1 Corinthians
6:12-20
This morning we begin a new four part
sermon series on stewardship. Some of
you will be happy to know that I am not preaching on money for four weeks straight. I will save the money talk for the end of the
series, our stewardship dedication Sunday on November 13th. In the meantime, I want to address how we
treat other areas of our lives that are also gifts from God under our care and
requiring our careful stewardship. In
that line, today we are talking about the stewardship of the body.
Historically, the church has not been
very comfortable with bodies. In fact,
we often have not known what to do with them.
Are bodies good creations of a loving God, or are bodies sinful things
that lead us astray? You can find both
answers in the history of the Christian church.
But, what you find more often than anything is simply a desire to ignore
the body. Bodies make us uncomfortable
and so we have a tendency to pretend that they don’t matter.
That was the argument of the people in
the community of Corinth. Bodies die and
are over, they said, what we do with our bodies doesn’t matter. Paul disagreed because Paul thought that
bodies mattered a whole lot. Paul
thought the body was a temple for the Lord.
Even better, I think, is the word sanctuary. The body is a sanctuary of the divine. Does that change the way we think about
things? Paul certainly thought so.
The folks in Corinth felt like they
could do whatever they wanted with their bodies. With new freedom in Christ, then all things
would be forgiven, and all acts were acceptable under that forgiveness. Even engaging in sex with a prostitute was
acceptable. Paul vehemently
disagreed. What happens to your body
matters to your soul; who you choose to have sex with matters to your body and
to your soul. “You wouldn’t unite your
soul with a prostitute, often working in the service of another religion, so
why would you unite your body with them?” Paul asked. Paul wanted people to understand that these
things had staying power and were not to be taken lightly. Your body is a gift from God, Paul taught, a
holy sanctuary, and you should treat it as such.
One of the most compelling arguments
for the value of the body is found in the person and nature of Jesus
Christ. Rather than telling a story of a
God who overcomes bodily existence to live in an entirely spiritual realm, we
tell the story of a God who chooses to be embodied. We tell the story of a God who was formed in
a womb and born naturally from a woman.
We tell the story of a God who cried and spit up and wore dirty diapers. As he grew into a man, Jesus’ body did all
the things our bodies do. He got hungry,
he got tired, he probably threw up and had diarrhea sometimes. Jesus had sexual urges in his body and boogers
in his nose. Jesus had toe-jam and belly
button lint and dirt under his fingernails.
Our God had a body and embraced that experience. If Jesus had lived long enough, he would have
had an old body, and that would have been a beautiful thing. Our God is an embodied God.
So too, God created us to be an embodied
people. In the beginning when there was
nothing, God took the dirt and like a sculptor God formed the first body. God filled that body with the breath of life
and God called that creation very good.
Bodies are the epitome of creation.
Bodies are very good. Bodies are
an essential part of the whole of who we are.
Bodily existence cannot be subordinate to the spiritual life; rather the
two are interconnected in divine perfection.
This whole package; mind, body, and soul are a perfect creation, a
perfect gift to us, from a loving God.
So then, why do we hate our bodies so
much? In our society bodies have become
a thing of confusion and shame. Our
culture glorifies the body as something to be constantly improving and
investing in. And yet it also shames the
body by convincing us that our bodies are never good enough. Especially for women, body issues are a real
thing. Author Brené Brown points out
that one of the key aspects of being a woman in our society is working to
improve your body, or at least complaining about how it looks. Our bodies are one of our most amazing gifts
from God, they take us from here to there, pump blood through our veins and
bring oxygen into our lungs, and yet we continually tell ourselves that they
are not perfect. I can hardly think of a
more perfect gift.
So, how
do we practice good stewardship of our bodies?
Well, for starters we try to love them.
Barbara Brown Taylor has some interesting ideas about this in her book An Altar in the World. She writes . . .
“I can
say that I think it is important to pray naked in front of a full-length mirror
sometimes, especially when you are full of loathing for your body. Maybe you think you are too heavy. Maybe you have never liked the way your
hipbones stick out. Do your breasts
sag? Are you too hairy? It is always something. Then again, maybe you have been sick, or come
through some surgery that has changed the way you look. You have gotten glimpses of your body as you
have bathed or changed clothes, but so far maintaining your equilibrium has
depended upon staying covered up as much as you can. You have even discovered how to shower in the
dark, so that you may have to feel what you presently loath about yourself but
you do not have to look at it.
This can
only go on so long, especially for someone who officially believes that God
loves flesh and blood, no matter what kind of shape it is in. Whether you are sick or well, lovely or
irregular, there comes a time when it is vitally important for your spiritual
health to drop your clothes, look in the mirror, and say, “Here I am. This is the body-like-no-other that my life
has shaped. I live here. This is my soul’s address.” After you have taken a good look around, you
may decide that there is a lot to be thankful for, all things considered. Bodies take real beatings. That they heal from most things is an
underrated miracle. That they give birth
is beyond reckoning. When I do this, I
generally decide that it is time to do a better job of wearing my skin with gratitude
instead of loathing.”
What do you think? Can you say a prayer of thanksgiving while
you stand naked in front of a mirror?
Thanksgiving for stretch marks and for surgical scars, for bruises that
won’t go away and for scars from childhood playground incidents, thanksgiving
for those wrinkles that demonstrate a life well lived, or those few extra
pounds that show a love of good food and wine.
It can be a scary prospect to really look at our bodies and embrace them
as the gift that they are, but I promise to try it this week and I hope you
will to.
Another aspect of good stewardship of
our bodies is reminding ourselves that other people’s bodies matter as
well. This has been a topic of
conversation at a national level with this presidential election. Is it OK to touch bodies without permission? Is it OK to say things about other people’s
bodies in a disrespectful manner? Is it
OK to treat some bodies like property, like they are ours for the taking? Paul would certainly so no. Paul would tell us that all bodies were
purchased at the price of Jesus’ own life and death and so all bodies are to be
treated with respect and love. If my
body is a sanctuary of the divine, then so is everyone else’s. That demands a certain level of respect.
It’s not very often that the exact
subject of our sermon comes to church that same day but lucky for me, every
person here brought their body with them.
The very thing I am talking about loving and respecting is sitting in
the pew with you right now. And so I ask
you to take a moment and look at your body.
(You can keep your clothes on.)
Look at your hands . . . are they the young nimble hands of a child or
are they wrinkled and spotted with age?
These hands, these fingers that do so much, are a wonderful gift from a
loving God. Look at your mid-section,
that spot that most of us hate. That
belly there, that shakes when you laugh, that powers you through the world,
that houses heart and lungs; it is a wonderful gift from a loving God. Look at your legs and feet, stretch them out,
feel them and notice them. These legs
and feet have carried you for miles, through a lifetime of adventure. They may be failing now, full of aches and
pains, but they have been faithful companions for so long. They are a wonderful gift from a loving God.
Your body is a beautiful miracle and
how you treat it matters. Take care of
it, exercise it, respect it, and most importantly love it. Those extra 10 pounds or signs of age don’t
matter nearly as much as the negative self-talk we often give ourselves
regarding our bodies. This week, I
challenge you to be a good steward of the wonderful amazing gift of your
body. Notice it, pay attention to it, be
in it, and embrace it. This body of
yours is a wonderful gift from a loving, embodied God. What a marvelous miracle! Thanks be to God!! Amen.
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