Holy Spirit are to each other (since they’re one). So, marriage in the Christian (rather than legal) sense and the bonds of love that tie people together (including emotional and sexual) are the closest we can get. And then my boyfriend pointed this out in Genesis:

²⁶ Then God said, “ Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth. ”

²⁷ God created humanity

in God’s own image,

in the divine image God created them,^b

male and female God created them. – Genesis 1: 26-27

I think we all usually read that as God talking in the “royal we.” But, what if “us” meant he was talking inclusively about all aspects of the trinity? So then, the us is the trinity, but also, when it says “Let us make humanity in our image,” the us is again the trinity and the people are in the image of a community. I don’t know…kinda out there, but also kinda blew my mind and made me excited. My value system is very community-oriented and to think that marriage could be a reflection of ideal community via the trinity is pretty awesome. Of course, I am no expert and none of this is grounded in any theological study, but it answers my question, and I suppose that’s good enough for me.

I’ll leave you with a lovely song about Christmas and the Trinity:

Rules, Rules, Rules (Leviticus 19-20, Psalm 23-24)

Today’s post will focus on Leviticus 19. There’s a lot to unpack in this chapter, so I’m just going to be talk about each aspect individually, rather than try too hard to link it all.

The first part of this chapter that struck me were the rules about harvesting the land:

^“9 When you harvest your land’s produce, you must not harvest all the way to the edge of your field; and don’t gather up every remaining bit of your harvest. ¹⁰ Also do not pick your vineyard clean or gather up all the grapes that have fallen there. Leave these items for the poor and the immigrant; I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 19: 9-10)

I breathe a sigh of relief as I continue to find tidbits in the Old Testament that are about kindness, caring and other things that might fall under the general heading of social justice, something I believe in a lot. With the way the conservative right is ranting and raving against government spending and social safety nets, it’s nice to see that, no, actually, God cares about the poor and wants everyone to do so, too. I also like the Fourth Church Youth video that goes with these particular verses. They posted it around the time of the “Souper Bowl of Caring” (when they collect food and money during Super Bowl weekend) and chose to focus on the topic of food insecurity. Food insecurity is generally thought of at an international scale, particularly in areas in the Global South, but there are serious issues with food insecurity in our backyard, as well, so I was glad to see them link also to food desserts. I recently attended an event about eating mercifully (more on that in a future post) and the idea of only taking from the land what we need and leaving the rest for the poor, immigrants, animals, etc. is important on so many levels.

So on the one hand, you’ve got rules like the one above and the golden rule:

^“18 You must not take revenge nor hold a grudge against any of your people; instead, you must love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD .” (Leviticus 19: 18)

But then, there are rules like these:

^“19 You must keep my rules. Do not crossbreed your livestock, do not plant your field with two kinds of seed, and do not wear clothes made from two kinds of material.” (Leviticus 19: 19)

So, obviously, if you were to arbitrarily pick and choose which ones you follow today and which ones not, that wouldn’t be a very faithful reading. So then how are you supposed to pick through these rules and figure out what applies and what doesn’t? Historical context seems to help. Alas, I don’t know very much, so I won’t be of much help.

Luckily, there are a few more good ones in here:

^“33 When immigrants live in your land with you, you must not cheat them. ³⁴ Any immigrant who lives with you must be treated as if they were one of your citizens. You must love them as yourself, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God. ³⁵ You must not act unjustly in a legal case involving measures of length, weight, or volume. ³⁶ You must have accurate scales and accurate weights, an accurate ephah^e and an accurate hin.” (Leviticus 19: 33-36)

Treating immigrants like humans! What a concept. Not cheating! Again, sometimes you have to wonder how bad the Israelites were that they had to be told things like this. But then you look at today’s society and you realize, oh, yes, people do need reminders like these.

I’ll leave you with one more random thought, a question really. This is from Leviticus 20. What’s the deal with “Molech?” Is this another name for the devil or something? Sometimes as I read this, I feel like I’m jumping into a tv series in the second season and I missed out on the introduction of all these characters (see later, Balaam).

Take That, Old Testament (Leviticus 17-18, Acts 10)

Leviticus 18 begins similarly to something I posted about previously, where it seems that all these rules are God’s way of separating the Jews out from everyone else as a deliberate establishment of a new religion.

“The LORD said to Moses, ² Speak to the Israelites and say to them: I am the LORD your God. ³ You must not do things like they are done in the land of Egypt, where you used to live. And you must not do things like they are done in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. You must not follow the practices^q of those places. ⁴ No, my regulations and my rules are the ones you must keep by following them: I am the LORD your God. ⁵ You must keep my rules and my regulations; by doing them one will live; I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 18: 1-5)

But then it takes a turn for the awkward and unsettling–discussions about sexual practices. While for the most part, it covers incest, adultery and bestiality, it also has a problematic verse that many have taken to mean something broader than what it sounds like:

²² You must not have sexual intercourse with a man as you would with a woman; it is a detestable practice. (Leviticus 18: 22)

Not sure what to say about that. In the context of the rest of the chapter, it’s not as harsh as it sounds. I’ve heard an explanation that the rules in Leviticus just have to do with things God doesn’t want the Israelites to do, so as to make them different. And if you are to look later in similar chapters, you’ll see long lists of things that today are not considered bad, like in Leviticus 19 (wearing clothes of two materials, eating things with blood, mixing plants on a field, crossbreeding livestock). Also, I’ve heard the explanation that men treated women as property, even in intimate relations, so it could be saying that when two men have sex, the one shouldn’t treat the other like property. Then there’s the explanation that all these rules are purity laws about being “unclean” and not fit for worship time specifically, not necessarily everyday life. There’s also the explanation that many of the rules found in the Old Testament have more to do with the propagation of a brand new nation (and not wasting procreation opportunities), than with actual delineations of right versus wrong.

But then, the beauty of reading the Old and New Testaments in parallel becomes apparent, as does the beauty of Jesus and the New Testament, in Acts 10. It tells the story of Peter learning what exactly Jesus’ message was about love, and basically it’s a direct rejection of the concepts of “cleanliness” and favoritism found in the Old Testament, particularly in this day’s Leviticus chapters. The Fourth Church Youth video describes it a bit, but I’ll let the text speak for itself:

⁹ At noon on the following day, as their journey brought them close to the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. ¹⁰ He became hungry and wanted to eat. While others were preparing the meal, he had a visionary experience. ¹¹ He saw heaven opened up and something like a large linen sheet being lowered to the earth by its four corners. ¹² Inside the sheet were all kinds of four-legged animals, reptiles, and wild birds.^b13 A voice told him, “ Get up, Peter! Kill and eat! ”

¹⁴ Peter exclaimed, “ Absolutely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean. ”

¹⁵ The voice spoke a second time, “ Never consider unclean what God has made pure. ” ¹⁶ This happened three times, then the object was suddenly pulled back into heaven.

…

²⁷ As they continued to talk, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. ²⁸ He said to them, “ You all realize that it is forbidden for a Jew to associate or visit with outsiders. However, God has shown me that I should never call a person impure or unclean. ²⁹ For this reason, when you sent for me, I came without objection. I want to know, then, why you sent for me. ”

³⁰ Cornelius answered, “ Four days ago at this same time, three o’clock in the afternoon, I was praying at home. Suddenly a man in radiant clothing stood before me. ³¹ He said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayers, and your compassionate acts are like a memorial offering to him. ³² Therefore, send someone to Joppa and summon Simon, who is known as Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, located near the seacoast.’ ³³ I sent for you right away, and you were kind enough to come. Now, here we are, gathered in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has directed you to say. ”

³⁴ Peter said, “ I really am learning that God doesn’t show partiality to one group of people over another. ³⁵ Rather, in every nation, whoever worships him and does what is right is acceptable to him. ³⁶ This is the message of peace he sent to the Israelites by proclaiming the good news through Jesus Christ: He is Lord of all! (Acts 10: 9-16, 27-36) (emphasis mine)

How awesome is that? Right there in the New Testament, it explains that we’re not supposed to be following the rules from the Old Testament. I never realized that it said it this directly, and oh, how it changes everything!

God as Dictator? (Leviticus 15-16, Acts 9)

Leviticus 15 is pretty awkward. Regulations on sexual emissions! The February 20th Daily Devotion for this reading tries to make the argument that passages like this prove that God isn’t a dictator. Basically, Sarah Bennett is saying that the ridiculousness of these laws prove that we need to examine our laws regularly in a two-sided relationship with God. She uses A.J. Jacob’ The Year of Living Biblically to support that argument, and further states that,

“Israel’s laws were given by God to provide structure to an ever-changing community on a journey. But they were meant to be revised, changed, or even thrown out. Change can be difficult to handle, but it is important to remember that just because something is a law does not mean it is or should be permanent.” (Sarah Bennett, Feb. 20th)

I’d say that with a passage like this, that view of the laws seems strengthened when you consider context and history, as I mentioned in my post about laws regarding skin disease. At the time, they didn’t understand bodily fluids, their purposes, their origins, etc., and well, if you don’t understand it, it’s pretty scary and distressing (as everyone probably remembers from puberty), so it’s no wonder that they would make such strict rules about this thing they didn’t understand.

On the one hand, I feel like it’s a stretch to use a passage like this to make an argument for God not being a dictator, but on the other hand, I ultimately agree and I do think that to take passages like this literally goes against the spirit of the message of the bible and Jesus.

No Drinking in Church (Leviticus 10)

Leviticus 10 contains a lot of rules for the priests, but one that struck me as kind of funny is this one:

^“8 The LORD said to Aaron: ⁹ Both you and your sons must not drink wine or beer when you enter the meeting tent so that you don’t die—this is a permanent rule throughout your future generations— ¹⁰ so that you can distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, ¹¹and so that you can teach the Israelites all the rules that the LORD spoke to them through Moses.” (Leviticus 10: 8-11)

So, no drinking wine in the tent/temple/church? Interesting that Christians serve wine in church. Though, I suppose if you’re Catholic, you don’t think it’s “wine,” it’s actually Jesus’ blood. But still…you’ll be unclean and you’ll die. Harsh.

So Many Rules (Leviticus 1-3)

While Leviticus 1-3 wasn’t quite as dull as some parts of Exodus were, it’s still difficult to read through these long lists of rules that really don’t seem to apply at all today. Like, what exactly is an entirely burned offering (Leviticus 1: 3-17)? So much time is spent, not just here, throughout the Old Testament even, talking about them…what are they? I understand that the phrase is translated differently in other versions of the bible, but if this version is supposed to be such plain language, what is it supposed to mean?

The Fourth Church Youth video by John Vest that went with this reading talks about the way physicality can play a role in faith, as shown through Leviticus. And the daily devotion by Judith Watt that went with this reading addresses the fact that because of Jesus, we don’t follow all these tedious rules anymore. Instead, the gist of what we’re supposed to take from all these rules of lists is that we should try to do our best.

“The first three chapters of Leviticus are instructions given to the Israelites about proper worship. Proper worship in the earliest days of the formation of God’s people was centered around sacrifice at the altar and the centrality of the temple. We find ourselves reading these lists, quickly dismissing them. I can’t imagine how many of us could have met the obligations of proper worship in that day. And yet the theme that jumps out at me in reading all of these lists and also in reading the Acts story about Ananias and Sapphira [Acts 5] is the idea that God deserves our best. Thankfully, Jesus has given us a message that turns all of these former lists upside down. Our best is the best we have to offer in how we live and how we love. We don’t have to be perfect or unblemished or rich or smart to please God. We simply have to offer our best.” (Judith Watt, Feb. 14)

God’s Really Specific About His Interior Decorating (Exodus 25-30, 35-40)

Reading through the second half of Exodus was really a slog. Exodus 25-30 gives very specific instructions about what gifts God wants, instructions to build a chest to hold the covenant, instructions to build a table, instructions to build a lampstand, instructions for the building to contain all these things, including how to decorate the building, instructions to build an altar, instructions on how to decorate the building’s courtyard, what kind of oil to use in the lampstand, instructions for what priests should wear down to the details of thread color, ornamental vests, pendants and other pieces of clothing, instructions for priest ordination, instructions for how to make entirely burnt offerings, instructions for incense, instructions for a census and a required amount of money donated, instructions for building a washbasin, and more instructions for oil and incense. It’s very very specific (measurements, colors, etc.) and very long. And then you get Exodus 35-40, where the Israelites actually go and do all the things he asked for…and it’s chronicled in the same extensive detail.

So….why so much detail? Are we really supposed to care about the color of the robes or the height of the altar? Really? I was told that it’s not so much the details themselves that matter, but the fact that they followed everything God asked for down to the detail. Earlier parts of Exodus talk about the people not believing God or Moses or not trusting them and so not following what was asked of them. Then they had a change of heart (I’ll catch up on that post at some point) and now they are following everything down to the tee because they do trust. Then the question becomes, why is God asking for such specific things of the Israelites. On this question, I was told that it’s because He was trying to set them apart as a different type of people than everyone else who worshiped whatever other god. As in, they were the chosen people, so they needed to act in a certain way so it was clear to everyone that they were different and had different customs and rules.

My boyfriend further informed me that later when Jesus came, that separateness was blown apart and God was opened up to anyone, not just the “chosen people.” Kinda like Judaism was a sort of beta test for God’s religion, or like a charter membership. The first ones in got special treatment and extra benefits in exchange for taking a risk on a new thing and giving up more than others later would have to (picture all the iPhone buyers who bought them at like $500 with non-working antennae, only to have other people buy them six months later at like $200 with all the bugs worked out). That just really struck me as a good frame with which to look at the difference between Judaism and Christianity or the Old Testament and the New Testament. It also makes it easier to read all these extensive rules about faith (there’s a lot more to come, I’m told…eeep, Leviticus!) and see how they don’t necessarily directly apply to current day life, especially for Christians (might be different if you’re Jewish).

As always, I appreciate feedback, more answers, more questions, comments, arguments, etc.!