Called to a new purpose.

Text: First Corinthians 6:12-20

I need to warn you that my sermon is going to be talking about sex. I realize this will make some of you uncomfortable. But it isn’t my fault. It’s Saint Paul’s fault. He raised the topic. I just want to explain what he was going on about. What we think about our sexuality does have an impact on the content of our faith. Our faith is strengthened when we have a healthy understanding of our sexuality. This kind of conversation is a challenge, because many of us were raised to never talk about such things in public. Well hang on to your hats, because today we are going to talk about sex in public.

When we listen to Saint Paul’s advice on sexual matters, Paul doesn’t sound like much of a radical. It is conventional wisdom today that sex with prostitutes is immoral, and fraught with health risks as well. It seems like a fairly straight forward, logical thing to say.

When modern people like us listen to ancient texts, we need to remember that our world is not the same as the one Paul was living in. In the ancient Roman world, it was perfectly normal to have sex with prostitutes. Many of the sexual acts which we consider to be kinky and risqué today were quite commonplace back then. Everyone did it, and no one thought it was a bad idea. This was how they had always done it for centuries. It was a civic duty to support the temple prostitutes at the Temple of Aphrodite. She was the Goddess of Love, after all. 

Paul comes in to that world with a radical new idea. Instead of sex being all about how you dominate other men and women, maybe sex should serve a better purpose. Maybe your sexual relationships should be between equals. Maybe sex could be a mutual serving of one another. Maybe sex should be an expression of Christian love and fidelity.

These were radical new ideas. Up until then, sex was how you showed you were higher on the social ladder than others. Sexual behaviour was about domination and exploitation. For Paul, sex isn’t something evil which must be stopped at all costs. Beyond its basic biological function, sex has always had a social dimension. Sexual activity is a very important statement of how we relate to one another. Paul says that our sexual behaviour should reflect our best values. He believes who you have sex with is an important statement of what you believe. It expresses what you think of other people at a very profound level.  Our sexual behaviour should be a sign that we respect the other person. That we consider them to be a child of God. In an age where sex was all about social domination, to have it suddenly be about respect and mutual Christ-like love was a huge shift.

For Paul, the issue isn’t really about sexual intercourse. It isn’t about the food you eat either. Those are the exterior symptoms of a much deeper issue. The issue Paul is talking about is how do you treat God and how you treat other people. This issue is about deciding who you are willing to respect. Every action we make during the day speaks volumes about our beliefs. Some people benefit from our actions, and some are excluded. Some are built up, and some are diminished.  Paul believed that we should show no partiality in how we treat others. Everyone should be shown respect. Everyone should be shown mercy, compassion and love. Everyone has a God-given dignity which we should not trample on.  (First Timothy 5:21).

So for those who are rich, the question is how do you treat the poor?

For those who are well, how do you treat those who suffer from mental illness?

For those who are well liked, how do you treat those who are difficult to get along with?

For those who are on top, how do you treat those who are on the bottom?

Saint Paul tells us that your body is a temple which glorifies God. This means we should treat it with respect. This also means that the body of the beggar who sits outside of Tim Horton’s on Bank Street is also a temple of God. It is quite a revelation to realize that God is present in every person we meet. The tall one, the short one, the large one, the skinny one, the black one, the white one, the cute one and the ugly one. They are all created in the image of God. And Saint Paul challenges us therefore to see this deeper truth. He wants us to learn how to look beyond our prejudice, our hatred, our fear and our own innocent blindness, and to learn how to see God in every person we meet.

Saint Paul is calling us to a new purpose in life. He wants us to use the talents, resources and abilities we have to bless others. To not hurt others. To nurture the image of God in others. To make a transformative difference in the lives of others.

There are times when the things we do are good enough, and we decide to stop there. It’s good enough, so there’s no need to do anything more. In this way, the things which are ‘good enough’ can become the enemy of the ‘better’. God believes we are capable of something better. Because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we know better. We have seen how this world works. We know God is present in every person. We know resurrection is possible. So the better thing is what we are called to strive for.  What was ‘Good enough’ isn’t good enough any more.

This doesn’t mean we throw away everything which was good in the past. To serve God is to appreciate the good which was done in the past. God does hold the past safe in God’s eternal memory. So nothing good in the past is ever lost. But as people of faith we are not called to worship the past. If we live in the past, we will miss what God is doing in this present moment. The present is always something more than what the past was. The past was good enough, but the better is to be found only in this present moment, because this is where God is active right now. 

To serve God is to meet Christ in this moment. Christ wants to be present in every moment of our living. In our loving. In our sexual relationships. In our eating. In our socializing. In our working.  How we treat one another matters to God. When we get it wrong, God seeks to forgive us and gives us the tools to be reconciled with one another. When we get it right, God’s spirit shines in holy moments such as these.