BLOG 12/8/17. CAN WE CONNECT HUMAN SEXUALITY … AND WORSHIP?

BLOG 12/8/17. CAN WE CONNECT HUMAN SEXUALITY … AND WORSHIP?

Then there’s the humorous story about the guy who said that there were three things they never discussed in his church: sex, politics, and religion. We can laugh at the ludicrous contradictions in that, . . . but what with all the stuff we are observing these days about inappropriate sexual behavior by so many very public figures, it’s time to take a deep breath and look at human sexuality in the design and purpose for which God created it. Most folk inside the Christian church have some notion that God created humankind, male and female, in his own image and likeness. And yet, so often, we put the figurative fig-leaf over the reality that a hugely prominent part of that human body is the sexual, hormonal, and reproductive package (and genetic code) with which we are all endowed (though, admittedly, sometimes confused and confusing).

Human sexuality is never muted in scriptures. It appears in so many stories, sometimes heartening and heart-warming, and sometimes in its distorted and grotesque forms. Reproduction of the species is a presupposition. The secularists of our own culture are correct when they observe that we are “hard-wired to reproduce our gene-pool into the next generation.” Scripture contains beautiful love stories, along with stories of rape, incest, harlotry, and unbridled lust. The story of Ruth is a beautiful story of caring love. And then there is David, who is obviously “sexually active”. The prophet Hosea is commanded to marry a prostitute to exemplify Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. Israel is likened, in graphic terms, as being like a promiscuous woman who opens her legs to every new invader. Add to all of that, the fact that early on the church renounced the heresy of Docetism, which heresy denied the full humanity of Christ. The church insisted that Jesus was fully human, … and as the scriptures assert, he was “tempted in all points like we are”. One must assume that this includes his sexuality, though most church folk would blush at the thought.

If you remove the spiritualizing filters and read the gospel stories candidly, Jesus was unique. He engaged in conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and she was the town “hooker”. She engages Jesus in talk about religious traditions, and it is only an aside remark that indicates that Jesus is quite aware that the man she was currently living with was not her husband. As she is evangelized, and becomes an early evangelist, she rushes back into town to tell of him. There is a hidden bit of humor in that she announced that she had met a man who “told me all that I ever did.” . . . Don’t you just know that such a report sent a chill of fear through some of the town’s menfolk?

Or, again, in the (controversial) account of Jesus dealing with the woman caught in the act of adultery, and her accusers wanting to see how Jesus would carry out the law regarding adultery (stoning), you can almost perceive a twinkle in Jesus’ eye when he responds: “Any of you guy who have never been guilty of some such inappropriate behavior, you can cast the first stone.” And they all slunk away and left the woman to receive Jesus’ word of absolution. Or, take a look at the one-liner in I Thessalonian 4: “This is the will of God for your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality” (fornication). Which indicates that the problem was pretty rampant.

Ah! But take note of the very significant passage in Romans 12. “I appeal to you brothers … to present your bodies (including one’s sexuality) as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship … transformed, renewed, the will of God. God’s design is that the human family become the basic communal building-block of society, in which communication, love, discipline, caring, worship, and nurturing into God’s new creation takes place, and where sexuality is cherished as a gift, and celebrated within the purposeful disciplines of purity and faithfulness. Worship and human sexuality should absolutely be connected. Human love and sexuality should unquestionably be formed as an act of worship. I’d love to hear from you …  Stand by.

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge