February 28, 2010
 
Scripture:         1 Corinthians 6:19-20
 
Sermon:           “Take Care of Yourself—Body”
 
            Turning our hearts and minds now to the word of God, let us read together the scripture lesson for the day.  Turn with me to the Paul’s fist letter to the Corinthians, chapter 6, where we will read together verses 19 through 20.  You can find that easily on page 225 of the New Testament in the pew Bible.
            I am continuing today in a series for Lent designed to get us to consider what it means to follow Jesus Christ.  And in that sense I want for us to first take a look at ourselves and discover the ways in which we can turn to scripture and understand what that life of following means for each of us.  It means different things, of course.  The ways in which you follow look different than my own.  But, the basic pattern is the same.
            The ultimate image for following Jesus is the cross.  He said, “Take up your own cross and follow me.”  And we know that the cross is the image of a man giving up his own life for the sake of others.  Ultimately, then, you and I become focused on how to give our very lives away for the benefit of the gospel.  That looks different for you than it does for me.  And that’s good.
            But, it has to start by looking first to ourselves, you know.  Take up your own cross.  Begin with yourself.  Consider what is going on with you so that you can then turn again outward toward serving others.
            Last week we started this by considering how to take care of our minds.  I think that Paul put it best when he said, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”  In other words, start discovering how to think as if you are viewing yourself and the world around you through Christ’s eyes.  That is a remarkable and liberating shift of perspective.
            Now, I want to think with you about what it means to take care of ourselves in body.  Again, I want to read with you some of Paul’s words that help us shift our perspective in the ways we think about our own flesh and blood.  These words from 1 Corinthians do that very well.  But, I will say that I’m taking them a bit out of their original context.  Whatever issues that the Corinthian church was dealing with must have included some sort of libertine view of things.  And Paul was reacting to this sort of attitude among them that they could just start behaving any old way they wanted because in the end they would be forgiven.  Specifically there seems to have been things of a sexual nature taking place.
            While I’m not going to focus on that background for why he wrote what he wrote, the words themselves have far reaching implications for all of us.  Listen now for the word of the Lord…
 
            Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God with your body.
 
            The ancient Israelites took it very seriously that this building that they had constructed with their own hands was the actual and physical dwelling place of the presence of God.  I mean, it’s not that those people somehow believed God lived there and was restricted to that place.  They didn’t believe that at all.  In fact the Israelites may have been the first or one of the first people ever to understand that there is this divine presence in the universe that can’t be owned or fully explained or ever completely understood.
            But, they took it very seriously that there was a physical place on earth where God was somehow especially present.  It started with a tent, actually.  A big tent that they called the Tabernacle.  When Moses led the wandering people away from Egypt for 40 years they actually had a sacred tent of meeting that they would assemble in one location, dismantle it, and then travel somewhere else where they put it all back together again.
            And the Bible has all of these laws and regulations about how it was to be done.  This piece of furniture had to go exactly in that location.  This candlestick and this incense bowl needed to be exactly such and such distance from this curtain or that wall.  It was all very specific.  And they understood that this place they called a sanctuary was holy and it was to be treated as such.  Not just anyone could do anything in that place.  It all had to follow along certain guidelines that they believed were pleasing to their God.
            They eventually constructed a building in the city of Jerusalem where all of these understandings remained very much the same.  This was, somehow, a holier place than all other locations on the earth, even if God was understood to be everywhere at all times.
            You can read through Leviticus sometime and get a sense of just how precise they tried to be in keeping the holy place clean and appropriate for how they understood God to be present there.
            Now, maybe on the surface that all sounds very foreign to us.  But is it?  I mean we have tendencies to think of our own houses of worship with a special kind of concern, too.  And, right or wrong sometimes, we have expectations of how people are to treat these sacred places.
            I served another church one time.  I won’t mention it by name.  But, there’s only been one other church for me, so you can figure it out.  But, when I was serving this church something happened that really caught my attention and reminded me just how sacred a physical place can be to people.
            You know, churches can be funny like that.  We’ve got all of these artifacts in various places and they all have a history.  The hymnals have reminders inside their covers of who purchased them and to whose memory or honor they were given.  Pews, too.  Sometimes the pew you choose to sit in has a little brass plaque attached to it.  This was given in memory of so and so.  Folks can place a great deal of emotion and energy and concern over such things.
            There are times when, maybe, it gets a little out of place.  Priorities can get lost when holy places are concerned.  I was at a board meeting at this other church one night.  Just before we adjourned for the evening, the chair of the property committee said, “I hate to bring this up, but we’ve got to do something about this carpet.”
            Well, the carpet in the fellowship hall was getting old and worn out.  There were these large runs stretching across the floor.  It had been about fifteen years, so you’d expect the carpet to get worn out, you know.  And the property chair, who himself spent a lot of his extra time keeping that old building up and running, he said, “I’ve already had three estimates, and they all look about the same.  It’s gonna be about $2,500.  I know we don’t want to think about this right now, but something’s got to be done.”
            Here is what I noticed.  That man raised a concern about the building, and the entire board spent all of about two minutes discussing it, making a motion to do something about, and then voting to have it done.  In fact, the carpet was installed before that week came to an end.
            We had just finished a great deal of hand-wringing in a heated discussion about whether or not to help our youth group go on a mission trip.  They had tried to raise enough money, but came up short by about $500.  They had bake sales and car washes.  They contributed from their own pockets and parents had given all they could muster.  But, this trip to the Heifer Project Farm down in Arkansas for one full week was still beyond their reach.  And the board argued and argued about for fifteen minutes.
            “Maybe they shouldn’t try to do such elaborate trips,” someone said.  “We can’t afford that,” added another.  “Hey, this is too important,” one of the elders chimed in, trying to push the board in the other direction.  Oh, we argued about that $500.
            Just a few minutes later and the issue of the carpet was mentioned.  Not a single person had any objections.
            When it comes to these places we think of God’s houses of worship, certain priorities emerge.  Sometimes it seems to be out of place.  But, underneath it all is this ancient sense within us that this space is somehow holy, unlike any other places on God’s earth.
            Sometimes, too, our concerns over our sacred space is out of place.  It’s the kind of stuff that turns folks off to church altogether.  I was serving as pastor at a different church this one time when something else happened to remind me of this.  Shaking hands outside of the sanctuary after worship on Sunday, an elder of the church came through the line and took my hand firmly in his.  He had a scowl on his face, and he pulled me close to his face as he shook my hand.  Speaking softly but firmly into my ear he said, “I don’t think that family ought to come to our church if they’re gonna keep dressing like they do.”
            The family in question was new in our town.  They’d been with us for a few months and joined one Sunday.  Nice folks.  But, they were in the custom of dressing rather casually on Sunday mornings.  Nothing outrageous mind you.  The man would wear a golf shirt and his wife would come in jeans.  Shocking, I know.  They’re sons almost always wore tee-shirts and ball caps on their heads with brightly colored NASCAR stuff on them.
            This man said to me, “These folks think that they can just come in here and start changing things.  There’s plenty of other churches in this town.”
            That kind of concern over the holiness of a place, well, it doesn’t make much sense.  After all, it’s a good thing to care about what we believe is God’s house.  We’ve each sacrificed quite a bit over the years to make it what we feel it should be.  But, we do all of that because, when our priorities are straight, we know that incredibly ministry can happen in here.  Lives can be changed.  The hope of Jesus Christ can be shared because we care enough to prepare an inspiring physical space for that to happen.  We worship here.  We learn here.  We comfort one another here.  We witness the new birth of baptism here.  It’s a good thing to care about the building when we keep before us what it is all for.
            Think for a moment about all of the time and energy and money we’ve put into our own building here at Park.  Oh, the pains we took to fit all of these sacred artifacts from the old building downtown into this newer place.  Stained glass.  Pulpit.  Communion table.  The eternal flame overhead.  Did you know that was just an electric light bulb?  Anyhow, think about that.  Not to mention the efforts we’ve made to pave the parking lot last year.  We’ve made sacrifices in our own wallets to keep the heating and air working.  Should I mention to you now that we’ve got to do it again soon?
            Anyway, think about how much we have invested in this building.  What is it that Paul said?  “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?”
            Let that sit with you for a second or two.  Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.  He’s saying that this flesh and blood is the holy space where God resides.
            Now, do you treat your body with the same kind of awe and respect reserved only for the inside of a church building?  Do you have expectations that this place, your body, be treated only in certain ways because it is a holy place where, somehow, God is present?
            I fully admit to you that it the kind of shift in perspective that I need.  So, I don’t want you to hear me wrong.  I suspect that we’ve all got a great deal of learning we can do in this area.  I think that, actually, we’ve learned all the wrong lessons about our bodies.
            We’ve learned that our bodies aren’t much to look at compared to all of the images around of us of what it means to be healthy or desirable.  Haven’t we?  Have you ever noticed TV commercials that portray the typical couple?  The woman is always a size 2 or smaller.  The man?  Well, he’s obviously permitted to carry around a little extra weight.  And we adjust our expectations according to what we believe is desirable.  Fall short of those expectations?  You end up hating the body you’ve got!
            Paul says that God gave us this body.  Nothing’s wrong with it.
            There’s a Baptist minister over in Lexington that tries to have folks do this simple exercise when they’re struggling with the way their body looks.  He says, “Look in the mirror.  Look at your full body in the mirror and say, ‘God, you did a good job.’”
            I think it’s a good starting point.  We typically hate to see what we really look like, don’t we?  Shift that perspective into the perspective of the Bible.  You were given this body by God.
            More than that, however, maybe it’s time to consider treating that gift from God with the same kind of intensity, the same kind of concern, the same kind of love that we reserve for places like this building.  You want only the best in a place like this.  Not just any ‘ole thing will do.  There are things you wouldn’t dream of doing in this place even if you do them elsewhere.  This is God’s house.
            Shift that way of thinking into the way you consider your body.  What would that mean?  What would that mean the next time you’re thinking of filling it with an entire meal without a single serving of fruits or vegetables?  What would that mean when you’re considering exercise, but sitting on the couch for a couple more hours would be so much easier?  What would that mean when you’re so stressed out that you believe nothing is going to calm your nerves better than a dose of nicotine?  What would that mean?
            Now, none of this has anything to do with looking better.  And none of this has anything to do with living longer.  It has everything to do with being grateful for the gift you’ve received and how you might honor that gift.  You know what it is like to honor the house that God lives in.  But, have you considered that you live in that house, too?  Every day of your life?
 
Rev. David James Brown
Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)