Body Care: A reflection on 1 Cor. 6:12-20

                When I first read this passage, the first thought that came to me was that this passage is about sex and food. My next thought was, “Hmm, how am I going to talk about this?” Talking about food may not be too hard, but sex? That’s a bit more difficult to say the least. But what is there to say? It’s wrong to have sex with a prostitute. Don’t think there’s anything surprising or controversial about that. Not much there to build a sermon around.

                But what Paul is writing about has to do with more than just eating food and having sex with prostitutes. Much more fundamentally, Paul is thinking about the body and the soul. The two go together. Our selves include our souls and our bodies. And when we relate to one another, we connect both with our souls and our bodies. Our connection with God includes our souls and our bodies. And this understanding of a body-soul connection is the foundation for how we behave, how we treat others, how we care for our own bodies. That’s what we’re going to think about for the next few minutes.

                You know, sometimes religion becomes only about right behavior or right beliefs. Religion becomes a list of do’s and don’ts. It’s about rules. Don’t swear or smoke. Read your Bible and go to church. Or it’s about believing the right things. Religion requires you to believe that Jesus is your savior, hell is real, because of Jesus we can go to heaven, God is known as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, etc. Or sometimes religion just gets boiled down to making sure your soul is secure so that when you die you will make it to heaven and avoid an eternity in hell. As long as you have that straight, there’s really not much left to worry about. It’s religion as soul insurance. When religion is just a matter of right behavior, or believing the right things, or avoidance of hell, what about your body? Does the care of your body have any relevance to religion?

                That’s the thing. Religion doesn’t often have much to say about your body except things like don’t smoke or drink or do drugs, don’t have sex outside of marriage, and that’s about it. The body really is irrelevant in matters of religion. After all, our bodies are going to decay anyway. It’s our souls that are eternal. So in the end, does it really matter how we care for our bodies?

                For Paul, the body does matter. For him, Christianity is essentially about unity, the unity of body and soul, the unity of people with each other and with God. And this unity with God is a real, embodied unity. It’s not just thinking about God or talking with God through prayer, but a body connection in some spiritual sense. I know it doesn’t make much sense. How are our bodies united with God if God is a spirit, doesn’t have a body? All I can say is that Paul insists salvation includes our souls and our bodies.

                So in this passage from 1 Corinthians, and all through Paul’s letters, he is insisting that our bodies, and what we do with our bodies, does matter. Our bodies are not mere tubes that carry around our souls until we finally die so that our souls can escape from this material world and go to heaven. God saves our bodies too, not just our souls. Our bodies matter to God.

                Just look at all the different ways the body is referred to in these eight verses. The body is not meant for fornication, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. God raised the Lord with a body and God will raise you and me with a body by His power. Our bodies are members of Christ. A person that has sex with a prostitute is united with that prostitute, just like when God said that when a man leaves his father and mother he is united with his wife and the two become one flesh. Sins are committed outside the body, but fornication is sin against the body itself. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Our bodies don’t belong to ourselves but belong to God. God bought our bodies. We are to glorify God with our bodies. All of this in eight verses! I think Paul is trying to make the point that when it comes to salvation, our bodies matter.

                This is the heart of the matter. Last week we remembered our baptism. It’s not just a spiritual thing. Our bodies get wet. Real water is involved. And part of what baptism means is that our bodies are incorporated into the body of Christ. In some mystical sense, we are the body of Christ in the world. And at our baptism, the Holy Spirit comes down upon us and dwells inside of us. The Spirit of God lives in you. And finally, because of our baptism, we now belong to God, both body and soul. Our bodies, not just our souls, belong to God. Baptism is that significant. How this works, no one knows. But this is what we understand about how our bodies matter to God.

                So, because we are, in a real way, connected with God and with one another as Christians, both body and soul, connecting with a prostitute for Paul is unthinkable. It’s not just a bad or immoral thing to do, it just doesn’t make sense. How could members of the body of Christ be united with prostitutes? That’s just not going to work.

                Because we are connected with God and with each other, body and soul, we now have a reason to take care of our bodies. If our bodies matter to God, if our bodies are members of the body of Christ, then we ought to take care of these bodies that we have. We ought to take care of our bodies, not only because our bodies belong to God, but so that we can be the best we can be. See, we are family. God is our heavenly father, we are brothers and sisters in Christ, so why not be the best persons we can be?

                There has been a lot of buzz this past week in the state of Ohio as we celebrate Ohio State winning the first national championship college football game. It’s especially sweet because of all the adversity the team faced, losing their first and second quarterback to injuries, losing a player to suicide, losing to Virginia Tech, lots of doubters and nay-sayers. Yet, the team persevered, overcame the obstacles, played so well individually and as a team, and did the improbable. I was listening to Urban Meyer talking about how the team played for each other. Others who have been close to the team talk about how there is something intangible but palpable about that team, mutual respect for one another, truly playing for each other. These guys clearly won as a team. And Coach Meyer mentioned something that the great Bill Parcells told him. After a team wins a championship, a blood transfusion takes place. From that point on, everyone on that team will forever be blood brothers, coaches, players, everyone. That stuck with me. This can be true for us. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We can have mutual respect for each other. We can live our lives together. We can contribute the best we have for the good of the whole.

                But it doesn’t have to just be for us. We don’t have to consider ourselves connected only with God and each other. We can see ourselves connected, body and soul, with all human beings in one human family. That’s the message that Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed. He once said, “We are woven into a seamless garment of destiny.” He also said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” He said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” He said, “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” We don’t have to be on a national championship football team to understand that we are all connected to each other. We don’t have to just be baptized Christians to understand that we are all connected to each other. We can believe and live out our lives that we are connected, body and soul, with God and with all human beings.

                So here is the question: what is it about you, your body and soul, that causes God to want to claim you? Why do you matter so much to God? Maybe it’s because of your good looks. Maybe it’s because of your talents and skills. God sees something in you, that you can do lots of great things for God. Maybe it’s because you are so smart, clever, confident. Maybe because you are better than average.

                That all may be true for you. But maybe God connects with you because you are relatable. You have the ability to give and receive love. You are lovable. And that is why God claims you and connects with you. That’s why God has made it so that we are connected with one another, even with all people as one human family. God created us to be relational, body and soul. God is relational. God intends that we all be connected to one another and to God, body and soul.

                I came across this quote from Robert Giannini that puts it so well, what I’m trying to say. “So desire is of God. Desire is the stuff of the universe. Desire and longing and yearning and appetite are what make the whole universe stay together. The universe holds together because of attractiveness. The law of gravity is a law of attraction. Love makes the world go 'round, but this love is not a love of having and possessing and owning; rather, it's a love that is embracing, sharing, celebrating, and entering into union. It is love as respect and honor and trust.”

                God desires you, longs and yearns for you, is attracted to you because God loves you and you are lovable. You and I have this same desire and longing, to love and to be loved. So this is the potential that we all have, especially as Christians who are part of the body of Christ, who have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. It is the potential to love God and love one another, body and soul. Let us take up Paul’s challenge and glorify God with our bodies. Let us live our lives with the understanding that we are one with God and one with each other, being the best people we can be, for the glory of the One who created us and claims us.