Eureka Christian Church

Reflecting Christ's Light from Our Doorsteps to the Ends of the Earth

The Bible

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What does scripture say about marriage?

What does scripture and Jesus say about marriage/who can marry? Is marriage between a man and women only or can LGBTQ persons legally marry?

As you are probably aware, the issue of same-sex marriage is a controversial and potentially divisive issue in the church. My personal belief is that the Bible is silent regarding who can and cannot marry. The only time I can recall Jesus speaking about marriage is in Mt 22:30, but his comments are in response to Pharisees who are trying to trap Jesus, and are really more about resurrection than marriage. As is often the case, the context of what Jesus is saying is important.

The second part of your question asks if LGBTQ persons can legally marry. In the United States, the answer to that question is determined by individual states, and within Illinois, same-sex marriage is legal. However, I think you mean to ask what the Bible sanctions. Different people answer that question differently – and very passionately. I am providing links below that present opposing views, and you can find people with each of these views within the membership of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

https://www.hrc.org/resources/what-does-the-bible-say-about-homosexuality

https://calvarychapel.com/posts/marriage-by-design-understanding-the-bibles-perspective-on-homosexuality/

What does the Bible say about homosexuality?

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Why in Bible times was the role of pastor always filled by a man?

Why in Bible times was the role of pastor always filled by a man?

            My understanding is that religious leaders were men rather than women because all of society was androcentric, or male focused. That fact was true not only for the people of Israel, but for the people throughout Mesopotamia. It may not be surprising to find that as Judaism and Christianity evolved in such an environment, they became androcentric, or patriarchal in nature as well. It simply reflected the water they were swimming in and the air they were breathing. And the fact that women had so few rights helps explain the concern the prophets and Jesus held for widows; they were among the poor and dispossessed without the men on whom society had made them dependent.

            During the time of the Old Testament, only men who were descended from the tribe of Levi, the tribe of Moses and Aaron could be priests, and they had to be the first-born males in their families. Simply being male did not qualify a man to be a priest. Only specific males could be priests.

            The situation changed for early Christians after the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Initially after the death and resurrection of Jesus, his followers thought of themselves as Jews and not as creators of a new religion. Worship was conducted in the homes of believers, and neither the roles such as deacons and bishops, nor the hierarchy that exists in the church today existed at first. Some prominent women participated in worship, but it doesn’t appear that they led worship as the church was evolving.

            Disciples of Christ today are among the denominations who affirm the gifts that women have for ministry. Eureka Christian Church is blessed with such women, and our Regional Minister and our General Minister and President are capable and extraordinary women who faithfully serve us well.

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Why did God send Satan to test Job?

Why did God send Satan to test Job even though he was already following God’s desires?

While the Book of Job can be interpreted in several ways, it is probably best understood as a narrative (not literal) exploration of the age-old question:  why is there suffering?  Or, more personally: “Why am I suffering?  After all, I’ve tried to do the right thing most of the time.  Oh sure, I’ve messed up a time or two, but overall, I’ve tried to live a Godly life.  So why has this tragedy happened to me?  Is God punishing me?”  Many of us could put ourselves in Job’s shoes.  It is a timeless, universal tale addressing a timeless, universal struggle.

A quick recap in case Job (pronounced with a long o) is unfamiliar to you.  When we meet Job, he is very well off.  He has “seven sons and three daughters, seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and very many servants” (Job 1:2-3).  We also learn that Job is faithful—“blameless and upright” is the way he’s introduced.  But then the scene shifts to the heavenly court.  Ha-Satan (literally, “The Accuser”—think prosecuting attorney, not red pointy-tailed creature) points out that Job is so faithful precisely because God has given him everything.  “Take away Job’s blessings,” Ha-Satan argues, “and then he will curse you, God.”  So God gives permission.  In one tragic day, Job’s oxen, donkeys, and camels are stolen, his sheep are burned up, his servants are murdered, and his children are all killed.  But still Job does not curse God.  So Ha-Satan asks for and receives permission to harm Job himself.  Soon Job’s entire body is covered with sores, and we find him sitting on an ash heap scratching his sores with a pottery shard.  That’s a pretty miserable scene.  Job’s wife bluntly says, “Oh, just curse God and die.” 

All of this happens in the first two chapters.  But the Book of Job is long—forty-two chapters in all.  So what’s the rest of the book about?  Well, the rest of the book (apart from the last eleven verses when Job’s fortunes are restored) is about the struggle to understand in the midst of the pain.

The structure of Job is what I like to call a “sandwich.”  The beginning and the end are a prose folktale, most likely much older than the rest of the book.  In between—the middle of the “sandwich”—is a long poem that explores this question of suffering.  The familiar folktale at the beginning and end proclaims a simple lesson, too-simple really:  “If you are patient in spite of your sufferings, it will all pay off in the end.”  But the middle of Job, by far the bulk of the book, proclaims something else: “When you are suffering, when you are in pain, when you are going through the absolute worst time in your life, you will question everything.  You will question your faith.  You will question all that you have ever learned or known about life.  You will even question God.  And that’s OK because God is big enough to take it.” In adapting an old folktale for his own narrative and theological purposes, the author of the Book of Job accepts the framework that God is testing Job, but that isn’t his focus.  The question our author really wants to wrestle with is this:  How do we continue to relate to God when we feel like we have been abandoned?  And the answer is:  we just keep at it.  We argue.  We complain.  We whine.  We shout.  We question.  We pray.  In the end, what matters is that we stay in there and keep wrestling because it is the conversation with God that is key.  It is the relationship with God that ultimately will lead us back to wholeness and life. 

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What does confidence look like biblically?

What does confidence look like biblically?

There are several ways to understand the word “confidence.”

One can have confidence in self—knowing that you have the gifts within you to do what needs to be done.  I think of young David standing before the Philistine champion Goliath (1 Samuel 17).  Goliath had terrified the army of the Israelites.  But there David was, wearing no armor or protection of any kind and armed only with five stones and a slingshot.  He stood there bravely because he knew that he had the skill within him to prevail.  That is confidence.  Or I think of the woman who came to Jesus asking for him to heal her daughter (Mark 7:24-30).  Strangely, it seems at first like Jesus is going to deny her desperate plea, but she is firm.  She will not rest or keep silent until Jesus acts.  Can you imagine the courage it took for her to advocate for her daughter like that—before Jesus himself?!  Now that is confidence!

One can have confidence in God—this is more along the lines of trust.  Trusting in God’s guidance for our lives; trusting that God will see us through any trial.  The Bible is filled with stories of people who put their confidence in God.  Abraham and Sarah left their country and their family to move to a new home, to go out into the great unknown because they understood that is what God wanted them to do (Genesis 12:1-9).  They put their confidence in God to see them through the wilderness.  When the angel came to Mary and said, “You will conceive and bear a son,” Mary said, “Let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:26-38).  She said this even though she knew that once people found out she was with child, she would be the target of much gossip and deep public shaming.  Mary trusted that God would see her through all that heartache.  The Psalms are also a good place to turn for examples of confidence in God.  (Read Psalms 13, 23, 27, 62, 91, and 121, for example.)

One can have confidence in others—recognizing that others have important contributions to make and that we never have to go it alone.  It is worth noting that even Jesus himself didn’t go it alone.  One of the first things he did in his ministry was to call others to work with him (Matthew 4:18-22).  He knew that his disciples had wonderful gifts to share; he had confidence in their abilities.  The Apostle Paul, who started many of the earliest churches, did not insist on doing everything himself either.  Instead, he knew that everyone has a different gift or skill to share.  Paul compared the church to a body: “As it is, there are many members, yet one body.  The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Corinthians 12:20-21).  The vision is for everyone to feel free to do their part.  This is what makes us complete together. 

One final thought:  Perhaps this question is asking about when confidence shifts from being something that is healthy to something that is harmful.  (This is one of the challenges of our Questions ministry; it’s hard to know if we are responding to the actual question!)  Sometimes we talk about the “sin of pride.”  Pride (confidence) by itself is not a bad thing.  In fact, I believe that God delights when we feel good about ourselves and the gifts we have to share.  After all, in the moment of creation, God looks around and sees that it is all “very good” (Genesis 1:31).  Things take a turn, however, when pride begins to consume us—when we become boastful, arrogant, or rude (1 Corinthians 13:4-5) or when we begin to think of ourselves as better than another (Romans 12:3).  This is neither confidence nor pride; it is self-centeredness.

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Why does the Bible make me feel like nothing I do will be right by God?

Why does the Bible make me feel like I should die? Like nothing I do will be right by God?

I’m sorry that reading the Bible makes you feel as it does. And it’s true that some parts of the Bible, like Jesus’ instructions to “turn the other cheek,” (Mt. 5:38-40, NRSV) or to “go, sell your possessions, and give your money to the poor,” (Mt. 19:21, NRSV) sound like impossible ideals for us to live up to.  You may find comfort in knowing that Paul, to whom authorship of much of the New Testament is attributed, also felt badly about his inability to live as he believed God intended him to live.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (Romans 7:15-19, NRSV).

Paul, however, also understood the power of God’s grace and God’s desire for us to be justified, or made right, with God through our faith in Christ. In the same letter to the Romans, he also wrote, “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.  For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1-4.NRSV).

Please know that you are not beyond God’s reach, God’s power to forgive, or God’s love, and that God longs to be in relationship with you.

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Why have we been cursed, yet blessed?

Why have we been cursed, yet blessed?

These questions have vexed theologians for thousands of years, and as you might imagine, they have generated a variety of responses. Some believe that the blessings are God’s reward for righteous, or faithful living, while the curses are punishment for unrighteous and unfaithful living. Others believe that moments of suffering, or curses are meant to be times for us to learn something important from our suffering, and that we will be rewarded for enduring suffering, either in this life or in a life to come.

You began your question by asking, “why?” The premise of your question is that there is a why. Some would say that there is no “why,” and that suffering is simply part of the human condition. I don’t presume to know who is right and who is wrong, and if I’m completely honest, I need to admit that before I share what makes sense to me. I don’t think of God as a God who is controlling every event that happens in the world, that is, every blessing and every curse.  Instead, God cedes some of God’s power to humankind and gives us the freedom to make choices – some good and some not as good – to allow us the opportunity to grow and flourish. But I don’t believe God is indifferent. God is present even when we suffer. God is more like the loving parent who kisses her child as she walks out the door in the morning and says, “make good choices today.” We need that freedom to grow, to flourish and to live out our potential, to become all that we can be; and that involves risk on God’s part. I believe that risk is an inherent part of God’s creation. Some will argue with me and say, “but couldn’t God have created a world without that risk and without the likes of Adolph Hitler?” Perhaps. But that may also be a world without Jesus, Mozart, Albert Schweitzer, or Mother Theresa.

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Why did Jesus have to die?

Question: Why did Jesus have to die?

It is quite likely that Jesus understood himself to be the Messiah of Jewish tradition, whose role it was to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God. Furthermore, it is likely that he expected to play an important role in that kingdom — indeed, that he would become king of the Jews.

It is the latter expectation that probably caught the attention of the Roman authorities. Contrary to much popular opinion, the Roman government was not intolerant of religion. There were many religions in the Roman Empire, and they were not persecuted — so long as they performed their duty to worship and make sacrifice to the official Roman gods. But the one thing the Roman authorities would not tolerate was the refusal to worship the official gods, or for someone to proclaim themselves to be king over against the Roman emperor.

Thus, from the perspective of the Roman authorities, Jesus—who was being proclaimed as King of the Jews—“had to die.” He had to be executed.

However, some of his followers reported experiences in which Jesus was alive again. As these reports spread among his followers, the stories those followers told one another began to evolve.

The letters of Paul which were written beginning around 50 C.E. reveal some of this evolving message. It’s in these letters that we first hear some of the themes that will become important in the later Christian message. The Gospels — written between 70 and 90-100 C.E. — continued the evolution of this Christian message. It’s important to note that the letters and the Gospels now used language to describe Jesus— such as “Son of God,” “Lord,” and “Savior” — that had formerly been used to describe the emperor.

With this evolution of the message about Jesus also came the proclamation that he “had to die” to bring about our salvation.

For further exploration, I recommend Marcus Borg’s Evolution of the Word. Borg has a clear and helpful explanation of how the message about Jesus evolved. He has also arranged the books of the New Testament in the order in which we believe they were written, thereby providing an interesting new perspective.

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Jesus, the Son of God

Question: The Gospels all proclaim that Jesus is not only a son of God, but the Son of God. Do you think Jesus would have said this about himself?

It’s important to first think about what the Gospels are and are not. The Gospels were written 35 to 60 years after Jesus’ death. They are not histories as we think of histories. They are narrating stories about Jesus that had been handed down by the followers of Jesus to guide the beliefs and practices of the followers of Jesus in their day. A clear clue to the nature of the Gospels is found in the Gospel of John, where we read the gospel was written “that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God” (20:20-31).

With this in mind, it is interesting that — so far as I can tell — in none of the Gospels does Jesus unambiguously refer to himself as the Son of God. It is someone else who makes this identification, and Jesus often simply says, “You say that I am.” His response neither affirms nor denies the identification.

Jesus does seem to accept the title of Messiah. There are good reasons for thinking that he considered himself to be the Messiah in a specific sense — namely, as one who has been called to proclaim the coming of the kingdom of God, which would soon arrive.

But it doesn’t seem that he thought himself to be or said he was the Son of God. That was something the Gospel writers proclaimed on behalf of the community that had come to believe Jesus had risen from the dead and therefore must be divine.

If you’d like to explore this topic in greater depth, I recommend a book by Bart D. Ehrman entitled How Jesus Became God. It’s not an easy read, but it’s worth the effort.