Being the Church Today: Body

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you?
3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present I have already pronounced judgment 4 in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. 1 Corinthians 5

Apparently arguing about who is the wisest of them all was not enough for the Corinthians.  Apparently baptismal divisions were not enough for the Corinthians.  Apparently debating food and being faithful stewards were not enough for the Corinthians...they gotta go and get all 50 Shades of Grey in Scripture.  I am going to go out on a limb and say most UCC churches have not spent a lot of time preaching on this.  In the last post, we spent some time thinking about money...so why not follow that up with a post about sex.  That should help increase the readership.

We live in a highly sexual world.  Women are objectified from the football we watch on Sunday to the magazines we flip through while in the line at grocery store.  Of course issues of Men Health and GQ also idealize men, but arguably to a lesser extent.  Turn on the tv...go to the movies...drive down the road, Paul's words still hold truth for us.  It could not only be reported but confirmed that there is sexual immorality among us today.  We spend more time throwing hateful words about two monogamous people of the same gender who want to get married than the easy of pornography available on your computer with a slight click of your mouse.

Like money, we want to control the conversation because we know that our approach to bodies is stuck in Victorian attitudes that ring hallow in a contemporary world.  We don't want to talk about it.  We want to stick our fingers in our ears and say, "La, la, la, I am not listening."  Especially for me with two children daily moving closer to the strange world known as adolescence.  What is the sexual ethic of the church?  What is your sexual ethic?  And if you have not thought or talked about it, why?  Why does the church worry and debate the color of the paint for the walls, but refuse to dive deeper into issues like Paul?  No where in Corinthians does Paul discuss whether you should serve regular or decaf?  (By the way, compromise...make a pot of both...and make it free-trade).  If the church wants people to pay attention...pay attention to what people actually look at on the internet...even if that makes us uncomfortable...some times that shifting in the pew is exactly what we need for the shifting spirit of God to enter in.

God's blessings to our churches and lives as we seek to open up on issues we've been taught to keep to ourselves...and may we find more than a trace of God's grace!